BeAttitudes

I finally finished it! It only took forever and a day, but it's finished! I think that the major reason that it took me so long to finish this was because I wasn't sure what to do with it when it was finished. It's got so much applique that it is not an ideal blanket to have lying around and possibly getting washed, and worn. But at the same time I didn't have any place to display it. But now we're moving, which means a million blank slate walls. Right now I think that the plan is to put it in the dining room. For the most part, I did an awesome job on this quilt. Since I was feeling this way, there needed to be a few humility areas. As I was finishing the quilting on the borders, there were several places that just did not work out quite right, and the fabric was quite pucker-y. Plus well, I'm not a professional quilter, so there are a few places that the quilting is a little awkward. But all in all, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Child's crown tutorial

Today is a twofur! Since I had my felt out to finish up the Valentine's wreath this morning, I thought I'd go ahead and finish the crowns for the pigs and then I can pack up the felt and fleece. I don't think I'll do any more projects with them before I move. So I made these little crowns for the pigs, and then I had this stiff interfacing and yellow fleece staring back at me, and I thought, what the heck! I'll go ahead and make the boys some crowns. And I'm going to try to do a tutorial. Let me know if it makes any sense. (Oh, and can you see the corner of one of the place mats sticking up there in the back of the picture?)

So first I cut a zig zag pattern out of the heavy interfacing. (Mine is really stiff, it will stand on its own easily.) I did mine free hand, but it would probably be more even and uniform if you drew it out first.

Then I cut a piece of yellow fleece that would cover the crown. This is folded over, you need a front and back, so make sure that you have 2 pieces of fleece to one crown.

After that, I just set it all there together, and carefully cut about an eighth of an inch or so outside of the crown. I was planning on having my seam show, so I didn't need a large seam allowance. If you wanted to turn yours inside out so that there is no seam showing, then you'll need more. But that's just an extra step.

I wanted the crowns to be adjustable, so I sewed a strip of velcro onto either ends of the crown. Make sure that you have it on one end of side A, and the other end of side B!

After that, I sewed along the top and sides of the crown, about an eighth of an inch away from the edge.

Then I stuffed the interfacing into the cover. You have to work it a little bit to make sure that everything is flat.

After that, you sew the bottom edge together, same as you did the top, and then you're done! Easy peasy lemon squeezy as my son would say.

Happy Valentine's Day!

OK, so first off, please don't be jealous that I have such amazing helpers at my house. It's how I'm able to finish so many things and have them all look fabulous! Hurley can measure and cut like you would not believe! (And he does it all while on the phone!) But now onto Valentine's Day. I may make a few more decorations, because I am putting off working on some other projects. (But I got the binding sewn on one place mat last night! Only 7 more to go!)
But I made this wreath to celebrate Valentine's Day this year. So far this is the extent of my decorations. But I have seen lots of cute things on Pinterest, and I'll maybe see about making some more. I don't know. I don't have a good space to decorate in my house. But I am starting to think ahead to the new house and decorating that.

Hence these guys:

This one will be for Olivia's room. So cute, and the fabric flowers- same as in her quilt. And I have to say, this was my first experience with Mod Podge.

And then I tried out these melted crayon art ones. Did you all know that I'm into Modern Art? Piet Mondrian is one of my favorites. So this is kind of right up my alley. This will hang in the boys room.

Once we move you can expect to see a lot of the transformations of the rooms in the new house. I can't wait!!! :) I'm so excited to have a space of my own, something that I don't have to worry about wasting time decorating nicely because we'll just move in a few years.

Late Christmas

So yesterday Jana finally got around to giving me my Christmas present. I know, she's lame, because I only gave her "the best present ever" (her words!) the Our Best Bites cookbook. But it's OK, I forgive her tardiness. I mean, how could I not forgive a one month slide, when she and Colleen "made me a quilt" for my birthday a year and a half ago, and I have yet to see the finished product! :)
But she made me this "jelly roll" It is made out of bunch of Riley Blake fabrics that she got last fall when she went out to the Riley Blake headquarters as part of the design team for the Quilted Fish. It's lovely. I spent the rest of the day yesterday thinking about what I wanted to make with it. Part of me is tempted to make a Bargello quilt, since I've wanted to make one of those for a while, but I also think it would be nice to make my "headboard" out of it. I don't have a headboard for my bed, and I was thinking of making a quilt and hanging it above the bed to give it the illusion of a headboard.
She also gave me a cute wallet pattern, and these M&Ms. When I looked at them I said that I had the perfect person to give them to! (Cause I'm a joker like that.)

And here is what I have started to work on. I'm making a scrap quilt, like I had mentioned before. So far I know one thing for certain- it's going to take me forever! This is just a small amount of the fabric that I have to use, cut into 2 1/2, 4 1/2, 6 1/2, and 8 1/2 inch pieces.

I am working on this only because I hate sewing the binding onto things- especially small things like place mats, which is where I am with my place mats. The binding is made and ready to go on, I just have to pluck up the courage and do it!

Confession

OK, so it's confession time. Sometimes I think in Facebook status updates. Does anyone else do that, or am I way too plugged in? (OK, the obvious answer is that I AM way too plugged in, but just humor me for a minute.)
For instance, last night it was 5:00, and the boys were fighting, Olivia was crying, I was trying to change laundry, and get dinner on the table. In my mind, I though, my Facebook status right now would be, "It's 5:00 and the world is falling apart." Fortunately, I had the sense, at that moment, not to hop right on the computer, ignore the falling apart world in my house, and update my Facebook status. I really do try to sensor myself, and not let the Facebook community know every time my children to any sort of thing ('cause I'm THAT Facebook updater- all about my kids.)
But am I the only person that tries to come up with clever status updates to describe the events happening in current time? Perhaps I'm just too much of a nerd who thrives on simulated human interaction, as opposed to real human interaction because I'm so socially awkward in real life. (Not that I'm any less awkward on Facebook, as my friends can attest to.) And on that note, am I the only person out there that thinks there ought to be a designated sarcasm font? Right there on your tool bar next to bold and italic. It would make my life so much easier! (And that is nothing to be sarcastic about!)

cake pops

For Christmas this year I got a cake pop maker, and when I haven't been sewing, I have been making cake pops and donut holes. YUM! I recently did a shower for my friend Julia who is having her first girl after 2 boys (I know what that feels like!) And I made some cake pops for the occasion. After making them a few times, I think I finally have gotten the process down. First, you need to dip the stick into melted chocolate before you stick it into the cake ball. Then you need to freeze the whole thing. When they're frozen, then you can dip them in chocolate. This worked so well! It made for a beautuful dessert spread!

This week's finishes

This week I finished my watermelon place mats. That binding was a pain! Mostly because the amount of white that the kit gave me to make the binding was only like 10 inches long, so I had a million 12 inch strips to sew together, in addition to the green ones, and then I had to sew the green to the white, and all of that before I was finally able to sew it on. Since it was on the bias though, it was not too difficult to get it to go around the curve.

And I finally finished the angry birds. Except that the boys both want crowns on their big pigs, so at some point I'll probably make those. I only made one of the big white ones because I ran out of white fabric. And of course, now there is the new orange bird, and the boys think that they need some of those too.

I have another set of place mats that need to be bound. The binding is already sewn, but needs to be ironed and sewn onto the place mats. Originally they were going to be birthday place mats, but I'm thinking I may use all except for the cupcake one on a daily basis. Olivia has figured out that it is neat to bang her fork on the table, and it's taking a beating!

Then I have one more project that I am thinking about starting, but I'm not sure about that yet, and then onto my scrappy quilt. After that I think we'll focus more on the packing aspect. We have finally agreed on a price with the bank, so now we have to see what the home inspection says...