Tate's Quilt

I finally finished Tate's Quilt the other night.  It feels so great to be done!!! And it is so nice to know that she is snuggled up at night under her quilt rather than many random baby blankets :o) I am pretty happy with the finished project as well.  Making the pattern for the square was fun.  I have never followed any quilt patterns before, just come up with what I wanted to see.  In fact I didn't even know their were quilt patterns until recently.  It's been fun to come up with new ideas for each quilt.  I loved the one this one turned out, and I love the colors!  Happy Quilt Day Tate!

Kids Church Bag / Library Bag

  I don't know about you, but I like my bag/purse, to be my bag!! I don't like shoving it full of toys and crayons, especially on Sundays! So I made some church bags for the kids.

 It is so nice to say "you can only bring what fits!" and then for them to be responsible for their own things.

 I made these last year and when my sister came up to visit a couple of weeks ago, I made one for her daughter. I had some left over squares from the quilt I am making for Tate (so close to being finished!!).

 These bags are just not complete without these awesome Crayon Rolls (Have you made one yet? Easy and awesome tutorial!!) These bags also double as great Library Bags. They are extremely sturdy, and machine washable.  

Sewing "Room"

My Sewing "Room" is actually just a nook in my bedroom, which is probably pretty lucky. I can only imagine an entire room devoted to sewing, would look a lot like this...

This is something that is embarrassing to me.  I LOVE an organized space, and consider myself a very organized person.  However, this area always seems to pile up.  It has become a catch all. Mostly because I borrowed my sisters sewing machine so my sewing machine hasn't actually been used in over a year... so I haven't had to open up the desk at all. In fact I've done most of my sewing in the dining room or living room over the last year.  I do clear this area off every once in a while, but it always seems to get back to this.  I don't have nearly enough drawers for all of my stuff, so it's inevitable that things will be on top... but that's no excuse for this disaster... so I tackled it tonight.  I can breathe again. 

Waste Not

Tonight was the first night that my baby fell asleep before 11pm in weeks!! And instead of starting (or finishing) any of my projects I cleaned my shower... That can only tell you one of two things, either I have a serious cleaning condition or my shower was really that bad. I do like things to be clean, but seriously... Who does that??!!

Running Around Like a Mad Woman

This last week has been insanely busy...family in town... birthday... wedding...Easter, not to mention my sewing room (which just so happens to be my bedroom and office as well) is being shared with my ten month old while my sister and her daughter are in town. I'm hoping this next week I can relax while tackling a few projects that have been on the sidelines for a while. But for now, I'm going to enjoy family and just dream of the projects in store... see you next week!

Mmm... I just love fabric

Some yummy projects in the nears future...

Hand Stitching

 

There is something about a hand stitched quilt that makes it irresistible. Tied don't seem as "finished" to me, so I spend hours and hours hand quilting and get so excited with the little puffed squares, only to watch them disappear with time... oh well... I still think it's worth it. :o) First row down!!

 

Art Display

I asked my husband to make me something to better display the kids art. I had an idea of what I wanted and he took that and ran with it. I love this thing!! Not only does it hold lots(!) but it is also magnetic and so everything goes up and down without a fuss. We have the neodymium magnets which are amazingly strong!! There is usually tons of art on each of these, but I was in a tidying mode earlier this day and took (almost) everything down for the new month :o)

Beanbags

This tutorial was very easy and quick, I made all my seams french seams for extra durability, after all it is a bunch of kids climbing and jumping all over these. Unfortunately our computers crashed and this was the only photo of the beanbags that was recovered.  But you get the idea... they were awesome.

Crayon Roll Ups

I had made pencil roll ups last year that turned out worse than okay, they served their purpose, but not well.  So I decided to remake them following this tutorial from the Pleated Poppy.  Love it!!  Super fast, super easy, and the kids love them!

 I could only find two when I searched the house for them (not really surprised), and one was completely void of any and all crayons (again, not surprised).  Wondering when my three year old will catch on and keep her crayons in the roll up so they are there when she uses it at church. 

Transformations

This was last Halloween's exciting transformation... trying to turn this little cutie

into this commonly known wizard... you may have heard of Harry Potter before??

 It was a lot of fun and we scored on free black fabric (my husband found) and a free pattern (that my sister in law had) for an adult sized robe, glasses from good will (took out the lenses), a new sweater to keep him warm (this was our biggest purchase, $10 at K-mart) and the tie was sewn from fabric I had on hand (time consuming because of the stripes) with a free pattern from The Pearl Bee. I was super excited about the finished product. The kids want to all be Harry Potter Characters next Halloween... my oldest keeps telling me it's time so start working on the robes... I hate that she is probably right....

Homemade Dolls

It's an odd thing, trying to run around and find things that you've worked on over the last year... not only are they hard to find but when you do find them, they aren't as crisp and neat looking as when you first made them... not exciting to take pictures of! Oh well...

Here are the girls dolls that I made, one this past Christmas and two the Christmas before.  One is definitely more "loved" than they others, as I have had to make a more permanent nose and replace the hair several times.  But all the limbs have stayed attached.  The girls love these dolls and I love seeing them play with them!

Tate's Quilt

Tate (child #3) has been looking forward to her quilt for some time now (her 3rd birthday was in November). She went with me to the fabric store and picked out the fabrics a few months ago. It took me a while to get around to cutting (after washing of course) and piecing together, but eventually I got there. This was the first picture I took of the process.

I usually try to take pictures of the process so the kids can see all the cool (hard) work I put into it. Since all this happens when they are sleeping it probably seems like a magic fairy puts it all together. Oh well...

Last week I got it put on the quilting frame YAY! Have I mentioned how much I love this quilting frame??And it's only been sat down at twice since I set it up... I hate being sick... it really cuts into my "me time".

Skirts

Skirts for the girls. This was a fun project as I was able to put these cute skirts (from House on Hill Road) together for my girls fairly fast. Here is what the skirt was/is supposed to turn out looking likeVery cute and flirty. Mine came close, but I didn't have the correct amount of fabric (since I was just using any Green fabric I had on hand) so it wasn't nearly and "twirly" as theirs. But the girls didn't seem to mind. I didn't get a great picture of the my finished product, as soon as they were finished they were on the girls and enjoying the fresh air and swing set and mud just like every other article of clothing my children own... but the girls did stop for at least a minute so I could get their picture.

Can we say MIA??

I dropped off the face of my own blog, but I have still been keep close tabs on all thing crafty on other blogs. A few things that have caught my eye recently:

Fell in love with this necklace, so much character.

I'm thinking these aprons with a little adjusting would be an adorable summer skirt for my girls. They love skirts and I think with a cute little yoga waistband it would be adorable on them. And of course a cute pair of leggings to go with.

Another idea that I thought was very cute. What kid doesn't like a good countdown? We countdown to everything around here!

My kids would go nuts for these cardboard guitars.

I always thought these April Fools Day pranks were cute... will I ever take the time to fool my family like this... probably not, I'll stick with their milk changing colors and short sheeting their beds... but it's still fun to think about their reactions.
My Sister posted these Wheat Thins on her cooking blog the other day, they have been calling to me since.

I actually have been somewhat crafty here and there over this last year of being MIA, maybe I will take the time and blog a little... no promises though, I don't think I can handle that kind of pressure.