Nieve's Circus Tent

Several weeks ago my niece, Nieve, turned two.  She is getting interested in the idea of building forts on the couch, so I thought maybe she would like a place of her own to play in.  I sat down to stitch using this pattern as my guide, but modified to fit my parents' card table and to have more of a circus-y theme.

Each of the four wall panels are made of Kona Tomato and Kona White with Kona Ocean (or is it Pacific?) as the door and window panel.  The roof is made of Kona Tomato with Kona Canary bunting attached.  There's a small bit of Kona Canary along the base, too.

The door and window are lined with Remix fabric, which coordinated beautifully and gave a circus vibe to the whole thing.  Inside I made two cushion covers out of Remix too, so she has a bit of comfort and a place to sneak a nap.

I spy Dad's quilt on the couch!  Boy that would look nice with coordinating cushion covers, wouldn't it?
Some day....

The wall panels were first held to the roof by little pieces of Velcro 10 inches in from the corner. It turns out this was not enough to let them hang without getting baggy, so my mom whip stitched the top of each wall to the roof.  Thanks, Mom!  Each wall panel also has little flaps that fold over and attach to Velcro tape on the adjacent wall.  You can probably see that better in the pattern than you can here on the circus tent.

The window and door roll up and can be secured with ties, but Nieve liked the idea of hiding in there and generally left them down.  The window was made larger than in the pattern so that it could act as a puppet theater.  Do you remember the puppets I showed you a few weeks ago?  The idea was that Nieve now has her own monkey, lion and tiger as part of her circus.

For now, Gram is having more fun with the monkey and lion than Nieve is.
See her kneeling on that poor tiger?  

I think she is really enjoying it so far.  I can not wait for the weather to get a bit better and it can move outside.  I hope she has a blast in it with her friends (or her Dad...who will absolutely be in it as much as Nieve will be).  

Thanks, Dad (AKA Granddad) for the photos of our favourite birthday girl!