Quilted Fabric Growth Chart

I was recently invited to a baby shower for two friends :) Sister in laws. They are both expecting baby girls this early spring. I could have easily gone out and bought them something cute, but I sew. For some reason I got in my head I wanted to make them growth charts. Someone made one for me years ago and and I just love it.
I perused etsy and blogs for some ideas and this is what I came up with from all the cute ideas I saw out there. The crazy me made four of them. Two for gifts for the baby shower and two extras. . . . just because!! There is always a baby shower to go to and or a sister having a babay :)

For the hanging growth chart I basically put a bunch four wonky log cabin blocks together, added a white strip along the edge for the inch markings. They were written on with a fabric marker. I added them AFTER I washed and dried the quilt so the fabrics would shrink before adding the measurement ticks and thus stay accurate. Then I added a loop along the top for the dowel to sit in and for hanging. On the back I added a pocket to hold a fabric marker so that it is always there when you need it!

Feeling lucky :)

I hardly remember, but apparantly I made a comment on a giveaway over at sew mama
sew. Turns out I WON!! I was so surprised to get the email in my inbox. I couldn't even remember making the comment. I must have figured I WOULD NEVER WIN :). But I did - I won one of five prizes. Mine was a $20 gift card to their online store. Man did I have fun shopping over there. I havn't bought really cool quilting cotton in a LONG time. The Katie Jump Rope line by Denyse Schmidt caught my eye and bought nine 3/8 yard cuts (on sale) and only paid for shipping. I am looking forward to making a quilt top with it. I have this whirlygig pattern in mind, we'll see what happens :).

This is something I've been working on. It only needs snaps (I've never done snaps before) and some finishing around the neck and sleeves. I may try some of my new FOE (fold over elastic) that I just got from Sewzannes :) That stuff is so cool. Not as easy to put on as I'd have liked but it is still cool. I may just add some ribbing - I'm good at that. I'm still wondering whether or not to put in the feet or leave the legs opened. hmmm. It is summer, but it cools down in the evenings and babies never leave their blankets on. . . I'll probably leave it open.

Oh I love this

This post is kindof like a "bookmark" for myself. To remind myself that I LOVE THIS and really want to make it.
I found a whole bunch of cool puppets from the dollar store a couple years ago and I need to pull them out of the box and use them more - this would be cute!! The boys love the puppet shows and it is a fun/creative NON COMPUTER activity for them :) yeah!! My friend says this is "A DOOR A BLE" and it's late enough that it's funny!

This reminds me that I really want to make a card table tent? Have you seen those? It is a fabric tent that you slip over the top of a card table and it makes and instant fort or tent or princess castle or whatever you want it to be. I want to make a princess castle with windows and doors and some fun applique on the sides of flowers or something.

fabric birthday banner #2

Fabric Birthday Banner #2 and I think I'm done with birthday banners for a while. Although I think they would be fun birthday presents for some of my friends? Or sisters? OOH - maybe I'll make one for the annual sister's gift exchange this year???? SHHHH :)
Anyway, I like how this one turned out. I LOVE the fabrics together. It is very festive. I made sure this time to put a darker plain fabric on the back side so that if hung up against a window the pattern on the back wouldn't come through and distract from the pattern on the front. I made the individual flags 7" accross and 10" deep. I pinked around the edges, made button holes in each corner and used ribbon through the button holes to secure the flags next to each other. More on the process here.

Recycled dusting mitt

ARE THESE COOL or WHAT?!?
I love them and am going to make some :). I think my kids will really want to dust with these - especially if it's made from one of their old shirts or something :)
They look super quick and easy to make - There is a great tutorial here:
http://wewilsons.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring-cleaning-dust-mitt-tutorial.html

Fabric Birthday Banner

I have finished one and a half birthday banners!!!! This is something I have wanted to make for years and recently my sister inspired me to JUST DO IT!! This first one I made is very girly and for my daughter . . . and I suppose I could hang it up on my birthday too. The second one I made is more gender neutral with blue, red, green and yellow print fabrics :) I will share pictures when I'm finished with it :).
This first one is a little bigger than I had expected. Each flag is 10" across the top and then the top to the bottom point is 13". You never know until you get all the flags together just how big it will be - I made the second one a tad bit smaller (7"X10").
The process was quite simple if you want to make one. I cut out 32 flags/triangles - 16 for the front and 16 for the back. They were 10" across the top and 13" deep. I appliqued letters onto the front using heat and bond and the directions are on the package or you can find wonderful tutorials online. Then I stitched the flags wrong sides together, pinked the edges with my pinking shears, made a button hole in each corner and tied the flags together with ribbon through the button holes. The two ends have longer strands of ribbon for hanging. There are SO MANY ways you could make these. This just happened to be the way that worked well for me :).

The other one. . .

I took picture of the other (my favorite) little toy I made.
It is a combination of all of the toys on the pattern pictured below and some of my own additions. I put a jingly bell in it and some crinkly stuff in the skirt. Yep, there are things I could have done better and I had good intentions of re-making it to make everything perfect but the chances of that happening are unlikely.

The End. . . . .

. . . of a LONG sewing slumber. Stacy's theme thursday for the week is THE END.
It had been a long time since I'd heard the humming of my sewing maching creating odds and ends. I finally put the silence to an end - even if it was just five minutes here and 20 minutes there - I started some new projects!!!! I made some little toys for Sierra :). The other toy I made (my favorite) is in her room where she is napping so I'll take pictures of it another time.
I've also been making little shoes for her!!! I LOVE THEM. I modified the original pattern a bit. They are FUN!
I also used up some of my favorite knits on a baby blanket for a nephew to be born this summer :).
YEA!!! It feels good to sew again :)

Today I want to blog

There are a bazillion things I SHOULD be doing today -
Ironing hubby's shirts:

Cleaning the boys room . . . (really! who would want to even go in there!?! gross, I can't believe I am posting these ):


. . . dusting blinds, preparing dinner, mopping the floor, wiping out the fridge. . . . you get the picture. But today I wanted to sew and quilt and blog. It has been SOOO long since I have done any of those and this:

has been crying out to me so I grabbed some scraps of fabrics that I think look great together and started stitching away. I love the crooked block quilting that I have seen so much of lately. I don't really know how to do it but it can't be that hard right? I cut up some strips of various widths and cut some at a slight angle. Working in a log cabin design I started peicing them together and then when they get big enough I'll square them into a 6"ish square.
Is there a rule somewhere that says you have to finish a quilt in progress before you start on a new one? I hope not. I still have one in the hand quilting phase sitting in a basket by the couch. It is my movie/tv project.






The colors aren't showing up on my blog as vibrant as they are in photoshop. . . hmm. Need to figure out what's wrong. I guess the ironing will have to wait yet some more.

Projects

Theme Thursday for this week is “projects”.
My problem with projects is that I enjoy doing way to many things. I always want to do too much. Now with a new baby I don't have much time at all until the kids go to bed at night and by then I'm exausted. I remember the days when I use to sew. ALOT!. I sewed children's clothing and sold it on ebay. I miss those days a tiny bit. I don't miss the long hours but I miss completing so many projects! There is a sense of accomplishment that comes from the whole process - starting with a design in my head to sending it off in the mail!
This week I did accomplish some small projects.

First of all I've been learning to knit and I've been practicing the cable stitch. I finished this small pillow this week and it now sits on my bed :)



The second thing I finished was this baby toy ball!! IT IS UGLY AND SO FUNNY!!! When I first saw the idea for this I thought it would be SO CUTE. I don't know why I couldn't see how awful it really would be. My husband and I have been laughing at it so hard since I finished it. He told me I should cut it apart and use the stuffing for something else. Instead I think I'll keep it around and let the boys use it as a boxing glove hee heee. I don't know what is more dissappointing - wasting the fabric or wasting my precious time on it. oh well, It hasn't been my first disaster and I'm sure it won't be my last.



As far as photography projects go, I've been spending the last few months reading and practicing how to use my flash better. I've trying to get more serious about taking my photography up a notch so I can make a little more $ at it. Last month I was asked to take pictures at a wedding and then that job landed me another wedding shoot. I was able to upgrade to a much much nicer lens and hopefully soon to a better camera. I don't necessarily want to become a wedding photographer, but it has been good experience and eye opening to what I need to work on!
A photography project I accomplished this week was a self portrait :).

The Nursery

I'm not sure why it took me three babies to get into the whole "decorate the nursery" mode. It could be that we lived in apartments, didn't have the $ or the fact that this is my first girl AND we have a spare bedroom. Kindof. The "spare room" was my sew/computer/storage/make a mess room.
After months of finding other places for my sewing, computer and messy stuff, we finally had the room ready for painting, new closet doors, finishing the base boards and a crib!
I made the crib bumper, quilt and ruffle and added a touch of matching fabric to the already existing curtains. I LOVE the quilt. I started with a yard of blue euro floral fabric that I had and started adding prints to it. I cut random sized strips and added a wider border and backed it with a soft pink minky. I hand quilted it :).
When I was at Babies R Us registering for baby items I ran across the Jungle Luv nursery decor and I couldn't believe how the colors matched my fabrics EXACTLY!! So of course I had to have the little mobile and lamp!!
Recently on eBay I found sellers who were selling matching hand made Jungle Luv accessories. After a bit of thought I realized I could do the same. I purchased a roll of Jungle Luv wallpaper border and made some matching wall hangings.
There are a few more things I want to do for the nursery. I want to cover a cork board with fabric and batting somehow, but am not sure how to do that yet.

Theme Thursday - Create

I tried all week to think of something I could create with my photography - it just didn't happen. I tried my hand at a bit of creative photoshopping but that doesn't come easily for me. So I did what did come easy for me - I created something with my sewing machine :)
First I finished my pair of wool mitten/warmers from cut up old wool sweaters. They are lined with fleece and are the warmest things ever- I probably won't need them here in CA, but they are oh so cute!




Then I made a pair of little baby shoes. Since I needed them to match something I took a dress I bought from The Children's Place recently and added some fabric flower appliques and buttons. A matching hat would be cute too - perhaps later. The dress alone was simply too plain but it was on clearance and I knew I could add something to the skirt to liven it up!
I love the way this turned out :)
Here is the plain dress -

And here it is dolled up -


And the little shoes. Well actually just one shoe. I still have to finish the second one :0)

I bought the mary jane shoe pattern from THIS etsy shop. They took a bit of time but I learned a lot of adjustments I want to do for next time. I want to add interfacing to make the shoes hold their shape better, and an elastic strap across the top to hold them on her little foot better. I also want to add peice of that stiff stuff you can add to hat brims, I can't think of the name of it right now, to the sole of the foot. It is flexible but stiff enough to help it keep it's shape.