Merry Christmas...

...a little bit late! I finished the quilt I had intended to give my mother-in-law for Christmas just a few days after we celebrated. It is a pieced hexagon and I love it! I nick-named it Blood, Sweat and Tears II because of the pain it caused me, but I think it turned out nicely. It is 47"x56" or so (I forget). It has The Comfort of the Psalms sewn into it and her name embroidered on it as well. She was surprised! Here are the pictures.

A's Quilt on his BIRTH Day

My sister-in-law decided to decorate her son's nursery in sports, so I decided to make him a quilt to go in there. I ended up picking mostly baseball fabrics and I love how it turned out. I did a large patch (9 1/2") disappearing nine patch. It ended up being 48" x 48" after washing. I even added a little tag on the back using my embroidery machine. I love this touch.

After I cut off the sides to square it up after quilting, I had enough to make a little pillow. I sewed them together, cut them in half, sewed them together, etc. It turned out really cute. I had absolutely no scraps left with this quilt!

I think he likes it!

Bleach Shirt

Using this method, I made #1 a birthday shirt that has his name and 2 on it.

1. I cut out the letters and number I wanted out of freezer paper and ironed it on the shirt.

2. I put a box inside the shirt so the bleach wouldn't soak through.

3. I put pure bleach in a spray bottle and made sure it was on spray instead of stream.

4. I sprayed the shirt with bleach and waited about 10 minutes for the reaction.

5. I peeled off the letters to see the creation!

6. I used a hair dryer to dry the shirt a little more and then washed the shirt to make sure all the bleach was off of it.

It was super cheap and a really easy, cool way to make a personalized shirt.

I'm linked up.

Happy Sewing Month!

We are talking about sewing this week on Today's Housewife. Be sure to stop by and check it out! Click over to see pictures of my most recent projects below:

* Name Blessing Cross Stitch from Joyful Expressions--You can find the ones I have for both of my boys. Cross stitching is fun, but it takes a long time! Check out the website--she can make a chart for any name and any verse that you want for a great price!

* Nursing cover for my sister-in-law who is due at the start of next month.

* Quilt for my soon-to-arrive nephew. Here is a preview.

* Reuseable Coffee Cup Sleeve--These are super easy and a great way to use up scraps! Plus, it's a nice homemade gift for Christmas or birthday! I have added rick rack and embroidered letters to a few of mine too!

* Car pillow--Mine looks slightly different because I did puffy tires, but Dietrich loves it. I was just excited that he knew it was a "truck" when he saw it!

* Embroidered items for new babies using my new embroidery machine!

Workin' Hard!

I've been up to a lot of things lately, but my computer is kaput, so I can't show you any of my pictures! I have organized my sewing/craft room with a cool pegboard (pictures to come), worked some on my scrapbook, cleaned my house, and done various other projects.

A friend of mine came up with the idea to have Siggy Block Swap. To do this, we need to have people from all over who would be interested. That would make our finished quilts all the more interesting! Here is a tutorial for making a block. It looks really easy! We are looking at an organized way to do this. If anyone has any thoughts (or interest), please comment or send me an e-mail. This will be a fun project!!

More to come...

Happy 8th Birthday T-Man!

In honor of my nephew's 8th birthday, I made him a quilt with his favorite things...

Sponge Bob

Transformers

Star Wars

The back is a little jumbled, but I know he's going to like it! I used pretty much every single bit of all of these fabrics that I had. I have previously made him a Star Wars pillowcase.

It measures 68x45 and I made up the pattern.

HE LOVED IT!

Recent Projects

I've made a list of things that I'd like to make. It's long. Son #2 is getting more mobile and sleeping less during the day. I love getting to know his personality more, but I love him even more when he sleeps during #1's nap! That's the only time I really get anything done.

Sandra's blog recently had an auction to raise money for their adoption. I made this cute tank top for 4th of July. My mom asked where I got the star from and was amazed when I told her I had made it. I looked up "wonky star" on swagbucks and just traced the one I liked off the computer. It was hard to part with, but I think I'm going to make myself one too!

I have also completed another thing on my list, but I can't post it for a few days. My fabric stash is mostly shrinking these days, which makes me happy!

I just finished my 8th quilt. You can see all of them in my right sidebar. I also have #2's quilt top done and 1 that I'm *slowly* working on binding. I just found out that machine binding looks alright and is amazingly fast--30 minutes versus about 8 hours by hand! Good thing to know! Until later...

Help Fund Adoptions

My best friend's blog auction is this weekend. They are adopting a boy from Ethiopia and need tons of funds! Check out their blog this Friday to see what is up for bids. I have decided to donate a 4th of July tie strap tank top that I made. Be sure to go over and bid on the awesome items!

My husband and I talked about adopting when we were dating. It is something that we are looking forward to doing. I have some friends who have adopted and some that are in the process of adopting.

This morning, I saw that Wendy's is giving $.50 toward the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA) for each Frosty that is sold on Father's Day Weekend. They are also giving $.50 to DTFA for each Frosty card that is sent. Go here to create and send a card. It's super easy!

38 Bucks

I recently went to a craft show in my mom's neighborhood and saw the cutest shirt with a bow as the strap for the tank top. So cute! But, I didn't think it was $38 cute!! I KNEW that I could make it...and since we had just bought a tank top at the dollar store, I had the perfect opportunity to try without spending much. The lady sold it for $38 and I made this for about $2.

Here is how I did it:

1. Take out your (ugly) tank top, fabric, felt, button, sewing machine, thread, needle and seam ripper.


2. Measure the strap width. Mine was a little fat at almost 3".


3. Double this amount and add a little for making seams for the bow. I cut my fabric at 7".


4. Cut out the cross for the center and back it with some type of fusible webbing. (My husband drew this cross.)

5. Iron the straps with right sides together so they are easier to sew. Center and iron the cross on the shirt.


6. Sew the straps down the open side and one of the ends. Flip the straps inside out.


7. Rip the seam out of the tank top.


8. Pin and then sew the strap onto the tank top with right sides together. I did about a 1/2" seam and then did a zig zag closer to the edge for reinforcement.


9. Zig zag stitch around the cross making sure that you're only sewing through the front of the shirt!


10. Tie a bow and try it on!


11. Trace a flower and cut out 2 with pieces of felt. I used this flower pattern.


12. Sew these 2 flowers on with a button. I also stitched down my inside flower at each petal so it will lay flat when washed.
EDIT: Next time I will put a snap on the back and on the shirt so the flower can be removed before washing and drying.


13. Ta-da!! You're done! Enjoy your new tank top with a bow strap!

I am linked up.

Easy Burp Cloths

I made these Burp Cloths that I had seen on Homemade by Jill. They were super easy! I did one with fabric lined with flannel and the others are flannel only. So cute, handy and looking forward to new owners!
I followed her directions except I only sewed accross the middle on one and the others seem fine. I washed and dried them once and they are plenty worn looking!

Me...Gardening?

If you know me, you know I'm more of an indoors kind of girl, but a post recently struck my fancy from Positively Splendid. She made some Tiered Terracotta Planters and I thought they were, well, splendid! Sadly, I have had this little rod to do a topsy-turvy planter for about a year now, I think, so it was the time. That and the sale on flowers at Home Depot and Lowes. Not to mention that I found petunias (my mom used to call my Petunia Pig when I was a baby because I was fat and my nose turned up, but I'm not scarred) today at Walmart for 50 cents! So I took the terracotta I've had for a little while, bought some spray paint and got to work...during nap time! Didn't get to finish this until CSI was on and the mosquitos were out. NO FUN, but finished before the family arrived for Mother's Day and that's all that matters! So, here you go...

Then a little other gardening. What? From me? I do not like the hot sun, so this was all done at night!

Plus Quilt

I got the top done to my plus quilt and I love it!! I followed the 4 1/2" x 4 1/2", 4 1/2 x 12 1/2" and 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" squares. They lined up pretty well which I'm excited about. Usually I cut, sew, cut and sew again so nothing lines up. Not sure how I'll quilt it yet.

Moby Wrap

I just made 4 Moby-style wraps using this tutorial. Super easy. I got the ugly gray t-shirt-like fabric (with picture frames and ugly colors) at WM today for $2 a yard and I bought 3 yards of it. I didn't buy enough because I had barely enough to tie it. My babies were in bed, so I had to "wear" Diego! (I should have better posture.)

The blue was great and super stretchy. It was also $2 a yard and I bought almost 4 yards of it. For each one, I cut them in thirds so they were 20" wide. Then I cut one of the thirds in half and sewed the half onto the longer one (a straight stitch and then a zig zag). The line ends up being right at my son's shoulder, but maybe no one will notice.

So I have two to give to friends now...or keep them because the cutting and sewing skills are so poor!

H's Quilt

Looks like I'm ready to start on H's quilt. I picked out the fabrics today from my stash and will be making this plus quilt. Super excited am I!

No, my other projects are not done. I just am jumping around to what sounds fun. I have a quilt waiting for the binding to be sewn on and my other quilt that I just finished is waiting in its sandwich form to be quilted. Oh so fun!

Recent Projects

I recently took some scraps and some of the fabric my mom gave me from her stash and made cute alphabet bean bags for my boys. On the front is the word and a picture and I put different colors on the back. This will be good for grouping colors and other activities. We are currently down one (octopus) because the dog ate it--raw rice and all!

I saw these cute bags on clearance at Hobby Lobby and picked them up thinking they would make cute diaperbags for church. So I sewed their names on them using cricut to cut the fabric...but it didn't work, so I had to cut the paper in the font, draw on the fabric and then cut the fabric. Ironed them on and then edge stitched them.

Obviously I am not great at edge-stitching...

Then I made this cute skirt for church on Sunday with this tutorial by Ruffles and Stuff, but I added a hidden elastic waistband instead of like hers. It ended up being really cute and SUPER easy!! Forgot to take a picture in it on Sunday...