Baby quilt wrap-up

I just got Samuel’s newborn portrait on his quilt wearing his (too big) romper, so I thought I’d share and show you where the baby quilts ended up since I spent so much time talking about them in the last couple of months.

 

Of course the boy quilt belongs to Samuel now.  It will be a play mat for the time being and then when he’s ready to move to the crib (he’s in a bassinet in our room now) it will keep him cozy this winter and for many years to come.

As we announced last week, the girl quilt went to Regina, who was kind enough to share pictures of it being enjoyed by her beautiful family.

What a pleasure to meet such nice people and share some love!

The very first quilt I ever made is still in use in our house and in fact, just got promoted two nights ago to official bedspread!

Jack “graduated” to a big boy bed this week and he’s pretty excited about it.  I’m not at all used to him being able to get himself up in the morning (in fact, the first morning I opened my eyes to a bright-eyed toddler two inches from my nose, which was a little surprising for 6:30am), but it’s working well for him.  Now to teach him to put himself down for a nap….

-Elizabeth

 

 

welcome home my sweet

i’ve known for quite a while that it was waaaaayyy past time to service my sweet janome machine.  i’ve known it, i’ve thought about it, i’ve talked about it….but i haven’t done it.  last tuesday morning i found myself with an unexpected day to work at home, and being the dedicated, diligent woman that i am (hmmmm), i went right to the studio to work on a project.  i said good morning to my lovely and threaded her properly…..and she responded with a sort of a mix between a groan and a squeak.  she stitched just fine, but there seemed to be something wrong here…..tension wasn’t quite right and i got worried.  so i packed her up and headed straight to westerville sew n save for a checkup.  my smaller janome took her place and did a fine job (although i had to put a little thought into how to operate her!!)  as you can tell by now, i’m a janome sort of gal.  i love mine to death, and if you’re in the market for a new machine i highly recommend a janome….go see susan at sew n save right now!!

there’s my older gal, filling in and doing great!

and today i picked up my workhorse.  nothing was found to be amiss, she just needed to be cleaned and adjusted.  she’s home now and in her rightful place on the sewing table, ready to create.  i missed her!!

here’s a quick look at what she and I are working on down in that studio of mine…..a beautiful stack of fabric from dear stella….part of one of those projects that we can’t quite reveal yet….but soon.  the two on the bottom are my absolute favorites.  and see that wonderful seam ripper?  that was a gift from amy (our amazing photographer AND my son’s amazing girlfriend AND dear to my heart!)….and the best part?  she made that!!  her father is a talented woodworker and she obviously has the talent too…she made a few of these as gifts….it’s treasured.  it feels wonderful in my hand and when i’m not using it, or when i take it with me, the ripper part pulls out and slides into the wood body.  what a gift!!

a belated congratulations from me to regina, winner of our beautiful baby girl quilt!!  i think elizabeth had a hard time parting with it, and i’m pretty sure she’s already planning the next baby just so she can make another one!!  enjoy it regina!!

kim

He’s here!

And, just like that, Paul and I no longer outnumber our progeny.  Samuel Atticus was born over the weekend after a short, fairly easy labor and we are over the moon excited to welcome him into our family.

Jack is settling into being a big brother, alternately showing us that he’s a big boy and self-sufficient at 20 months (and man, does he feel big compared to holding our 8ish pound newborn) and wanting to be cuddled and snuggled like the baby he still is.  He learned to say Samuel while he was on the way to visit us in the hospital (“Sam-ool!”) and I died a little from the sweetness.

Paul is tickled pink (blue?) to be a papa to two little boys.  (Two little boys who will not hold still long enough to get a picture together, I might add.)

So, after 9 months of speculation, that’s a small mystery solved and marks the opening of our quilt giveaway!  We’ll be offering the “girl” quilt (Cluck Cluck Sew‘s Scout pattern) to one of our readers.

All you need to do to enter is to follow us on Facebook, follow the blog (enter your email address in the sidebar) and leave a comment on this post telling us about your very favorite blanket ever.  We will choose a winner at random on Monday the 28th.

Good luck to all of you, and welcome to the world, baby Samuel!

-Elizabeth

*The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Regina!*

Baby sewing: done!

Yesterday I finally finished and photographed the baby projects I was hoping to get done before our baby makes his or her appearance sometime in the next week or so.  Two quilts plus two little bitty outfits.

You’ve seen the quilt tops a few times now in various stages of completion, so I’ll start with the outfits.  For the boy’s romper I found this super sweet pattern by My Taylor Made on Etsy.  I made the pants version and added cuffs and the belt.  I took photos as I was adding to the pattern, so as soon as I get those edited I’ll put up a tutorial for you on adding those details to a standard romper pattern.

For the little girl’s dress and bloomers, I started with Melly Sews’ Criss Cross Dress and ruffled bloomers pattern and tutorial (available for free when you sign up for her newsletter).  I had been looking for a pinafore dress in an infant size because I don’t have an infant handy to test a self-drafted pattern.  Melly’s wasn’t quite what I was looking for (hers has the long straps come up from the front with an open back and I wanted the dress to wrap around and cross in back like tulip petals), but it was a good start.  Her version is super cute – I just had a specific design in mind and couldn’t be satisfied with anything else.  Her pattern starts at 6 month size, so I knew it was going to be a little big for what I wanted, but you can’t beat free.  🙂

I kept the pattern I adapted for the pinafore dress, so I’ll work on getting that into PDF form and making a tutorial for that, too.  I followed Melly’s instructions and pattern exactly for the bloomers except for pinking the edges of my ruffles and putting them on in wavy lines instead of straight.

I made both in about a 3 month month size in hopes that they would be small enough not to look totally huge and silly in newborn pictures but that they might still fit for a little while after we come home from the hospital.  I’m notorious for making homemade outfits for kids that only fit on the day for which they are intended and that are outgrown in two seconds, so I’m hoping that these will get some wear for the rest of the summer.

So those little bitty outfits wrap up the baby sewing for now, and at this point I’m totally ready to meet our kiddo and stop being super pregnant in the July heat.

Anyone care to venture a guess as to whether we’re having a boy or girl?  Jack’s first response to whether he wants a brother or sister is “motor!” [motorcycle], but after we told him he was going to be disappointed on that front he’s been saying “gill” [girl] or “ister”.  We’ll see if he’s right!

Don’t forget to watch the blog and follow us on Facebook for the baby’s birth announcement with details on how to win one of these quilts!  What special projects are you working on these days?

-Elizabeth

 

 

The Summer Jazz Dress as a maternity top

It was totally a happy accident that one of the patterns we designed for our spring ’14 season works fabulously for maternity wear.  When we started Snapdragon Studios last August, Paul and I had no idea that we’d be welcoming a new baby into our family this summer and Kim and I definitely didn’t design any of our patterns with a baby belly in mind.

Fast forward nine months, and I was already in my third trimester when we went to Quilt Market.  It was a challenge deciding what to wear since we knew we wanted to show our designs as we went around talking to people there.  I could still *just* fit my tummy into one of the Market Day Tunics, but otherwise it was the Summer Jazz all the way for me.  Just for fun, I cut off one of our SJ dresses into a tunic length to wear with jeans or leggings, and I’ve finally gotten around to taking pictures to share with you.

Paul and I went on a date night Friday night to see a summer stock production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), and I had him snap these pictures before we left, so I’m considerably further along here than when I first wore the tunic.  In retrospect, I wish I would’ve shaped the hem a bit more where it goes ove rmy belly instead of cutting it off straight, but at the time I was thinking that if I cut it straight it would still be long enough to cover and I would be able to wear it without any changes after having the baby.

To make it a tunic length, I shortened the dress length of the pattern by 4″ and hemmed it as usual.  Here’s how I will do it if I’m ambitious enough to make one more before the baby arrives (unlikely, but just in case…).  I’m a size M in a woven and size S in a knit, so I drew my dashed line for the medium size, but these proportions should work for any size.

 

Sorry about the terrible lighting for that picture, but hopefully you can see what I’m getting at.  I should have come up 4″ on the side and only two inches at center front.  You could cut the back skirt off straight across at 4″, but if you wanted to be kinda cute you could also curve the back hem this way and then when you’re not pregnant anymore you’ll have a fun tunic with a shirt-tail hem.

The Summer Jazz as a maternity top is super comfortable and I’ve gotten lots of compliments on it, which makes it a win in my book.

 

Don’t forget to keep watching the blog and Facebook for our baby announcement and the opening of the quilt giveaway!  T-2 weeks (or less!  gulp!) and counting!

-Elizabeth

Formally Announcing… the Quilt Giveaway!

If you’ve been following the doings around here you already know that I’m expecting a baby next month and that we didn’t find out the baby’s sex ahead of time.  If you’re new to these parts: I’m expecting a baby next month!  We don’t know the baby’s sex!  🙂

In honor of the new baby, we’ve decided to give away a homemade quilt next month to one of our readers.  You’ve already had a sneak peek of the two Cluck Cluck Sew quilts we’re making – one for a little girl and one for a little boy – so I’m back with more details about how you can enter to win one of them.

  

We’re going to keep things simple since I’ll be just a little bit busy after the new baby makes his or her appearance.  All you’ll need to do is to keep following our blog (and follow us on Facebook and Twitter @ohsnap_studios if you want to be sure you don’t miss anything) as we wait for the arrival of the new baby.  After baby makes an appearance, we’ll announce it here with a picture of baby on his or her new quilt and open the giveaway for the quilt our baby won’t need.

All you’ll have to do to win is to be following us on Facebook and to leave a comment for us on Facebook and on the blog after the baby is born telling us a story about your favorite blanket ever, so start thinking of a good one.

In the meantime, we’ll keep you entertained around here with projects, tutorials, random musings and a new blog series that we’re super excited about: Snapdragon Studios Top Ten, in which we’re interviewing great designers and bloggers to get to know them better.  First up: Kay Whitt of Serendipity Studio and Jennifer Moore of Monaluna.  Stay tuned!

-Elizabeth

P.S.  In case you missed it, our Etsy shop is live!  You’d better believe we did a lot of pinching ourselves and happy dances when we made our first sale.  If you make one of our designs, please be sure to send us a picture or two (ohsnapdragonstudios(at)gmail.com) so we can feature your work!