Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Out to Sea


Last August when Sarah Jane released her latest line, Out to Sea, I immediately snapped up a bundle of fabric to make a little quilt for my girls' classroom reading spot. It's taken me longer than I had planned, but I finally got around to it this weekend -- just in time, too, since this was my January project for the Lovely Year of Finishes sew along.


Now that my girls are all in regular beds, we had no need for the toddler beds that my two older daughters used to sleep in at night. I gave one to my sister for her girls to grow into and kept the other to use as a special reading nook in our classroom. The funny thing about toddler beds is that, in order for the quilt to fit the top of the bed without wrinkling up badly along the guardrails, it needs to be fairly narrow. Fortunately, I joined the x and + along this month, and when I saw the directions posted for a 24" block, everything fell into place. Two of these blocks together with a small border made a perfect fit for the top of our toddler bed. I bound the quilt in Skinny Vines in charcoal from Valentina -- another gorgeous collection which I hope to be sewing with soon.


I love the map print that Sarah Jane created for this collection -- perfect for so many different projects. I used a small piece of it for the pillow you see above in the top photo, and a lot more of it for the backing of the quilt along with pieces of several others.


I toyed with several different quilting ideas, but in the end I decided to keep it minimal for this design since there's so much going on with the prints. My girls are just crazy about these fun little mermaids.


The accent pillow I made to go with the quilt is as simple as can be. After using a full picture of the map for the front, I pieced together a few large scraps for the back, stuffed it and sewed it closed. It took me fifteen minutes at the most -- I love an easy finish!


Here they are in use. I had no idea when I picked these fabrics that they would perfectly match the wooden kitchen that we gave the girls for Christmas two years ago. I love having the world map above with their artwork hung in front of it on pieces of heavy twine. It's so much easier than trying to cram everything onto the refrigerator.


There were enough pieces left to also make a pillow cover for the daughter of one of my husband's coworkers.  I added a pocket to the front which will be fun for storing a book or doll, and it made a great place to put the birthday card. I love the Sea Flowers print on the sides of the pocket. There's a part of me that really wants to cover the chair in Mouse's room in that fabric...


If you haven't bought any of this collection yet, I highly recommend it. I thoroughly enjoyed playing with these fabrics over the weekend, and I'm looking forward to using my leftovers in some more scrappy projects in the weeks to come.

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday, Made By Me, and A Lovely Year of Finishes.

17 comments:

  1. That is sooo cute! I am so glad that you got your January finish complete and I just love your pocket pillow! My girls would love that! They seem to sleep with or want to sleep with everything in their bed. Especially books!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very cute! I want to come read there. :) And maybe play in the kitchen. Why does the play kitchen look SO much more appealing than my real kitchen were I can make actual food? Maybe because there are no dirty dishes...

    ReplyDelete
  3. So sweet! I grabbed a couple of half yards of this collection during a sale once, wish I had more! Love that pocket pillow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Too cute for words! Those maps are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I spent all my Christmas money on this collection. Having no kids, I was on the fence, but came around to the conclusion that I don't really care, it's too cute! I want to make a swoon quilt with them. You know, after I finish up several of the other WIP I have going on....

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is so sweet, what lovely fabric, and you're right it goes really well with the pink kitchen

    ReplyDelete
  7. I need to make one of those pillows for my future social studies classroom :0) The wall-hanging is so cute - I love the "low volume" feel of this collection.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's all so cute! Love the pocket pillow!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This whole set is so great! I bought a bit of the boy colorway and can't wait to use it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It all turned out so cute! The prints are really fun and I just adore the map piece! I love how you featured the cute little mermaid and octopus on the bottom pillow.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The fabric is lovely and these are beautiful makes. The pocket in the cushion is genius.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What beautiful finishes! I love this line, and like you I purchased it immediately. I have gone for the blues and more masculine fabrics instead, so it's lovely to see it in pinks. You have very lucky little girls!

    ReplyDelete
  13. It is one of my favorite lines! Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Those are so sweet! I am sure your girls love their little reading area!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Your projects are wonderful! I love the map fabric. I got a panel of the world map and used that as the back to a quilt I made for a boy to sit on while watching TV nad playing video games while eating...and he loved it and his mother says, he has learned alot of countries and locations just by the intrigue of the map! Kids do look!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Well, you know this line is one of my favorites too! I really like all the projects you made with it - such great use of all the different prints. And I like the lounger/reading nook area too.

    ReplyDelete

Aren't you the sweetest for leaving a comment! Due to all the ads that bombard this section, I have to moderate everything first, but look for your comment to post in a day or two. Thanks so much for writing!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...