A Chenille Quilt and a New Calendar

Over the weekend I completed my second chenille blanket.  I completed my first one over the summer for my friend's little boy. After seeing this tutorial at the Aesthetic Nest Blog for a chenille blanket I wanted to give it a shot.  I had no idea how much time it would take to sew all of the lines and cut all of the channels with scissors, but when it was done and it came out of the dryer it was amazing, even though I couldn't feel my thumb for weeks after all of the cutting. 

my first chenille quilt

Since the first one was such a success and since I was given an Olfa chenille cutter as a present from my aunt Christine I decided to give making a chenille quilt another go.  Last Black Friday I spent hours at Joanns with my mother in law, and one of the fabrics I picked up was a blue flannel with blue VW bugs all over it, and I bought it with my uncle Lance in mind since he's in love with his restored baby blue '73 VW bug, so a chenille blanket for his birthday using the flannel was perfect. 

I paired the flannel with three solids, a dark blue, a light blue, and a light grey.  After layering them I pulled out my cone of blue thread and walking foot and started sewing. 

 

And sewing...

Until the sewing stopped.  Or I should say, until I bent my last sewing machine needle.

And the sewing ground to a halt.

But then the hubs ran out and got me a new set of machine needles, and the sewing continued.  

The sewing part of the project lasted as long as it had my first time making a chenille quilt, but the cutting portion was a breeze using the chenille cutter.  Unfortunately it was at this point in the process that my camera pooped out and so I don't have any pictures of what the quilt back looked like cut or after it had been washed. And since it was a birthday present for my uncle I had a timeline for when I had to give it away, so I wasn't able to get a picture of it before it went to him, though he did promise to snap a photo of it when he got a chance.

Another project I whipped up this week was a birthday card for my aunt.  She's been wanting new curtains for her living room and so for her present I'm going to make them for her.  Since I didn't have anything to physically give her for her birthday I wanted to make her a card that symbolized the gift.  The idea I had was to make a card with a window on the front, and make a curtain on the window.  Yeah, pretty cheezy, but I liked the way it turned out.

For the message part of the card I decorated the edges with stitching.  To get even stitching I ran the edges under my machine with the stitch length set to 5 with no thread in the needle, so basically I punched holes evenly along the edges, and then went back with my embroidery thread and needle and threaded the thread through the pre-punched holes.

Now onto the surprise.  Tomorrow I'll be hosting my first giveaway!  Since I'm also a big fan of papercrafts in addition to sewing the team at My Memories gave me a free copy of their My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software and I've been having fun playing with it.  

The first project I made with it is a calendar.  I'm a big fan of staying organized, so it's important to me that I remember all my appointments, and for that a calendar is necessary.

I made this September calendar a few days ago using the software and I loved it.  It was so easy to use, and had so many fun options.  The version I made myself included my appointments and reminders on it, but I wanted to post a blank version of it here in hope that some of you might be able to use it as well.

Check back here tomorrow for the official launch post of the My Memories giveaway and my review of the software, and check back in the following days for a few more projects I've done using it!

Baby Showers!

Today we celebrated the upcoming birth of what is sure to be a beautiful child.  Two friends from church are expecting their first baby girl soon and we celebrated with a baby shower today.  Since the majority of the gifts I've been making recently have been for either boy gifts or gender-neutral gifts it was pretty fun to be able to make something for a girl that could be girly.  And knowing that Emily loves butterflies certainly helped with the design.

At first I was contemplating making a blanket, but then I received an email in my inbox from the baby's godmother saying she was organizing a quilt for the family and wanted to know if I wanted to contribute a square or two.  To sweeten the deal she was having a night at her house where we could go and work on our squares... Sweet!

I ended up making two squares while I was hanging out enjoying banana bread and wine.  The first was a pink heart on a butterfly-print background with the words "Happy Family" embroidered in the heart.  

The second square I wanted to be simple yet beautiful.  I had some ivory eyelet scraps left over from making Wendy's dirndl (Hi Wendy!) for Oktoberfest so I thought I'd just cut a butterfly shape out of the scrap and sew it onto a green background.  

It looked so pretty that it inspired me for a future project to make a full quilt using blocks of eyelet butterflies on differing backgrounds.  Forgive the quality of the two photos, I took them with my phone at night in a dimly lit room.  

I didn't get a picture of the finished quilt today at the baby shower when Emily opened it, but it was BEAUTIFUL.  Sarah did a great job putting it all together and putting the backing on.  Maybe someone who was there snapped a photo of it and would care to send it my way...hint, hint.

Not onto the present!  Since a quilt was already being made I thought I'd go the onesie route.  I recently won a set of beautiful pink and green Riley Blake fat quarters at a giveaway going on at Melissa Stramel's Blog and thought that the solid pink, polka dot, and paisley prints would look great used together.

 

Awhile ago I bought several blank white onesies in two sizes to embellish and use as gifts, and so I used one from each size for the gift.  For the 6-9 month sized onesie I decided to make a matching skirt for her to wear with it.  I used the same pattern for the skirt that I used for the Cthulhu skirt, but since I had a limited amount of fabric I shortened the yoke so that it was basically just a waistband.

I decided to make it as versatile as I could so I made it reversible, with the paisley print on one side, the polka dot on the reverse, and the pink as the waistband. 

Construction of the skirt was simple. If I had taken any photos of the process I would try to make a tutorial, but since I didn't I'll leave it to your imagination how I put it together...

For the onesie that matched the skirt I made a butterfly template out of paper and then with right sides of the fabric together I machine stitched all the way around.  I then trimmed the edges and clipped corners, then I cut a slit in the center of the butterfly on the side of the fabric that would be against the onesie.  I then used the slit to turn the butterfly so that the right sides were facing out, and pressed it with my iron.  I attached the butterfly to the front of the onesie using a zigzag stitch, and then cut out a butterfly body shape in a contrasting fabric and appliqued it onto the wings shape.  With a pink embroidery floss I then secured the body to the onesie so that it wouldn't fray in the wash.  Done!

For the 0-3 month sized onesie I didn't want to make a skirt, so I had to think of something different. I made a similar butterfly to the one I made for the other onesie, but I switched which fabric was the wings and which was the body, and constructed it and attached it to the onesie.  For the "something different" to go with this onesie I decided on some butt ruffles.  I've seen this done in several patterns on diaper covers and so I figures it couldn't be that difficult.  I took a this strip from each of my three fabrics and used my serger to serge all the way around the edges.  I then basted across the top of each and used the basting stitch to gather the strip into a ruffle.  I then pinned them to the butt of the onesie and attached them with a zigzag stitch.  The zigzag allowed the ruffles to stretch with the fabric, which I thought would be a VERY good idea since the ruffles are supposed to stretch across the baby's butt.  I then made a bow out of the pink fabric and attached it above the ruffles. Done!

I really like the way these outfits came out.  The fabric I used was perfect and super soft... a great quality fabric all the way around.  

Since I was so pleased with the project I decided to do something special with the photos (and this is fun)... I enlisted Granite as my photographer's assistant and we headed outside.  I've seen a lot of photos on blogs recently where the project was displayed hanging on a clothes line in front of flowers and plants, and I wanted to duplicate that effect.  In our complex we have several different "pockets" with pretty plants and flowers so we headed over to one with our clothesline, clothespins, camera and tripod and set up.  Granite's job was to hold the end of the clothesline.  The other end we secured to a tree.  It actually worked really well, I just wish it hadn't been as windy as it was.  Oh well, I only needed to get a few good shots to make it worth it (and it was definitely worth it!)

All three pieces with the paisley side of the skirt showing...

All three pieces with the polka dot side of the skirt showing...

The backside of the smaller onesie.

A closeup of the butt ruffles.  Cute, huh?

And since no present is finished until it is wrapped with a card, I made a butterfly card and decorated a bag with a matching butterfly.

P.S. I'm linking this post to Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday.  See my sidebar for their button and go check out other people's entries!

A Doll for Emilia

After spending three days straight researching, reading and writing for a paper for one of my classes I've been happy to be able to spend the past two days working on a birthday present for Emilia's 2nd birthday party this Sunday.

Ever since I laid my eyes on Alicia Paulson's Stitched in Time I've wanted to make the doll on the cover 

I thought she was so pretty and she reminded me of a doll my mom made me as a child that I loved and treasured for years (currently she's in storage, but I'm sure she'll come out someday when G and I have a daughter). 

Monday morning I set out to my local Joann's and scored some pretty sweet finds in the remnants bin.  When I got home I put together a big pot of soup and made some rosemary garlic foccaccia then set down with my sewing while I watched some Lark Rise to Candleford.

And thus with time and love, this...

became this...

and then eventually this...

 

It's difficult to see in the photos but the green velvet trim I put on the skirt is very pretty (if I say so myself-- and I do).  The doll, which I've been calling Laura after the main character in Lark Rise, also has a pretty flower in her hair and a green bow around her waist.  

And because no birthday is complete without a book we picked out a beautiful copy of Beatrix Potter's Nursery Rhyme Book to go along with the doll.  

I think I enjoyed making this doll so much that I'll have to make myself one...

But in the meantime it's time to make some birthday cards, one for Emilia and the other for my Nana who turns 86 this week.

...And after that?  Well, I just picked these beauties up on clearance at Target so I'm thinking, sock animals?

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I just finished making the cards.  Both of these were made with my "paper pups" Cricut cartridge.

Emilia's card

And Nana's card

 and the inside of Nana's card

Baby Shower Cards...

I was recently commissioned by my good friend Lindsay to make two cards for baby showers she will be going to in the upcoming weeks.  She gave me full reign over what I did with the cards, she just told me that the theme for one was zoo/animal themed, and the other was ocean themed... and with free reign I had a lot of fun planning what to do with each card. 

For the zoo animal card I went through my various cricut cartridges and looked at what animal shapes I had.  When I came across this giraffe shape I knew I had found the one I wanted to use...

 

I added a tag with "little one" around the giraffe's neck and tied a bow to show that it's a gift for the baby.

 

I used paper from Anna Griffin's line for the backdrop, and with 3D scrapbook foam stickers made the giraffe stand off from the page.

 

For the second card I knew I wanted to do a whale theme right away.  

For some reason I find big cartoon whales to just be so fun and welcoming, I thought it would be the perfect thing to welcome a new baby boy.

  I had the idea to use vellum curls for the whale's blowhole, and I tacked them down with glue.

 

Once all the pieces were ready, I put the whale and waves down.  It's difficult to tell from the photos but the whale pops off the the card with the aid of my 3D scrapbook foam stickers.

I think both cards look very good together.  I hope the families enjoy them, I certainly enjoyed making them.

A Well Organized Craft Area...

Having a well organized craft room or craft area is extremely important to a serious crafter.  How else will you know where all of your stuff is?  Without a good organizational system you will be forever searching for where you put that scrap of flowered cotton or where you put your bag of buttons.

There are a lot of little tricks you can do to keep your stuff organized.  Above is a photo of a simple microwave cart that was adapted to have a large flat top to use as a cutting table.

Another trick is to use old furniture and update it to fit your needs.  Above is an example of a movable island being used as an art center.  You can get cork from craft and hobby stores and install it on the inside of the doors to create a nifty "idea center" to keep track of ideas you have.

Finally you can create interesting storage containers from things you might already have.  Here are old-fashioned straw dispensers used to keep ribbon organized.

And now that I've introduced you all to the importance of being organized, I'd like to introduce you all to my own crafting area...

...Yes, this is my shame.  I do have a good reason for why it looks like this though.  In addition to all the sewing I've been doing recently I also just made a birthday card for a friend this morning using my cricut machine.  So now it makes sense why I have a sewing machine, a serger, a cricut machine, a paper cutter, a box of scrap paper, pieces of cut paper, glue sticks and scissors, and a plate of donuts on my table.... well at least it kind of makes sense.

I'll post photos later of the card I made.  I'd hate to ruin the surprise of it if I posted the photos now and my friend who it's for saw the post before she received the card.

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Dez's birthday party tonight was tons of fun.  We played Taboo while we enjoyed our meal and Henry's Hat in Burbank.  Dez loved the card I made, so here it is for everyone else to enjoy. (the green plumb-bob in the corner represents her gift- we ordered her a copy of the Sims Medieval)

 Inside the card I added a little "kick stand" to hold the card open while it sits on the table. 

*All photos of well-organized craft room taken from www.allpeoplequilt.com