Pieces make units.

Pale green background with a sweet black fabric covered with tiny tulips

Remember the pattern I'm testing? I'm sewing flower pieces together now. I love the idea of having flowers around all year on a lovely quilt. Though this particular quilt will be going to someone else. I am already planning to make this pattern again with a twist of fabric colors.

It's going to be a flower one day ...

It's entertaining to me to see how we sew random bits of colorful fabric together making small units. Then these units get stitched to make lovely blocks. Blocks get stitched to make a flimsy quilt top. Oh the fun and joy of stitching!

I love the blue paisley

Petting MY fabrics

I am testing a new quilt pattern. It's super cute and colorful. I can't show you the whole shebang yet. I'm posting mainly to show I am survivng the crazy tornado weather in central Oklahoma. I actually sent the kids and dogs into the shelter last week. I however stood on the carport watching the rotations and chatting with God. I pray a lot. I pray extra when it seems my little personal world will be sucked off of Planet Earth.

At least we had a lovely rainbow after one storm.

So back to stitching stuff ...
I cut the background fabric, then had the incredible pleasure of digging thru my stash to find over 20 different fabrics to test this flower pattern. This is why we have a stash!

Oh the joy of stacking up all the pretty colors! Admiring all the patterns :)

Petting fabric right here at home! It almost felt naughty. I know I'm not alone with this silly petting fabric thing. I need to dig into my stash more often. Go dig into your stash. Aren't they pretty? Now you know why you can't pass up a good deal of fabric.

Have a great day!!

Fabric Alphabet Book

Do you remember cloth books? I made a few for my kids when they were little and wanted to make some for my first granddaughter Izzabelle. Actually I want to make one of each design I find, for each of my kids to have for their kids. Even though they don't have kids yet. Confused? Yeah, it happens.

I bombed at Hancocks. The Walmart fabric section was a bust. The local quilt store people just stared. So I went online and again hit brick walls. Enter Ebay ... I found some and realized I was probably not using the proper words to search the fabric websites. I did not expect this to be so hard.

I scored an Alphabet book panel (OK actually 5 panels - one for me and one for each of my kids). Panel being the operative word. The directions were easy enough plus I do have some memories of making these.

There is a place to put a child's name. Since I am making one per family, aka one for each of my kids to read to their future children, I decided to stitch MY child's name on the label. It wasn't a perfect solution but it works for me.

This book pleased me with its bright colors.

I'm an animal lover so all the critters are awesome.

I was super careful to match the pages in the proper order. That is what might trip people up on these projects.

I put a single layer of batting between the pages to give them body. I used batting scraps from other projects because I am psychotically frugal with some things. This might have a lot to do with the fact that I have started tagging certain debits as 'Fabric' to make it easier when doing our taxes.
Yes, FABRIC is its own expense category. I'm officially a fabric addict.

I would have chosen Unicorn for U but they stuck to actual animals. 

Thankfully I handle bookkeeping for our little homestead so my hubby is not privy to my habit. He sees my stash now and then. Its adorable because he actually encourages me to buy more fabric.
Such innocence.

There ya go! A washable, chewable, soft, fabric Alphabet book.

Back and front cover

Camo Diaper Cover

This granddaughter pic on the pink rosebud blanket with the most precious baby girl in a pink camo diaper cover .... I stitched that. Happily stitched it in fact.

Oh I'm shameless, here is the pic again. I have several versions if you are bored ;)

Izzabelle

I just love making wee little items. Her diaper cover was a last minute thought before she was born. I had some camo flannel left over from making her burp cloths, so of course another project was demanded.

I found the pattern on the Made blog. Dana offers the pattern for free!!

I printed it out, laid it out, cut it out. I was going for newborn and it looked big but turned out beautifully.

Her tutorial is clear and understandable. I deviated when I topstitched my seams, as I'm crazy about the idea of anything possibly chafing baby's delicate skin. I wanted my seams to be still even when she wiggled.

Topstitched seam

It went together super fast and easy - less than an hour! Add elastic and voila! Newborn diaper cover in super soft, pink camo flannel. Precious, feminine and exactly what her country girl momma craved.

What could be cuter? Maybe another Izzabelle pic? 

Ahhhh .... there's my girl. 

This grandmother gig is going to be delightful. 

Nursing Cover

My daughter is breastfeeding her baby. Yeah!! I love anything simple, wholesome and frugal. Though she is nursing for her baby's health. I nursed all of my babies too. Anyway, I stitched her a nursing cover so she could feed baby Izzy discreetly.

I found an excellent tutorial online at Sew Much Ado. Nothing to download! You simply measure and follow Abby's very clear tutorial.

I needed fabric, boning and some D rings. How simple is that?

The 2 straps - one short, one long

It has an adjustable neck strap. It can be snugged up tight or relaxed to allow more space to view baby.

Topstitched for neatness

The cover has boning to arc the front center edge up so nursing mothers can make eye contact with their baby.

It went together in about an hour, mainly because I played with the boning. You have to get the boning to arc away from mothers chest so she can peek underneath.

Now I need a pic of my daughter using it ....

Bassinet recovered

We picked up a used bassinet for the baby to nap in during the day. It has wheels that allow us to move it easily from one room to another. My daughter wanted a cover more in line with her favorite colors, as well as easy to remove for washing because babies tend to spew wet muck.

Pink, silver and white polka dots inside and stripes outside. 

No tutorials used here. I took the old cover off, measured, traced and winged the whole project. God blessed me by letting it all come together quickly and easily. My daughter had the baby just a few days after I finished. Whew! 

Happily Stitched

Smack me, I disappeared. I have been stitching but not all stitching was quilty, so I side stepped my blog. That has to end. I can't feel guilty about sewing unquilted items. Its silly.

My blog is for fun. And now that I have a grandbaby, I am having FABULOUS fun sewing for her. She is just so cute. I'm biased.

Izzabelle born March 3rd, 2015

So .... Meatloaf Quilting as a blog name is not really fitting anymore. I'm quilting but not daily - as often as I can though, in between stitching for my loved ones. I need a new name to cover all of my sewing.

This way I won't have guilt if I share a non quilted item, hehehe. Did you know that guilt makes you fat? Somewhere there is a scientist who will back me up on this ;)

So I will try a new name ... Happily Stitched

Because every other name I wanted was taken! Sheesh :)