Pot Holders

It was a homemade kind of Christmas this year.

I made a couple more, but had given them away before I took the pictures.

Houndstooth - in progress

 I have seen houndstooth patterns all over for the past few years. A couple years ago I realized how easy it would be to make a quilt with this pattern and discovered there are TONS of examples online. Most of them have just two colors, but I like more color, so I was inspired by the scrappy one above.

I decided to finally just do it. I mapped out a size with colors that I like and have scraps of.

And I got started! I hope I can finish it soon!

Play Quilt

 I finished Henry's quilt! I think it turned out pretty fun! I tried not to buy new fabric for it, and I think I only got three new fat quarters, otherwise the whole thing is scraps or fabric I already had.

My favorite square is the sun, but the mountain corner with the hills was pretty exciting, too.

Boy Quilts!

There is SO MUCH cute girl fabric out there. . . not so much for the boys. I just had a boy and two of my sisters are on the verge of having boys. I wanted to try my hand at making boy blankets.


I really love the way they both turned out. One of the best parts? The blankets are backed with minky fabric.

They're really luscious. My husband compared them to the truffles of quilts. The outside is crisp and smooth and the inside is soft.

The above two quilts are for my two sisters, but I didn't want to leave out Henry. Here is the beginning of baby boy quilt #3.

Warning: this may burn your retinas.

I made this quilt for the Babe's big girl bed. When I picked out the individual colors, I thought they looked fun together. When it was all done, it was really bright.

It's the first time I've done binding on a quilt that was separate fabric from the backing. I like it!

Queen of Hearts

I know this post is a little late, but this was one of my biggest projects last year. It couldn't be forgotten.

For Halloween last year, I wanted to really break in my new sewing machine and make my costume. In my excitement I picked an overly ambitious project, especially considering this is the first dress I’ve ever sown.

I also didn’t measure myself and relied on the size chart to pick my pattern. Big mistake. After spending untold hours cutting fabric and sewing the bodice, I learned that sewing sizes are completely different than store sizes. My dress was 4 sizes too small! I was devastated. I’d spent too much time and money to just quit, so I was convinced I would have to sell my dress on ebay because it would never fit me. The husband gave me a good pep talk shortly after this discovery and reminded me that I am the MacGyver of crafting and I could make it work for me. I took that to heart, ripped a few seams, and added fabric inconspicuously. It worked! If I entered a sewing contest I wouldn’t win any prizes, and perhaps it's slightly ill-fitting, but as a Halloween costume, I think it was stunning.

Plus it was fun to spin in, and that, truly, is the measure of a good costume.

On the plus side, I now have a good understanding of clothing pattern sizes, pleating, bunching, working with brocade, lace and ribbing, among other things. Good stuff to know for next Halloween, he he he.

Quiet Book

For Christmas I made the Babe her very own quiet book.

I wanted something that would keep her happy and quiet for an hour of church. This is close.

The first page is a mailbox with removable envelopes.

In the envelopes I put flat things, like buttons and fabric flowers and stickers. She loves taking stuff out and putting it all back together.

Next page is colors and numbers. The color balloons are velcro and the numbers are flaps with fruits and vegetables behind them.

This next page is my favorite, but also the most frustrating. I never worked with metal eyelets before, but I now know they are no good on felt. They need to be used on stronger material (like canvas) or they will just fall off.

This page is also frustrating for Grace, cause she can't quite get anything on her own yet. The button is hard, the zipper has to be held at the top with one hand while you unzip with the other, the snaps are too hard, and of course she can't tie shoes yet.

But the prize for opening each element is a fun texture. In the shoe is a fleece mouse which you can't see in this photo.

The next page has a lot of potential and I plan to build on that. At this point the Babe doesn't spend too much time on this page, but when I get more clothes done, I hope she will.

The last page is a shape tree. All the shapes come off and can be put in the little blue pocket. Or piled in the corner of the closet in the office, which is where I found all the shapes last week. That is one disadvantage to having removable parts - they're bound to get lost. Luckily, these are all pretty easy to make again if it comes to that.

That's it! I made two of these books at the same time, which consumed TONS of my time right before Christmas. I didn't get any pictures of the second book, but it's basically the same. In the future, if I ever make one of these again, I need to remember to reinforce the fabric for the pages. The thin fabric needs a thick interfacing or I need to use a thicker, stronger fabric. This just feels too flimsy to stand up to some of the velcro dots, unfortunately. I hope it will last, anyway.

Wallflowers

Shortly after we moved in, I decided I had to make big flowers to add some color to the vast whiteness in the Babe's new room.

I had envisioned just what I wanted, but decided to look online to see if there were some examples of how to do it. I couldn't find any examples of just what I wanted. I found some tiny wire flowers with stretched sheer fabric, but I wanted quilting fabric. So I made it up.

I must say, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. They've really cheered up the room. I still want to make a few more smaller ones to trail around the wall, but I probably won't get to them for awhile.

I used 20 gage floral wire to keep the petals stiff and assembled them all together in floral foam. They were easy to hang on the wall--I just poked a hole in the foam and voila! As I was making these I wondered to myself how many hundreds of people had made the very same sort of thing, but any photos just hadn't made it to the top of the google image searches. All the supplies can be found at Walmart. I wonder these sort of things about my crafts often... "how many people are making this very same thing right now..."

Wish fulfillment

I got a sewing machine on Wednesday! You know what this means? More puppets! And now that I have it, I'm thinking of all sorts of clothing ideas, toys, quilts... But first, on my list is home improvements. You see, I need to make my home look pretty so someone will want to buy it. These are actually projects that I've been planning for years, but only now got to do them.

Commence project window valance:

I made two of these for my bedroom windows. Three or four years ago I bought two faux scarf valances like this picture, but quickly learned that they only look good in threes. I loved the fabric, though, so wanted to make something more suitable. Now I have! This was probably the most makeshift and imprecise process I've ever used, but with the final result you would never know. My husband calls me the MacGyver of quilting and that title really fit for this project.

Project sofa pillows (the brown ones):

The previous pillows were pretty flat and had ugly fabric. That's all I have to say about that. Pillows are easy peasy. (p.s. I love the husband's casual glance to the side and leg posed especially for the photo.)

I have one more room to fix curtains for and then I will be back on the puppet train. I'm so excited! I have some fun ones coming up.

Resolution

I seem to have moments pretty regularly when I realize that I've been rude or inconsiderate without knowing it. When I had my baby I got a gift from every one of my sisters and sister-in-laws that had babies, even if they lived far away. I had never even thought about sending baby gifts unless I was invited to a shower. How could I not even have thought of it? I don't know. But I've made a new resolution. For each new niece and nephew I will send a gift.

It started this Christmas. I made my first baby quilt for a new niece that was born in October.