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Your babies are not adjusting well to daylight savings time. Nic, chuckling as he left the room. He could hear Will babbling to himself in his bedroom, and I am here mindlessly surfing the interwebs after battling Ellie for an hour about bedtime. On the up side, all three of us are sleeping until 8:50 every morning. One of my favorite fabric lines this year is Spring Street. It makes me happy and fits the season so well. I did a pattern swap with a friend from my guild, and I got to make some Birdie Sling bags from her pattern and she got to play with my Practical Bag pattern! With the high cost of patterns I’m going to try to make the most of the patterns I have by setting up more pattern swaps in the future! Here’s the first of the birdie slings (I cut out several this week, since we are swapping back patterns tomorrow and of course I waited until the last minute to get started!):
Pattern notes: while the pattern calls for 1 1/4 yards of the exterior and handle, I was easily able to make the bag with 1 yard of each. I omitted the interior pockets and only used about 1/2 a yard for the lining. I also ended up skipping the final step of top stitching the bag right under the band, because I tried it, but it looked badly enough that I ripped out the stitches.
In other news, I’m pretty sure that Edna Elizabeth is angry with me. This afternoon I sewed straight through the tip of my thumb. Not just through the skin, but through the meat of my finger. It was crazy–Edna didn’t hesitate–she just sewed right through my thumb and carried on going. I’m pretty sure my rotary cutter is looking at me funny, too, so I’m a little scared to sew without another adult nearby. I finished 3 quilt tops and 4 quilt backs this weekend, so I’m feeling a little bit super-star-y. Even if one of the quilts is a super ugly Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See quilt requested by Willie B that I am going to serge bind and call done tomorrow morning!
Apparently my time in England left its largest mark on my uterus, where Will apparently soaked up a large dose of Britain in utero. He calls fries ‘chips.’ Never mind the fact that no one in our life does that, never mind the fact that we call them fries…he ALWAYS calls them chips. Like we can be in the car sharing a carton of french fries and I’ll hand two back to Will saying “here’s two fries—one for you and one for Ellie” and 5 seconds later as they eat their fries I’ll hear “do you like your chips, Ellie? I think chips are tasty.” And he adores tea. I frequently hear “can I have some fox trot tea please?” (one of the herbal teas I have). And if given the choice between tea and hot chocolate, he chooses tea. That kid is so British it freaks me out. April 2015 Update: I’m getting lots of questions right now about the blocks and fabric I used. Unfortunately this was a quilt from four years ago so I don’t remember the details, but looking at the stroller blanket I’d made previously that I based this quilt on, the blocks are 8″ finished. They are based on a larger pattern from Fresh Quilting and I just did the math for how I wanted the blocks sized. Doing some quick math now I think that would mean cutting 8.5″x4.5″ pieces. The fabrics were pulled from my stash, and many were old at the time so I’m guessing they’d be virtually impossible to find now but I see a light blue dandelion print from Moda’s Central Park, some navy and aqua pieces from one of the Joel Dewberry lines, a Japanese white and red floral, and a pink on pink dot from Moda’s It’s a Hoot.
I finished binding and mending and washing Ellie’s stroller quilt. I love it.
This one doesn’t have a hole in the center–instead I sewed elastic bands into each of the corners. Using those toy links that are so amazing for baby items, you can then clip the quilt to the stroller to keep it from getting kicked off. (At Disneyland I tied ribbons to the elastic in the bottom corners to tie to the stroller legs for something a little more secure.)
Ignore my crappy binding. I was sewing it at a hotel bar with the help of some key lime pie martinis. (Edna Elizabeth would NOT have approved.) Additional update August 2018: Wowza! This quilt continues to get hundreds of views every month (7 years after making this quilt, and long since it got stashed in a box somewhere!) and I continue to get questions about the pattern. As mentioned above, this was based off a pattern from the book Fresh Quilting. It’s an awesome book, so if you are looking for a great pattern with easy beginner instructions, you can get the book here:
I love the color combo in your quilt! Very nicely done! Jennifer 🙂 This is such a stunning item. Wish I had been a quilter when my kids were smaller! I really enjoy your blog!! Sending you smiles from Sunny South Africa 🙂 P.S. I love all the snow photos from one of your previous posts! How big did you make each rectangle? This is very colorful and pretty, Thank you for sharing. hi! Could you tell me what size your blocks are? Thanks? I love this quilt. What size are the blocks that you used? Thanks Would also like to know the size of your rectangles. Have a lot of scraps to use up! I love this one. So cute! thanks so much for sharing! Love! This is very beautiful. Love the fabric choice and colours. Hi there I love this quilt, may I please have the pattern? Best wishes Lee Hi~ I’d love to make this quilt for my niece. How big are your rectangles? Thanks in advance! 🙂 Why is this on Pinterest under “Easy Quilt Pattern” when you didn’t have a pattern in the first place and made this quilt four years ago and can’t remember the details? Please take this off Pinterest! It is a waste of my time to click on this and find out that there is no information here at all. Lovely! I’d like to have measurements of pieces. Hello, I just want to say that I really like this quilt. Would you mind sharing block size or the size of the strips? I would appreciate it. Thank you, jennie Love Love Love you did an amazing job, beautiful! But I just have to say…. Does anybody bother to read the above blog which gives you all the info for the questions you ask, LoL just saying This stroller quilt is obviously 32″ wide (4 blocks), from what I can tell from the photos, but would you please post a finished length, or number of blocks it is made? I’m not a mom and don’the have access to any way of measuring (or even GUESSING, for that matter) the appropriate length to make this, but I think it would be a great gift idea for ‘Great Aunt Mary’ to be making and giving for new baby gifts! Thank you, and Merry Christmas! Hi Mary, I don’t have this quilt around anymore but from the pic it looks like it was 4×4 for a total of 16 blocks. Love your quilt I’d love to have the pattern for the red stroller quilt. It is just so beautiful. Hi. I am Jô. I live in Brazil. Iam a teacher and love patchwork. Lovely quilt Jennifer, I am just starting to quilt, so I am a beginner. I love the stroller quilt, but would like to make a larger one for a twin bed. Would it be possible to email me the pattern. Jennifer, I hope I have the right website, I am not good with computers. Your stroller quilt is just beautiful. I am new at quilting, and I would like to get a copy of the stroller pattern. I need one for a twin size bed, but if you don’t have the size, I can do the math. Hi Brenda, My name is Traci. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the post, the pattern comes from the book Fresh Quilting and so it’s not a pattern I’m able to send out. I actually believe the pattern in the book is for a twin size quilt, so that might actually work out perfectly for you! Hi Meredith, I’m sorry for the late reply but saw this comment and wanted to explain that I don’t actually control content on pinterest. If someone posted it under “easy quilt pattern” that isn’t something I can change. It is likely that for them this is an easy quilt that they can figure out based on those measurements, but you are right–this isn’t a quilt pattern and I would not have titled it as such. Pinterest titles are generated by the people who pinned the image and not by the actual image owner–I’m sorry! Simple, adorable quilt.You created it in 2011 & it is now 2018. Your quilt was posted in an email I received from Pinterest, so it continues to circulate after so many years. Although it is seven years from your original posting, your quilt is still appreciated. I thank you for sharing the measurements to create the blocks and the book source. Much appreciated. Quilters are always so generous! Brenda in Texas. She clearly told you they were 8.5 x 4.5 Thanks so much for the sweet comment! It does blow me away that this little quilt continues to get so much web traffic! |
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Susanne - I bought a big roll of wax paper to trace patterns from. It’s perfect, especially if you’re swapping or borrowing pattern books from the library 🙂 .
Brooke - That bag is adorable! I need to get my hands on some of that Spring Street! And, I have to say, I’m totally jealous of your super-star-y-ness! It took me two nights of sewing to make ONE bee block and I’m feeling majorly bummed about it.
Kati - Love the fabrics. I made this bag a while ago. It’s such a fun one. Great work! So sad on the finger. I hope it’s okay. I’m always afraid I’ll do that. Watch out for that rotary cutter! I have taken off the top of my thumb with that one.
Susan Phillips - I love this bag. The fabric is perfect for it and perfect for spring. I hope your thumb feels better. Ouch! Thanks so much for your presentation at the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild last night. You did a wonderful job!
Rene' Sharp - What a gorgeous bag!!!