Birthdays and sleepovers

I have been doing a bit of birthday crafting this past week. Our youngest Grandson Nathan's first birthday was June 26th but since his sister turns 11 on July 18th, they are just having one big ole party on July 11th. Unfortunately Grammie and Grumpy can't make it up to Connecticut to celebrate with them but we will be there in spirit!




I think every kid needs a special shirt to wear on their birthday. I picked up a nice light blue shirt at A.C.Moores a couple weeks back intending to make him something to wear on his special day. First I thought about a cupcake, then a regular cake, but decided on a simple #1. This way he can wear it for more than just one day.


I thought Mariah (11) might like a sock monkey. I picked these socks up at the Dollar Tree around Valentine's day.


Mariah's having 3 girls over for a sleepover after the party. I thought they might get a kick out of some sleep masks. These are the first ones I have ever made. I used some batting in between the fabrics (the backs are just white fabric) but I'm not too sure I like them like that. Not being a sleep mask person, they just feel a bit off when you wear them. I'm sure the girls will like them though. I made 3 extra for Mariah's brothers just in case. I thought since Nathan and Jacob are 1 and 3 that they would want what their big sister has. Then there is one for the oldes (DJ) just incase. I wouldn't want anyone to feel left out.


Sometime last year I bought these bags at Michael's. I think I got them for 3 for 25 cents or something close to that. It was during an after Halloween sale. I picked up some candy to put in the bags along with the sleep masks for the girls.



All the Grandkids (and kids) have letter pillows so I knew I needed to make one for Nathan too. He also gets a crocheted stuffed teddy bear to snuggle with.

Brought to you by the letter N...

Our Grandson Nathan will be one in June. I crocheted this pillow for him out of WW yarn. It still needs to be stuffed, but I need to go shopping for fiberfil first. Everyone else in the house has a letter pillow and I couldn't let poor lil Nate not have one. I just used whatever yarn I had on hand. I'm slowing replacing my yarn stash with a fabric stash. I really enjoy sewing more than crocheting right now. I like how bright the orange is. Plus, the black crocheted edge makes it pop nicely.

Yesterday's projects

Once I started putting the borders around Savannah's butterfly blocks I just couldn't stop there. The plan was to sew them all together today. I just couldn't wait to see how they looked all together. I was almost late for work last night, but it was worth it :) I originally bought the blue in the sashing for the butterfly wings. When I saw it next to the purple I knew it had to become sashing. They work so well together.

Now, to decide how to quilt it. I know it will be free motion quilted. I probably could get away with just stitching on the ditch or outlining the butterflies, but I don't have a walking foot. Without a walking foot I have a hard time keeping the back from getting any ripples. I could use a variegated blue and quilt within the butterflies, or use either a pink or purple and quilt within the purple background. I think I am leaning towards doing the quilting in the background. Do you think I should use a pink or purple thread though? The back of the quilt will be black with pink butterflies all over it. I also chose a pink binding to bring the pink around to the front. I probably won't get to making the quilt sandwich for a couple days.
This guy is for the Toy Society. We will be dropping him at the library when we return our books next month. It was just a quick bear pattern from an old book I have.

I had to add this little heart to his side though. This fabric is almost an upholstery weight. It was fraying and pulling apart when I was sewing the seam closed. Now he has a little character :)


I also finished off these two Viking Hats. I took care of the loose ends and added the horns. Both of these Viking Hats will be in the shop soon. One is newborn size and the other is toddler if I remember correctly.
I have been working on this stocking for a couple days. I love to make felt stockings with all the beads and sequins. The only thing left to do yesterday was sew the back on. He will make it into the shop soon too.


Snowmen are one of my favorite characters. I am very pleased with how well the satin stitching came out on his cute face.


I feel great about how much I accomplished yesterday. Today, I'm hoping to finish up the dragon scarf I'm working on. Then I need to find another crochet/knit project to work on....

Aina's pillowcase

Ok, not the best picture but it was a very windy day when I took this picture. I also thought there were more pictures. Guess not.

Anywho...this is a pillowcase I made for a coworker (Aina). She was very helpful to our family at Christmas and I wanted to give her a special little thank you gift. I love the colors :)

Butterfly quilt

This past week I have been working on a new quilt for our Great-niece Savannah. Savannah lives way over in Missouri with her Mommy, 2 sisters, and 1 brother. I didn't realize I was a bad Auntie until I found out that all of Savannah's siblings have received a blanket from me except her :( Well, sometime this month or next month she will be holding her very own quilt!
I have appliqued all 12 blocks needed for the top. Here is just a small sampling. I did a satin stitch around 6 of the butterflies and the other 6 have a blanket stitch.


I have a very pretty blue that will become the borders. I just hope I bought enough.


The pattern can be found at Sindy's site. She has so many great patterns. I think most of my gift wuilts this year will be from her site.

Quick quilts and dish cloths

I decided this year that my extended family's gifts will all be handmade. I also wanted to use things I already had in the house.

I wanted to make quilts for my niece and nephew for Christmas. I knew I had limited time, so I went with some quick quilts.







This is the back of Bryant's (6) quilt. I dyed a white sheet with some blue dye I had in the house. I like how it looks like the sky on bright clear day.



This is of course the front. I found 2 of these panels at a thrift store. The other one will be for our couch. I just did a few stitches here and there for the quilting. I wanted to make sure he wouldn't outgrow the quilt to fast. This is twin size. He and his father are hunting and fishing outdoor type guys. I figured a jungle theme was something he could grow up with. At his age he changes his favorites so fast, it's hard to keep up.
(close-up of one circle)

Christine (13) has her room painted in this color blue with green circles all over. Her room has been this color for awhile now so I thought it would be safe to make a quilt in these colors. I made her a pillow case in September in the same colors.

I tried a little free motion quilting around the circles. It is definitely something I need more practice on, but it was actually very fun!



When I saw her pillowcase on her bed recently, I knew that the colors I chose for the pillowcase matched her room perfectly. Which was good because for the pillowcase, I used sheets from Walmart. That made it very easy to match the quilt to everything since I still had some sheets in my stash. I used a flat blue-ish twin sheet for the main background and cut out a bunch of different sized circles from a lime green sheet.



I used another white sheet and dyed it with Bryant's. This made Christine's lighter in color, but it still looks nice to me. Hers has more "clouds" and I like that effect.






For my sister and BIL I went with dish cloths. When she opened them she thought they were potholders. She was already gifted with potholders this year and didn't look too pleased. I'm not sure she really "got" the idea of dish cloths, but once she uses them I think she might get hooked like the rest of us who use them. My family thought I was crazy at first when I started to make them for our house. Now they have all come around because they work so great! They gently scrub the yucky pots and also clean the glasses without scratching them. I clean my floor with them too. They have many uses :)

Here are the things the kids bought Mom this year.






Robbie went shopping with a group of kids this year. They all had their lists and their spending money. I tried to give him easy things to find for me. He knows he can just go to the craft department and buy yarn, but I knew he wanted to find some special things. I was surprised that he found exactly what I was looking for!

We needed a new dish strainer. We don't have a dishwasher in this house. Even when we did, we really only used it occasionally.

I don't know where all our slotted spoons have run off too, but we needed some more of those too. We usually use the plastic ones, but Robbie couldn't find any so he bought these instead.

Then I also have been looking at the mini food processors. I like to chop up veggies, but when I need lots for a recipe it would be nice to have a chopper. This chopper can even make small batches of soup. Perfect since I am usually the only one who eats soup.




Mandy went shopping with her Dad. They started at A.C.Moore. Mandy wanted to find the perfect gift for me. It started out that she was going to get me some kind of craft kit. Then when she saw what her older brother (Justin) bought, she felt that she needed to outdo him. They went to a few shops looking for the "perfect" gift. They ended up at a quilting shop I said I wanted to try. The ladies in the store thought that they would be getting a gift certificate. Not my daughter! She had to pick out my gift herself. She has heard me grumbling about having to unthread my sewing machine to wind another bobbin many, many times. So, she found this little toy for me. Isn't she so sweet?









Justin went shopping all by himself. He did check with Dad to see what Mom might need/want. I have been looking for a toaster oven for awhile now. I just couldn't decide which one I wanted.

I was sitting in the livingroom when he brought it in so I got to use it right away. Actually, the kids have used it the most. It heats up frozen pizza really well.

I am feeling very blessed to have such loving and thoughtful kids. I guess someone raised then well :)

Name pillowcase

My niece Christine is turning 13 this month! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINE!!!

Her room is done in green and blue. I decided to make her a name pillowcase. I clipped the edges of her name so they would fray as time went by. I think she will love it!