Friday 27 June 2014

Carnet de Santé

In France the carnet de santé is a very important document.  It holds all of your medical records from birth to adulthood.  You are given your child's booklet in the hospital just after delivery and are expected to bring it to every doctor's appointment throughout their childhood.  It contains birth stats, height/weight charts, vaccine records, any tests/exams/surgeries preformed on your child and a brief summary of each consultation.  Something you DO NOT want to loose! 

Anyway, it's a boring, plain, plastic government book.  At the hospital, mine came with a green cloth slipcover advertising a brand of formula.  So I used the original cover as a sort of template and made a new one much more my style! It ended up being a little more fiddly than I anticipated with all the different parts to assemble, but I am so pleased with the results - and I learned how to add snaps in the process!  I interfaced the inside flaps to add some bulk and added the inside pockets to hold notes & prescriptions. The front and back are two log cabin blocks sewn together up the spine.  I quilted on either side of the seams and then embroidered Louis' name on the front.  

Not sure how many years I have until he is embarrassed by the cover, but I will enjoy it until then...




Wednesday 25 June 2014

Union Jack Pillow - number two

This is the other half of a pair of Union Jack pillows I made for my best friend in 2012.  Intimidated by the invisible zipper, I never finished the pillows.  My mom sewed the zipper in the first pillow when I was home for Christmas 2012, but then we never found the time to finish the second one.  So I gifted just the one pillow last Christmas, and my mom finished off the second pillow sometime last year after I left.  So finally, one year later, my friend now has a complete pair.

As with the first pillow, I used Busy Bee Quilt Designs Victory Garden pattern.  Both pillows share a small red border and solid red backing.  I totally love the Japanese cotton/linen London print. 

Lesson learned : speedy finishes = envelope closures and not zippers!