I finally fixed the mushroom quilt top. I had a nice bit time to myself last weekend and decided I would pick out those incorrect squares and put in the right colour. Just to be sure I was pulling out the right squares I got out my sketch and gave it a really close look and compared it to my quilt top. It turned out there were a lot more squares that were not right. In fact pretty much everything in the top half of the quilt was wrong.

… I had rotated the quadrants when I sewed them together.

I unpicked and resewed two big seams (instead of a whole bunch of little ones) and everything looked better. Maisie even slept long enough for me to do a little sewing and cutting towards the borders. Pretty soon I'm going to have to decided what I'm going to use for backing and be hunting around for a big enough scrap of batting (actually I have to do that anyway for another project I've been hinting at on Flickr).

p.s. I'm making granola for the first time in ages. My house smells wonderful.

A quick sneak peek at something I'm working on.

Just before Easter a friend sent me a link to this super cute little jacket. I knew I didn't have time or energy to make anything like that for Maisie but it got bunny themed clothing on my mind and very shortly after that I realized that this was Maisie's first Easter and she really needed an Easter bonnet … every little girl does. I hunted around for quick knitting patterns and considered a few different sewing patterns I had in my library but didn't find anything like what I had in mind. Then I remembered Alicia's Storybook Woods bonnet pattern and knew I'd found the perfect base - all I had to do was add ears.

I cannot speak highly enough of this pattern. It's extremely cute, very well written, comes together beautifully and was simple and quick enough for me to make in the odd bits of time I got with a three-week old baby and a long weekend. I mocked it up in some scrap cotton before embarking in wool and liberty lawn. The mock-up let me confirm the size I needed (Maisie is wearing the extra small) and decide about the correct size and placement of the ears. The end result was so sweet I made a second one for her older cousin Hannah who, at a little less than a year old, was also celebrating her very first Easter (The medium size fits Hannah). Don't be surprised if you see a Christmas version of this sometime. This pattern is too good to make only once (or even twice).

p.s. To make Maisie an Easter outfit I added a matching skirt: I cut a rectangle roughly 12" wide and 30" long. Sewed the short edges together. Hemmed up an inch on both ends and left a gap in the hem on one end. I threaded 17" of elastic through the opening and sewed the ends together with ½" of overlap to fit her 16" middle. With luck this little skirt will fit for a while provided I open up the casing and put in a longer elastic when needed.

This is her sweater and these are her socks.