Ember Costumes and Crafts

I decided needed a "spare" baby quilt for my little girl because the one I made for her specifically was so beautiful that I couldn't help but hang it up on the wall of her nursery. Luckily, in a burst of crazy fabric buying I had a fat quarter of Lewis & Irene "Make a Wish" fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop that I had bought because of the most amazingly cute little fairies and dandelions hidden in it, and also because I LOVE pastel colors paired with navy blue. For the pattern, I wanted to try out half square triangles per YouTube . But I didn't like how it was looking, so cut those in half again to make quarter square triangles. The small, delicate print looked much better with smaller blocks. I thought about placing them in a certain way, but in the end just did a randomized assortment that I thought looked nice. In person, the navy blue feels less abrupt. I finished it off with a light pink minky backing, quilted in the ditch, and added a pink...

As soon as I found out that I was having a little girl, I knew that I wanted to make a lavender and teal quilt. I have also always wanted to make a quilt with tiny hexagons...This quilt is the culmination of a ton of learning, planning, and near-disasters!  As I said, hexagons are hard. So when I saw Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorial with the Half-Hex ruler , I snapped one up and made this quilt with the large ruler to see how it worked before tackling the small ruler. Confident with the ruler's workings, I started looking for the perfect fabric and found this fat quarter pack and fell in love. The line is called "Lavishmint" from Camelot Fabrics. I ordered it online from Missouri Star Quilt Company and waited excitedly...and it never came. Finally I called and they said that oops, they were out, sorry. They refunded my money and gave me a $10 credit. I was WRECKED. (Blame the hormones!) and looked everywhere on the web to find it, and it was sol...

Two days before my third baby's Baptism, my mom asked me if I had bought a gown for her to wear. I watched the horror unfold on her face as I flippantly suggested just putting my baby in a white onesie and not worrying about it. My saint of a mother told me firmly that she will buy a gown herself rather than let that happen! So I took my wedding dress, which while it wasn't particularly pretty, was made of gorgeous white dupioni silk, and cut it up and made a christening gown for my baby. Using a wedding dress in this way was something I had heard about somewhere a while back, but probably wouldn't have thought of it except that my mom had brought my dress over that week when she was cleaning out the upstairs closet in my old bedroom at her house. It wasn't a hard choice either. As I tackled this project, I was surprised at every single step--by how easy it was. For the first time since I started costuming 15 years ago, I know how to do everything. Drafting patterns...

I've always wanted to make a pinwheel quilt, so for my cousin's baby shower I made this one! I picked out the fabric at a local quilting shop  and used a Youtube tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company . In fact, here's a secret: everything I know about quilting I learned from Youtube. There will be quite a few youtube links upcoming as I post more pics of the quilts I've done this winter! I didn't have a ton of time for pictures of this particular quilt because, of course, like any good crafter, I finished it the morning of the baby shower. The big quite squares have cute little pirate boys on them, and the pinwheel blocks have a few nautical/fish themed fabrics thrown in.