A Thousand Little Wishes...

Look! I did it again!

This was my couch before I got crafty on Saturday....

And this is after!  I spent a an hour or two on Saturday making these throw pillows for the couch.  I've had the pillow forms for a long time, from IKEA. 

The stripey ones are made form a thirfted scarf.  The gray sweater was an old one of my husband's.

This one is my favorite.  I wanted at least one of the pillows to have something else on it and the house just sort of happened.  I love this kind of crafting, the kind with out any plan.  Wanna see an extra close up?

I knew you did.  If you've never cut up old sweaters and hats and sewn them back together as something else, I highly suggest doing it soon.  It's quite satisfying.

So I did a swap and I made a penguin

It was my first swap, centered around the cute Meomi characters.  Karen from Urban Craft put it together.  This was also my first try at a stuffed something or other.  I guess you could call it a softie.

Perhaps you can tell from my tone, that I wasn't all that pleased with the outcome of my project.  I had a hard time planning this.  When I was choosing what to do and what materials to use, I guess I focused mostly on how it would be used.  My partner was actually Karen and she has a two year old son.  So I chose Peso, because he was a boy character, and a medic (like my husband), and a fairly easy shape, this being my first attempt at a softie and all.  Then I decided to use fleece, because it's washable and durable and soft.  In his bag, I put some Austin-Travis County EMS tattoos and some band-aids.

This is what I liked about making this penguin:

• The character is cute.
• I enjoyed working with fleece.  This was another first for me and I really liked how easily it worked up.
• I really enjoyed making something without a pattern.  I was surprised at how much I liked figuring it out on my own as I went along.  I'm not really sure why this surprised me, seeing as how I hate reading directions.  Most everything I tried in constructing this penguin worked, which is never really the case for me.
• I liked working with the felt to make his hat and medic bag.  Another first.  I've made things with felt before, but had never sewn with it on my machine.  Loved it!  So easy to work with.

This is what I did not like about my penguin:

• Because I used fleece, he wound up looking like any old cheapy stuffed animal you might win at the carnival.
• This cheap look was enhanced by his size.  I did not mean for him to be so huge.  I just sort of started cutting and making his face and went on from there.
• His head is wonky and sort of pointy on the top left.
• When I signed up for this swap, I thought I wanted to make something with more of a handmade look.  But I had no idea what that would be.  Something more like this:

I loved doing the swap, though.  I got this super cute Quatchi softie. 

Look at that face!  He came from Becky at patchworkposse.  He came in this cute little bag with this cute little card.

I absolutely love him.  Thanks, Becky!  And thanks, Karen, for organizing the whole thing!

They only took me a year and half

Actually, the actual making of these curtains for our living room took about a month or so.  After I started them, they spent a lot of time laying around on the ironing board that I had set up in the living room.  This annoyed my husband to no end.  But I didn't mind much at all.  Which is why I let them sit there for so long.  What I did mind was ironing and pinning all those freaking hems.  These are very definitely imperfect, but they're fine.  I mentioned before how I bought the fabric for these about a year and a half ago.  Needless to say, I quickly realized I needed more than what I had.  Of course this print was not on the website anymore.  A friend of mine happened to be going to IKEA, so I had her look for me and thank goodness they still had it.  The weight of the fabric is a bit different, so I decided to use the newer fabric on either end.  It's noticeable, but I only think people who know about it ahead of time are really going to notice.  I did measure them before cutting, but then I just basically eyeballed the hem widths.  I hated all that ironing and such so much, that I wasn't about to make it take any longer by being all anal about it. And no one will ever know.  It's not as if anyone is ever going to come over to scrutinize my curtains. Here is a close-up of the print.  It's from IKEA.  I love all of their fabrics.

This picture is way too dark, but I'm amazed at how the room looks so much more spacious now that they're up.  I totally don't get it.  I'm glad they're done, though.  Now I'm moving on to to something for me! 

Handmade Holiday

I've been waiting to share the few things the family and I made for holiday gifts until after the holidays.  I didn't get everything done that I had planned.  Oh well.  There's always next year.  Or birthdays.  

This is gonna be quick and to the point with quite a few pictures.

I made this felt cupcake to go in this ridiculously cute tiny covered glass goodie-thingy for my cousin Katie.  It's really small, which is always cuter.  

It was my first time to make anything stuffed other than a pillow and my first time to sew with felt.  It took a bit of wrangling, but in the end I was quite pleased.

This is a memory matching game with pictures of the family for my almost 3 year old niece.  I saw the idea in a Joann's flier.  This took so much more time than I had imagined it would.  I printed the pics on card stock, cut them to size (2 1/2 x 3), then cut the printed card stock to size, glued them to the backs, and then hard laminated it at Kinko's.  If I ever do this again, I'm buying the 8 1/2 x 11 printed card stock and printing the pictures on the back.  It would take some more fiddling on the computer with the sizing, etc, than I did for this, but it would cut down on all the trimming and gluing and make the laminating easier.  The funky laminating machine at Kinko's did not like the double layer of card stock.

And a little canvas bag to carry it in.  I cheated a bit and cut apart an old canvas tote, so I wouldn't have to do the casing.  It made it extra easy.  I just stitched the ribbon under the casing, sewed it up on the sides, and then pulled the ribbon through and fixed up their ends.

This is a portable chess/ checkers game I made for my nephew.  I saw this idea on Bird and Little Bird, but she saw it on i heart linen.  This was my first time to actually piece fabrics and quilt them.  This was a perfect little beginning quilting project.  I loved making this.  It was all pretty easy and it was very satisfying when it was done.  The pieces are just little wooden discs from Joann's that the kids painted and then I drew my versions of the chess pieces on them with a fine point Sharpie.

And of course a little carrying case for his game.  I stamped his name on with acrylic paint.  I loved doing that, too.  Also very satisfying.  This was my first time to put in a zipper, too.  There have been a lot of firsts here.  I'm showing my inexperience.

This is a chihuahua painting that the boys and I worked on for my aunt.  Ben started it, but it wasn't going the way he wanted it to, so he let Max take over.  He finished it up, but wanted me to do the face, so I did.  I really like the way it turned out and so did my aunt.

Dani made me these amazing crocheted earrings.  I can't imagine how tiny the hook must be.

 She also crocheted this killer cuff.  The stitches are so tiny and so perfect.  It's just beautiful.  I've already worn them a few times and received several compliments.

My cousin, Katie, made me this awesome paper cut out of my boys.  It's so cute!  I love Max's curly hair and the sun and the microphone so much.

She made this, too, although it wasn't specifically for me.  I won it in our family's Christmas Eve White Elephant gift exchange/ game.  Woot!

And Lee won this:

How's that for some handmade love! 

    

Back in the saddle again

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh,  sewin' to and fro.... I'm back in the saddle again.

I finally finished organizing my craft room (more on that tomorrow) and the first thing I did was finish these place mats for my Lee's mom.  They were supposed to be her birthday present, which was in February.  Whew!  So pathetic.  They have been waiting 9 months for me to just turn them right-side out and top stitch!  

It feels good to be back at my machine.  There are so many things I want to make, but first I've got to take care of Christmas- which I'm feeling pretty good about because I have an almost complete plan.  And it's not even Thanksgiving yet!  Yay!  Maybe I'm on my way to becoming organized and prepared............. yeah right.

A Very Late Craft Hope Post

After we got home from the beach, I whipped up a little receiving blanket for Craft Hope project 3.  

The rosebud print is some very old fabric that I found stashed in an upstairs closet at my parent's house.  Apparently, my mom had had some grand ideas for it, because there is a LOT of it.  I'm assuming it was going to be something for me, since I'm her only child.

Anyway, it is ridiculously soft, being that it is probably at least 30 years old.  I backed it with some very soft flannel and that was that.  It turned out very sweet and I couldn't be happier.  The best part is that it is now wrapped around some lovely little baby in India.  Just where it should be.  

Crunch-time Crafting

I am such a procrastinator.  Lately, I have only been sewing when I need a gift.  And I've left the last two for the night before.  

Dani's birthday gift was a fabric belt.  I used this tutorial after seeing a friend's fabric belt and searching the internet for a pattern.  However, I didn't do a patchwork belt.  I just used one continuous strip of fabric (one of my very favorite fabrics that I've been holding onto for the right project) and ribbon.  I couldn't find the really wide ribbon anywhere in dark brown, so I stitched two strips of ribbon together down the middle, as close as I possibly could.  The belt worked up pretty easily and quickly and I was pleased with the outcome.  It turns out it was too little, which quite frankly amazed me b/c Dani is so stinking skinny.  So I'm going to have to re-work it, but it will be pretty easy.

The second gift was for a baby shower for my friend Angie.  I knew this shower was coming for a few weeks, but of course left it until the night before.  It was a hooded bath towel from this book.  The project is by Beki and it turned out really cute.  I loved it.  However, this was NOT a quick project- for me. Pretty easy?  Yes.  And I LOVE, LOVE,LOVE that it forced me to make my own binding/ bias-tape. Who knew it was so easy?   All in all it probably took me a good 7 hours to complete.  Now, keep in mind that I did not have one of those handy bias-tape folding gadgets and therefore had to fold and iron the fabric by hand (3 times) to make the binding.  And also keep in mind that I am not that great at sewing around curves and this towel has like 22 appliqued circles on it, around which I had to go slowly.  But it was so worth it, because that's what makes it so freakin' cute! 

It also did not help that I didn't even start this project until around 6pm and of course had to stop for dinner and to put the kids to bed.  And I needed it finished by morning.  If only I had spread it out over a few days....

    Anyway, future goal:  try not to leave shit 'til the last minute.  'Cuz that's the sort of stuff that makes me want to avoid my sewing machine like the bubonic plague.

So Easy, It Feels Like Cheating

I made a baby blanket for a co-worker.  I should be typing:  "Oh my gosh, I made a baby blanket!!!" since it is the very first blanket I've ever made.

But it was sooo ridiculously easy that it feels like cheating.  I like the outcome.  It turned out pretty darn cute, but there was so little to it that I'm not exactly proud of myself.

However, it is pure crafty cleverness for a quick and easy baby gift.  It's not my crafty cleverness, though, as I have to credit Dani with yet another great idea.  She's full of 'em.

Here are the directions in case you're interested:

Two coordinating yards of flannel, some cotton batting, and quilt binding. 

Wash & dry the flannel pieces 

Put together in a sandwich (I used spray-on batting adhesive. Some call that cheating, but it sure is quick & easy.)

Sew wavy lines from top to bottom (starting in the middle & use a walking foot)

Add the binding all the way around

Call it done! 

The selection of flannels was sparse this time of year.  I did the best I could.  Next winter when the super-cute stuff is out, I plan on stocking up.

Of course, everyone at school was oohing and ahhing over it and I felt the need to talk it down.  I have to stop doing that and just learn to say "Thank you."  I'm trying...

A month already?

So much for my initial excitement.  I was so very excited after my first post.  And had every intention of getting right back to it, but you know how it goes.  Kids, life, work, etc.  And now it's already been a whole month.  Oh well.

Today I'm feeling compelled to post again because I left my very first comment on someone else's blog!  I know.  It's really not that exciting, but stupidly enough it is for me.  I mentioned in my first post that I have been perusing these crafty blogs for a couple of years, but I think to be more exact it's been more like three.  Anyway, as slowly as I've been going with this, every little new thing I do is ridiculously exciting.

And the comment I left was of a completely selfish nature.  I want to win something.  It's an uber-cute pillow form on chikaustin's blog.  And I want it.

On another note, I've been making stuff more lately.  Gotta love the slowness of January.  No soccer.  No big holidays.  It's awesome.  We've actually had the chance to spend time at home.  Organizing, playing, and sewing for me.  And lots of Valentine making.  I actually started something early!  My mother will be so proud. 

And we've been baking a lot lately.  Not good for the waistline, but it's good for the fam.  We're trying to eat real food.  My kids and husband have actually been mostly real-food-eaters, but in my many attempts to get back to a smaller size, I've been a Splendaholic.  Well, I'm done.  It makes no difference anyway.  And bread is just so freaking good.

Th boys are sick today, so I get to stay home form school.  Woo-hoo!  Not woo-hoo for the sick part, but for the staying at home part.  I don't actually get that much time at home and every minute is precious.  Unfortunately, I've wasted what should have been a super productive day of sewing, by catching up with the blogs and posting on my own.  But I guess I won't consider that a waste.  It is one of the millions of things I've been meaning to do.    So here are a few pics of the things I've made/ done in the last few weeks.  

Monster pj pants for Ben. My 1st pjs!  Reversible place mats- too cute owls on one side & bold flowers on the other.

Some place mats and napkins for my grandmother.  I had a hard time giving these away!  But it was worth it.  She loved them.

An apron for my "cookerman," Max.  You can't tell from the pic, but the fabric he picked out has flames and motorcycles all over it.  Poor boy looks pitiful.  He has the flu and two ear infections!

 

A bag for Max to take with him to hip-hop tap.  Every tap dancin' dude needs a bag with spiraling skulls, right?

And I recovered our office/ sewing chair that I bought at Thrift Town for $7.  It doesn't look as good in the pic as it does in real life.  I'm actually quite pleased with this, since we've been living with it for the past few months with the nasty gray flannel that the previous owner had covered it with.  Below is a close-up of the fabric.  I got it at a fabric sale at a friend's house a long time ago.  I think it's from somewhere cool, like Guatemala.  I had planned to make pillows for the couch, but I'm really glad I used it to cover the chair.  Now, I just need to get out the GooGone and rid the poor chair of the nasty sticker residue.

Excuse all the white space.  I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of uploading photos here.  Of course I'm not really sure who it is I'm talking to, since Dani is the only person who may read this and she still can't find it!  Ha!