Riding the wave

I have been on quite the sewing kick lately. My crafty tendencies seem to come in waves -- I'll do nothing but knit for weeks, and then, all of a sudden I have the uncontrollable urge to do something... else. I've got two sweaters under way that I have almost no desire to work on. In the last three weeks, the only knitting I've done is at my weekly SnB.

But sewing is another matter. In the last few weeks, I have been churning out projects right and left. I made the pink hat featured in my Hat Trick post, and last night made a blue version for Viv, complete with a red band and white/red flower (pics to come later).

Here's a top that I made Vivian a couple of days ago, using leftover fabrics from the quilt I'm making for when she graduates to a toddler bed.

A side note about how awesome my daughter is. She seems to understand what it means when I say I'm making something for her. Lately, she comes into my sewing room/closet when I am working and giggles, saying "loud!" She even dragged me to my sewing machine, saying "more loud? I like loud." It makes me feel warm & fuzzy inside when she really seems to enjoy the things I make her (like this top, which she refused to take off, even though I only put it on her to make sure it fit). OK, done with cheesy parent pride.

I'm also doing more quilting, and trying to put more care and precision into my work. Since I really don't work from patterns and instead just improvise, I'm not always careful with the little things that can make a big difference in the appearance of the quilt. These would be tasks like remeasuring all blocks after assembly to make sure they are all the same size (just because they were the same before final piecing doesn't mean they still are), trimming wonky edges, etc.

Here's my latest quilt/blanket that I improvised for Vivian. I originally bought the shaggy minky backing fabric to line Viv's winter coat, but it never gets cold enough to warrant a lined coat here. The fabric was languishing in a bag in my closet until Viv pulled it out. She loved the soft feeling so much she started dragging it around the house. That's when I knew I had to finally make something with it. The quilt does not have a true quilt "sandwich," there is no batting. It's just a pieced quilt top with the minky back. Because of the nap of the minky, I tied the quilt, rather than sewing. I took extra care to make sure the squares lined up and everything fit just so. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

She likes it! She really likes it!