School Pants

I had a bit of left over fabric in my stash from some time ago, I think it is gabardine? Liam was also in need of school pants. Since there were none left in the shops in his size, the solution was obvious.



I used the "Relaxed Cotton Pants" pattern (19) from the latest Ottobre magazine (Spring 1/2013). The pattern has elastic in the back, but is flat at the front, which gives them a nice, tidy, but comfortable fit. I didn't bother with the back pockets, I cut the pants shorter so as not to bother with the turn up hem, and I used a jeans snap instead of the button and buttonhole. I still need a bit of practise perfecting the fly - I don't know if I am doing it wrong, but the fly shield in these patterns always seems a bit short to me, even though I add seam allowances? Is it just me, or does the fly seem a bit short as well? I would love if anyone else with more experience has some advice or suggestions? This magazine has some really nice jacket patterns both for boys and girls that I would also like to make.



Noah wanted to have his photo taken too. When my boys are sitting down, Noah is taller, but Liam definitely has the longer legs. Maybe I might regret not having the extra length later on in the year?

SYST13: I used about 4 fat quarters of fabric from my stash for this project.
Running totals, in = 103, out = 38, total = +65

Daisies in the Woods

I finally finished Amélie's quilt. I have decided to call it Daisies in the Woods, as the fabric range is Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods, and because of the daisy quilting pattern I used.



The daisy quilting pattern was my own design. I found heaps of inspiration via Pinterest and I sketched and drew and played around until I worked out something I could draw without lifting the pencil. My original sketches were worked into a grid to get good repetition, but I ended up deciding to go a bit more random with differently sized daisies and leaves and tendrils filling the gaps.



I chose to quilt with pink thread, to match the backing. This might be my "thing". So far, all my quilting thread has been chosen to match the backing. The very first quilt I made, I was going to use black backing and switched to yellow when I realised how terrible the yellow quilting would look on the back. Since then I have always chosen the quilting to match the backing. I almost did it differently this time and had four or five spools wound with Gütermann 111, but then I changed my mind. I am glad I did, I love the pink quilting. I know you can do a different colour on top than the bottom (I do this all the time with normal sewing), but I feel with quilting, there is a greater risk than usual that the tension is a little unbalanced and I don't think that is a good look.



The quilt piecing was also my own design. I pinned heaps of pinwheel quilts on my pinterest board and eventually used Inkscape to work out my design. I used Thangles to make the half-square triangles and would definitely consider this again if I was making another quilt using half-square triangles from a jelly roll.



I have lots of jelly roll left over. Ideally, it would have had more red strips. There were only six strips of red out of the 40 strips that make up the jelly roll. Two of the red on red spots, two with the white dotty circles and two with pink matchstick stripes. I needed four strips to go around the quilt, so I ended up mixing the dots and the circles to make a pieced binding. I really like the dotty circles, they remind me of snowflakes and dandelions. There are little details in the fabric that I never really noticed until I was making this quilt. In the fabrics with the bows on them, there are little pairs of white dots that also remind me of snow.



I would like to make a matching pillowcase for this quilt and I do still need to do a label, but the quilt is otherwise finished. All the fabric used in this quilt was in my stash, so nothing was added. I actually purchased the fabric last year from Want It, Need It, Quilt. I also grabbed a layer cake, so I really should do something with that at some stage. I am hoping that the layer cake is a better cut for this fabric. I would avoid such a sparse print on a jelly roll next time around. Something to keep in mind.

SYST: I used about 12 fat quarters of fabric for this project.
Running totals, in = 103, out = 34, total = +69