From K - Easy burp cloth tutorial

While I have continued to plug away at my first of two wax print quilts this week, I took a quick break today to start working on one of my other summer to-do list items - baby gifts! Tomorrow is my last appointment with my long term massage therapist before she begins her mat leave (yay Canada for health insurance and mat leave!) so I wanted to make her a simple but practical gift. Burp cloths are quick to make and easy to customize so I took the chance to whip a couple up.

There are a ton of tutorials floating around the Internet for this type of project so I won't bore you with too many photos but I will provide you with dimensions that I find practical.

I cut two pieces of flannelette 27 x 10.5 inches. On the white lining of my burp cloths you'll notice that I have sewn in a third piece of flannelette down the center for extra absorption. This center panel is cut to 19 x 4.5 inches. On my burp cloths I used a white lining but feel free to use any flannelette you'd like.

To begin construction, simply iron down a quarter inch seam allowance along the entire center panel and pin it into the middle of one of your burp cloth pieces (tucking the seam allowance under and out of sight). I used a simple zigzag stitch to adhere it to my burp cloth but feel free to use a fancy stitch if your machine has the capacity and you have the extra time.

Now that you are down to two flannelette pieces, pin the fabric right sides together. Sew around the edges using a quarter inch seam allowance but be sure to leave a 3-4 inch gap at one end. Using the gap you left open, turn the burp cloth right side out and use a chopstick to push out the corners. Press the cloth flat using a gentle iron, and sew along the perimeter of the burp cloth (close to the edge to ensure you catch the seam allowance that is folded inside).

These make a cute and simple gift that can be tailored to anyone's style. I think my massage therapist will love them.

From A - Making lists

Since finishing the baby quilt and getting my Swoon quilt basted, I have found myself a little direction-less on the crafting side of things.

In the last week I've picked up and put down old projects, started new projects and have dreamed up about a hundred more. Despite this meandering, I can't seem to buckle down and make any meaningful progress.

Inspired by Kelsey's crafty To Do list, I decided to put together one of my own. In addition to the hand quilted baby quilt mentioned here, I'm hoping my summer will look a little like this:

1) Get some knitting done. I really like to knit. I went through a few years where I knit almost exclusively. I haven't really touched the needles since finishing a baby gift for a friend back in February. Last April, I bought a shawl kit and decided that it was just the right thing to spur me on.

2) Make a Wiksten Tank or Two. I ordered both the Wiksten Tank and Tova patterns from Jenny back in early February. Both patterns have been sitting untouched in my sewing room ever since. I recently bought some gorgeous Martha Negley feather fabric and some Liberty Tana Lawn thinking I would use the feathers to make a wearable muslin and use the tana lawn to get over my fear of cutting into a prized piece of Liberty goodness.(Finished #1 and #2)

3) Make a Baby Quilt. With most of my friends having their first child this year, it really has been another month, another baby. In an attempt to keep up, I'm hoping to slap together a simple and sweet quilt for a baby boy to be. Like most things that are sitting stash-side, I bought the pattern some time ago and have been trying to find the right mix of fabrics to make it with. I found a fat quarter bundle that I loved over at Pink Castle Fabrics. I thought the colours screamed little boy. I can honestly say that I would have never thought to pair these colours together. Another reason to love bundles. I think it will be perfect. After I receiving the bundle, I added some fabrics and swapped out almost all of the oranges provided in favour of something a little more vivid. (Finished!)

4) Work on some quilting. I've always had a few follow through issues with crafts. With knitting, it is the finishing stage, blocking things and weaving in all the ends. When it comes to making quilts, I seem to always get tripped up, sometimes for months, when it's quilting time. I have two large quilts basted at this point. The first is my Swoon quilt and the second is a cute little number I basted just before starting this blog. I'm really hoping to get some of the quilting done on these so I can get the binding on them and start enjoying them.

5) Next up is a receiving blanket using this tutorial from Anna Maria Horner's blog. I bought enough flannel and voile to make about 6 of these sometime last winter in a period of baby gift desperation. Here's hoping I get at least one of them finished up this summer. (Finished!)

So how am I doing with the list? So far so good. I started working on some knitting and the zig zag baby quilt fabrics are in the wash.

Stay tuned.

From K: Prep for a cold-ish week ahead

This past week in western Canada has been sooooo HOT and I don't know about you, but when it's hot and my house is without AC, I definitely limit my indoor exposure. At the expense of my craft room reno and planned sewing projects, I spent most of my time this week outside in the sunshine. Up here in Canada summer doesn't last for long so I figured this week I should enjoy it. With that being said though, I did my best to prep, plan and get supplies for the craft room reno, as well and begin the start of cutting my first of two wax print quilts.

I've had a really hard time starting my wax print quilt for the past few months now. Knowing that the opportunity to get fabric straight from Ghana again in the future is an unlikely event, I have worried about wasting what little stash I have.

This week I decided to make a plan and just jump right into preparing the first quilt top. Katie from Sew Katie Did posted last fall about scrap quilting using magic numbers. I thought this might be the best 'structured but still somewhat unstructured' way to tackle these vibrant african prints. The above photo shows the beginnings of some prepped squares that I plan on sewing up soon.

This upcoming week looks to be more temperate so here's hoping I can bare the thought of sitting indoors long enough to start up my Janome. In the meantime I'm saying goodbye to my vibrant purple guest room in order to make way for a fresh, modern sewing space!