I Am Thinking "Ruffles"

Today is my day to not only Think Ruffles, but to show off some ruffles.  I became very excited when Madame Samm first proposed this blog hop. I love any blog hop that is a bit out of the usual. Ruffles...so pretty and feminine.  And our head cheerleader, Amy, at Sew Incredibly Crazy...yeah, crazy like a fox! She is doing an amazing job keeping this hop on track. Thanks to both of them. Now, on to my contribution.

 The first thing I thought of was a ruffled pillow. I had a lot of 2.5 inch strips left from a Deb Strain Jelly roll from a few years back. Perfect.

 And even though it's kind of Valentine's looking, surprise, my hubby liked it. I think he could see the potential in all these ruffles.

 Rows and rows, until I ran out. So I called it done. I think you could do this with about any color. The texture is amazing, so if you have a jelly roll lying around, ruffle it.

 Then, I wanted to make another one, but different. I have been on a quest to use my stash this year and I had some Summersville 2.5 inch strips left from another jelly roll. All blues and greens, so I made my ruffles.

 Then, I attached them in a concentric circle. When I ran out, I found a small bit of the orange from the same line and I thought it was the perfect center.

 I love the texture of this one. The orange wasn't quite big enough, so I seamed it, matching the pattern as best I could.

I really love this one. Again, it is the textures that grab me.  And for the back, which barely closes, I used up the last bit of the ruffles.

My last project has been simmering in my head since the beginning. I wanted to do an apron with ruffles.  But then, at work one day I saw this young woman in a skirt with some really cool box pleats. The skirt was a light brown, but there was and orange color in the pleats that showed when she walked. So how to marry that idea with ruffles?

My pictures of this project are a bit piecemeal. I had no model available, so I made do and the pictures are more of the details. I used a grey dot, Confetti Dots by Dear Stella for the main body of the apron.

 I had some lime green Sketch leftover from some past project and another dot fabric by Dear Stella that looked like plant beds. Those became my pockets and waistband/apron ties with ruffles added to both.

 In my box pleats is the cutest little sheep print fabric ever. This has been sitting in my stash for about a year, waiting for the perfect project.

 Here is another shot of the waist from the front, with the ruffle and the box pleats.

 And even though it is not a smooth transition, I felt it needed ruffles at the bottom hem line. I only put them on the grey dot, since I didn't want the ruffles to hold the pleats completely open.

The pleats allow the sheep to peek out occasionally.

 Here is the bow in the back of the apron. I draped a fleece blanket around a body pillow and tied the apron around it for these picture.

One last shot of the sweet pockets. This is the perfect spring apron. I love making aprons, as it is a departure from quilts that is nice to have once in a while. They are pretty quick and lend themselves to lots of different design elements. Hope you enjoyed my show and tell today. Please hop on and see the other wonderfully talented ladies with whom I share my day.

March 10th

 

The Tilted Quilt

A Geeky Crafty Life

Constantly Quilting

Life in the Scrapatch

Pig Tales and Quilts

How arT you?

                                                                    GrammieQs

Wicked Serendipity

Welcome to the first day of the Wicked Blog hop 2013 edition. This is such a fun and creepy time of year and there is no end to the crafts and sewing you can do, in addition to making costumes for your kids.  The reason for the title of my post today is this; last fall I won a bundle of cute Halloween themed fabric from a hop on Sew We Quilt. Now, I had no idea what to do with this. I do not really go in for Halloween quilts, though there are many cute ones. I don't decorate for Halloween any more since the kids all grew up and left.  But my daughter had a great idea when she saw the bundle...she wanted an apron to wear while handing out treats. She liked the idea of being holiday festive without an actual costume. Further, she reasoned, I should make aprons for her two sisters as well.  And so when this hop came around, I put two and two together and this is the result:

 For each apron, I used 6 fat quarters. I designed the apron pattern myself. The only thing different is the colors of the fabrics. It was fun to make three similar, yet different.

                                            And they had to have pockets.

                                          And of course, a ruffle on the bottom.

 Joann helped us to find buttons for each of the apron pockets. Headstones for the purple...

                                     ...metal skulls for the black...

                                           ...and some adorable pumpkins for the orange...

                               ...as well as one cute spider web that was perfect for the bib.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my Wicked aprons today. Now, go forth and visit all of my lovely wicked sisters and see what they have conjured up for you.  And I don't want to forget to thank Wicked Wendy for being such a wonderfully wicked cheerleader and of course, Madame Samm who continues to find wonderful themes for these super fun hops.

Tuesday, October 22^nd

Grammie Q's

Stitchin By The Lake

Quilted Delights

Buzzing and Bumbling

Vroomans Quilts

Life in the Scrapatch

The Quilted Cat

Meadowbrook

Patchouli Moon Studio

The Nosy Pepper

                                                                        Sew Incredibly Crazy