The plan for the summer was to make some skirts and tops but here comes another blanket. Actually, this one was long planned for Luka. I wrote about his fire truck obsession and my plans for making him a quilt or a blanket back in May, and I had this fabric for a while, but no time... I did not buy any of the fabric I mentioned in that post, instead I found Kaufmann fabric you see here, at the M&L Fabric store in Anaheim. I had not liked it at first - I thought it was too green (it is lighter than the picture) and did not think it would fit in Luka's room which is light yellow (greenish in artificial light). So I put it in my basket and looked at it from time to time while digging for other fabrics. At the end I really liked it and so here it is.

Now on to some skirts...

... blankie that is. It is for a little girl due at the end of July. Her mom is one of Luka's teachers at the day-care center and I just found out yestarday afternon that today is her last day! I knew she was leaving soon, but it surprised me anyway.

The top, is flannel with red and pink butterflies (you cannot really see pink ones on the picture, the pink is very faint), and the other side is a really thin, stretchy, very soft and cool terry. I used matching plaid fannel for the border. I qiuilted the two pieces of fabric diagonally, in just a few places, to make sure the fabric stays together. That's it. The terry gave me a little bit of trouble (and more pining then I would use normally) because it is very stretchy, but otherwise this was really simple.

Good luck to the mom and the baby!

Finally, I had time to just sew in peace! This used to be a vintage-looking pillowcase bought at a thrift store. Yes, maybe turning linen into clothing is last-year, but I loved this fabric and thought it would make a nice beach skirt. So here it is. The little flowers are surrounded with tiny, faint green leaves, which is why I put the green ribbon at the bottom and a green tie. All I need is a green, sleeveless top!

Luka's first movie! I wasn;t so sure about taking him to a theater, because he has not shown any interest in anything on TV. He might look for a few seconds if there is a car commercial, and he has watched clips of "Funniest Videos" on Animal Planet, but only if I sit with him and talk about what's going on. There is no way he wold sit in front of TV by himself (I am not complaining!). So I though there ould be no way he would be able to sit through 2 hrs! (he is only 20 months old). I. took him and told me later that he was completely mesmerized at first, and for an hour he was slowly munching on puffs and staring at the screen, occasionally turning over to I. saying "auto"... Later, I. had to take him out for a few minutes because when he saw the truck, he started screaming "kamion"! (truck in croatian) as loud as he could. But they were able to come back and see the ending. I. said a few times he started turning around - he found it more amusing to say hi to people around then to watch the movie, but he did not complain, cry or try to run away. I think that is just amazing. We have tickets to see Mark Knopfler in a couple of weeks, and I am really thinking we should take him. It will be a little late for him, but less then a year ago we took him to Pavarotti concert at the Hollywood Bowl and he was too completely hypnotized. He did not take his eyes of the stage - at first he would start crying when people clapped, but then he just made himself comfortable in my lap, he started sucking his thumb, but he was very, very calm... He amazes me - often...

Pfaff used to publish a magazine, YourStyle but they discontinued it (unfortunately) last year. I believe they have some of the projects from previous issues in their Free Sewing Projects section of the website. These two softies are available for download here.

Finally - the school is OVER. I just finished my last requirement for the Spring quarter - a statistics take home final. It is hard to believe that I am done with lectures and homeworks for the whole looooong Summer. That does not mean that I am done with work - no, but I am finaly going to have time to do the fun stuff instead of homework (no I don't like homework in the traditional sense, I would prefer if all my classes are project based).

And this also means that there will be time for sewing and knitting and all THAT good stuff. There will be more sewing until August and then we are going to be in Europe for 6 weeks and since sewing machines don't travel that well, I will be doing more knitting in August and early september.

So - inspirations... I have a few skirts and dresses planned - I already have the fabrics from my last two trips to the Fashion District, I am now going through magazines for ideas. Here is a skirt I saw in the new Patagonia catalog that came in mail today. Fun and easy, no?