Fit for a Birthday Princess

The last holiday project I had to complete wasn't really for the holidays, but rather for a birthday.  My niece Roxi was a New Year's Day baby and is now turning four.  She is the third girl in our recent family baby boom of the past few years.  I had made a birthday crown when my niece Teyla turned five, then another for her sister Sophia, when she turned four earlier this year. Now it was Roxi's turn.

I was very conscientious of making them all somewhat different, but the little girls in our family tend to like pink and/or purple.  I bought a no-sew pattern that I thought was cute and that I could handle, but struggled with the less-than-helpful instructions.  I Macgyvered it in order to finish Teyla's crown, so I basically just used the pattern for the crown itself and made Sophie's and Roxi's using my lessons learned from the first go round.

I traced the pattern, which I had copied onto transparency plastic, onto a piece of Heat 'n Bond and ironed it to some Timtex.  I cut it out, then fused the other side to the fabric, leaving some allowance to wrap around to the back side of the Timtex and glue it.  The pattern is for a double/mirror image height that I eventually fold in half, lengthwise, after I attach the ruffle I made out of glittery tulle I bought on a 4 or 5-inch roll at Hobby Lobby (folded in half twice and gathered), using 5 times the length I need to cover.

The original directions said to use ribbon to tie it together.  I didn't think that was secure enough, so, using the kid's head measurement, I made 2 extension flaps out of the fabric (cut about 2.5" x 4-5"),  fused Velcro onto them and then glue to the side of the crown.  Adjustable and sturdy!

At the bottom of the crown I trimmed it with some rhinestone trim from Joanne's and topped that with a black with white dots rose garland from Hobby Lobby.

The rosette is made from a hot pink version of the same print, gathered and hand-stitched to some crinoline for stability, and then bedazzled with a jeweled button and sewn unto the front of the crown.

Lastly, I fold the crown in half and use some wax paper-covered clothes pins, as well as a case of dog food, to hold that sucker together while the E6000 glue dries overnight.

I hope Roxi likes her crown.  I'll try to add a picture of her with it when I give it to her.  One more to go next year, when Emily turns four.

Do you have any things you consistently make for family members?

Posted on Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Friday.

Funky Monkey Quilt

The last quilt for Christmas is finished!  This is for my niece Emily.  She's Jake's twin sister, so I wanted to make them both quilts, but I didn't want them to be matchy-matchy.  It's mostly made from the original Funky Monkey fat quarter set.  It came in an old-school metal lunch box embossed with sock moneys. I had some additional pieces of fabric that I picked up along the way, too.

Since I used 5" charm squares for the first two quilts, I wanted to do something a bit different, but still easy for a novice quilter.  I found the Scrappy Bricks pattern from Project Linus.  I pieced the front Monday evening after work.

For the quilting, I just put on the stitch-in-the-ditch foot, but moved the needle as far over to the right as I could.  That put the quilting lines on either side of the row seams, as I had a little difficulty stitching in the ditch as neatly as I'd like to have in Bungle Jungle #1.

I pieced the back together using 3 different prints and used the dot pattern for the binding.

To celebrate the finishing of the three quilts, I treated myself to a pedi today, but not after starting my last project, a no-sew birthday crown for another niece, Roxi.  More to come on that.

I hope you are all having success with your projects!


Posted on Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Friday

Bungle Jungle Quilt #2

Quilt 2 of 3 is finished! Again using the Moda Bungle Jungle line, I made a quilt for my nephew/godson Jake.  I also incorporated some of the brighter colors in a 9-patch design.  He's a little over 2 1/2 years old, so I made it larger than the first quilt I made for my 1 year-old nephew Silas.

I tried doing some free motion quilting, mimicking the oodles squiggle pattern in some of the prints.  It's a lot harder to do than one would think.  I look forward to practicing it more.

I was able to manage a heart in all of that squiggle mess I made.

The backing fabric is another print in the Bungle Jungle line.  I don't remember the name of it, but I luckily got 4 yards at the monthly end-of-bolt sale at Gina's Bernina for 40% off.  I have enough Bungle Jungle fabric left overall that I hope to make a quilt or two for Project Linus.

Here's a closer look.  I used a gray thread for the quilting.

I again did a machine binding, but this time, I found a way to join the ends that worked out better for me at: Fons and Porter.  I do wish I could figure out how to make the stitching that shows up on the back look more even.  It goes on and off of the binding.  I also plan to learn to hand sew the binding to the back, but the machine binding is really quick to do.

Two quilts down and one to go!  How are you doing on your Christmas projects with less than a week to go?

Posted on Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Friday

Bungle Jungle Quilt #1

I'm trying to make 3 quilts for Christmas.  Yes, I know I've got less than 2 weeks left, but I finished quilt #1 last night - so time for a quick celebration!

Comprised of 5" charms (bought & hand cut) of various prints from the Moda Jungle Bungle line.  This is my second quilt ever, measuring 36 1/2 x 45 1/2.  I started piecing back in late summer and then stopped to finished the table runner and placemats featured in an earlier post.

Doing straight patchwork probably wasn't the best choice this early in my quilting endeavors, as I did quite a bit of ripping and re-sewing to get things to match up as best as I could.  The recipient's mother likes earth tones, so I stuck with the blue, green and gray prints from this line.

For the back I used the blue critter print and stitched in a ditch with a gray thread.  I did machine binding using the blue oodles prints and matching thread due to the time constraints.

I feel pretty good about how it turned out.  I wish the pictures were better, but it was very cold out this morning!  I'll replace them if I get a chance to do better.

Now on to finishing quilt #2, which is piece and pinned - ready to quilt!

Posted on Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish It Friday