Peter Pan Baby Quilt

I finished the quilt tops (yes, two identical quilt tops).  Yipee! 

one of the quilt tops

see, there really are two quilt tops

I've been marathon sewing, trying to get these done, so that I can get them to the long arm quilter. 

I changed my mind on the backing fabric, so, I've already headed to my local quilt shop ( I love Sewing, Etc, in Yorkville, IL).  I'm pre-washing the backing fabric as I type this. 

I almost forgot to add the thimbles to this quilt.  Thimbles are 'kisses' in Peter Pan (if you don't remember, you'll just have to watch the movie again).  I didn't make the thimbles until Thursday, and finished appliqueing them on Friday morning.  I also finished the embroidery on the 2nd Peter Pan block on Friday. 

thimbles

I loved making the crocodile.  I got the pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts.  I used her method of making the flying geese, so, since I'd used a directional fabric for the crocodile's spikes, one crocodile had them going up/down, and the other crocodile has them going side to side.  That is the only difference between the quilts.

Crocodile Rock pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts

I fussy cut Tinkerbells, from some of my Tinkerbell stash (I had more Tinkerbell fabric than I thought I did, thank goodness).  Those Tinkerbell's are the cornerstones in the center of the quilt.

showing Tinkerbell cornerstones

more Tinkerbell cornerstones

Every stitch on this quilt, that isn't done by hand, has been stitched on a hand crank sewing machine.  I started the paper pieced blocks (Tiger Lily and Wendy) on 'Tinkerbell', my 1925 Singer 99 (3/4 size) hand crank, and finished the rest of the piecing on my 1927 Singer 15 hand crank.

stitching the last seams on 1937 Singer 15 hand crank

I've been so busy trying to finish these quilt tops, that I haven't had time to show any of the great quilting packages I've received the past few weeks. 


First, I won a lovely fabric postcard from Beth, at I Have a Notion.

post card from Beth

Then Jeanette, over at Inch Worm fabrics, sent me this great batik fabric bundle, from her giveaway.

batiks from Jeanette

Next, Tricia from Quilt With a View, told me that I'd won 2 of her Rose Card patterns.

from Tricia

Lastly, I received my exchange blocks from my latest Treadle On block exchange.  Here are my 4 different sets of blocks (sorry, my design board was full of Peter Pan blocks, so, I don't have a picture of them spread out).

4 sets of blocks

Here are the blocks that I made for this exchange.  They all have to be made on a treadle or a hand crank.  I used the hand crank shown above.  All blocks are 'signed' before mailing.  These are some of my 'extra' blocks. 

blocks I made for the Treadle On exchange

All in all, it's been pretty nice around here lately.  Of course, I haven't made my project for my quilt guild exchange (due Monday night).  I'd better get started on that one pretty quick.  I'm going to use my modern Janome for that project.  I think it is feeling a bit neglected lately. 

Peter Pan

Well, I finally finished the last paper pieced block late last night.  I still need to add some embroidery to it, but, that is the easy part.

I would have been done sooner, but, I made another stupid mistake.  This pattern is 'colored' on the back, and the designers background is a light green (mine is a white on white).  Instead of double checking each piece, before I added it, I just added green fabric to 3 places on one of the pieces of Peter Pan.  Oops!  If I'd been paying attention, and checking like I should have been doing, I would have noticed that those 3 pieces were supposed to be background pieces.  Seam ripper to the rescue. 

pattern

my mistakes, with dark green where the white was supposed to go

Here is the block, corrected.

correct Peter Pan block

both blocks (sorry for the bad color picture)

Peter just needs his nose embroidered on now.  This block was designed by Michelle Thompson, and can be found here.

The next part is the crocodile, that will be across the bottom of the quilt.  I found a great pattern at Sew Fresh Quilts to use, called Crocodile Rock, at her Etsy shop.  Lorna has some great patterns.  Here is a picture of the pattern that I'm going to use.  I'm only going to make one crocodile.

Crocodile Rock pattern

I'm headed off, as soon as this posts, to find some fabric for the crocodile. 

Here are some of the other fabrics that will probably show up in this quilt.

treasure map and nautical fabrics

Tinkerbell fabrics

I need to get this quilt top finished, so that the long arm quilter can do her part. 

Smee

Woohoo!  I'm on a roll!  I finished piecing both Smee blocks last night.

paper pieced Smee blocks

Smee is a free pattern on Fandom in Stitches.  As you can tell from the pattern picture, Smee needs some embroidery to finish him off. 

paper piece pattern

Also, since I'm using a white on white background, not the blue, like in the pattern picture, and Smee has white whiskers, I needed to add some embroidery to mark the different 'whites'.  I added some gray around his whiskers with embroidery.  I also added his mouth, nose and ear embroidery. 

one block finished

Here are the 2 blocks next to each other, one finished, one still needs the embroidery.

with and without embroidery

As this posts, I'm working on the 2nd block's embroidery, and should be done later today. 

There were 124 pieces of fabric in each Smee block.  Of course I pieced him on a hand crank sewing machine.

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

After the embroidery is done on the 2nd Smee, there is just one more block to finish, Peter Pan himself.  I just need to finish his eyes, then I can put him together. 

Katie Nana

Back in August, I asked some of the pattern designers on Fandom in Stitches, if they could make up some Peter Pan themed blocks, since I could only find 5 at that time (Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Smee, Tinkerbell and Tick Tock the Crocodile).  Only one girl in that group.  I asked for Wendy, Tiger Lily and Katie Nana, the dog. 

Kristi Lehane designed Katie Nana for me.  With 'life' happenings, Katie Nana has taken me longer to make than I had thought it would.  There are 205 pieces of fabric in each 10" block. 

I was going along pretty well when I discovered that the fabrics I'd chosen for Katie Nana's cap just weren't working out.  Not enough contrast.  I had to change from the pattern, where Kristi had used blue for the background, since I'd already picked a white on white for all the backgrounds on all of these blocks.  White cap next to a white background just wasn't going to work.  Instead, I'd picked 2 different grays for the cap (main part of cap, and the shadows of the cap).  Here are the pieces that I'd made, by the time I discovered that my gray's just were not working out.

finished and unfinished pieces

you can tell that there just isn't enough contrast with the grays

Back to the printer, to print out all those pieces again, and back to the fabric stash, to pick new fabrics for Katie Nana's cap.  It was hard to find something that would work with that white on white background.  Here is what I chose.

new cap colors

And here is the completed Katie Nana blocks.

Katie Nana, designed by Kristi Lehane

2 completed Katie Nana blocks

I started these blocks on Tinkerbell, my 1925 Singer 99 hand crank sewing machine, but, I finished these blocks on my 1927 Singer 15 hand crank sewing machine.  Nothing wrong with Tinkerbell, but, the Singer 15 is in the main place in my sewing room, and it was easier to just keep it there, than to keep moving machines.

1925 Singer 99 (3/4 size machine) hand crank, Tinkerbell

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

Hopefully I'll have the last 2 Peter Pan themed blocks finished by the end of this weekend. 

Captain Hook

These Peter Pan themed paper pieced blocks are kicking my behind.  So many teeny tiny pieces to work with.  Since it didn't seem like I was getting anything done, just working on one pattern at a time (making 2 of each pattern) I decided to start working on several different patterns at one time.  

The way I work, I prep as many pieces at one time as I can, then I sew all those pieces, then prep, sew, etc, until all the pieces are done.  When all the pieces for one pattern are done, then I can assemble them, to finish the block.  

Well, working on 4 different patterns at once wasn't as confusing as it sounds.  I only put the wrong 'flesh' color on one piece.  I have a method for keeping things organized as I work.  First, I have a label pinned to the different fabrics, so that I know what block those fabrics go to (the background fabric is the same for all the blocks, so, that one is really easy).  

Then, I have gallon ziplocks, that each set of pattern pieces go into.  Those ziplocks also have a piece of paper in them, that lets me know what pattern is in that ziplock, so that things don't get mixed together.  I only stitch or prep on one pattern set at a time.  So far, it's worked really well.  

Most of the pieces for all the patterns are done.  I'm still working on piecing eyes on 2 patterns.  The eyes have the most pieces, so, they take the most work.  

Yesterday, I finished all the pieces for Captain Hook, and started assembling them into the finished block.  Oops!  I'd made a mistake.  Can you find the mistake I made????

finished Oops! block

pattern

Oops!  Instead of sewing grey fabric for the feather, I'd stitched black.  I use colored pencils to mark what color fabric I need in each spot.  The gray is about the same shade as the black, since I don't want to color really hard each time.  Oops!  I'd mistaken black for gray.  I had to print out new pieces, and start from scratch, to fix my mistakes.  Thank goodness one piece only had 3 fabrics, and the other only had 5 fabrics.  Lots of unstitching, to save the other pieces.

new corrected pieces next to the old, wrong pieces

corrected section next to the wrong section

I finished Captain Hook last night.  

both corrected Captain Hook blocks

Captain Hook can be found on Fandom In Stitches, under Jake & the Neverland  Pirates. Here is a direct link to the pattern. There are 107 pieces of fabric in Captain Hook.  These blocks finish at 10" square.  Captain Hook was pieced on this machine.

1927 Singer 15 hand crank

I just love my hand cranks for paper piecing.  The needle stops exactly where I want it to, instead of going a few more stitches, like an electric machine would.  When you are only getting to stitch a couple of stitches on some of the really tiny pieces, it makes a big difference.  I can also make much smaller stitches with a vintage machine than I can with a modern machine.  With all these tiny pieces, that also makes a big difference.  Every stitch helps. 

I'm almost finished with Katie Nana, that was designed for me.  I'm also working on Smee and Peter Pan.  Hopefully those three will be done in the next day or two.  I do have some embroidery that needs to be done on a couple of these blocks, too.  

I started on this series of Peter Pan themed paper pieced blocks back in August.  These are taking me MUCH longer than I ever expected.  

Back to paper piecing!!!!!  

Happy 30th Anniversary! & Stitching

Happy 30th Anniversary Sweetie!  

September 26, 1987

Here is to another 30 years!


And on a sewing note, I was asked to provide the links, when the Peter Pan blocks, Tiger Lily and Wendy were posted on Fandom in Stitches.  Here they are.

Tiger Lily

Wendy

Next up to test is Katie Nana, but, I'm working on some other stuff before I can start stitching this block. 

Exchanges, Stitching, Etc.

Now that they have been received, I can show some of the exchanges I've participated in recently.  There are still a few that have not been received, or finished, so, there will be more to come, in the future.

First, I'm in a pin cushion exchange at Beaquilter.  It's one pin cushion each month, for 3 months.  This is the one I made for Bea, for August.  You can see it again, on her post here, along with about 97 other pin cushions that she has. 

front

back, using same fabric as I used for her spool of thread on the front

I haven't received my pin cushion for August, since it is coming from Norway.  Yes, I'll get 2 different pin cushions, from 2 different people in Norway, in this exchange.  How cool is that!?!?!

I was in a paired, mug rug exchange, with my Quilt Along group.  This is an 'offshoot' group from Treadle On.  We did NOT have to use our hand cranks or treadles for this exchange, but, I still did, at least on the mug rugs.  I had to cheat on the project bag, since I just don't have enough hands (or control) with the binding.  Sally was my partner in this exchange.  This is what I sent to Sally.

2 mug rugs (fronts)

backs of mug rugs

I also sent Sally a project bag.

Sally's new project bag (don't you love those treadles!)

Here are the great things that I received from Sally.  The teapots, at the top of the picture, are mine.  Isn't it great that they match what Sally sent!

mug rugs and napkins

I forgot to take pictures of the backs of the mug rugs.  One was in Christmas prints, and the other was a Valentine print.

Sally also sent me some other goodies. 

great matching apron

fun teapot fabric

Sorry for the blurry pictures. 


I was also in another paired mug rug exchange, with Treadle On.  These weren't due till Oct 1st, but, we both had them done, so, we exchanged early.  These were all made on either a treadle or hand crank machine (with cheating on the project bag).  This is what I made for Denise.

front of mug rug

thimble backing fabric

Denise's project bag

Can you tell that Denise loves RED?  It's also my favorite color! (check out all the great RED things in this post, that I received). 

Here is what I got from Denise.

2 great mug rugs

check out the great tea party fabric on the backs

Denise also included a spool pin doily.  I had a great machine, just waiting for a spool pin doily.

up close of the spool pin doily

the machine the spool pin doily belongs to now

I've been doing some stitching, but, not as much.  Now that hubby is back, safe and sound, I took a few days off.  I did go to Quilts of Valor on Tuesday, but, I didn't take any pictures.

I'm stitching on the 2nd Wendy block.  This one is applique. 

Pattern by Alida

I didn't want to do fusible applique, so, I tried using another method, with plain interfacing on the other side of the fabric, then turning it inside out.  It worked on the larger pieces, but, when I got to the arms and legs, it wasn't working well.  Not sure how I will do the shoes, sash, or hair bow.  I'll just draw the lips on, instead of attempting them.  See how tiny it all is, in the pictures below (with the ruler for size).

blues are shoes, hair bow and dress sash

the lips are the tiny orange dot, by the dress

I finished this much on Monday.  I've started on the hair, but, didn't take a picture. (poor, bald Wendy).

Wendy, waiting for her hair

Wendy will be another 10 inch block.


Bonnie Hunter showed a lady with chair wheelies, on her blog last month. The lady's chair wheelies came from Camp Lebanon, a church camp, but, according to their website, they don't ship these, you have to pick them up in Minnesota.  Well, that's not going to work for me.

I decided to see if I could make some myself.  I found the furniture casters at Menards.  They had the best price (almost half the cost of anywhere else).  I also got a set of dog tennis balls at Menards.  I had to wait till hubby got home from his trip, since I didn't have a clue what glue to use.  Hubby used epoxy, and, glued them for me.  Hubby also cut X's in the tennis balls (after gluing) so that the chair legs would go in.

from the top (uncut)

so you can see the wheels

on the chair legs

whole chair with wheelies

I'll be testing these out this month, and see if the glue holds or not.  Hubby thought we might add screws & washers, but, we aren't sure there is enough clearance or not.  I'll let you know how these work out.  I can't roll on carpet, but, at my demo's (where I'll use them) I'm on hard surfaces. 

I have 3 more sew-in's this week (2 overlap on Saturday), but, I don't know what I'll be working on yet.  I need to finish Wendy before I start on anything else.  I also have another exchange due by the end of this month, that I haven't started on.  Maybe I'll get started on that.  It's a Harry Potter Frog Card exchange.  Tiny, 3" pentagon's.  Hmmmm.......I'm getting tired of tiny.  I want something BIG!