Sunday, February 16, 2014

doll quilts and bookmarks


These lovey bookmarks and mini quilts were last minute brainstorms for my girls' handmade Valentine treat. It's a good thing too because my raspberry Jell-o cookies were kind of a fail. I thought chocolate chips would be good to add. Raspberry and chocolate. Great combo, right?


Mmmm not so much. My bad. And the recipe I followed for the jell-o cookie part seems to have too much salt and too little sugar? Or maybe I just messed up along the way somewhere. That seems more likely. I tried to rectify the situation by making a powdered sugar glaze to drizzle over them. They are OK. Edible. A pretty color. Just. Not yummy.


So, the bookmarks. I took my own advice and used my Love You bookmarks tutorial to make these, this time with gray paper. Easy, quick and makes a nice, sturdy (and pretty) bookmark. I wrote a sweet Valentiney message on the backs, since these also functioned as the gift tags.


My girls are still very attached to their stuffed animals and dolls. I noticed they were using all my wash cloths and hand towels as doll blankets, so I clued in that they might enjoy a couple of doll quilts. Shoulda done this years ago.

I started the quilts Thursday night because yes I'm a crazy person. They were technically finished on Valentines Day, but kinda late in the day (that seems to be turning into a bad Valentine tradition).


Goodness knows I have enough charm squares to spare, so I spent some time digging in the box and came up with these two combos and also two more that I'm going to sew together as gifts. I guess you'll be seeing those in due time. These are sewn almost exactly like the binky is sewn in my Baby Binky Bunny pattern, except this time I added some 1/8" batting inside. Don't look too closely. I can't seem to piece even the simplest things accurately. How do people do a queen sized quilt with tiny pieces and it still comes out matched up? I bow to you.


I still managed to avoid 1) Quilting 2) Binding. Win Win. Instead of binding I sewed/turned. And instead of quilting I used old-fashioned ties to hold the layers together.  The backs are two different colors of Kaufman Essex.


And now my hand towels and wash cloths can serve their true purpose. Stinky and Mushmellow will never miss them.


13 comments:

  1. Cute quilts! They remind me of the ones my aunt used to make.

    Chocolate and raspberry DO go together well. I have some Ghirardelli squares, in fact. Too bad your cookies didn't measure up.

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    1. Yes, Grandma G, that combo is one of my favorites normally but for some reason the jello flavor does not work with chocolate for this. Curious.

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  2. Like the book mark idea and my girl could use a few doll quilts too as she seems to have all the wash cloths in her possession.

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    1. Craftysquirrel, haha, glad to see I'm not the only one with wash cloth thieves.

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  3. Hi Larissa

    I have almost your patterns included the bunny and it´s doll quilt but know you gave me an idea. i have several pieces off furnishing fabrics (thicker than the cotton ones) 4"x4". So, if a sew all pieces together as a patchwork,until make a normal bed quilt form, don´t put batting inside,but on the back i will add an wool fabric for example (want it for winter),the way you made this showed... what do you think? Thanks for sharing. Cheers. Rosa

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    1. Hey, Rosa, yes, I don't think you'll need any batting with those fabrics. I almost didn't use any batting with these two but thought I'd try it. I didn't want the quilts to be too stiff to tuck around their dolls. It works ok but it would be floppier without the batting. Your idea should work fine!

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  4. The bookmarks are so cute. I actually bought valentine themed dshtowels one year for my girls to use as doll blankets

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  5. Gorgeous colors! You're making me want to buy more fabric. :/

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    1. My pleasure, Robyn. :-) Hey order it to my house and I'll bring it with me!

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  6. These are the cutest little dolls quilts! So special.

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    1. Hey, Ashton, thanks so much. They've seen heavy usage so far.

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  7. The tied quilts are super cute, too. I love how you pose those animals. Elsa said, "Awww!"

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