Happy Birthday to Olivia!

I'm going to miss Olivia's birthday party on Saturday, but I wanted to make sure she had something from me to open.  I recently purchased Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts and loved the colored pencil roll pattern.  I made it in denim instead of linen and I made an elastic loop and button closure, which I think will be easier for a child to operate than the twill tape ties recommended in the book.  I love, love, LOVE having the fabrics and pencils all organized and matching.  (I may have to make one for my Prismacolors.)

I also made a coloring/notebook using the method described in Denyse Schmidt Quilts -- a method I was extremely skeptical about because it left raw edges.  Her instructions suggested painting fabric glue onto the edges, but that seemed kind of messy to me.  Instead I ironed fusible webbing the fabric before it was sewn on.  The webbing sealed the edges as well as fabric glue would have, but without the mess.

The people at Kinko's were much more receptive than I expected to the idea of binding pieces of chipboard to which I'd sewn a bunch of fabric.   They even gave me free chipboard samples to take home and practice!

The inside has blank construction paper and a coloring book I originally made for my niece, Lily, when she turned four.  It's an alphabet with a child doing a different job for each letter.  I used pictures from old issues of Martha Stewart Kids, so it's actually kind of cute.

Here is the bag I made to hold it all.

And here's a shot of the book and pencil roll in the bag.  I ordered that "Olivia" fabric almost a year ago and am happy to have finally gotten around to using it!  Hopefully she'll like her present!

Comments

[Shelley]

I came here through the Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts pool on Flickr and I am just blown away by how thoughtful every piece of it is. I know Olivia will treasure it!

[Liz Harvatine]

What a wonderful gift! Did you make your own line drawings from the MS photos or were they in the magazine like that?
Nice work...I would love it if someone gave this to me!

[PaperDollyGirl]

I also came here via Flickr. Great work! What a sweet, wonderful gift. I love those line drawings.

[Elizabeth]

Thanks, everybody! I totally cheated on the line drawings. They are sort of combination traced and drawn, with backgrounds and costumes altered to fit the situations.

[Lara]

Oh wow Elizabeth, you continue to surpass yourself! I think that I have become an "Oh, Fransson!" groupie! It all amazing. Congratulations also on being part of the Sew Mama Sew month! I can't wait to see all the projects they come up with.

[Stephanie]

Wow! Olivia is a lucky girl. Everything in this package is awesome. The pencil roll and bag are amazing!

[Adria]

Wow. Just, wow! What a lucky girl. That is just way too cool.