You have to check out this giveaway!

My BFF Melanie is having a giveaway on her awesome blog, you have to check it out! She posts the cutest projects and ideas, which I usually promptly steal :) (Thanks Mel! Not much has changed since senior english, huh?) She has posts on anything from quilting to DIY furniture projects, and they always look AMAZING. To celebrate reaching 100 followers (woo hoo, congrats!!), Melanie is giving away a super cute coloring caddy. It has a pocket for coloring books or paper, and little pockets on the outside for all the crayons. Seriously genious!
So go, right now, check out The Crafty Cupboard!!!

A baby gift

Last Saturday my family had a baby shower for my cousin, who should be in her c-section right now as I type! I decided to go all hand made for her gift and did some toys and a nursing cover. The best part about this gift was I used stash for almost all of it! The only supplies were the soft and silky fabrics for the taggie, a couple new spools of ribbon, and the yardage for the nursing cover. Booyah!

I made a taggie with snuggly fabric on the front and silky on the back. Zoey has one of these that my friend Melanie made, and she LOVES it.

I also did 3 squishy blocks. They are 3" for those of you who are wondering! The blue and red ones have cellophane inside so they crinkle, and the green one has a jingle bell cat toy inside. Why a cat toy you ask? Well, cat toys work awesome because they have the cage around the bell, therefore they will still jingle inside a stuffed block! Oh, and a package of 8 jingle toys was only $2 at Walmart. Now I'm stocked up for more projects!

I got the pattern for this cute little clutch ball here. Super easy, thought a little tedious with all the hand sewing required, but the end product is so worth it! My husband wants me to enlarge the pattern and make a bigger one for him to play with...

Finally, I made a nursing cover. (This was the only picture I could take before my camera battery died, and then I had to leave for the shower...) I was able to take all the things I didn't like about the one I made for myself and fix them! Now I want to make myself a new one, but I really hope to not be nursing long enough to warrant a new one with this kid. I guess it will have to wait until next time! (And that's not any time soon!!) And oh VERNA! I made it out of a fabric from Kate Spain's new GORGEOUS line Verna. I want ALL of them now!! I am trying to finish up some other projects before I break down and stash more.

And I leave you with the adorable Zoey playing with the package of kitty toys. She likes them! I am pretty sure almost all of them are under the couch now...

On a side note, I finished all of my half square triangles! I have started sewing rows together, so I should have 2 quilt tops to show very soon!

Squaring up

My rotary cutter is tired. So is my arm. And shoulder. And hand. And there are still more...But I'm done for the night!

I WAS DRUGGED...that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

So, this morning, while drugged out on a Benedryl overdose, yet still sneezing violently and repeatedly from the allergy attack that necessitated said drug overdose, I was reading my email where there was a notice from a pesky very helpful online quilt store,  Blue Bamboo, that said they had Moda grab bags back in stock for the outrageously low price of $9.95...You see where this is going? Yep, 2 bags, please. I hope it's something new and bright and springy this time!  (I bought 2 grab bags about 6 months ago and parts of those ended up in the "loose change" quilt!) I think they are fun because the fabric you receive is a random surprise!

A sort of fabric post

So when I was finishing up the ABC board, I realized that I have never gotten around to taking pictures of the rest of Zoey's room. And truthfully, you still only get to see one side of the room, because the other side is thoroughly unattractive!

So, I made the draperies and the rocking chair cushions. Though, now I'm not a huge fan of how the cushions mesh with the rest of the room, so I plan to eventually redo them.

There are definitely perks to working in a professional drapery workroom. One, learning how to make awesome, amazing window treatments. Two, having access to the workroom to make things for myself!

The draperies stay closed pretty much all the time to help control the house temperature (awful apartment windows...), but apparently I took a picture while they were open right after I hung them!

Close up of the bead trim. Drat bad lighting and that flash! The only trim I could find that was the right color (and cute!) came from Hobby Lobby. And only $3/yd, SWEET!

And this lovely trash can usually sits in the corner of the room by the changing table, usually full of dirty diapers...I emptied it for the photo shoot :)

Can you believe this was a $2.00 plain old trash can from Wal Mart? It truly is a marvel what a little mod podge and paper can do!

And here is a project that I started oh, 6 months ago. Eventually the letters will have ribbon to hang them from knobs above the crib that I have but haven't painted the right color yet. When I DO finally finish it, I will definitely post pictures!

So, that's Zoey's room. A work in progress always, but I love it now that my sewing machine is out of there! I have some before and after pictures of that, too that I will post...eventually :)

A Non-Fabric Post

Today's craft was actually inspired by my awesome husband. He had this cool idea for 3-D wall art using foam board; I rolled with it, and out popped a super cute kid's room alphabet wall hanging! Partway through I remembered to grab the camera and get some during shots, so here is my progression:

At this point, I had taken 2 foam boards, cut them down to size (started at 20x30, cut down to 20x24), marked my grid (4" squares), cut out some random-ish squares from one board, figured out where those squares were going to go on the top(not pictured above), planned and cut out paper, and planned and cut out letters (Hallejulah for a cricut! Seriously, soooooooo easy with it!!!). There was a lot of prep-type work before I got to actually put things together. Sheesh!

In the first picture, I was wrapping the edges of the cut out squares with the corresponding paper, so there wouldn't be raw edges.

Now the paper and letters on the bottom (uncut) foam board are mod podged down. Starting to look cool, right? I was sooo excited while I was putting this together. And I kept accidentally calling the paper "fabric"... (ps this would also work with fabric!)

Then I wrapped the squares that would become the top layer with paper and stuck on their corresponding letters.

I just folded the paper behind to the back of the block.

I mod podged all of the mid layer paper and letters down next (The white squares are where the top layer letters go). Then a little elmer's glue to stick the layers of foam board together (I was running low on mod podge, and white glue works just as well!) and glued the top layer letters into place, and voila! A way cute wall hanging for my girl's room!

Ta Da! This lovely little boy quilt is for some friends from church, whose first baby is due next month! When I found out they were having a boy, I knew I had to get some Animal Party fabric for his quilt, mostly because I was dying for an excuse to purchase some! So on to Etsy I jumped, and found a nice half yard bundle I liked from this shop, and went to work.

Like my 6 way outlet with all the plugs? Zoey found it this week...

I didn't want brown to overpower the whole quilt, and since 3 of my 5 animal party prints were mostly brown, I threw in a couple of prints and a couple solids from my stash. I love a bit of solid in a quilt!

I just love the quilting I settled on for this project. I went with a diagonal crosshatch, with a double line on every other line each direction. I think I will be using it again! I used dark blue thread to quilt with; it was either that or white, and I liked the look of the dark better.

I didn't quilt it very heavily, because I don't really like when the softness of the fabric gets lost in dense quilting. The back is an awesome print from P&B Textiles. It is sooo soft, and I want more of it in every color! I thought about piecing the back, but I felt like it would compete with the front way too much.

Wow apartment carpet is ugly!

I went ahead and machine stitched the binding on. I like my work a lot better on this one than on Zoey's pinwheels, probably because I actually pinned it instead of freehanding it. The folded over fabric was still kind of uneven on the back though, so I need some more practice. I think very careful cutting and stitching on the front is the key to this one. At least it will be nice and durable for many washes and hard use! This one finished at 42" x 53", a good floor quilt.


Kirsten

Thrift store find and a few sneak peeks

Ok, sometimes blogger baffles me. I have tried to upload this picture twice, and both times it has loaded vertically instead of horizontally! Lame. Anyways, I had to share my amazing Goodwill find from last week. 17, yes SEVENTEEN embroidery hoops, plus half of 4 more(none of the pieces match each other...). And guess how much I spent on them? $6. I know, right? 

Now, I didn't buy these just to buy them (mostly...), I do have a project in mind for them, but turns out the miscellaneous pieces will suffice for my project! So I will still have 17 embroidery hoops sitting in my house...Anyone have any suggestions for fun uses?

 

Now, just to show you I have been nice any busy around here, I have some sneak peeks for some projects in the works :)

This one is actually done now, but has yet to be photographed.

This one is mom's. Her Bernie is STILL in the shop, so she came over to do a bit of sewing :)

Aaand this ginormous pile of squares is mine...Why did I think half square triangles were a good way to go? More to come.

Kirsten

A New Diaper Bag

My work schedule changed starting this week; for the last 6 months, Zoey has gone to work with me, but now she is crawling everywhere, and she is so not satisfied with a pack 'n play (ie she screams when put in it...). So now I am home during the days and can sew all I want during nap time! I have had this tutorial from Moda Bake Shop saved in my favorites for MONTHS, and have had the requisite charm pack and layer cake for even longer, and I finally had a chance to make it!

I did change a few things from the tutorial. I decided I wanted one shoulder strap instead of two, and I put two magnetic clasps in for closure instead of a ribbon tie.

Also, for now I am not putting in a divider. I figure if I decide it would be helpful, I can add it later. Man this thing is HUGE! I transferred everything from my old bag to this one and I still have TONS of space! It's great, because sometimes when we go somewhere I have to pile stuff in, and the old bag just didn't have enough capacity for Zoey's stuff and my stuff :)

I did a double line of stitching along the top for a little bit more stability. I'm pretty hard on bags, so we will see how this one holds up in the long run!