auntie charming

so i made a quilt for my husband's aunt. in two weeks! like my 16 year old said, "that's the fastest you've ever made one, mom!" i made it so fast i didn't really get pictures of it. there were a few peeks of it on instagram last week, but that's it. 

another part of the reason i didn't photograph it much is that i'm personally not in love with the fabrics. i'm not even sure how they ended up in my stash. i think it was a case of an on-line clearance sale, fabrics that looked different than when they arrived, or i don't even know what. that was four years ago. i am not and have never, ever been a purple person so a fat quarter bundle that was half purples boggles my mind. what was i thinking? surely not that some day down the road these would be the perfect fabrics for aunt sue. but that's what i ended up with.

the sunday after valentine's, aunt sue was in town to visit with her mother, my husband's grandmother. we had them both over for dinner. aunt sue says, "so i hear you quilt. may i see some of your quilts?" i brought out a few to show. and then each child subjected her to their own personal quilts and any others i hadn't shown yet. aunt sue was so sweet, looking at and admiring each and every one of them. it was probably a good 30 minute quilt show.

after she left, i saw the purple and pink fat quarter set sitting on my sewing table. it had come out of hiding because it was packaged with another bundle i was using, and i hadn't returned it to stash oblivion yet. well, aunt sue has always been a lavender/pastel/floral sort of lady, and she liked my quilts so much, that i decided on the spot to make one for her. it seemed the ideal use of those fabrics.

she was only visiting for two weeks, so i wanted to make something as quick as possible. i'd just seen fat quarter shop's new "layers of charm" pattern. even though the pattern was made for a layer cake and charm pack, i decided i could quickly cut the pieces from the fat quarters. i did have to size it down a little to 9" and 4.5" squares, but it totally worked.

i altered the pattern (there's a big surprise!) just a little more by using different charms in each corner rather than one universal color. i took the five lightest fabrics from the collection, three polka dots and two swirly prints, and cut my charms from those. it seemed a bit small, even for a throw, after i'd reduced the block size a little, so i added a border. i got yardage of some coordinating pink polka dot fabric from "whitewashed cottage" by 3 sisters for moda to make a border and backing. i had the top pieced and sandwich basted by saturday.

then i outline quilted all the seams on each side and did a dogwood blossom in each hourglass block formed by the charms. i bound it up with all the leftover pieces from the blocks. i was literally finishing it off at the last minute because we were going over to see aunt sue and grandma for dinner the night before she left. it had been rainy all day and i was in such a hurry i didn't bring my big flash, so i couldn't get any decent pictures of the quilt. we squished into grandma's kitchen to take a photo of it together.

i have to admit that i have struggled to claim this quilt because it is so not me. it's not my style or colors. but once i saw how much aunt sue appreciated it, i felt a lot better about being affiliated with it. i made a quilt that made her very, very happy and that is what counts in the end. not how stylish it looked, how pintrest-worthy it turned out, how many likes it might garner from the blogland quilting community i usually run with. i made a quilt someone will cherish. that was the whole point, not how many comments it's going to get me. aunt sue is happy and i'm happy, too.

the next morning i happened to be across town, close to grandma's house again, so i ran in and asked if i could get a better photo of the quilt. aunt sue was happy to oblige. i got three separate big hugs from her the night before during the course of the evening and now i got more. when she pulled it out, she started talking about how pretty it was again. "oh, there's my lavender! and all those pretty flowers. i still just can't believe you made this for me. no one has made me a quilt since my wedding." she really does seem to like it. for real.

 yesterday there was no lighting and today there was too much. we had to scrunch in on the side yard in the shade to get a photo. grandma decided she should be in it, too. sure, why not?! i only wish my 14 year old son had left that ladder out of the photo.

 here's the back, pieced a bit with some of the last fat quarter and the polka dot fabric. i do rather like the back.

 it has a nice grid pattern and those boxed dogwood blossoms, which all show up really well (in real life) on the soft rosie polka dot fabric.

 aunt sue was so excited about the quilt i had to warn her a bit. i'm no expert and there was plenty wrong with this lady. for instance, in the square above i totally forgot to line the inside of the square. i did all of the quilting on this quilt with my fmq foot, even the straight lines. in fact, it was mostly straight lines. there was plenty of wobble going on everywhere. i'm hoping the wash will help hide that.

well, there you have it. my husband's unique and talented aunt with her "layers of charm" quilt. put the two together and you get "auntie charming," the fastest quilt i ever made and a lesson in being happy when you make someone else happy.

now i need to take all those leftover hsts and bits to make a quilt for grandma, who wanted to know, "how does sue rank?!"

i guess if you flatter me enough and i have appropriate fabrics, you get a quilt.

better in the morning

 i decided to take some better photos of the ultra-bright apron in real daylight. natural lighting almost always improves appearances in photos. i still don't love the apron, but it did look rather cute on d3 today when she happened to be wearing a coordinating outfit.

whipped up an apron

this afternoon, i played project leap frog - jumping from one project to the next - as i cleaned up my sewing space. everyone was supposed to clean a part of the downstairs and i picked my sewing room. that's kind of cheating, now isn't it? well, it did need to be done. so i cleaned and straightened and worked on bits and pieces of wips as i went along. and i actually completed an entire non-quilting project!

i turned 2 fat quarters and 2 yards of grosgrain ribbon into an over-due, eye-blinding apron for my 7 yr old, d3, working off a sample apron given to d4 last year. for reference, normally, she wears a size 8 or 10 girls. there was enough fabric here to make an apron for a large child, teen, or even small-ish adult. i had about half of the accent fat quarter left over after using it for the bodice and skirt trim. also, i would recommend 2.5 yards of ribbon so you could make a cute bow for the waistband like the sample apron has.

it was so completely simple that i was able to guess my way through it by looking at the sample apron. as i got started, i decided to photograph some of the process for anyone interested. however, it was late afternoon (no natural light left) and i was working with 2 different types of light in the room, with no desire to keep switching my white balance back and forth. so, i apologize in advance for the crazy photos of some ultra-bright fabrics selected by a 7 year old. (i had to put that last part in there just so no one thinks i chose the fabrics. my vanity wouldn't permit it. i will, however, claim selecting the ribbon.)

this is not a precise pattern, more of a walk-through of how i assembled the apron. you can measure the child or teen for whom you are making the apron to come up with your own measurements.

 first, i trimmed up the prewashed fat quarters to give them clean edges. then i cut a 3" strip of fabric off my accent fabric to trim the bottom of the apron skirt. to hem it, i rolled one edge about 1/4", twice, pressed it, and stitched down. then i attached the trim to the skirt with a 1/2" seam allowance. if you have a serger or overlock function, this seam allowance would be a good place to use it.

 press your seam open on the front side. the bottom of your skirt is trimmed.

finish both side edges of the skirt by turning under 1/8", twice, pressing, and stitching down. in retrospect, i would have finished the sides before hemming the skirt, but it's not that big a deal.

next, gather your skirt.

 using a large, loose basting stitch, sew across the top (opposite the trimmed edge) of the skirt, then pull the strings to gather to the desired length. i made my skirt about 10" wide, but would go wider next time.

after gathering the skirt, i attached the ribbon waistband to it.

view from back after skirt is attached to waistband

i cut about 2' off the ribbon for neck ties, leaving 4' for the waistband. i folded the ribbon in half and marked the center, doing the same with the apron. then i lined up the two center marks and attached the ribbon to the skirt, wrong side of the ribbon to the right side of the skirt, with about 3/4" seam allowance to the skirt but the seam about 1/16th" from the ribbon's edge on the front. (see photos below to view how this looks on the front.) you can now remove the basting strings, if desired.

make the apron bodice by turning and securing the edges, like above, of 3 sides of an approximately 10" x 10" square. (hello, leftover layer cake square!) then attach bodice to the skirt.

WARNING -  this is the WRONG way to place your pieces!!!

resulting in a backwards bodice. oops.

do not do like my first attempt and place the right side of the bodice to the wrong side of the skirt. oh, no. please do it like this:

correct placement of bodice to skirt

place the skirt on your work surface with the right side of skirt facing up, ribbon waistband turned down away from the skirt's top edge, and align the right side of the bodice's unfinished bottom edge to the right side of the skirt's top edge. pin together and sew with a 1/2" seam allowance, or whatever you can manage without sewing into the ribbon. since you can't see the ribbon, you can feel for it as you sew. this seam will be hidden behind the ribbon, so some wobble won't show.

these two photos illustrate where are all the pieces are while making this seam:

wrong side of bodice on top

ribbon folded back away from skirt's top edge so that right side of skirt is touching right side of bodice

when you are done sewing the bodice to the skirt, it will look like this:

press the seam open, being careful not to scorch or melt your ribbon wit the cotton setting on your iron.

 all the threads you see in my seam allowance between the bodice and the ribbon are my basting strings and the threads from my two previous attempts at attaching the skirt correctly, which i was too lazy to remove.

at this point, i meant to make another seam further securing the skirt's edge to the bodice, but i forgot to. it probably won't matter, but would have been nice.

 lay the ribbon waistband flat on the bodice and attach with the needle just inside the edge of the ribbon. if you use a matching thread, it will be hidden. i don't think i own a thread this color and didn't care to purchase any, so i have a high-contrast white stitch on my ribbon and hems. with a different ribbon and maybe a decorative stitch, this could be really cute.

use the remaining 2' of ribbon for the neck ties. i folded one straight edge of the ribbon up before attaching to the top corners of the bodice. cut the loose ends of the ribbon on the diagonal and finish with fray check. do the same for the waistband tie ends.

an alternate finish for the neck ties is to sew a long strip of Velcro to the ties, allowing it to attach easily for a child.

now your apron is complete!
you are ready to surprise your 7 year old daughter with the apron you promised to make for her months and months ago only to hear her respond, "mom! i said i wanted to make it myself, not you to make it for me!" don't worry, she will begrudgingly wear it anyway.