International Craft Night: 2010

For JJ

This is my absolute favorite gift bought/made this Christmas. It's an starter embroidery kit for J. She's been constantly asking to learn how to "stitch" and I saw the idea here.

I just bought one of those paper suitcases, super cute, super flimsy (hope it holds up)

And filled it with burlap, a hoop, some floss, small scissors, tapestry needles and a pin cushion.

I can't wait to have her open it on Christmas. I hope she wants to start right away! How nerdy am I?

I have Hannah's name this year and I took the easy way out and finished her quilt that she started for a YW project (with Sarah I think). Sarah said Hannah was trying to make it ugly by picking out fabrics that didn't match, but I think it turned out cute.

I used pink cotton for the border and a gray print for the binding. I backed it in the fake minkee (from JoAnns) so it'll be super soft. Not really practical for Thailand, but maybe it'll be nice to take to college in a couple years.

The thing was a pain though. I had to go through and mend all the holes from the piecing. I didn't even contemplate ripping the seams around the one strip that was wrong side up, so that will hopefully be a fun memory for her (if she notices) and I could not, for the life of me, get it to square up, so it's totally a lopsided quilt. But I still think it's cute. Sarah, you must have had the patience of Job to help her piece it.

This signifies the end of all the (homemade) Christmas gifts for extended family. I have one more gift to finish for Mark and one for Z. And if I have time I really want to make new stockings, but I probably won't. I wish I was totally and completely done because I'm running out of steam fast. :)

A few more things

Doll quilts and pillows are my standard go to gift for the girls friends. I use the tutorial here, although I generally do my own measurements for the quilt.

The doll is from the Wee Wonderfuls book. I don't know if it was worth it, I was finishing it as JJ was supposed to be at the party. :(

I made these traveling art cases for church from this tutorial, and they are fun. Pretty easy too, they'd make a good bday gift for a party.

This is the pillow I was working on in Utah. It's tiny yo-yos. I think it turned out super cute. I gave it to the girl who watched our house/watered our garden while we were gone all summer. I think she liked it.

Catch Up

So here's my attempt at crafty catch up. I can't share everything I've been working on until after Christmas, don't want to spoil any surprises.

J's has "naptime" everyday at kindergarten. They actually lay down on mats and "sleep" for 1 hour. Can you believe it? Evidently most of the kids actually sleep. J just says its really boring. So anyway, each kid has to have a mat and a blanket. They sell these polyester roll up mats, but I had this darling Ikea fabric already and so I just thought I'd make her one.

I put 4 layers of batting in it so it would be soft and that was the dumbest idea ever, 4 layers of batting + 2 layers ikea thick fabric=monster quilting. I just did simple vertical quilt lines every five inches but I broke at least 3 quilting needles and 5 sharp/microtex needles. It was a monster to quilt.

I used some extra fabric to make a removable cover for my camping pillow. Maybe now it'll get a little use.

Then added twill tape to one of the borders so it could be tied up for storage. It turned out really cute but J says it's too big and they have to fold it in half during naptime. Oh well. It'll be a great picnic quilt at the end of the school year.

I've also been working on a big stack of diaper clutches. I hope to be able to open my shop this week. Plus I want to have enough on hand for any baby showers in the next few months, I probably won't be sewing much after Christmas between the baby and *hopefully* moving.

Finally, a few mermaids from Wee Wonderful's new book. I'm not very patient with small soft toys and so the work is pretty sloppy but the girls really seem to love them.

baby quilt and table

I've done very little sewing lately. I've made a few baby quilts but most of my free time I have spent doing some furniture and painting and repainting my bathroom (pictures of this to come).
This is a quilt I made for my friend's baby.

It's just a moda cupcake pack ($8) with a border and backed in minke. About as simple as it can get. I'm basically doing the same thing for Abby right now. Surprise. (Not really, she picked out the fabric).

I found this table at a garage sale for $5. It was painted picnic red. I had wanted a high table for my front room.

Because it was so bulky I wanted to antique it but didn't want to strip it down to the original wood mostly because I am lazy. So I bought some gray paint, decided I didn't like it, mixed in my some blue paint. Then I lightly wiped stain over. It goes on wet so it's easy to wipe it off or add more until you've found how you like it.

Projects to come: I bought an antique end table at a "name your price garage sale" for $2. I'm completely in love with it and I promise to post pictures soon.

Recent projects

I'm just starting a few new projects, but these are ones I finished recently.

This is a necklace I made for Emily's birthday. It has a key and a small bottle on a chain. I chose to put a little note in the bottle, but you could stick small flowers or other cute things in as well.

There are no windows in my bat-cave of a bedroom, so I put this terrarium together. It is made of dried mosses and paper flowers & butterflies. I like it so much I'm making another.

This is an earring holder made from a picture frame and screen.

On my list

So I'm finally ready to join the living (in the craft world that is) now that I'm feeling better.

I've been sewing like mad, I'm trying to get my shop up again, for a couple of months and get all my Christmas sewing done. Last night I was basting a quilt for JJ, crawling around the floor and realized that I wasn't going to be able to do that for much longer. I'm already huge and uncomfortable, so I'm moving any quilts up to the top of my list.

Anyway, so I'm getting a long list of crafts I want to make for my baby girl. They're going to have to wait until after Christmas sewing is done, so I'm just making a list.

Little denim skirt by Homemade by Jill

Baby pants by Made by Rae (trying to decide if it's worth the $10 pattern)

Lots of stenciled onesies. I'm trying to decide how many washes acrylic paint would hold up for or if I should just invest in fabric paint.

Baby Shoes by Stardust Shoes--I used to make these for baby gifts but my girls were already too big when I found the pattern.

Beaded Pacifier Clip, can't be too hard to make this right?

Lots of babylegs also by Homemade by Jill. Another awesome invention that came out after Z was too old to use them.

I've also started this stacked coins quilt by crazy mom quilts. I was making it for my niece (on the other side) and never finished it. So I might as well finish it for my baby. Although I have so many blankets already it seems like a waste, but it's super cute and already cut out, and why shouldn't #3 get something new?

I also want to make a carseat cover and nursing cover. They are incredibly expensive on etsy and I've made carseat covers for my friends and they are super easy. I'm not so sure about the nursing cover, there's a pattern available, but how hard can it be? It's just the boning that I'm worried about. And of course I need to make a new diaper clutch for the baby, just have to decide on the fabric.

But first I need to sell some diaper clutches so I can afford fabric for all this. :)

Car Mat for Abraham

Saw this and loved it!

So did he.

bag tutorials

Looking for a new purse tutorial--here's twelve.
As for me, 4I'm not allowed near my sewing machine until our yard is done. boo. But we're getting closer. We just need to plant a couple trees, buy another one and plant a few more flowers. And then there's the vegetable garden to start.

best of the bazaar

Some of my favorite things I saw, or just the things I took pictures of:

There were lots of dish towels, most of them were pretty impractical but completely adorable.

Cake platters, just a crystal goblet with a cute plate glued on top. You could probably find both at your local thrift store.

If I had this kind of light switch, these might have tempted me.

If they had had some of my favorite books, I would have been more tempted.

These were there last year and I love them then too.

I loved this. The ironing board is just cardboard with fabric over it. I'm not sure what the iron is made of, but it's pretty light. I don't think my daughter would have any idea what it was since I never iron in real life.

I loved this dress, it would be really easy to make so I couldn't let myself buy it.

This is a vintage suitcase (I bought one from DI for less than $4) with fabric scraps and modge podge.

I loved this pillow.

If I could knit I would want to make this.

or these.

burp cloth

wreath from paper

Do you put it inside? Or do you just hope it doesn't get wet?

What I got:
a baby blanket and onsie for a baby gift I needed. The blanket was just cute print on one side and flannel on the other, just sewn together, edges turned in.

And this