Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Toddlerless Tuesday #5! Tuesday's Treasures, Too!

Hi, all!

Well, I was toddler-less - and yet focused on toddlers anyway today!  I got a commission to make two reversible dresses and a t-shirt for a two-year old for the holidays - so I worked to see how much I could knock out on those today.
These little dresses are fairly simple to make, but so useful - if one side gets dirty you just flip it over! 
So I did manage to get one dress done except for a little hand-embroidery and the buttonholes and buttons, and the other dress's applique is fused on, ready for the satin stitch!  A good start....




I also did a test block for an upcoming quilting bee.  Our church is building a house for a family whose house was essentially destroyed in the May flood here in Nashville, and we want to make a quilt for them.  But finding a good pattern that a group of women, all at different skill levels in sewing, can make look good can sometimes be challenging!  When I saw Vickie Eapen's Flight of Geese quilt in the Fall issue of Quilts and More, I thought it might be a good candidate.  Today I did a test block, and I cannot praise this pattern enough!


The flying geese blocks are super simple - you don't even have to have a 1/4 inch foot to make them!  (Of course, it would be handy for putting the rest of the quilt together!)  If you can sew straight down a drawn line, you can make these flying geese!  So thanks, Vickie, I love this pattern and can't wait to see how it turns out!!  Be sure to check out her blog, Spun Sugar Quilts. She's always got something interesting going on and is a great teacher - check out her tutorials!


and now for Tuesday's Treasures.......




Lilli wanted to participate today, so she gave me Forsie to put in the picture!  My sister found this wonderful stuffed animal in an antique store in Birmingham.  He used to have a cute felt bridle and reins but Lilli carried him around by the reins one day and they went bye-bye!  So I have some red grosgrain ribbon to replace them with; just haven't gotten around to it yet!  Besides, I think Forsie likes to run free....   Lilli asked if she could take him to Target the other day; I said he could go in the car, but couldn't go inside the store.  She looked at me and said, "It's OK, Nana, I'll make sure he doesn't bite anyone!"  So of course, Forsie got to go in - - - how can you refuse that logic?  And I must say, he didn't bite anyone!

And underneath Forsie, you can see the wedding ring quilt that my great-grandmother made for me when I was born.  This has been a well-loved quilt, and it shows - some of the patches are very thin - so I'm really careful with it now.  Somewhere, I have a patch for the back that my great-grandmother typed on fabric that tells all of the great-aunts and other relatives that helped piece and quilt it, too!  I never met this great-grandmother, even though she was alive until I was about seven - she lived in Kansas, which always seemed like a very exotic place to me (probably because of the Wizard of Oz!)  But she wrote really good letters and between those and the quilt, I felt like I knew her.

So all in all, I think it's been a good, productive Toddlerless Tuesday!  What did you do today?

Later!

Sarah

10 comments:

  1. Sarah your Forsie and your quilt are just gorgeous and I looove your reversable dresses !
    Thanks for showing us and playing along .

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  2. your little dresses are so cute! You've made a lot of progress....keep it up!

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  3. The dresses are adorable. How wonderful to have a quilt made by your great-grandmother!

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  4. Forsie is so cute and I'm glad he doesn't bite. The quilt is so special. How lucky you are to have it and the little dresses look great, I made very similar ones for my daughter in the 70s. Some things are timeless.

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  5. Those dresses are adorable! And Forsie is just precious. Cute name too!

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  6. WOW you got a lot done today! The dresses are adorable (especially the witchy shoes, LOL!) and Forsie is a sweetie! I think I have that issue of Quilts and More so I'll have a peek for the quilt project. Your wedding ring quilt is spectacular - such a lovely piece of history!

    I got quite a bit of sewing done today - I pieced a simple 1 patch quilt for a baby boy, made a bib out of scraps, made 2 panty zipper bags, and designed and drafted a drawstring gift bag :) I also "kitted" 4 more zipper bags so that the next time I have a few spare minutes, I can just grab a kit and start sewing! Definitely a productive day today :)

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  7. love the cutsie dresses and the teenager quilt pictured below! what a beautiful treasure the wedding ring quilt is! x

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  8. The dresses are just adorable!

    Lovely Tuesday Treasures from both you and Lilli. :-) I can see why Forsie is special to her, and that quilt really is a treasure.

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  9. The dresses are really cute.
    Forsie is so cute.
    I love the quilt, what a beautiful treasure to have from your great-grandmother.

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  10. Forsie is adorable. The dresses you made are so cute, I love that they are reversable, how practical and fun. I also love the qilt your grea grandmother made for you.

    Brenda

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