A Shrinking To-Do List

First several piles of dipes...

A teething giraffe...

And a very special little monster...

A Rainbow of Fabric

Finishing a quilt, even a small one, is a magical thing.



My daughter enjoyed the work in progress as well.



And nothing sets off color better than sunlight!



The little gnome fellow soaked up some sun too.

I think I've had a very productive week. I finished a quilt! Something that at one time would take months or even years....yet in a matter of days I managed to start and finish a 36"x36" quilt for a baby. As much as I hate to admit it, machine piecing and quilting can be a wonderful thing!



I was also able to send a homemade gift to a friend and her newborn son.



And also make a playmat for my own child!

More Gifts

My mother is a difficult person to buy for. She rarely takes time for herself so her hobbies have all but been abandoned. She does sew occasionally and I knew finding her supplies is always a chore, so the cat-proof sewing organizer tutorial was perfect for her. She does have a cat that drives her batty, by the way. I actually followed the whole tutorial bit by bit instead of going off on my own tangent! I did, however, add a zippered pocket to the back so she could store a quilt block while she's working on in it. She only pieces by hand and only rarely so things like that tend to get lost before she can finish them. The inside...



And a closeup of the outside fabric...


Next I made a stuffed rocket ship for a friend's 1-year-old. I think his almost 4-year-old brother will probably get more use out of it for now



You can find the tutorial for the rocket ship on The Long Thread's Make It Monday. I didn't have an egg so I imprvised a little cloth astronaut with a felt jetpack.

Massive Post Christmas Craft Dump

The holidays are OVER! Rejoice! Sadly I've let the crafting photos pile up...so I figure it's about time I just post them all and get it over with.


Before the holiday I had a commission to make some knitted dolls for a friend's daughter. Two mermaids, two girls, a dog, and a cat. I was particularly happy with the mermaids!


I got a bit carried away with the knitting and decided to try my hand at designing a pattern for knitted ponies. Still a work in progress...but they didn't turn out bad by any means.


Next I came up with some knitted cars with wooden wheels. They do actually roll, which I was very happy about...I made 3 for Bear for Christmas and 2 more for her friend.



Not a great photo, but I knitted a cabled tam for my aunt. Bear is modeling it here.



Two Black Apple Dolls for Bear and E.



One for my niece.





A purse, sweats, and necklace set for my niece, Ash.




An art-roll and a memory game for my nephews.



And finally, I recovered a foam chair for Bear. :)

Craft Sloth - Not So Much

My lack of posting, thankfully, is no indication of my lack of crafting. I have done quite a bit, actually.
I had originally planned to make The Bear a bear costume for Halloween...however, I really didn't have the time or materials for it. Instead, I put together a quick witch's cloak and wand for her. I had a small witch hat from a previous Halloween that was just the right size for a little one and completed the costume nicely.

At the same time I was trying to finish some knitted Fairies for a friend before Samhain.

My knitted toys have been a big hit. I've have several requests for them.


Finally, I knitted up a couple gnome hats. I only have a photo of one of them, however.

Birthday Gifts

Bear's friend E. had her first birthday this past weekend so Mommy did some sewing.


First I finished off a UFO that I'd had stuffed in a cabinet for 5 or 6 years. I had 5 rainbow Drunkards Path blocks ready to go, added 4 squares of super soft furry stuff I picked up at Joann's, sandwiched the top with a layer of flannel and woven cotton backing fabric, tied it, and then bound it with silky blanket binding on two sides. I'm digging the tying method over quilting right now...hand quilting is impossible for me with a toddler around. Machine sewing doesn't always happen either...but I can easily tie a quilt like this in under an hour.


Next I put together a quick dress, shirt, and set of DIY Babylegs. The shirt was made from a tee of my own. I didn't have to hem it because I used the bottom edge of the shirt as is. I did something similar to the Peasant Blouse tutorial over on Blueprints. The dress was just something I came up with on the fly. I will try to put together a tutorial for it soon. I embellished it with some Yo Yo's, but otherwise it was just a very basic rectangle dress. I again used the same Babylegs tutorial from my previous post.


Then I made some cute knitted little people/animals which I altered quite a bit by the time I was finished. By the way, the loopy skirt thing was the same stitch as the one used in this lion washcloth. From left to right - Suki the dog, Bear, E., and Cerra the horse.


And another split-pea filled monster. This time with horns and a cute little smirk.

SO now I need to try my hand at play-food. E. got an awesome up-cycled play-kitchen from her parents and needs some food to go with it. Bear also LOVED it...so hopefully we'll be making her a kitchen of her own in the near future.

Quick Project #1

Another monster doll! I'm going to a playdate/birthday tomorrow and I wanted to bring a gift. Gifts aren't expected, but I wanted an excuse to sew and tweak my pattern a bit. I'm happy with how it came out. This one is taller, has felt embellishments, and yarn hair.

Birthday Sewing - Over And Done

My little girl's 1st birthday was on Saturday! Yay! I'm very happy and proud of my sweetie, and also happy and proud of myself that I accomplished everything I set out to in preparation for her party. It's very rare for me to get that much done at one time, so I feel really good about it. The biggest accomplishment by far being the baby quilt I started for Bear when I was around 5 months pregnant. I intended for it to be finished in time for her birth, but as usual, things didn't work out quite as I planned. Better late than never, I suppose. My hope is that she'll get attached to it despite the delay. I've been putting her down for naps/for bed with it everyday since her birthday. It's a bit different than the previous baby quilts I've done in the past. This is the first time I've used Minky in the solid blocks (for those who aren't up on fabric types: Minky is a super soft, furry-feeling polyester fabric with a good amount of stretch) as well as the first quilt I've tied instead of quilting since the dread polyester-double-knit quilt I tied for my grandma about 10 years ago (Which was a nightmareish quilt, by the way. There is a reason we left polyester-double-knit in the 70's!). All in all, I'm pleased with the results. My mother did contribute one block to this quilt.
After completely the quilt I set my mind towards creating the decorations for Bear's cake as well as a fabric party hat. The design for both came from an adorable flower invitation I purchased at Target for the party. I loved that they were feminine without being all fairy-princess-diva which is ridiculously prevolent when shopping for anything for a female child. The hat turned out great, I think. And the cake also looked really nice when it was all put together. I purchased a completely plain cake from my favorite bakery and then added sugar cookies that I had frosted and iced to match the invitations. I also had plain red, turquiouse, green, and yellow party assecories to do with it.


At the last minute I decided to make a small stuffed toy also. Obviously very Yo Gabba inspired! I filled the little fella with dried split-peas so it's got that nice beanbag feel. I would have liked to make something bigger (my goal is to make at least one handmade gift for her birthday each year...and by the way I'm not completely counting her quilt because it wasn't intended to be a birthday gift, I was just really really slow), but all-in-all I'm happy with what I came up with. We also gifted her a nice set of wooden ABC blocks and a ride-on-toy that we purchased.


After the birthday was over, I turned my attention back to diaper making. I'm currently making a medium-long for Bear with the Daribum's pattern. So far I'm liking it. Lots of butt-coverage and the snaps are more towards the back of the diaper which makes changing a run-away baby much easier. As soon as I order some FOE I need to make some covers...I'll most likely also need to order some poly-resin snaps in the near future.

A current snap shot of my works in progress: