donation project for kids

For the last couple of hours I've been working on cutting up socks to make sock monkeys for a donation projects.  A friend is collecting sock monkeys for kids where she does mission work in Tel Aviv, Israel.

I'm using this tutorial to make the monkeys.  (There is also a tutorial for making an adorable sock cow!)  I've cut and sewn all the pieces to make 5 monkeys.  Later during the Sunday night shows, I will stuff all the pieces and sew the monkey parts together.  If I play my cards right, the hub just might help me stuff.

home sweet home {a wall quilt}

I finished the top for this wall hanging about 9 months ago.  I had a spot in mind for it when we made the offer on new house, and now it's finally done!  The spot in my house at the end of the hallway between the boys' bedrooms doesn't get much sun so I took these photos outside.

I used part of a Central Park charm pack for the squares and the trees and scraps of fabric for the house.  I like the cheerfulness of all the colors.

I decided to quilt it using a meandering flower pattern.  Considering this may be my fourth time free-motion quilting, this one is a success and I will be using this pattern again.  I had to doodle the flowers on paper first so I could get the right idea and it took a few tries.  But once I transferred the idea to the quilt, it went really smoothly.  I spent 2 hours quilting the entire thing on my regular old machine.

I just love this binding.  I think it's from the Punctuation line.  I colors are great and the stripes are just the right size.  I love having a stripey binding that appears to wrap around the edges of the quilt.

Now I just need to add a way to hang it and I will have something lovely to look at when I wake up the boys in the morning . . . besides them of course.

This wall hanging measures 45-1/2 by 26 inches.

my first silky knit shirt

I found this fabric in the bargin bin.  It was very close to what I had in mind for a new shirt, so I got pretty lucky.  I wanted to make shirt that would be good for work and play but I wanted it to be quick and easy.  That's exactly how this went.  There are no sleeves!  I just cut the top and back kimono style so it would look like there are sleeves to the untrained eye.

I cut the top and back in exactly the same dimensions.  Usually the neck of the front piece is cut a little lower than the back or the arm holes are cut a little different, but remember I was going for easy.  So I couldn't spend the time to figure out the differences.

After the pieces were cut, I serged the sides together and hemmed the neck and sleeves.  I also chose to add a thick band at the bottom so it wouldn't be too simple.  I'm not sure this was really necessary because the shirt isn't that wide to begin with.  I usually see the band fit snugly on the hips while the rest of the shirt flows more roomily around the waist.  This shirt didn't have as much extra room around the waist, so the band really wasn't necessary but I like it.  It's kind of slimming.

And there you have it.  The simplest shirt I've ever made!  And there will be more.