October Baby Shower

Hello!

Just a few weekends ago I hosted (with my MIL) a baby shower.  She helped make some of the yummy sandwiches and I had fun making the decorations and cupcake treats.

The theme of the shower was pink and gold, the colors of my BIL and his wife's little baby's nursery.  Quite girly!

So we had pink, gold and white decorations.  Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up in decorating and making it just perfect, that I forgot to photograph great detail pictures of the party.  Oh man, I'm kicking myself over that!  but, I went looking through the few pictures I did manage to snap, and found that hidden in them are a few shots of the decorations.  Phew! :)

We hosted the shower in the cafe of our church.  It's a beautiful and open space, and works well for soirees.

I made a banner with the baby's name on it for the gift table, but no great finished picture here, oops!  I"m hoping my BIL and his wife will use them in the nursery.

 

My little boy thought it was amusing that mommy was up on the tall ladder hanging tissue pom poms into the ceiling.  So he grabbed my phone and snapped a picture.  I was quite impressed with his photo.

I made some awesome table decorations with pinwheels in mason jars.  Again, no great detail picture, but I did find that I snapped some shots with them hiding in the background... just look hard :)

I love the cupcakes!  I made fondant toppers, used a stamp to impress "it's a girl" and then painted them with pearl dust.  Some toppers were scallops and others weree sweet little feet.

I also made some gifts for my BIL and his wife.  I made a baby quilt, the same pattern I created for this quilt here.  But I changed the colors to all one color of pink square, and used a neat shimmery gold chevron fabric for the centers.  I used the same gold chevrons for the binding as well.  The back was this super soft pink flannel giraffe fabric.  If I had any reason to use pink giraffe for myself, I would.  I'm in love with it!!

I also made a taggie blanket and a set of hooded towels.  You can see these two gifts hiding in the bottom picture and snuck into the gift display table.

We did an open house style baby shower.  Everyone that came said they loved it.  It fit the easy-going style of the showered couple and worked well for the day.  I think it's my new favorite way to host a party.  People could come and go as they needed.  I hate being trapped playing games I don't enjoy.  You too?  Then you'd love an open house party. :)

So sorry for my slacking in picture taking.  I was über fixed on making it beautiful for everyone.  Oh well.  I know it turned out perfect. :)

Jenny

Zippred Pouch

Hello!

I've made several zippered pouches following this awesome tutorial from Noodlehead.


She has a wonderful and easy to follow tutorial on how to create these.  I've followed them and have also played with a few different sizes myself to get a taller of skinnier bag.  It all depends. 

Here are a few pics of ones I've created.


Here they are:

for my sister

I added a little hexie flower and hand stitched around it

For mother's day gifts

for my son's preschool teachers at the end of the year

I've had fun making these super cute pouches, I bet you will too!
Jenny

Taggie Blanket

Hello!

I know there are man y tutorials out there for these awesome baby taggie blankets.  I thought I'd just show you a few extra tips that I use when making my blankets.  I like the make my blankets a bit longer than just the 12x12 size.  My blankets usually end up about 36 x 44.  Just about the exact size of a yard of fabric (minus just a bit for 1/2 inch seam allowance).

After I measure up and cut the fabric, I turn the fabric right sides together to get ready to sew.  I divide my fabric into sections and then pin the ribbon facing to the inside, so that it sews the right way later.


I sew using a half inch seam allowance and turn them right side out.  I give them a little press and tuck in the area i left open for turning. I then sew all around the outside to close to blanket.  Easy peasy, just like the other awesome tutorials out there. 

But here comes my own next steps that I use:

I use a wide masking tape (about 1.5 inches wide) and measure In 6 inches from the seam and tape all the way around.  I use my long quilting ruler to help keep it straight.

measuring 6 inches in from the seam

I also tape another line on the other side of the ruler, this would be about 12 inches from the outline of the blanket.  This will eventually give me two outlines of boxes on my blanket.

full picture of how I measure my tape lines

Then I take this all to my sewing machine (with a few pins holding all the fabric in place, but out of the way of tape lines).  I sew on the outside of my tape lines.  I try not to run over the tape with my stitching, but if it happens, I don;'t panic because the tape will still come off-remember, it's just masking tape!

Then I peel off my tape and enjoy my blanket!  The masking tape doesn't leave any residue.

You can see the outline of the two boxes.  This type of sewing just keeps the blanket together, like quilting.

Hope that helped you find a new way to make a large taggie blanket more stable!

Jenny :)

Baseball Pants Patch

Hello friends!


I don't know about you, but my little boy has a way of putting holes into his pants.  But he only puts a hole into the left knee. every. single. time.  At least he's consistent :)

So, I've gotten creative with making a patch to cover said hole... enter- the baseball patch!

I made the patch from the twill jeans iron-on patch, but used white.  I used a small bowl to trace the size circle I wanted.  I used red embroidery floss/thread to free-hand the ball stitches.  Then, just iron on over the hole.  Voila! :)

My little guy absolutely loves it-plus it already has some grass stains now to accent the baseball patch.  We put things to work around here...


Enjoy!
Jenny

Baby Girl Quilt

Hello all!

Here's a little baby quilt I made for a friend's baby shower recently.  I made up this little pattern myself.  I don't have any fancy quilting program, I draw it out "old-school."  :)  On graph paper.

This little sweetie quilt finished about 50x50.  Just the perfect size to snuggle with or to use as a play mat for the floor.  As she grows as could also use it as a first toddler bed quilt.  So many options! :)


Here's a quick picture of sewing the block together.  I sewed the top and bottom over the square first, then sewed on the side strips.  I laid them out on top of each other as I had it planned out on my design I wrote up.  I then kept them in this order the whole time, and stacked the rows as I went.

I added this next picture to show you how I lay out the quilt.. and to show you a semi-picture of the back.  I tape my quilt backing to the floor with masking/painters tape (whichever I have on hand).  then I sandwich the batting and lay down the quilt top.  I use pins to baste, but I don't have a picture of that.

 The backing fabric came from Joann's.  I found the cutest pennant fabric and a nice teal dot fabric that matched the colors of the front perfectly.

To quilt it, I did an echo quilting 1/4" around the insides and outsides of the boxes.  I also stitched straight lines in the borders to make the corners cross into a grid pattern.

So sorry this picture isn't the best of the finished quilt... I finished it late one night and snapped a quick picture before I wrapped it up to give away.  My friend (and the rest of the shower attendees) LOVED it.  So excited to bless her little one with this quilt.

Have fun!
Jenny :)

New Pillows

Hello!

Recently we bought new couches for our house.  It's been almost 9 years since we bought our first and only couch.  Since we've moved several times, and our old blue had seen better days, we got two couches this time, and replaced our old friend couch. :)

I made some cute new pillows to match our colors.  I made the blue ikat and the yellow "irongate" (my phrase) pillows.  The funky geometric pillow in the back corner came with the couch.  I kinda like it as I'm into geometric prints right now.  ;)

They were supposed to decorative, but with a preschooler in the house- they quickly got re-purposed: pillow fights, fort supports, plastic fish cave (don't ask),  floor movie pillows... you get the idea!

Enjoy the crafty day!
Jenny :)

Recap Part 2

Hello again!

Here's one more recap from 2013.  I told you I was busy, just not blogging, so sorry!  I've made other things, but not all of them made my recap. :)  It was already a growing list.

Let's roll...

1.  I made a quilt for my son for his 4th birthday.  He has loved all the quilts I've made, and really wanted his own "special mommy quilt".  So, I picked out a few patterns and let him decide what he liked best: arrows it is.  The patterns is called Every Which Way bi Gigi'sThimble.  I doubled the pattern and then added one more row.   (Patterned fabrics are mostly "Cruiser Blvd" by Riley Blake, with a bit of "On the Go" by Riley blake, with a few chevron patterns and other Riley Blake mixes. The solid blue is Kona Navy).

2.  Here is the back of my son's quilt.  Its a twin size quilt (appx. 68" x 92").  I mace up with the pattern design on the back myself.  I draw out my patterns on graph paper and figure out all the dimensions.  (I was inspired by the traffic light idea here).

3.  I tried my hand at my first tiered cake for my son's birthday.  We had a Cars theme party.

4.  I made a tree skirt for my new-this-year "fancy" tree (as my husband calls it).  I found a great tutorial here.  I used satin for my skirt so I made a small hem on the edges instead of serging them.  I love the look and drape of it.  Looked beautiful under my blue and silver tree!

5.  I was inspired by several different looks on this.  I have liked all the felt wreaths floating around on Pinterest.  So, I cut out brown felt circles and glued them to my styrofoam wreath.  I found these great tutorials for the sunflowers and mums.  I also loved the look of the leaves from this blog.

6.  I made apple jelly for the first time this year.  It tastes wonderful!  I also made TONS of great eats with the 80 lbs of apples we picked in October 2013. :)

7.  I made a mini quilt for my husband's Granny for Christmas.  It's 24" square.  I used a pattern called Kentucky chain, since that's where they live.  I found a great tutorial here.  (I did not paper piece, I cut the pieces out and sewed them the second way).

8.  Sorry, somehow I don't have a finished picture of this mini quilt.  But it was a paper pieced quilt: I picked up the pattern at a quilt show last year.  I taught my mom how to paper piece with this little design.

9-12.  I jumped on the mug rug/snack mat train last year and made several of these last year for Christmas gifts.  There are even a few more I made that I didn't snatch pictures of before I gave them away.  #10 I found a tutorial here, and the others I just made up as I went along.


Enjoy!

Maybe I'll finally try to keep up better this year, seeing as it is already April...

Jenny :)

2013... Where did I go?

Hello, long lost friends!

(Or maybe that was just me...)

I'm back, and I've some recaps of projects from 2013.  I'm not going to write about each one as a separate blog, but I'll show you a collage and then give some links under it with more info as needed.  Let's get started!

1.  I actually finished my Swoon quilt last April and we've been enjoying it on our bed all year long.  I did a "quilt-as-you-go" method because there was no way I was going to fit this massive quilt into my machine; it finishes about 92" x 92", a very generous queen size.  I quilted each block separately and then added borders and sewed the blocks together.   I've previously posted in progress work here, here and here.

2.  I cure little pinwheel card I made for my niece for her birthday.  I used my Cricut to cut out the pinwheels.  I believe I used the "Just a Note" cartridge.


3.  A card for Mother's Day last year.

4.   This is the front of my picnic pinwheel quilt.  I found a great free tutorial here from SewMamaSew.  The fabric was Catalina by Kanvas for Benartex, I used a layer cake.  (There are a few extra scrap pieces with stars I threw in the mix).  I used just the red, white and blue fabric colors.  I used a white background, and then used extra pieces to create a "piano key" border.  I used stabilizer on the border.

5.  Here is the back of the pinwheel picnic quilt.  I used states fabric from Joann's.  I made up my own pattern for a tic-tac-toe board as well as a checker board.  I thought all of these would be great for summer picnics!  I believe the while quilt finished about 72(ish) inches square.  I also sewed ribbon on one side to roll up the quilt and tie it shut.

6 & 7.  I got these great patio chairs from my mother-in-law.  They weren't using them anymore, so I snagged them up.  I used several cans of spray paint by Rust-oleum.  I used Summer Squash and Midnight Blue, both in a satin finish.  I then used a clear satin to help seal on protect the chairs.

8.  I made water sponges to play outside with.  I found many tutorials online, but this is a great one that uses elastic hair ties instead of string to hold the sponges.

9.  I made a Kitchen Aide cover for my Artisan mixer using... an old bridesmaids dress.  Actually it was just the shawl, and the dress is still intact for another time of creative crafting.  I found a wonderful tutorial here.  It has a template as well.  I also made it reversible, with a black and white damask fabric, should I choose to change it up.

11.  (Apparently I can't count when I make a collage late at night!)  I made a sign for my laundry room out of a canvas frame, free Home Depot paint and a free cricut cut one week.

12.  My mom asked me to make a card for my grandfather to give to her dad for his birthday.  He used to make beautiful and amazing stained glass projects.  I so made the card with torn bits of paper to look like stained glass.

13.  Again my mom wanted a card to give to her brother for his birthday.  He was turning a big 60, so the card says, "Maybe a cupcake would help?"  I was amused at least ;)

14.  I made a pillow for my bed with the swoon quilt with the HST scraps left over.  I found inspiration for the design from this post.


Thanks for sticking withe the long post and thanks for rejoinging me after my long hiatus from blogging!

Keep crafty,
Jenny

Blue Squares

Throw size appx. 38" x 54"

I thought I'd share with you a cute little quilt I made and finished the other day.  I took me just a few days to get all the pieces cut and sewn together.  It took me a bit longer to quilt it because I outlined all the large squares inside and outside of the seam.  I did the echo quilting and tied off each square.

Around the little "dancing" squares I just followed around the outside and stitched in the ditch.  On the border I straight line stitched four lines on each side and they intersected in the corners.

My little one had claimed this quilt as his.  I'm thinking he needs a quilt for his bed now.  Hmm...

I used (an older) but absolute favorite line of fabric- "Spa" by Deb Strain for Moda.  Love it!!!  My favorite color combination is blue and yellow (add white and grey and you have a winner).  This fits the bill perfectly.

Over the front railing on the porch 

I used a pattern I bought at my LQS.  The pattern is called "Square Dance" by Gigi's Thimble.  I love how easily this went together.  This should have been my beginner quilt.  Oh well, I shoot for the stars instead of the moon. ;)

Over the bench I refinished (with my little one's baseball glove and my hubby's cleaning brush). Just think of the extras as added character. :)

Enjoy your day!
Jenny

Quilting Pics

so pretty

Getting ready to quilt hearts

I quilted hearts in free motion quilting.

another pretty shot of quilting

In the final stages before squaring it up and adding binding.  But first we had to test it out with a "picnic" for snack time.

Forget fancy binding clips, my clothes pins work great.

 Enjoy!
Jenny :)

BOM complete!!

I have finally finished my Craftsy BOM quilt.  Actually, I finished it about a month ago, but have enjoyed snuggling with it and using it during our cold weather.  I just have been lazy slow in getting it posted!

So, here it is.  It's not quite a twin size quilt.  It's about the width of a twin, but not quite the length.  Still more than perfect to snuggle under. :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Jenny

Craftsy BOM Blocks

Hello!

So, I have an awesome quilt in progress to show you!  This past year I've been teaching myself to quilt, with the help of great bloggers, tutorials and an amazing crafting website called Craftsy.  You can sign up for classes (some free, some paid) taught by experts in their fields.

I signed up for an amazing FREE class, Craftsy Block of the Month, taught by Amy Gibson.  She has a wonderful easy, laid-back, anything goes attitude towards quilting.  I love that!  She made it so much fun and enjoyable.  If I made a mistake, her tutorials reassured me how to fix it or how to leave it and make it work.  My kind of girl!  Each month January through October there were two new blocks.  Each month had directions to download as well as HD video tutorials showing the entire step-by-step process.  There were great close-up views so I could "get up close"and watch the action.  :)

I thought I had posted along the way some of the blocks I made, but going through my posts, I guess that never made it up. :/  Oops.

So here we go, a recap of the blocks I made.  That I may, or may not, have just finished last night...

January & February blocks: Asterisk, wonky pound sign, Balkan puzzle and a chevron block

I really enjoyed getting started on these blocks.  I wanted to do a black and white theme, with just a hint of color.  I chose hot pink and teal for the pops of color.

March and April blocks: string block, spider string block, Fun Hexes (English Paper Piecing)

These were some of my favorite blocks to make.  I used the string blocks and hexes for one of the doll quilts for my nieces. 

May and June blocks: Log Cabin, wonky log cabin, Greek cross and octagon

July and August blocks: Dresden Plate, Modern Dresden Wheel, Ohio Star and Double Star

I enjoyed the traditional Dresden plate block.  The modern wheel block tested my patience helped hone my skills of sewing an accurate 1/4" line.

September and October blocks: (Drunkard's Path Variations) Chain Block and Cleopatra's Puzzle and then October was Foundational Paper Piecing- Friendship Circle and Circle of Geese.

  I was really hesitant to make the rounded blocks for September.  I almost skipped them, but I'm glad I made myself try it.  While they aren't' my favorite to sew, and they take some time; it wasn't as bad as I imagined.  I was really proud of myself because I lined them up really well, and all my pieces matched perfectly!

The paper piecing took some a bit of getting used it, and a LOT of time and more scraps, but I'm glad I tried these too.  I got the hang of it after one or two sections and  got much faster.  Happy to report that out of both paper-piecing blocks, I only sewed one colored scrap backwards and caught it right after I did it.  Easy fix!

Now I'm working on the sashing.  I've gotten all the rows sewn together, now I had to add the sashing in between blocks and add the borders.  It's looking like a quilt instead of just blocks!  Yeah!!

Thanks for stopping by.  :)

Doll Quilt 2

Welcome back!

Today I'm sharing the second American Girl Doll quilt that I made. This one is for my younger niece.  She has an American Girl Doll to look like her.  Check them out here.

This quilt I made in a more modern style.  I used the same pastel fabrics from the first doll quilt here.

I added two few modern fabrics to the back.

Let me start on the front...

I picked "modern" quilt patterns for the front and back to match with my niece's modern doll.  But I thought it would be fun to still use the pastel designs from the Great Depression quilt just like her sister's.  Two fun designs with matching colors, but still unique to the doll and each sister.

Front of the modern quilt

I love chevrons!!

Back of the quilt- love those pinwheels too!

Close-up of pinwheels.  I did a swirly q design on this quilt.

This was my very first attempt at free motion quilting.  I finished this before the other quilt I posted yesterday.  I have really had fun finishing this "mini" quilts for the girls and their dolls.

Thanks for stopping in! :)

American Girl Doll Quilts

Hello!

While I've been absent, I've been quite busy!  I know you have been too. 

For Christmas gifts for my nieces I made American Girl Doll Quilts.  They are large enough to fit the dolls, but also make a great wall hanging for each of their rooms if they choose.

I will show you the first quilt today, and the second one tomorrow.

The first quilt is for my oldest niece.  Her doll is "Kit" from the Great Depression era.  She looks very much like my niece, so that doll is perfect for her!  I did a little "research" into the quilts of that era.  Lots of pastels and different patterns like Grandmother's Flower Garden (hexes), Dresden plates, Bethlehem stars, and the string block.

Ultimately, I chose the Grandmother's Flower Garden  and the string block.  I enjoyed making the hexes and making the string block patterns. 

Wanna see?

Front of the blanket with the Flower Garden design and two borders

Close up of free-motion quilting with spirals in each flower hexie

Close up of the back of the quilt.  String block pattern.

Back of the quilt

Hope you enjoyed!  I trated myself to a Craftsy class: Free Motion Quilting A sampler with Leah Day in order to learn the quilting.  This was my first attempt at FMQ.  I was a bit nervous, but I it love how it turned out!

My nice was quite happy as well. :)

Thanks for stopping in!

Mystery Craft Revealed

Drum Roll Please.......

Here is the big reveal on the Mystery project I showed a sneak peak of the other day.

I made thread/bobbin holders.  I needed a place to hold my thread and wanted the bobbins to be able to fit on top so that I wouldn't lose them or mix them up.

Here are a few beginning pictures from the other day.  I started out measuring and marking my wood and making marks where I was going to drill my holes.  See my previous post for those pictures.

I then sanded down my 1/4 in dowel rods.  I had my hubby cut them at 4 inches in length.

I also had some ducks come and hang out on the back porch.  So make sure you have an audience if you are going to sand the dowel rods.  I sanded down the rough edges and rounded the ends that were going to be out holding the thread.

I then drilled the holes at 1/4 inch.

Here are the two boards that I made.  The one on the right has been sanded.  See?

I then gave them two coats of paint.  (I painted the back too).
I used ACE Hardware brand paint: Clark + Kensington.  I used the color cannon ball black.  I also got this paint for free one of the days they had the free paint Saturday.  :)

 

After the paint dried (I hate to watch paint dry!!) I the placed my dowel rods into the holes.  I drilled the holes at a bit of an angle so that when I hag it on the wall, my thread/bobbins won't slide off. I used a little bit of wood glue to help hold the dowels in place.  I also had the world's cutest helper.  He wanted to put the "sticks" into the holes.

"Helping" mommy

Here's a quick view again of the finished thread holder.  I glued some black ribbon to the back and added a cute pink bow to give it some color. 

Here's the cost run-down.
Wood... free
Tools...on hand
Dowels...$4
Glue...on hand
Paint... free (yeah, ACE hardware)
ribbon... on hand

So, this whole project cost my just $4, the cost of dowel rods.  I don't just have random dowel rods on hand.  Lots of other things... just not dowel rods.

Happy Crafting! :)