Slim Fit Raglan

I made a new shirt!

 I'm very excited about this Slim Fit Raglan pattern by Patterns for Pirates 😊 It went together so easily, even for this sewing-with-knits beginner and I love how it feels.

I chose to do this one all in one fabric, but I have enough to make another one with the body in this fabric and the sleeves in a print. The pattern includes three sleeve lengths and I'll probably use the 3/4 length for the next one. I bought the fabric from L'Oiseaux Fabrics and it feels like a much higher quality fabric than what you find used for store bought shirts. I used Aurifil 2785 for all of the stitching.

I used my twin needle to hem the sleeves and the bottom hem and this time I remembered to sew with the right side facing up so the twin needle detail actual shows on the outside of the shirt.

I have an old serger, but it makes me a little nervous because sergers cut off the extra seam allowance as you sew, which makes me feel like I can't rip out any mistakes as easily. For that reason, I sewed this on my Janome and it went perfectly. I didn't even have to rip any seams!

This was my first time attaching a neckband, which went okay. It's not perfect, but the ripples are all fairly small and they're at the back so it looks good from the front 😊

There's something very satisfying about wearing a shirt I made myself. I think it's safe to say I've been bitten by the garment sewing bug! In fact, I may or may not have paused the writing of this post twice while distracted by garment pattern and knit fabric shopping...

April Island Batik/Accuquilt Baby Quilt - Blowing in the Wind

Note, the fabric and batting for this project and the Accuquilt Go! fabric cutting system were given to me as part of the Island Batik ambassador program.

The Island Batik challenge for this month is a joint challenge with industry partner Accuquilt. Accuquilt sent the Ready, Set, Go! ultimate fabric cutting system to each of the ambassadors and our challenge for this month was to use it to make a baby quilt. The Go! fabric cutting system comes with 8 dies and a book with tons of inspiration. The hardest part was choosing which blocks I wanted to use, lol.

Once I chose my blocks, I picked through the remains of my Blossom fabrics. This is now my third quilt with the Blossom line (Sparkler and one I still can't share were the first two) and though I have some left, it's not much. That makes me sad because I love, love, love the colours and prints in this line! The Island Batik solid grey is the perfect choice for the background.

With the kids I babysit, I sometimes have days where it's only me and the 3 year old, Silas. I figured he'd have a blast rolling the fabric through the Go! so I brought it out one afternoon. I was right! He loved it 😊 I sent his mom pictures with the message, "He's having so much fun he doesn't realize it's child labour, lol!" She responded with "FYI, he loves vacuuming, too 😉"

This picture is shared with permission from his mom.

In no time at all we had all the pieces cut for the quilt. I didn't have enough of either of the teal fabrics, so I used them both. They're close enough to work together, but different enough that it adds a little extra interest for anyone who looks carefully.

Here are all those pieces, sewn together 😊 I really like the diagonal movement in this design.

I chose to use two different blocks. Clay's Choice, because I love a good pinwheel block.

And a Double Four Patch because I loved the movement and the way it connected with the cornerstones of the Clay's Choice blocks.

I added 2" finished sashing, with teal cornerstones to continue the design. Can you see the difference between the two teal fabrics in this picture?

I basted with Hobb's 100% cotton batting and then I tried to plan some custom quilting, but between the swirls in the pink fabric and the pinwheels in the Clay's Choice blocks, this quilt was practically begging for some swirl hook quilting. Who am I to argue with the quilt? I used Aurifil 2600 and reminded myself to quilt big. I think I'm getting better at it, so I was very amused when I posted a picture on IG and the first comment was someone asking if they have to be so small and close together! Ha!

I backed the quilt with solid white and I love the texture from the quilting. And yes, there are definitely some small swirls in there, but I had to fill those small spaces somehow. Right?

Silas and I have since used the Accuquilt Go! two other afternoons to cut up scraps for future projects. He loves that it's something only he gets to do, since he's the oldest. I love that we're slowly taming the scraps, lol 😊

This was such a fun quilt to make! Have I mentioned how much I enjoy being an Island Batik ambassador and getting to play with these beautiful fabrics?

Note, the pattern for this quilt is now available! Click to buy your copy today.

Good From the Bad

Devotion for the Week...

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." It's a wonderful verse that always helps me remember that God is in control and that His purpose for my life will prevail. Not only for my life, but for your life and even for the world as a whole. He is in control.

Even so, there are plenty of situations that make me wonder how God could possibly use them to bring about something good. On the other hand, I've definitely heard about wonderful things coming from awful situations, like the story of a soldier Aiden told me recently: the soldier stepped on a landmine and lost both of his legs, which is awful. But in the course of his recovery he met a nurse and she eventually became his wife, which is wonderful.

While I was thinking about the different people in the Easter story these past few weeks, I kept coming back to this verse. There's Pilate, who ignored what he knew was right in order to keep the crowd happy, the chief priests, who were so worried about protecting their own position in society that they were willing to kill a man they knew was innocent, and Judas, who betrayed Jesus for his own gain. Their actions ranged from self-serving to downright evil, but God used those actions to bring about the greatest good in all of history.

I admit it's hard to wrap my mind around how God uses our sinful actions to bring about His plans, but that's exactly how He works. It's not that He's wanting us to sin, but He's not surprised by it, either. He knows that we will sin and He makes use of our sinful actions to further His own purposes for the world.

In the case of the Easter story, men were more than willing to sin to serve their own purposes. Little did they know they were also serving God's purposes at the same time.

Of course, no one could have imagined what God could do with a man they worked so hard to kill. No one saw the resurrection coming. Let that give us hope when we're in the midst of bad situations and we can't see how God could ever use it to bring about anything good. We don't need to know how He's going to do it, we simply trust that He will.