My Summer Sewing

All about the SEA...
One of my utmost favorite themes, is the Sea, I just Love, love all Sea related things.
I made the kids matching Tooth Fairy Boat's, this is a free pattern offered by the Fat Quarter Shop (it is even available as a YouTube video if you are a visual learner), but instead of pillows I made mine bed post hangy things (is there a name for that?) Because I personally know the Tooth Fairy and she has a difficult time getting to the pillows, or under pillows and she thought it was a great idea to hang the "tooth" off of the bed post.  I personally think she is brilliant :)

Flat Tooth Fairy Pillows for the bed post.

 I put the tooth in the small sail and the Tooth fairy puts the money in the big sail.  Katerina recently lost her tooth at the beach, when we were on our trip in Sarti, and really I mean it came out at the beach.  Sadly the fairy couldn't find us at the Hotel (in reality Katerina was on the pillow and I couldn't get the darn tooth out from underneath it)

A picture at the hotel we were staying at.

She has a way of loosing her teeth in the most interesting places and always on trips, she has lost a tooth at the Praktiker (like Home Depot) in Larissa and a tooth at IKEA (I don't need to explain that shop, right?) in Ioannina.

Just yesterday, I finished up some matching Nautical Treasure Bags, from the book "A Spoonful of Sugar", by Lisa Cox , this fabric is Daysail by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. 

I always like the kids to clean up their room before bed, so these will also conveniently hang from thier bed post in case they need a place to stash some toys before bed.

I thought it would be fun to add charms to the tags and my good friend Betti had just sent me the most perfect Sea themed ribbon to use as the ties, which was a life saver since I couldn't find the cording suggested in the book.

I kind of fucked one up, you see how you trace around the boats with black thread, well I accidentally had the backing fabric along with the front while I was doing this "sewing illustration" and it really perforated the fabric after I used a seam ripper to remove the black stitching, so I had to make another boat and decided to play with it and make it facing the opposite way.
Also from the book is this SEA Doorstop, it's the first project in the book and the first project I did at the beginning of the Summer.

 Can you see how the S and A stand up a little better than the seahorse, it's because I used a piece of cardboard behind them and since this doorstop has a zippered bottom I can take them out if needed or if they get wet, but it helps keep the doorstop a little more formed in my opinion. Next time I make one of these I will use a thicker interfacing than suggested, or double it.

I have been hoarding this fabric for a while, LOVE IT!  It is Seascapes by Deb Strain for Moda, this is from the panel, isn't it fantastic!  And perfect for my Sea themed/rainbow themed hobby room, I have a verandah door down there that doesn't stay open with out some kind of prop, so I use this now.
Using fabric from the same line, I made these cute Starfish Pincushions.

Aren't these the cutest things EVER, this is a FREE Pattern that I have had printed out for a while just waiting for the right time to make it.

If you can see from the back, I do the pattern a little differently

 I do make the Stars a little differently, I'm lazy,

I do 2 full legs and 1 half leg, for each side for the top, when I get those sewn together I trace them out on the backing fabric, and then sew both halves together, for the back I leave a 2.5" gap, so I can later turn the Starfish inside out, instead of what the directions call for leaving a gap along the leg, it makes it harder to keep the shape and if you are using the pompom trim harder to make it look pretty.
I first started with these 3, to see which color way my #underthesea swap partner liked and she liked the blue one, well so did I :)  So I made 2 more, for a total of 3 that you see in the pictures above, the one I sent here says "Ocean" since she lives along an Ocean, I kept the Sea one since I live along the Sea :)

I gave my swap partner these options

I sent the Mendocino one along to a girlfriend of mine who admired it along with a beach themed banner that she liked from one of my swaps last year.

The back

Since my partner liked the blue colors of the Seascape fabric I could continue the larger project I was making her. You see she is an underwater photographer and her feed has some really beautiful pictures, but I was taken with the one that she did of a Jellyfish, just gorgeous and was so excited that I got to be her partner.

I debated with myself in keeping the embroidery all white and now I wish I had, but oh well.

 Using different colors of white to off-white, cream, and grey I embroidered a Jellyfish onto some Batik fabric that I have had in my stash since I began to sew, I love Batik fabrics for water, what do you think?

Interior Patchwork Panel

Using 2 blocks for the Seascapes Panel and a few strips from the same fabric line along with 2 batiks and 1 fabric from Alison Glass I constructed the interior of the Sewing Portfolio.

Sewing Portfolio

 The Sewing Portfolio is also a pattern available from the book "A Spoonful of Sugar" , the instructions show you how to make the hourglass block that you see that I did for the back of the portfolio.

I guess I had a thing for Starfish while I was making her gift :) also sent along a Handmade fridge magnet.

I really hope she likes it, crazy enough it had a shipping incident luckily enough it made it back to me with out incident and I was able to re-mail it, this time sending it with tracking which doubled the cost of shipping, but I really can't complain cause my shipping from Greece is still so much cheaper than what my American and Australian friends have to pay each time they mail Internationally.
Sorry for such a long post, it's just I haven't written anything in ages, enjoy the rest of your summer, the kids here don't start school till September 15th, can't wait.