Farm Babies!
A little stroller blankie for a sweet baby girl. I can't wait to meet her!
Labels: 2013 Quilts, crafts, quilting, sewing
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Auction Quilt
For our church auction this year, I donated a custom quilt. The lady that won it wanted it to be for her nephew and his wife who were about to have their first baby. I worked with the mom-to-be and made this quilt to coordinate with their nursery. It took me a lot longer to finish after I went back to work full-time, but I am so happy with the final product.
A lot of the fabrics are the same as in this quilt that I showed her as an example when she told me the nursery was going to be orange, green, and brown. I threw in a few new fabrics and left out the multi-colored elephants at her request.
The quilt pattern is inspired by this quilt but I figured out my own dimensions. It was a fun quilt to arrange and sew!
The back is chocolate minky and the light quilting makes the drape so nice and the quilt so snuggly. Here you can see the zig zag quilting a little bit. I hope the new mom loves this blankie, too!
A lot of the fabrics are the same as in this quilt that I showed her as an example when she told me the nursery was going to be orange, green, and brown. I threw in a few new fabrics and left out the multi-colored elephants at her request.
The quilt pattern is inspired by this quilt but I figured out my own dimensions. It was a fun quilt to arrange and sew!
The back is chocolate minky and the light quilting makes the drape so nice and the quilt so snuggly. Here you can see the zig zag quilting a little bit. I hope the new mom loves this blankie, too!
Labels: 2012 Quilts, crafts, quilting, sewing
Monday, September 03, 2012
Juliet's Throw Quilt
I finished Juliet's throw quilt a few months ago but totally forgot to take pictures. I love how it came out! I used all the same fabrics as her crib quilt and it really contributes to her serene bedroom.
The quilt design is inspired by this quilt on Moda Bakeshop, but I couldn't really follow those directions so I just made a patchwork quilt top on the diagonal and chopped it up to add the white sashing.
(The kids really wanted to be in the picture!) To quilt this, I stitched in white thread down the center of all the sashing, and then just inside each box with khaki thread.
The back is green fleece and it is super snuggly. As the weather here finally starts to cool off I am looking forward to snuggling under it with her!
We are so blessed that these kids love each other so much. Most of the time they play together so nicely, with only the occasional 35lb vs 20lb mishap. Life with two kids is pretty great!
The quilt design is inspired by this quilt on Moda Bakeshop, but I couldn't really follow those directions so I just made a patchwork quilt top on the diagonal and chopped it up to add the white sashing.
(The kids really wanted to be in the picture!) To quilt this, I stitched in white thread down the center of all the sashing, and then just inside each box with khaki thread.
The back is green fleece and it is super snuggly. As the weather here finally starts to cool off I am looking forward to snuggling under it with her!
We are so blessed that these kids love each other so much. Most of the time they play together so nicely, with only the occasional 35lb vs 20lb mishap. Life with two kids is pretty great!
Labels: 2012 Quilts, crafts, quilting, sewing
Friday, June 15, 2012
Baby Kali Quilt
Some dear friends just had their second baby girl, and this is the blankie I made for her. The fabric is Riley Blake from my stash, which went perfectly with the nursery - green with ladybugs. My friends are fellow Rice alums so the owls were an added bonus.
The quilting on this quilt is loops, which was really fun and quick to do. I decided not to use any batting, which caused some tension issues, but overall I think the quilt will hold up well. The quilt pattern was inspired by this one with the strips and outlined blocks.
Of course I did a little label on the back. It will probably be a while before I give up the convenience of the letter stitching by my machine!
I hope baby Charlotte gets a lot of use out of her new blankie.
The quilting on this quilt is loops, which was really fun and quick to do. I decided not to use any batting, which caused some tension issues, but overall I think the quilt will hold up well. The quilt pattern was inspired by this one with the strips and outlined blocks.
Of course I did a little label on the back. It will probably be a while before I give up the convenience of the letter stitching by my machine!
I hope baby Charlotte gets a lot of use out of her new blankie.
Labels: 2012 Quilts, crafts, quilting, sewing
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Tree Skirt
Just a quick picture of the tree skirt I sent my sister and her family as an early Christmas present. The main skirt is green wool felt, with Alexander Henry Christmas owls as a border. The lining is a striped home dec fabric, though if I had it to do over again I would choose something that wasn't directional. I started out following this tutorial from Amy Butler, but since the owl fabric was also directional, I had to improvise. Overall I'm quite pleased with the final product!
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Close but Not Quite
Happy 4th of July to everyone in the States! A funny thing about this year is that we actually went to a Canada Day party on Thursday but had no special plans to celebrate America's birthday. The baby is in bed, and we can see some fireworks from our back windows, and that's about all the celebrating we were up for this year.
I did finally finish the paintings for the nursery. They are definitely an amateur attempt but I am happy with them. I'll probably take them down for some touchups but am not in a hurry. It was fun to try something new! After these were in progress I saw this and this and wanted to totally start over. I guess I still could!
I actually spent a good amount of time in my craft room today since my little man enjoys rolling around on the floor and playing while I sew. Keeping him on a blanket is a challenge - I tell my husband it's not that I have a problem with Ben being on the carpet, just that you never know when he's going to urp up some milk or peas and a quilt is easier to wash than the rug!
Now that I'm back at work I'm going to try really hard to keep my goals for July reasonable:
1. Finish the quilt for my sister's new baby.
2. Make the throw pillow for the nursery glider - my back needs it!
3. Get the fabric cut for my next baby quilt (super excited about this one!)
June Goals:
1. Finish Ben's circle quilt.
2. Quilt top for my sister's new baby. Only a little sashing left...
3. Throw pillow for nursery glider. Nope.
4. Nursery artwork. Done!
Labels: crafts, monthly goals
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Big Day
Someone in this house is turning 30 today. I borrowed a wonderful idea from Maggie Mason and came up with 30 little gifts to give him for his birthday.
I wrapped them all in craft paper with bright ribbons and they do make quite a display. Peter was very surprised to see them all this morning. Finding/buying/making and wrapping all those presents has been taking up a lot of my time lately. I also put together a happy birthday banner - it's the same fabric as the stroller blankie because when Pete saw that he said it was the perfect color of blue.
Happy birthday, sweetie, I hope it's a great one!
Friday, April 09, 2010
A Bit Belated
On our ski trip last week we were lucky enough to get to celebrate our niece and nephew's 11th birthday with them! To save on luggage room I didn't bring their gifts along, so they are going to be a bit belated. I got an adorable cross-stitch kit for my niece (this one) because she loves crafting, and made these little covered button hair accessories. The purple pair are hairbands and the little flowers are bobby pins. These were so fun and quick to make up! Definitely more of these in my future.
Also a bit belated, my goals for April:
1. Stroller blankie for a new little girl.
2. Finish binding Red Barn quilt and clean up guest room. (March fail!)
3. Wedding embroidery for some friends that got married in March.
4. Artwork for above Ben's changing table.
Considering how crummy I did on my March goals these might be extra ambitious!!
March Goals:
1. Buttons for swap - finished and mailed on time!
2. Finish circle quilt top.
3. Bind Red Barn quilt. About half done with hand-sewing.
4. Pick up guest room enough to make the bed! Not done!!
Labels: crafts, monthly goals
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Happy Valentine's Day!
I started my day by giving up on a quilt, admitting it was a big *fail* for the first time in my short quilt-making history. Luckily the day improved steadily from there, including helping set up for a baby shower tomorrow (see above standby tissue pom poms), having a nice lunch with my hubby, getting a pedicure, and having my family over for fajitas and black bean soup and tres leches. I hope you all had an equally lovely Valentine's Day!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
More Letters
These are for my niece Maegan, for her newly decorated bedroom. I could have used a little more practice with the Mod Podge (there are some wrinkles) but I think they will look great on her wall. The "A" has loops to hold photos and is from PBTeen with some added fabric and ribbon for color-coordination.
Labels: crafts, paper craft
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Thanks, Ms. Stewart
I'd had this idea in my head for ages and Martha gave me the push to do it when this project showed up in my mailbox. I used plain knobs instead of thread spools and I enlisted my husband's help to drill holes in the top for short pieces of dowel rod, for rings. I think they're adorable. I hope my nieces like them! After the holidays I think I'll have to make myself one.
Labels: crafts
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Bossy Bossy
A couple weeks ago my sister handed me a navy blue shirt to turn into a Rice shirt for an upcoming football game. This led to some glitter experimentation, and when I felt it would work, I set out to make a Rice shirt. Well...
The brush slipped, and while the nice thing about fabric paint is that it doesn't wash out, the crummy part about fabric paint is that it doesn't wash out. Luckily I have a very understanding sister, and she even suggested the fix:
Voila! The spot is... well... harder to see! It turned out that we got free tickets to the same football game, so I whipped up my own shirt - without the footballs (and no "oops" spot) so we wouldn't completely match!
I did end up finding glitter everywhere when I wore it, so that part of my freezer paper stencil obsession may have to fall by the wayside!
The brush slipped, and while the nice thing about fabric paint is that it doesn't wash out, the crummy part about fabric paint is that it doesn't wash out. Luckily I have a very understanding sister, and she even suggested the fix:
Voila! The spot is... well... harder to see! It turned out that we got free tickets to the same football game, so I whipped up my own shirt - without the footballs (and no "oops" spot) so we wouldn't completely match!
I did end up finding glitter everywhere when I wore it, so that part of my freezer paper stencil obsession may have to fall by the wayside!
Labels: crafts
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Goodbye, Crocodile Hunter
In the past few years, when a celebrity has passed away, I haven't been any more upset than I would be hearing about any other stranger who had died. For some reason, though, when I read that Steve Irwin had been killed, it made me very sad. I know he did crazy things, and I've heard some say they're surprised something like this didn't happen sooner... But I feel the world has lost someone who truly loved life, who found success doing something they loved and sharing it with others, and who truly valued his family.
I was inspired to finally embellish a black tshirt that has been in my "to do" pile for ages...
You'll be missed, Mr. Erwin!
I was inspired to finally embellish a black tshirt that has been in my "to do" pile for ages...
You'll be missed, Mr. Erwin!
Labels: crafts
Monday, June 26, 2006
Johnny Chop
After taking on my simple stencil project and it turning out so well, I decided to take on something a little more complicated.
I've been wanting a shirt with the logo of my cousin, Johnny Chop, for a while, and that desire only grew when Johnny passed away in March. I got one of my favorite tshirts and black paint, and used a bumper sticker as a template.
I couldn't be happier with how it came out.
I've been wanting a shirt with the logo of my cousin, Johnny Chop, for a while, and that desire only grew when Johnny passed away in March. I got one of my favorite tshirts and black paint, and used a bumper sticker as a template.
I couldn't be happier with how it came out.
Labels: crafts
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Watch it Shrink!
I finally tried playing with shrinky dinks. There have been some amazing shrink plastic pins here and here and so many more that I can't find right now. Since I've never played with free-form shrink plastic, I decided to try something a little larger just to play. Here are my shapes before decorating:
The package said I could use acrylic paint, which I had already, so I painted them up:
They didn't shrink so well. They're mostly all curled, and despite leaving them in the oven like the directions said, they never flattened out on their own.
The flower is especially bad.
And as Peter pointed out, paint doesn't shrink, so some of them ended up with interesting effects:
But a couple of them did turn out neat, if slightly curly:
All of these only used one of the many sheets that came in the pack, so I get to try again. I think next time I'll use colored pencils instead of paint!!
The package said I could use acrylic paint, which I had already, so I painted them up:
They didn't shrink so well. They're mostly all curled, and despite leaving them in the oven like the directions said, they never flattened out on their own.
The flower is especially bad.
And as Peter pointed out, paint doesn't shrink, so some of them ended up with interesting effects:
But a couple of them did turn out neat, if slightly curly:
All of these only used one of the many sheets that came in the pack, so I get to try again. I think next time I'll use colored pencils instead of paint!!
Labels: crafts
Monday, May 23, 2005
Late as Usual
I am so late onto this bandwagon, but I finally made some marble magnets! There was a neat ad for scrapbook paper in one of my magazines, and I liked the samples but needed an idea for them... ta da, magnets!
I'm not sure I used the right kind of glue, or if they'll last, but it was fun and cheap, so I don't care!
I'm not sure I used the right kind of glue, or if they'll last, but it was fun and cheap, so I don't care!
Labels: crafts, paper craft
Sunday, October 24, 2004
The Pumpkin Pile
I made this fall decoration a week or two ago. I got the idea from a book I checked out from the library - crafts for under $10. The price was about right - I got enough pumpkins for this and another one for $3, the terra cotta pot was only $1, the leaves are from a garland (enough for more) for $3, and the raffia was $1 or so for enough for more than one topiary... So I think this came out pretty cheap! It doesn't look as good as I wanted, but it's cute, and sits on our kitchen counter. Maybe I'll try another one and it will look better!
Labels: crafts