Okay, so I have been waiting until after Christmas to post my Christmas projects because I didn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone. I worked myself to the bone, up almost every night past midnight to get things done. Now I wish I had taken better pictures of things, because I have given a few away with no pictures. Oh well.
So here is the quilt that I made for Chloe and the matching "thinking chair" that I made for Cadie (fellow toddler moms will know just what a thinking chair is). I know, she's only 7 months, but she loves her chair already.
I laid her in it for a nap the other day because it was about dinnertime and I didn't want her sleeping too long, and it was perfect. I just had to keep an eye on her so she didn't wake up and roll out before I could catch her! I figure pretty soon she will be climbing all over it. Until then, it is all the kids' favorite lounging spot.
The pattern for the chair is McCalls 9665, which, by the way, is much cuter in real life than on the envelope. And it was fun because the other kids helped me stuff the pillow forms for the inside and they still had no idea what it would turn out to be. I'm really glad I made it, but it was a lot of work.
I'm also very pleased with Chloe's quilt. Like I mentioned earlier, it's my first time to try a real quilt, and lots of friends and family members just rolled their eyes when they heard what a huge one I had undertaken. Now that it's done, I can look back and wonder if I should have tried a few things differently, but I love the quilt anyway. I depended a lot on advice from the "Oh Fransson" blog (see list to the right). She really makes it look easy. Maybe it's her fault that I decided to make it queen sized.
Oh, and to practice free-motion quilting before I tackled the actual quilt, I made these hotpads:
I made a whole bunch because I cut too many quilt squares that turned out being the perfect size for a nice big hot pad. And they were a great gift for friends, sisters, school teachers, etc. These are my last few, and I wish I had more. The first one that I kept for myself is now my favorite thing in the kitchen. This pattern is free here at YCMT, by the way.
Caroline!!! You are seriously amazing!!! I wish I lived closer to you, so that I could watch and learn from you . . . just like when I was a young, very dumb teenager!!! I love you! Thanks for the awesome stuff you have made Abby, she LOVES her mittens (she calls them her "mitts").
ReplyDeleteLove the chair. I was wondering what did you stuff it with and how long did it take you to make?
ReplyDeleteWell, I bought one huge box of fiber-fill at walmart, and that was not nearly enough. Then I used up two 32 oz bags of poly-fill from Joann's. I stuffed my pillow forms very firm, so you may not need as much.
ReplyDeleteAs for the time it took, it's hard to say exactly. I worked on this every day for a week, probably a couple hours a day. This was the one project I could work on when my little kids were awake, because they had no idea what I was doing.
First you are supposed to make the four pillow forms. I didn't take the time to make them look perfect because I knew they wouldn't show. Then I made the case part. That part was fun to see coming together, and probably a bit less work than the pillow forms, actually. The instructions say to put in a zipper, but I hate zippers, so I just sewed velcro tape to the seam allowances instead. It worked great. I made my own piping using string and bias tape left over from a little dress :).
My favorite thing about this is that it can be done with large-ish scraps. It doesn't matter what you make the pillow forms with, and the largest pieces for the chair are about 24" square.
I would send you the pattern but I gave it back to my sister! So watch for those McCalls patterns to go on sale again and good luck!
Caroline
Thanks for the info. My youngest turns one in March and I think this would be the perfect gift for her. I saw that Joanns is having a 99 cent pattern sale now so I am hoping to get it. As for scraps I have a lot of those! And I love the idea about velcro vs zippers!
ReplyDeleteTrisha
where have I been? I had no idea about this blog!!!! loving it.
ReplyDeleteI just realized I don't think I properly thanked you for the hot pad you gave me for Christmas...it is mine AND ROCKY'S favorite hot pad, nice and big!!
so thank you, very very much.
Thank yoou for writing this
ReplyDelete