Cheetah Girl

A friend of mine is expecting her firstborn any day now… for her baby shower a few weeks ago, I wanted to create a unique onesie to match these sweet Cheetah print legwarmers from her Target gift registry:

My idea was to create a cheetah cub similar to this lion I created for the onesies I made for my Etsy shop a few made months ago:

So I sketched a cub/kitten…

Transferred it to the onesie by tracing it with a fine tip Micron pen…

Painted it with glitter fabric paint, and adding some details with a black paint marker and blending/mixing paint:

All of my one-of-a-kind onesies have an element of applique to them; since she is expecting a little girl, I selected some pink fabric from my scrap bin, ironed a piece of stabilizer to the back of my painted cheetah cub (inside the onesie)…

and gave the little girl cub a bow around her neck (the pink fabric is fused with Heat n’ Bond Featherlite, and satin stitched over the raw edges):

Her is the ensemble, complete with a wee cardigan sweater to match:

I also purchased some bedtime lotions, etc. from her gift registry, so I bought a basket to gift them in, pulled out a lavender fat quarter from my stash (her nursery decor is primarily lavender) and sewed up a quick and easy basket liner.  I’m hoping she can use this to hold supplies near the changing table:

Her is the gift, ready to give (I wrapped it up in a lavender polka dot swaddling blanket that can be reused as well:

Looking forward to meeting this little lady soon!

I have a major finish (my final 2012 finish!) to share with you soon — when I have pics to show! Until then, a very Happy New Year to you and yours!

Oh, Baby, Baby

(my apologies for triggering any unwelcome pop music rhthymn in your subconscious…)

But what I was really referring to are the baby onesies I’ve been having fun painting and appliqueing… 100% cotton onesies, pre-washed, and decorated with my freehand artwork in fabric, glitter fabric paint and fabric paint markers….

I made these to sell at a craft fair, but it just wasn’t the right market for baby stuff, so they are now listed in my etsy shop: madebyabrunnette, along with the leftovers from last weekend’s blog sale.

There are cute tiger and lion cubs, 

elephants that would look cute on any little peanut…

ladybugs,

and doxies….

onesies fit for a princess….

or a real sweet-heart….

All onesies are customize-able, add a baby’s name, nickname, or request a special color or different size, etc. Maybe you want a dog or cat on the onesie that looks like your own pet?  Sky’s the limit, just ask!

And, on all items in my shop, Shipping is FREE within the United States!  It’s not too late to buy for Christmas…

Blogtoberfest Day XXIV–The Littlest Mermaid

Ifinished up the Pig Will and Pig Won’t Costumes on Friday evening, andon Saturday, got out my paintbrushes and fabric paints to create amermaid costume for baby sister…

I started with a white onesie, gave her a clam shell top tied with seaweed and a starfish clasp at the back…

added a pearl and seashell necklace, and a seaweed bracelet…

 

Made her a clam shell quilted fin…

and a matching headpiece, complete with clam shell, pearl and mother-of-pearl heart…

Her she is, the littlest (and possibly the cutest) mermaid…Miss Zoe Seaweed:

and here she is with big brother, Pig Won’t (he looks a little too happy to be Pig Won’t but he was extremely excited about his new costume!):

There is no photo of their middle sibling, Pig Will, because my camera is simply not equipped to photograph perpetual motion.  

Pig Will & Pig Won’t Costume Details:

• took 2 yards of pink flannel for one size 3T and one size 4T costume.
• I started with a pattern, but ended up free-handing most of the costume, including hooves to cover their hands and shoes.  (I could have saved my time and effort, the “hooves” stayed on about 10 minutes).
• snouts were purchased, as were the polo shirt and shorts

Mermaid Costume Details:

• Purchased onesie and white headband
• fin was freehand drawn and cut from Me & My Sister “Smores” fabric, lined with flannel and free-motion quilted in a clam shell design.  Top is finished with rick-rack.
• All details painted on onesie were freehand drawn and painted by yours truly
• From start to finish, this costume took me about three hours.  (MUCH less time than the pig costumes…)
• It just fits her, I’m guessing by November 4, when she turns 3-months old it will no longer fit.  I cannot believe how much that child grew in two weeks!!!
• She didn’t mind wearing it all, the fin was sort of like she was swaddled up for bedtime…

Tomorrow is Day 2 of the Ghastlies Blog Hop–MY Day!  Come back to see what I created with the Ghastlie Family Portraits…

Noah’s Guitar

I promised you a quilt post today — but even better — it’s a FINISH post!  I started this baby quilt in September 2010 (intended for baby Noah, who was then 2 months old) at a retreat.  When I unpacked after retreat, I put it neatly in a crate in my quilt studio until I could work on it again.  I went to work on it about three weeks later… and could not find the fabric or blocks I had started–anywhere!!  It remained lost for several months until one day I was looking for a particular stabilizer for a bag project, I pulled some out of a crate in my quilt studio, and lo! and behold!  The entire project was right where I left it. 

I finished the top at my retreat a few weeks ago, and I made the back there, but when I started basting the quilt layers at home, I realized the back was about a half an inch too narrow.  urgh!  Well, this was one cool quilt back, so I wasn’t about to replace it with something else…so I sliced it lengthwise, and inserted a 3″ strip of leftover fabric into the back:

I chose the Groovy Guitar fabric, because Noah is part of a family of musicians.  His grandmother provided the music for our wedding ceremony, his Daddy was in a local rock band, and also provides music at Church… Noah will probably know how to play a guitar by the time he turns 3 — a musically themed quilt was inevitable.  To quilt it, I started by quilting the large guitar applique from the back, in raw-edge applique and echo quilting…

As I continued quilting, I had lots of help.  This is Kato, who will put up with anything to be close to his people…

He eventually got pushed away tired and left, and then Maggy came by (to take advantage of the fresh quilt, not to be close to her person)

A little while later, I laid it on the floor to remove some of the basting pins, and I turned my back for three seconds… (he’s pretending to be asleep so I won’t disturb him)

Eventually I was able to finish the quilting, which turned out great, the guitar that is quilted from the back shows up from the front as contrast quilting, surrounded by medium sized stipple quilting:

 

And the square-in-a-square border and inner borders are quilted with straight line quilting:

No need to make a label, I just used the guitar opening to write my label on:

I always give myself a deadline on finishing baby quilts–the child’s first birthday.  Noah will turn 1 on Thursday.  I gifted it to him yesterday (but I was only three days early because I had it in my head that he was born on the 25th), happy mistake on my part…

This has to be one of my favorite quilts.  Ever. 

For more Summer Fair Quilts (and recipes!) go here:

A Diamond in the Rough

Have you ever stumbled across something–a place, an object—something you weren’t expecting to find, that just wowed you–a hidden gem of sorts?  My sweetie and I found one of these gems a few days after we were wed.

We only had a few short days for a mini-honeymoon (we are hoping to make a big trip later this year!) so we drove north, to Red Wing, MN.  The day after we arrived, it was cold and damp (we actually saw snowflakes–in MAY!).  We decided to visit Tower View, an estate built in the early 1900s that now serves as an Artist Residency Program, an alternative high school, an art center, and local meeting space rental. 

The original buildings are amazing… and the sculptures in the garden are wonderful.  The horse above was my favorite; we didn’t walk the entire sculpture garden, as it was just too cold.   Loved this bench, The Courting Bench by Marcia McEachron:

But the true gem?  They have a permanent art collection, which we would not have even seen, if one of the resident artists hadn’t seen us wandering the halls gawking at the photography exhibit that was hanging, and asked “would you like to see our permanent collection, I can go unlock it for you?”  Umm… “yes, please!”  I had no idea…

There were prints by Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Willem de Kooning….

Andy Warhol…

Man Ray….

Peter Max…

and Henri Matisse… just to name a few.

And these are just the pieces I could get a half-way presentable photograph of.  Mostly prints and etching, some sculpture, Calder mobiles… very important works from the 20th century art world.  I have a Master’s Degree in Art History and Museum Studies, so naturally, I was thrilled with this discovery.  My sweetie doesn’t share the same knowledge of these artists, but he was equally blown away that these were just there for the viewing in the basement of this art center in semi-rural Minnesota.  Let this be a lesson to all who scoff at the Midwest and make fun of Minnesota and Iowa (and places like our’s)…you should never judge a book by its cover, or a place by it’s geographic location.   

I leave you with two of my favorite finds of the day, Marc Chagall’s Psalm I…

and his beautiful Green Bird…

I felt very inspired to go home and create after this discovery…