Baby Shower Gift

My very good girlfriend, Jess, is having a little Baby Girl named Annabelle very soon, like... within-the-week soon. 

For her shower, I asked her if there was anything at all she wanted me to make for the nursery, that couldn't necessarily be purchased. She mentioned having these old cushions for the nursery rocking chair, that she wanted recovered. I offered to recover them for her. 

I had her pick out any heavier weight fabric from Hawthorne Threads that she wanted for the cushions. She picked this great Anna Maria Horner print called Coreopsis. I love it. It is girly without being childish.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MY BERNINA BINDER ATTACHMENT! IT IS AMAZINGGGG! I used it to make the ties for tying the cushion to the rocker. The previous cushion had ties, as shown. Using this foot to make the ties LITERALLY took only a few minutes, to make all 8.

I reused the old piping, and just covered it with new fabric for the new piping. 

I am a relatively new sewer and this project was really quite tough for me. It was pretty difficult to get the shape of the cushions just right, as well as sew them together, along with the quadruple piping layers, and actually keep my seam allowance accurate. It was tough.

I also tufted the cushions to finish them off. I totally forgot to take pictures of the process, but it was extremely easy. I followed this tutorial and it made the process fantastically easy. 

After the cushions, I needed an easy project to boost my confidence again. I wanted to make a little throw blanket for Annabelle's nursery as well. 

I VERY SIMPLY, took two yards of Anna Maria Horner flannels, and stitched around the edges, right sides together. I left a little hole to turn the work right sides out. Then I pressed the edges and stitched the edges to finish it off using my 1/4 foot. It was a super simple, and super cute blanket that is a great size, finishing at 32 x 42.
 

Here are some pictures of the finished cushions and throw. Keep in mind that this is my rocking chair, and not Baby Annabelle's. I don't think that her walls are swampy green!

Another project done! I am definitely learning some things along the way on this sewing journey. Only if I could accomplish more than one project a month, then maybe I would actually make a dent in My Bucket List.

HOLLER!

A finished crocheted hexagon throw (and some osso buco) . . .

I finished it!!!!! Yesssssssssssssssss!! I really loved this project, it is a perfect summer throw for our sofa and I love how it turned out.

 I have blogged about this throw here,  here,  and here!

 

Project Stats:

Inspired by: attic24, one of my favorite reads 

Yarn: 2 of each color Cotton Ease 100% cotton yarn in white, off-white, mustard, poppy, celery, navy, & taupe

Finished hexagons: 126!!!!!!!

Finished size: 3 1/2 ft x 5 ft

Hours to make: 1,000,000 (est.)

Guess what? That's another item off the bucket list! You can find a link to all of my finished projects on flickr here.

Oh, also, today is my husband and my 6 month wedding anniversary! Husband has been on vacation for 10 days and got back around 8 o'clock tonight and I surprised him with Osso Buco (essentially, braised veal shanks) and it turned out amazinggggg!:

Only one more week until tax season is OVER and I will get some serious R&R. However, I did find time in my day to take a little nap with the new lovely throw:

 xoxoxoxo

Progress and yet another fail

I have been working DILIGENTLY at completing my hexagon throw. I finished almost all 98 pieces, sans a few because guess what? I started this project soooooo long ago that they no longer make the navy blue yarn (which is the center of every hexagon). Fail.

So I started with the layout:

I should have laid out a ruler so you all could see how tiny this "throw is". I realized that I just had to make some more hexagons to take this from a pillow cover to a throw. Considering that I ran entirely out of navy, I made solid hexagons using all the other colors. I think I ended up making 3 or 4 of each color and that really helped make the throw larger and I think that it also brightened it up a bit.

 

There is the official layout! I plan on measuring it when I am all finished, because right now it is probably quite a few inches bigger than the end result will be. I am so excited to finish up this project, it has been a long time coming and the end is in sight!

Looks like I have lots and lots of crocheting ahead of me... 

xoxo