Modified Dresden Plates

I'm going to have to stop reading Jan's blog. I have had inspiration pictures and wanted to do something with Dresden plates forever and after seeing the cute pillow she posted the other day I ended up having some spare time at Mums house and started raiding her scrap stash - first I was just going to make a pillow but then these circles were so easy and fun to make that I ended up making 9! 

Of course I should say they were easy because Mum bought a template at the quilt show. These templates are wonderful! The other thing that made the process fast was starch (thanks Mum!) I snipped all of my scraps and then starched and ironed them before cutting- it made the process fast and I was able to cut 4-6 at a time accurately.

Of course my fun free project ended up getting rather expensive when I had to go buy fabric to put the plates on to!  Since I hadn't planned this project out I ended up at Joann's  (no patience to order things!) I originally wanted a grey linen but that was $$ and I wasn't in love with any of the limited color choices so then it was Kona Ash but they didn't have enough so I think this ended up being Kona slate...which now that it's done I think looks better then either of the light grey fabrics would have. And then while wandering the isles I spotted the green mini-check twill from the Lisette Collection. Perfect for my downstairs with all of it's little bits of green!

I just 505'd the circles onto the Kona and then machine stitched them on. Easy and fun I used the stitch that looks like a blanket stitch. For the quilting I used a variegated green pearl cotton. I refused to be all fussy with it since it was supposed to be a fun project- so it's not perfect! This was the first time I used the 505 on a quilt that I hand stitched and I have to say it was AWESOME! Are we sensing a theme? No annoying pins to put in or take out!

This quilt makes me super happy, it's already become a favorite for everyday use.

A Dress For The Girl

Not long after finding out that she was having a girl, Jess found this fabric.  It's one of the Lisette fabrics sold at Joann's. It's a sweet pink (slightly salmon) lawn, that's very easy to sew. She let me choose Simplicity 4243 for the pattern. 

It's a very simple pattern. Hopefully easy for a wee one to wear. I did change the back closure to three buttons instead of a zipper.

The sizing was kind  of aggravating. It's one of those xxs, xs, s, m, l deals, I'd rather they use pounds or months or something like that.

The front has small pleats that give it just enough fullness without being fussy. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against fussy. I'm sure I'll indulge in fussy later.