Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has the happiest of Christmases!!

Christmas Crafting

I made these Christmas crafts:

Wreath made from inexpensive dollar store ornaments and a wire hanger (seen on Pinterest)

Trees made from styrofoam cones and felt (also seen on Pinterest)

Tree made from cardstock Christmas paper, wooden candle holder and wooden finial (seen here)

Burlap Snow Mama (seen here)

Let's Talk Turkey

I made this onesie for my new great-nephew Kaiden to wear on Thanksgiving Day:

If you want to make one, here is a great tutorial that includes a downloadable free pattern.

The only thing I did differently was to cut circles from white and black fabric for the eyes and added a waddle.

While I was doing this, I discovered something awesome that I must share with you. I don't know about you, but I always have a problem peeling away the Wonder Under once I iron it to the back of my fabric. It seems like it takes forever to try to find a spot where I could start peeling it back.

As I was struggling with it during this project, I had one of those lightbulb moments. I grabbed my seam ripper and scored lightly through the Wonder Under. It was like magic!! It made a nice little tear without damaging the fabric at all, and it made it soooooooo much easier to peel away the Wonder Under.

I will definitely be using this trick from now on.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving.

No Sew Fleece Blanket - Take Two

I made my second No Sew Fleece Blanket the other day. I forgot how easy and quick these are!

I absolutely love how this one came out with the brown and pink. It is for my nephew and his wife who are expecting a baby girl soon - she is decorating the nursery in pink and brown and ladybugs is her theme. I just so happens that I found some pink ladybug fleece fabric awhile back! So even though I am going to be making her a quilt, when I saw this fabric I knew I had to get it and make this too.

I did something different this time around to make my cuts and it worked out so great. My trick was this:

Peel and Stick Ruler Tape!! Rather than using my tape measure or yardstick, I just put this ruler tape down and I was able to keep my edge straight.

Another nice thing about it is that it is marked in 1 inch increments, so it's real easy to see where to make your cuts:

I am definitely using this from now on!

Here are the particulars for this project:

Fleece:  Hancock Fabrics (1 yard of each)
Peel and Stick Ruler Tape: Hobby Lobby (or try your LQS)
Pattern/Tutorial:  There is a really good one here

I hope you try this peel and stick ruler tape - you will love it!

Very Belated Halloween Project

I forgot to post about the cute Halloween pillow I made:

I followed the tutorial that Suzanne at Just Another Hang Up posted here.   I printed right onto my muslin fabric using freezer paper rather than using the spray adhesive and paper.

I got the image from The Graphics Fairy.   If you've never checked out this blog, you really should. She has tons of FREE graphics that you can download.

I think I might make Thanksgiving and Christmas pillows too, since there are so many cute holiday graphics to choose from.

Quick Giveaway

Somehow I ended up with two copies of American Patchwork & Quilting December 2011 issue:

In addition to the gorgeous star quilt on the cover, it has many other great patterns, like these cute holiday pillows:

This Harvest Table Topper:

and this neat Contrasting Cabins quilt:

I will give away my extra copy of this issue to the first person who posts a comment on this post and says they want it! 

Alphabet Magnets - A Tutorial

These make-it-yourself alphabet magnets are all over Pinterest (so addicted to that site BTW!) so I decided to make some for a friend of mine.

I pretty much followed the tutorial found here at Bubbly Nature Creations. I did mine just a little differently, so I'll show you what I did.

Here's what I used to make mine:

and

and

I used cardstock and some cute alphabet stickers I found at Wal-mart for $1.

I cut my cardstock into small squares that would fit the gems (make sure you get the gems that have a flat back to them, found mine at Dollar Tree). I then put a sticker in the middle of the square, stuck a gem on top of it and traced around it with a pencil. I cut out the shapes, then Mod-Podged them to the gems.

After they were dry, I trimmed around the edges (see how there is some paper showing around the edges of the "j" in the above picture? you don't want that!)

I then went back and turned them all over and added a layer of Mod Podge to the back of each one, just to make sure those puppies were on there good:

After that dried, I glued the magnets to the back of each one using the E-6000 glue. The Mod Podge on the back makes them sort of slippery, so I put a dot of glue in the middle and pressed the magnet down really good and held it there for a few seconds.

After they completely dried ... voila, cute magnets:

I decided to gift these to her on a cookie sheet. She can put them on her refrigerator, but I thought a cookie sheet would work good if she didn't want the magnets cluttering up her fridge, or if her daughter wanted to play with them in her room.

I am thinking about selling some items at a holiday craft show ... maybe I'll make up a few more of these. The cookie sheet would be a great way to display them there.

If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, just click the Pinterest button at the top right-hand side of my blog page.

Happy Crafting!

Newest Baby Quilt

I finished the baby quilt I made for my nephew and his girlfriend. They are expecting a baby boy, so I did this one in boy colors:

I used my go-to pattern from Kate at Two Little Banshees. It really is a great pattern. This time I made "X's" in each block, and I kind of like how it turned out!

Here is the back:

Hard to see the color, but it is brown with blue polka dots.

I am pretty proud of this one, my binding is coming out much better!

I need to crochet one more baby hat, then I think I will be done and ready for my trip to NM tomorrow!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Baby, Baby

I'm working on making baby things for my soon-to-be-born great nephew. Here is what I have finished so far:

I still need to make his quilt, a diaper wipe case, a fleece blanket with a crocheted edge, and some Pee Pee Tee Pees. I'm on a deadline, as I have to have it all done by next Friday, when I leave for NM!

I'm off to sew... have a great weekend :)

Another Baby Quilt

Yay, I finished another baby quilt!!

Here is the front:

And here's the back:

The fabric on the back is flannel, and it is so nice and soft. I am not happy with my binding, which is why I'm not showing you an up-close picture!  My mitered corners are good, but the stitching could be better.

Guess it's like they say ... practice, practice and more practice!

More Crafts

I just realized that I have made several other crafts lately that I have not posted about yet.

This frame has been all over the blogs .... here and here is where I got my inspiration from:

Another thing that has been everywhere is the candy corn wreath.. it is so easy to make and turns out really cute:

Finally, saw this wreath over at Every Creative Endeavor and made it too:

It is an excellent tutorial, and she even gives you a link to the PDF to print out the letters onto fabric.. that's right, you print the letters out on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper... check out the tutorial for how to do it.

Another Fall Project

I saw this illuminated pumpkin over at Recaptured Charm:

I thought it was the neatest thing, so I decided to make one for myself.  

Here is my version:

It didn't come out nearly as nice as hers, but I like it anyway!  I painted mine orange, then did a little orange Glitter Spray on top of it. I bundled up some cinnamon sticks with a rubber band and used those as the stem, then hot-glued some Spanish moss to cover up the rubber band. Just to pretty it up a bit, I tied a raffia bow around the stem. I put orange lights inside of mine... can't wait to see how they look tonight!

If you are not into messy projects, don't attempt this one! It is very, very messy (but fun!)

Thanks so much for the inspiration, Lisa! I love that it cost very little to create this, and it is something I can keep out through October and November.

If you'd like to make one of your own, you can find Lisa's tutorial here.

Fat Free, Calorie Free Candy Corn!!

Did that get your attention?  Ha Ha!  If only they made that, I would be a happy woman! 

My fat free, calorie free version is this:

I used this tutorial from Bethany at Sweet Bee Buzzings.

I made mine in three different sizes. Rather than sewing the top closed (cuz you know how much I hate hand-sewing of any sort!) I used my trusty 1/4 inch Steam-a-Seam2.  I love that stuff, and use it all the time. It is great for closing up openings that you don't want to sew. I also use it to help my quilt binding stay in place while I sew it .... much easier than pinning!

More fall-related projects are in the works... stay tuned!

Baby Project - Initial Crinkly Toy

I finished another baby project. As you know, I can't come up with an original idea, so I followed the tutorial found here at HMH Designs.

This is for my friend's new baby boy, Tristan. I thought it would be cute to make something with his initial.

I followed Martta's tutorial with one exception - I didn't have any crinkle wrap, so I just used a big plastic grocery bag and cut it to the correct shape.

I also free-handed my "T" so it may be a tad lopsided. Oh well... adds to the handmade feel I guess!

The back is brown minky fabric:

Here is a close-up of the ribbons:

I was thinking that you could hang a plastic link toy or teething ring from the ribbons too.  OMG... was that an original thought??? Nah, I probably read it somewhere!  Ha Ha !

Thanks so much for the inspiration Martta, I think Tristan will like his new toy!

Baby Love

I love making baby things.... they are always so cute and adorable, and so much fun to make. Here are a few projects I finished recently:

These tie onesies are so cute for baby boys and so easy. Simply adhere Wonder Under to your fabric, cut out the tie shapes, and iron them on. I then stitch around them with a straight stitch.

I made this for my new great niece Natalie who is due to arrive in December:

All I used was a scrap piece of muslin, some pink fabric and some brown polka dot fabric that were in my scrap bin. I added Wonder Under to the pink fabric and then ironed it on to the muslin. I added Wonder Under to the brown polka dot fabric, traced my "n" to the paper side of the Wonder Under (make sure you trace it in the reverse!) then cut out my letter and ironed it to the pink fabric. Using a zig zag stitch, I used brown thread and sewed around the edges of the pink fabric; using a straight stitch, I sewed around the letter using pink thread. I then stuck it in the embroidery hoop, trimmed up the back and glued the remaining pieces down with white glue. This project cost me all of $1.49 for the embroidery hoop, and I think it will look so cute in her nursery!

I am working on another baby project and will post that when I am finished with it - hope it turns out as planned!

Reversible Mug Rug

I made a mug rug for my sister's friend Kendra using the tutorial found here.

I used a jelly roll that I found in my stash that I had never even opened! Here is what the back looks like:

Instead of putting the word "java" on mine (like Angie did in her tutorial), I decided just to put Kendra's initial instead. I used the font Pea Jack and Jane that you can find for free here.

You really should check out Angie's blog, Stitching by Starlight. She does absolutely beautiful quilting, and has some other great tutorials in addition to this one.

Flannel Strip Baby Blanket

My sister asked me to whip up a baby blanket for a friend who just had a baby girl.  I didn't have time to quilt her one, but when I saw this over at Oly Momma's blog, I knew it was perfect!

I made a "traditional" rag quilt awhile back... you know the kind... the one where you have to cut out all of the pieces, sew them together, sew the "X" through them, etc. etc. Well, this is along those same lines, but is soooo much easier and faster to do.

I got a little confused as to exactly how much fabric I needed, and Jess was kind enough to e-mail me that she used 1/2 yard of 3 different fabrics for the top, which she cut into ten 4" strips. She used 1 1/2 yards of fabric for the backing.

The only thing I did differently was make my seams 1/2 inch rather than 1/4 of an inch.

For the backing I just used the same white with pink floral fabric from the front.

Once I washed and dried it, I wrapped it up with an extra piece of pink flannel. Now it is all ready for gift-giving.

Thanks for sharing your project Jess :)

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