Baby Girl Gift and Chevron Striped Quilt Top How To

Another friend is getting ready for the arrival of a baby girl and I’ve just finished her gift. I did a simple burp cloth and onesie and made a couple of headbands too. My favorite part is the chevron striped quilt I made. I love the way it turned out.

So cute, right? I did a scrappy back because I didn’t have enough of one fabric to do a solid one. I just used the fabric strips I had left from the front mixed in with some white flannel that I had lying around and I think it turned out really cute too. You can kind of see from the back that I just outlined the chevron stripes for my quilting.

I didn’t have a pattern for the chevron stripes, but they are really easy to do. Here is a basic rundown on how I did mine if you are interested and already familiar with the basics of quilting. It would be an easy beginner project.

• Cut your fabric into 4” strips, then cut the strips into 4” squares. Obviously you can make your squares bigger or smaller if you want bigger or smaller stripes. You will need at least 2 different contrasting colors of fabrics.

• Cut your squares in half to make half-square triangles.

• Sew the light triangles to the dark triangles, right sides together, along the long side of the triangles. Press your seams toward the darker fabric.

• Arrange your newly sewn squares into the layout as show in the photo below:

• Sew the top two squares together for all of your blocks. Then sew the bottom two squares together. Press the top seam in the opposite direction that you press the bottom seam.

• Sew the top rectangles to the bottom rectangles, press the seam, and you have your finished quilt squares.

• Sew your squares together to make rows. Make sure you keep the squares all facing the same direction when you do this or the pattern won’t turn out right. Press all your seams for each row in the same direction, but alternate the direction of the seam for each row.

• Sew your rows together, again making sure that the rows are all facing the same direction, press your seams anyway you want, and your quilt top is done.

Now the real work of actually quilting and binding the quilt begins. Have fun!

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http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011

Double Nine Patch Quilt

I bought the kit for this quilt over three years ago from a quilt shop in Kansas. I pieced it shortly after getting it but then it sat unfinished for quite sometime. About a year ago, I decided to finish it and got the top, batting, and backing all pinned together and ready to be quilted. Unfortunately, the actual quilting is my least favorite part of quilt making (mostly because I really don’t have the right sewing machine for the task, especially on a quilt this large) and so it sat for another while just waiting to be quilted. I gradually quilted a little at time and finally finished the last bit of quilting and started binding it yesterday. Today, I finished the binding and am so relieved to have finally finished my quilt.

This is the first quilt  that I have made just for ME and maybe that is part of the reason why it took so long. Every time I thought of a project for someone else, it would get put on the back burner and forgotten. 

It is a reproduction of a vintage quilt that belongs to the quilt shop where I bought the kit. While I love all the modern quilt patterns and fabrics that are available today, I really appreciate quilts that have a story and some history behind them. I don’t know if it gets cold enough in Florida to use it much, but I sure like looking at it.

Baby Girl Gifts

I made some simple applique onesies, a cap, and my first pair of shoes ever for a friend who is having her 7th (yes, you read that right) baby. She is an amazing person and I wish I could be half as good of a mom to my 4 that she is to her 6, almost 7 kids.

My husband was very skeptical of my ability to pull off the shoes, but I think they turned out cute and he admitted that, despite his doubts, they actually look like shoes. I used the pattern found here to make them.

I just winged it when it came to the cap and, since I don’t have any babies at home, am hoping that it fits like it should.

I got several more friends who are expecting baby girls so there will be more girly stuff to come.

Halloween Frame

I have been finding so many fun crafty ideas on Pinterest lately but haven’t had much time to do any of them. It doesn’t help that my sewing machine is in the shop either. Yesterday, I had a little spare time and I decided to whip up a cute Halloween frame that I had seen and wanted to make for the twins’ Kindergarten teacher.

You can buy cheap unfinished wood frames at Michaels for $1. I spray painted mine black. Then I glued on a whole bunch of googly eyes.  Once they were all on, I glued the ribbon around the bottom. The letters are a chipboard stickers that I bought at Wal-Mart. It was a whole page of them for just under $1. I used some scrapbook paper and another chipboard sticker from the same page as the others for the center section. It’s a super cheap, super fast, super easy, and super cute way to wish someone a Happy Halloween.

Ruffle Cake

I’ve seen ruffle cakes all over the internet lately and finally had the opportunity to make one. My oldest daughter turned 11 and I needed something quick and easy. The ruffle cake was just that. I found this tutorial on YouTube if you are interested in making one yourself. It seriously only took me about 10 minutes. My hand was sore when I was done because I had to use a stiffer frosting which meant I had to squeeze the pastry bag pretty hard to pipe the ruffles. I tried to use a thinner consistency at first, but the ruffles just melted into each other. I’m blaming the Florida humidity.
The day before, I made a pennant banner for a topper out of scrapbook paper, floral wire, and a couple of thin dowels.
She loved it!

“We’ve moved” cards and a cheesy thank you idea

We have been in our new place for almost 2 weeks, but I’m finally settled enough so I got to work this weekend.
First, I made some cookies and “Thank You” cards for the men at church who helped us move. I hate asking for help, but my hubby and I did 99% of the work and there were just a few large items (piano, hutch, and an elliptical machine) that we couldn’t do alone. I made them very basic hand-shaped sugar cookies with a card that said, “Thanks for giving us a hand.” My husband thought it was too cheesy but I didn’t let that stop me.

I also got my Cricut back in action and made “We’ve moved” cards. Because I had to make a few dozen of them, I kept them very simple, but I like they way they turned out.


I just used paper I had on hand and didn’t have enough of any one type of paper to make them all the same, so I picked a color scheme and stuck with that. If I can get them all filled out and put in the mail in the next few days, I will be happy.

OWLways thinking of you

Before I left Las Vegas, a friend mentioned some owls that she had seen in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and told me that when she saw them, she thought, “Christina could easily make those. “ So of course I had to check them out and I thought, “I could totally make those.”
Here are the PB owls:

I drew up my own pattern and made my owl with fabric leftover from this blanket and some other scraps I happened to have on hand. Here is my much funkier version:

Since the owl is for a little girl who is going through more than any little girl her age should have to, I made an owl themed card to go along with it letting her know that even though we can’t be with her, we will “OWLways”  be thinking of her.

Hopefully it will make her day a little brighter when it shows up in the mail.


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