It's Elementary Soft Book

Last night I dusted of the sewing machine and revved it up! I had done some sewing for Christmas gifts, but as I was sewing last minute, I had no time to take pictures, let alone write a blog post. Someday I will catch you up on what I made.

I bought this soft book panel at Sew What?, a lovely quilt shop in Buffalo, NY, when I went on a shopping trip with friends in December 2013.  I was 6 months pregnant at the time, and having strong nesting feelings at the time. I bought a whole bunch of fabrics, most of which still need to be used in some way.

It's Elementary soft book panel by South Seas Imports

It was so cute, I couldn't resist buying 2. And they sat and and sat and sat. I even took them to my mom's place when I moved there just before I had the baby and for 2 months after. And they sat there, too. 

My nephew is going to be 1 year old on the 25th. It is hard to believe that the year has gone by so quickly! I mentioned Lucas in this post. (I am also planning on completing The Quiet Book.) My own baby girl is now 10 months old.  10 months! Since my sister-in-law is planning Lucas' birthday party, I figured I should finally put this together.

I was a little nervous about this project. I have used my machine for piecing and for sewing clothes, but never with a layered quilty project like this. I read the instruction panel and a bit of it didn't really make sense, but I figured if I just started, it would straighten itself out by the time I got there.

First step was to cut out the book panes on the dotted line. There was a note about leaving 1/4 inch for the seam allowance, but that is already included in the dotted line space. That was confusion #1.

2 panels cut out

Next, I layered the listed pages with right sides together, then placed them on a piece of quilt batting.

Pages layered with batting

All lined up and ready for pins

The batting I was using was iron-on, so for the first couple of pages, I used the iron. I found that the batting would stick to the ironing board, then to the cloth I used, so I decided to skip the iron and just pin the panels and the batting together.

All pinned up and ready to sew!

Next, I sewed around the outside. There was a white line on the front of the panel that I could see through on the back, so I sewed just to the outside of that line. 

On my first page, I left a 3 inch gap so it could be turned inside out...I learned my lesson! On the remaining pages I left 4-5 inches open to make turning easier.

The seam

The gap - needs to be larger!

The edges need to be trimmed to reduce the bulk near the seams when the pages are turned right side out. Also, the corners nipped off so the corner is a pointy as possible.  Here, I learned an important lesson...in order to hand sew the gap after turning, you need to leave more fabric at the gap...in other words don't trim the fabric off. The batting at the gap, however, should be trimmed lower than the seam, so that it does not get in the way when closing the gap by hand.

Trim...

...nip off the corners...

...and turn.

I closed the gap by hand sewing, using a blind stitch (I think).

For Maggie's book I decided to top stitch around each box on the page. It turned out a little wonky, so I skipped that on Lucas' book.

Last, the pages were stacked together in the correct order and I sewed the all together down the centre.

TA DA!

All in all, it took me about 1.5 hours to put both of these books together. I am quite happy with how they turned out. An easy project, made with love. I would definitely buy another soft book panel.

More to come,

The House Page - Part 2

Picking up where I left off from The House Page - Part 1, here is the continuation of my first time applique adventure!

After conquering the curves of the sun and cloud, plus the added challenge of the terry cloth cloud, I felt pretty confident with the straight lines of the house.  This should serve as a lesson for me in the future!  Read on...

House 1

Straight lines, not a problem...it was following the tutorial instructions that were apparently a problem for me when appliqueing around the door...

House 1 - peek!

On my first go round house 1, I skipped stitching the inside of the doorway, and the door hinge!  Just zipped right across the bottom of the peek-a-boo piece!  Not a tragic error, but an error, nonetheless.  So I zipped around the doorway after.  Applique at the house/cloud border was not a problem.  

So, lesson learned, on to house 2!

House 2

House 2 - peek!

I remembered to stitch around the doorway this time!  But as you can see at the bottom right side of the doorway, I was a little offline.  Oh, well!  As a first timer, I'm pretty happy with my attempt!

Thanks to Sherri at Thread Riding Hood for this great sew-along, which is already increasing my sewing skills!

Have a great weekend!

More to come,

The House Page - Part 1

So I started the House page from The Great Quiet Book Sew-Along by Thread Riding Hood!  A quick peek at the main sew-along page will show that Sherri did not start at page 1, but page 10.  I am hoping that is because the House page is the easiest of the 12 pages.

For me, this was the first time that I tried my hand at applique.  The main pieces of the page were pretty easy.  The pattern pieces provided by Sherri are straightforward and just a simple cutting exercise.  From there I followed Sherri's tutorial directions and was able to get 2 (almost) matching pages started.  Here are pics of the pages BEFORE I did the applique stitching.

House 1

House 2

It turns out that I did not cut the cloud out of the terry cloth properly.  I figured that on house 2, there was enough room between the sun and the house to keep the incorrectly cut cloud.  On house 1 there was not enough room, so I had to cut out the fabric and fusible web again.  This will also help tell the difference between the books.  One finished books is for my nephew, and one is for my own little one, as mentioned in my second post, Getting Ready, so being able to tell them apart will be important!

With the fabric fused together, it was time to try my hand at applique.  On house 1, I tried a double zig-zag stitch, but I found that the holes the needle left from multiple insertions were too big for my liking.  For house 2, I used the regular zig-zag, and like it much better.  The difference is obvious in the picture.

House 1 on top, House 2 on bottom

(I haven't been able to figure out how to get my pictures in a different orientation.  I will work on it!)

Next up was stitching the cloud.  I was concerned about the curves and the terry cloth fabric...it turns out, with good reason!  Here is the result:

House 1 - Back

House 1 - Front

To say it is a hot mess is an understatement!  At the time, I wasn't sure what caused the thread mess on the back side, but after consulting my sewing machine owner's manual, I figured it might be the tension.  So for house 2 page, I adjusted the tension, practiced on some scrap terry cloth and cotton, and went for house 2's cloud!

House 2 - Back

House 2 - Front

Clearly, still some problems, but much better, in my opinion.  Lesson learned about tension settings!

More to come,

Diving In!

Diving In!

Okay, water metaphors stop today...promise!

As previously mentioned, the inspiration for starting this blog is my participation in The Great Quiet Book Sew-Along by Sherri at Thread Riding Hood.  This week was Month One: the House Page, and I dove right in!

For the first couple of posts, Sherri provided us with shopping lists.  A favourite activity!  Yay!

Shopping: Week #1

Here's what I ended up with after Week #1 shopping was complete:

Cow Print from Old MacDonald by Nortcott

I love the cow print!  I wasn't sure what color of binding I was going to use, though.  Instead of using pre-made bias tape, I decided that I wanted to use a rainbow striped fabric.  There is a stripey fabric in the same Northcott line, but my local quilt shop did not have any in stock, so I had to go searching elsewhere.  Here is what I found:

Quick Cuts from Fabricland

The large zig-zag is Chevron by Riley Blake, as per the selvage, but neither of the the smaller zig-zag cuts had a selvage, so I am not sure what it is.  I guess it could be Riley Blake, as well.


I'm not quite convinced that this is the fabric that I will use for the binding; I'll keep you updated.


More to come,