Stuff for Stella

I'm just about done making my first project out of Amy Butler's Little Stitches. I have had high hopes to make lots of Amy Butler projects, but often my urge to sew comes in short little bursts and all of the piecing and cutting that makes her work so lovely seems like it won't give me the instant gratification that I expect from sewing (what can I say? I'm a knitter at heart.) But there are just so many sweet things in Little Stitches and now I have a daughter to make them for, so I set out to make the blocks.

I combined this project with my need to jump on the freezer paper stencil bandwagon (which, as you all know, left the station about 2 and a half years ago). Amy Karol (this was a project brought to you by Amy's) wrote about the process, and many others, in her new book in such a clear and simple way, giving me the motivation that I finally needed. If you haven't checked out her book, do! My favorite part is the fact that she states the aspects of the techniques that you will love and hate at the end of each explanation. It's good to know what will make you raise your fists to the sky in frustration before you get started, I think.

Anyway, these blocks were lovely to put together. Everything came from my current stash of stuff, which makes me very happy. It took a while to choose fabrics and I had to fight the urge to purchase something that was really perfect rather than settle for things that went together from my stash and were sort of perfect. But the truth of the matter is that all of my choices totally ended up being perfect and have worked out in their thrown-together kind of way. Here is the fabric, all cut up (minus one print that didn't make it into the photo shoot for some odd reason). There is a very soft, deep rose colored corduroy in there that came from Megan. She had this little backpack made out of the fabric and one day was done with it and left it on my porch to be turned into something new. Actually, she left it on my porch so long ago that I may be forgetting what she meant for me to do with it...hopefully cutting it up and sewing it into something else was the intention. Hm. Anyhoo, it has been softened so beautifully with all of the wear and tear it got and the addition of a few bits of corduroy gives the blocks some beautiful variation in texture, which I know Stella's little hands will love.

Of course, there needed to be some star-themed fabric in there (I've actually accumulated a bunch of star-themed things over the years, so perhaps it was already written that Stella would be here one day...) and this is the fabric that I chose to stencil Stella's name onto. I followed Amy's directions exactly, and got very clean and crisp results. I recommend using the technique if for no other reason then to get to experience the thrill of peeling off the stencils. Yee haw! I think the trick was ironing paper onto the back of the fabric, because I could swear that it seemed like some little edges of the letters didn't get perfectly ironed down. I was convinced that there were would be some blobs and I'd just have to live with it, but no! It all worked out. I am now going to be freezer paper stenciling everything in my path because it's so dang easy.

I am almost done sewing the squares, the longest part of the process which has come in fits and starts because I need to be Stella-free in order to get it done. I didn't have 4 inch foam, so I used a double layer of 2 inch foam cut into 4 inch squares. It's a little lumpier in some places than I'm sure it would be if I'd had the correct foam width, but it really isn't that noticeable. I asked Stella what she thought and she said "boooeeeaaaaapthththththt" which translates roughly to: Lumps? What lumps? So I think we're in the clear.

I plan on making the bag, but lord knows when. It will involve a freezer paper stencil, I can tell you that much! Thanks Amy and Amy!