Boy, It's a Jungle Out There!

Another baby quilt for a high school teacher. Actually, the wife and the husband both teach high school at Amanda. They are having a boy and their theme is also jungle animals. They registered for lots of green and brown things. 

I could not find any boy jungle material that I liked. So I used some Freebird by MoMo.

 

I had some charm packs, so these blocks are 5" squares. I pieced them into a simple 9-patch layout. I tried to use some of the leafy patterns that looked like jungle foliage.

I just love Freebird!

 

 The back is just some dots and a great green/brown pattern piece that I LOVE!

Jungle Girl

A high school teacher at my school is having a baby girl. Her theme is jungle animals. I was going to use Central Park by Kate Spain, but it had squirrels on it. So I found a darling jungle print with flowers and lions and giraffes. It worked well.

I used 5 Maverick Star blocks and 4 simple framed squares. I added a 4" border of pink. I love a striped binding and I had the perfect stripe! I think that layout worked well.

This is a shot of the backing, that cute baby girl jungle fabric. As soon as I saw it, I was in love.

Remember that Maverick Star?

Remember that Maverick Star tutorial I promised? Well, here it is.

1. You will need 1 - 4" colored square, 8 - 4" white squares, and 4 - 5" colored squares. Cut the 5" square in half on the diagonal. I like my triangles a bit bigger than needed. 

You'll see why in a minute.

2. With right sides together, place a colored triangle on a white square as shown above. Sew a 1/4" seam along the pink side. It does not have to be even on the white square. You just need to have enough to fold over and trim it back to 4". See #4.

 3. Trim the access.

 4. Fold the triangle back and press.

 5. Then shim the block back to 4".

 6. Lay another colored triangle on the block as shown.

 7. Press and shim back to a 4" square. Repeat this process so that you have 4 units like this one. These are your star points. The beauty of this block is that none of your sections have to be alike. In fact, the more wonky the better!

8. Now you basically have a 9-patch. Sew together in 3 rows. Then attach the 3 rows together.

 And there you have it! A Maverick Star block! It is a fun block and a nice way to use up some scraps. Check back in later for a quilt with this block and some beautiful Flea Market Fancy!


 

A leg up ...

Lots of sewing has been going on at this blog. It's just that this type of sewing is not fun to blog about. In thinking of something to post, I thought oh well, even if it is boring I should still post something about it.


I am officially going to have a booth at the Backwoods Fest this September! It's in Thornville, Ohio on September 14, 15, & 16. I'm really excited to see how my sewing things will do and a little nervous at the same time. I'm worried I won't have enough things, maybe people won't like my stuff ... the list goes on and on.


I plan on taking lots of quilts, aprons, pot holders, kitchen towels, casserole holders, table runners, purses, clutches, change purses, and baby receiving blanket/burp clothes/bib sets. I am currently working on the latter of the projects. It is a lot of boring sewing, which makes for boring blogging.


But I did find a score recently that should help my display. My friend LaDonna gave me 3 old ladders. These are the kind of ladders that are good for little else than a good fire. They are not sturdy enough to stand on, but they should display my quilts and purse nicely.

These ladders are wooden and basically gray. They have some drips of various paint colors from years of use. I am trying to decide if I should paint them black or leave them gray. Time will tell.


Hopefully, they'll give me a leg up on the competition!

Jellybean Graphing, Anyone?

Sew ... I was perusing my favorite websites the other day and I came across Betz's blog. If you have never been to Betz White's blog, baby you need to go now. Click here for awesomeness!

She had a lovely tutorial on how to make these darling carrot bags to put your Easter goodies into. I thought to myself, my 3rd graders need these bags!

I started sewing ... and sewing ... and 135 carrots later I was done. But was I? No, my twins' preschoolers would love these veggies too. 18 more carrots. What about my family's Easter dinner? And my teaching colleagues? Well, let's just say I made about 200 in all!

 

 

I put them into my 5 different classes work baskets. The kids were excited to see what was in store for them in math class.

I filled the carrots with jellybeans and the kids made different graphs with the different color of beans. We had to do something educational, right?

 

 Have a good Easter everyone!

Cook Up a Good Apron!

Sew, those of you who know me ... I mean really know me ... know that I only do a few things well. Cooking ain't one of them! 

However I have always loved aprons. For me, they represent a better time when you put on an apron and floated around the kitchen basting your turkey, browning biscuits, and setting that homemade blackberry pie onto the table with pristine perfection.


Hello! Jennifer wake up and read this apron pattern!


I tried peeps! I really did, but it was too complicated. I have a Master's degree for crying out loud! I can't even read a stinking apron pattern! One good thing is that its just fabric and two I was feeling brave yesterday sew ... here we go! 

These aprons were my first attempts. My lovely friends modeled them for me Sunday evening!




An apron tutorial ...


1. Cut a piece of fabric 15" x WOF (width of fabric).

2. Then cut it at an angle. Depending on how wide your waste is ... and I'm a big Midnight Mama ... that's how wide you want the top. With the fold on the left side, I cut from the raw edges over 10" on the top and about 7" over from the bottom to make my angle cut. But remember that you can cut more of an angle if your waist is smaller. Make your first angle cut and then hold it up to you and see if you need to whack some more off.

3. For the ruffle, cut a piece 7" x WOF.

4. For the tie, cut two pieces 6" x WOF.

5. On your main apron piece, fold the side edges over 1/2" and press. Fold it over again another 1/2" and press again.

Then topstitch along the edge. I did a double topstitch. I like the way it looked and it seemed to add more stability.

6. On the ruffle, fold the side edges over 1/2" and press. Fold it over again another 1/2" and press again. Then topstitch along the edge. Repeat the process on each end of the ruffle.

7. Pin the middle of the ruffle to the middle of the bottom of the apron. Then pin each end of the ruffle to the end of the apron. You will have a lot of extra ruffle. Just put some pleats in it and I pinned at each pleat. Then sew with a healthy 1/4" inch seam allowance.

8. Topstitch about 1/4" about the seam line.

 

9. For the tie, sew the two pieces together so you have one really long piece. Then fold in half and press. Open the piece and fold each raw edge to the middle and press again. The fold the whole thing in half and press really well. I also folded the end in so they would be a finished edge.

10. Lay the middle seam of the tie over the middle of the top of the apron. Sandwich the top of the apron into the fold. 

Pin the tie to the apron. Sew 1/4" from the top of the tie and 1/4" from the bottom of the tie.

11. If you would like to have a pocket ... cut two pieces of fabric 6" x 7". Sew them together right sides together around 3 sides. Leave the bottom open and turn it right side out. Press. Sew a topstitch across the top of the pocket.

12. Lay the pocket on the apron "upside down" and stitch along the bottom. This is the raw edge or the open end. Flip the pocket right side up and topstitch along the sides.

Now go and cook up your own apron!

I told Mr. Midnight that if the farming thing doesn't work out he can always fall back on his apron modeling career. He even put the whisk in the pocket!

Little Boy ... Brown?

My friend asked me make a baby quilt for her sister. She is having a little boy. Her colors were brown and green. I had some fabulous "Freebird" by MoMo for Moda just waiting for someone to whip it up into a quilt. I used some other fabrics but I can't recall their makers?

I used a maverick or "wonky star" for the blocks. Check back later for a tutorial on this fabulous block!

 

The top was a wonky stars and squares. I just lovely these manly polka dots in this line!

The back was made of those fun polka dots again! I had some extra strips of the yellow and green. A pieced back is always fun!


I hope they like it!