New Year, New craft

Good morning everyone!

I have started today so confused I can’t even figure out how I got so thrown off.  I woke my honey up thinking he had work today and he didn’t.  Then I went to pick my nephew up, like I do every other day other than Friday’s and was informed I didn’t keep him on Fridays!  And now my 3 year old is very upset with me because he really wanted his play mate to come over today!  Hopefully by the end of this post I will have my act together………..HA!

Well in other news, I really enjoyed making the Coraline dolls for my friend so I decided I would give it another go and embroider this dolls entire face.  Soooooooooo……. What do you think?

                                       

I’m not sure that she looks as sweet as I was hoping, but maybe once she has hair and clothes she will look much, MUCH better!!!!!!!

Well, I don’t think this post was long enough for me to get my act together so wish me luck for the rest of the day and until next time…………

 

Happy Crafting and Scatter brainess!!

Quilts and more Quilts

Good Morning Everyone! 

I have decided to do a post every once in awhile of a list of quilts and other crafts that I would like to try this year.  Of course some of them I may tweak to suit me better, or some of them may be my own ideas.  But I hope that maybe they help to inspire you like they have me!!
I would love to make at least 1 block of these quilts, just to try it.  By the end of the year I may end up with a whole bunch of pillows or 1 very large quilt with a bunch of different squares .  I guess we shall see.
1. Dexter’s Quilt
2. Dresden Plate
3. Bowtie
4. Sun kissed squares
5. Auntie’s Diamonds

I hope you check those out, they truly are beautiful quilts!!  Now onto something I have waited months to show you!  I made this quilt for my Mother-in-law for Christmas several months ago.
                                           
Her favorite color is purple, can you tell?  The next picture is horrible, I forgot to take a photo of it after it was all quilted, but my honey did manage to take a photo of me and my sis-n-law snuggled up under it.  I cropped us out of it because she might hurt me if I posted her photo on here.
                                           
So, what do you think?  Well until next time…………..
Happy Crafting!!!

Coraline

Good morning everyone!!
I had the privilege of making Christmas gifts for 2 little girls that are very much into the movie by Tim Burton called Coraline.  If you’ve never seen Coraline you should watch it, I loved it!  I had never seen the movie before, but I wanted to know what I was making so I checked it out. 

                                  

                                       

In these photos they don’t have their dragon fly hair clips that she wears in the movie, but when I get a chance I will get some updated photos.  These were really fun to make!  There are a few things I would change if I ever made these again, but I think that overall they turned out really well!  What do you think?  So until next time…………

Happy Crafting!!!

Please check out the party tab at the top to see the parties I will be linking to!

Make your own fake snow A TUTORIAL

Good afternoon everyone!!!  How was your Thanksgiving?  Ours was awesome!

 

I know that it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything cool, or anything at all for that matter!  BUT, we put our tree up last night and I started putting up the rest of my decorations and realized that I needed some fake snow.  You know that flakey fake plastic stuff that you can buy by the bag fulls??  Well we live in a tiny town that doesn’t ever have the things you need, so I made my own!!  Would you like to make your own??

               

I thought you might say that so here we go!!  The top 2 photos are examples of the before the snow, which is pretty, but missing something and the after with the snow.  What do you think??

 

First of all you need to gather about 5 white plastic bags.  I only used a little bit of what I made in the jars and I have a bunch left over so adjust according to how much you need.

Second you need to cut the colored part off of the bag.  Look at photo below

                                     

Third you’re going to layer all of your bags together and roll them, scrunch them or just bunch them all up and start cutting!!!  See photo below

 

                   

 

And finally you have a container full of fake flaky snow!!!  So easy and so much cheaper than spending money on the store bought stuff!!!!!  And look how fluffy it looks

                      

                                   

Now just put it wherever you want. Now if you have small children please don’t put it where they can put it in their mouths, they can and will choke!!!!

Have you started decorating yet?  I’d love to see!!  So until next time………..

Happy Decorating!!!!!!!!!!!

Our pretend Tree house!!

Good Afternoon everyone!!

Well today my oldest stayed home from school due to throwing up and coughing until almost 3 this morning.  So to help entertain my sick one and my 3 year old I decided they needed something really cool in their room.  We live in an apartment (up stairs at that)  so going outside to play is not an options sometimes.  So to solve a bit of that problem and help their imaginations, I made them a tree in the corner of their room.

It's not perfect and it needs a few more leaves, I figure I will add them as I go.  What do yall think?

Tick Tock……

I can feel Christmas getting closer and closer and I seem to be getting farther and farther behind.  Does anyone else make a list of the things you MUST get done by a certain time and then find yourself constantly adding to that list?  If I could get my foot up far enough I would kick myself for adding to that list, but since I can’t I guess I better just keep sewing.
Remember me showing you this quilt top?  Well I finally got it basted and quilted and checked off the to do list.  What do yall think?
  

How fun is this?  I did not know I could tilt my photos!!  I think I found my new favorite thing!!

What do yall think about the green polka dotted back?  That’s a thrifted sheet!!!  Yep, yep it is and it worked perfectly I think for the color scheme of the quilt. I know my lines aren’t perfectly straight, but I think it turned out pretty good anyway.  I hope the next one will be better. 
I really need to perfect my basting method.  Any suggestions?  The fact that I have carpet all throughout my apartment and limited space does not help. 
Ok now onto the next thing I wanted to share.  Now that I’ve posted an up close and personal of the finished quilt, I have a question.  Do you see the sandy colored fabric in the above photos that creates the diamond shapes in the quilt?  Well I personally dyed all of that fabric with coffee and/or tea.  Do any of yall do that?
                                       
I save all of the coffee that is left in the coffee pot in the mornings and I use it to dye thrifted white sheets.   Yes you read that right, I do not buy white fabric from the fabric store and I also do not buy any type of tan fabric unless I have tried to achieve a certain color and have failed epically!  But I must say that doesn’t happen very often because I have learned that if I dye the fabric first with tea and it isn’t dark enough, I let it dry then stick it in a bowl like the above photo of very hot coffee and let it soak for about an hour that usually does the trick.  Oh and I must mention this method makes me feel like I’m doing something good for the environment because I’m only using coffee or tea to dye the fabric and I used something from a second hand store!

Speaking of thrifted sheets I wanted to show yall some of my stash.
                                
As you can see in the first photo, the second shelf isn’t as full as the top shelf.  The top shelf is 2 stacks deep and each stack is at least 7 sheets high.  The very front 2 stacks that are shorter than the others are pillow cases.  The second shelf is mostly solid colored sheets there are a few that you can’t see in this photo that are different shades of blue and purple (all thrifted).  Now the bottom shelf are our bath towels.  Is it a bad think when I have more vintage sheets that I do bath towels?  
I know I’ve probably babbled enough with this post, but I wanted to show you a sketch of the next quilt I am working on.  Keep an open mind because this is a very rough sketch and it gets worse because I had to take a picture of it because my scanner wasn’t cooperating.
                                     
And the last thing I wanted to share today is that my kindergartener had homework for the first time the other evening!!  He was so excited, but I don’t think that will last!
                                        

Show and tell and I need your help!

Hello Everyone!!

I hope everything in your neck of blogland is going well! I have been so BUSY, like busier that I thought I would be! 

I have been sewing my booty off over here!!  I haven’t been able to share very much of what I’ve been making for several reasons.  Some of what I’ve been working on has been Christmas presents and the others are Thank you gifts and well I don’t want to spoil the surprise.  I do need your help finding just the right fabric cleaner for older fabric though to get those yellow stains out of it.  I’ve heard there is such a cleaner, but I have no idea what it is or where to find it at.  So if you have any ideas please let me know.

 

Now onto what I can show you, I mentioned awhile back that that I had a new nephew!  So exciting I know, but anyway back to what I was saying.  I was suppose to have a quilt for him made before he was born and well Aunt Alley kind of fell off and didn’t get it done.  So this morning I got the quilt top all pieced together and the border put on and now it is ready to be basted, quilted and the binding put on.  This particular quilt pattern is called a wonky strings, it was so much fun to make!! 

      

So opinions please, and any opinions on how I should quilt it?  I actually really like it’s craziness and I definitely think it will keep Mr. Man comfy and warm!  So until next time……..

 

Happy Crafting!!!

It’s been so long

Good afternoon everyone!  I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted, but we have been so busy here with school starting and Christmas sewing that I haven’t had much of a chance to type anything up.

When we went on our vacation, I came home with some Dresden plates that my Grandmother made out of flour sacks about 40 years ago!  They are absolutely beautiful!!!  My Mom and I laid them out to see if I had enough to make a queen size quilt for my bed, and I DO!  Isn’t that exciting?  You know what is even more exciting?  There are enough of them to make matching pillow shams and I will still have a few left over, so 1 of these beauties is going to be made into something special for a special person I owe a very big Thank you to!!  I can’t tell you who, because I know she will probably read this and I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I can show you how beautiful these are.  I hope you have a drool bucket because you are going to be in awe!  Oh and these are all hand stitched together by my grandmother!!

         

See I told you they were beautiful.  Ok wipe your mouth now.  Aren’t those prints lovely?  Well until next time…………………..

Happy Crafting!!!

Sewing a new wardrobe

Good afternoon Everyone!!

It has been quite a while since I did a Thrifty Thursday post, and even though it is Sunday instead of Thursday I wanted to share it anyway!  I have been going thrifting on Thursday's , it's just been so hard to remember to take photos of my finds so that I could share them with yall. 

I have been wanting to update my wardrobe here lately, seeing as how all I usually wear is tank tops and shorts and the occasional T-shirt and jeans.  I just can't justify spending very much money on clothes when school is about to start and my boys need things more than I do.  So I have been scouring the thrift stores for a while now looking for things that catch my eye and these are 2 of them that I turned into skirts.

Once again forgot to take photos, but the before was a horrible 80's style jumper with huge shoulder pads and it actually came down to my ankles!  I removed the skirt from the top part cut it down to make it the right length and kept the pockets.  (I love pockets!)  I kept the top part for another outfit.  Everything in this photo including the belt and Tank top came from the thrift store.  All together the whole out fit was $3.00!  You cannot beat that, I don't know of anywhere I could buy a complete outfit for that amount!!

This was a shirt that was way WAY too tight across my chest and under my arms, but I loved the fabric and the fact that it was a button up top with lace around the edges.  SO what was I to do?  Turn it into a skirt of course!!  So what do yall think about the new additions to my new and growing wardrobe?  Well until next time..................

Happy Crafting!!!

Showing off Sunday

Good Afternoon!!

It's been a few days since I posted, but I have a great excuse.  I have been sewing my butt off!!  I actually have a plan to give everyone in our family/extended family a homemade gift this Christmas, SOOOO I have had to start early to make sure I can get it all done.  There are a few things that I have completed but have failed to take photos of yet.  But I did want to share with yall what I have managed to photograph.

I made a simple, but cute quilt for my youngest son that was inspired by this one.

Oh and LOOK I made my own tag for the quilt.  My hopes are that the quilts that I make my boys will be something that they keep forever and I want them to know when they got them.  I used my machine to attach the binding, I hope to hand stitch the binding on my next quilt, but I was trying to keep this one simple and quick.  So what do yall think?

Ok now onto the next thing I managed to take a photo of.  I made another phone case, this one was suppose to be mine, but a friend of mine saw it when it was done and wanted one just like it so to keep us from having matching cases I gave her this one.

I love how bright it turned out!!  So what have yall been up to?  Is anyone else starting on Christmas gifts already, or is it just me?  Well until next time.............

Happy Crafting!!!

Recovered nap mat

Good morning everyone!!  I have started to get back into my crafts, slowly but surely.

I’m sure most of yall have seen those ugly red and blue nap mats that the kids take to school for nap time.  Well we inherited a pretty well used one the other day and my oldest son Landon loved it, but I was ready to get rid of it as soon as we received it.  It was so worn there were several rips and tears all over it.   BUT since he wouldn’t let me throw it out I decided I would recover it and make it look much better so that I would at least feel a little better about him laying on it. 

             

Can you see the big tear right in the middle?  There are also several small rips and tears all over it.

           

I found the fabric I used at Goodwill, it was a duvet cover that originally came from Ikea.  He LOVES it.  I am working on a pillow to go with it.  I love how it has the extra sheet part for him to cover up with.  This is going to be perfect for sleep overs or nap time at school.  And the next best part,  it still folds up and stores away nicely.

                                 

See how nice it folds up, it won’t take up much space at all in their room so I guess we can hold on to this nap mat for a little while longer.  Oh and I also re-used the plastic that was covering the foam.  I cut it into squares and punched a hole through one of the corners making it into a type of dry erase book.  They can write all over the plastic and then wipe it clean.  So none of the original mat went to waste.  That’s my kind of project.  So what do you think?  So until next time….

 

Happy Crafting!!!

It has been a while!!

Good Morning everyone that has stuck around!!  Thank yall that have had the patience to wait around on me.  I had found myself in a little bit of a funk recently and I think I have finally gotten myself out of it.  I have actually finished several projects here lately and I want to share a few of them that I have photographed with yall. 
We had a very busy Independence day, but I did manage to make a very delicious desert and a shirt for me since I forgot to get one when I got everyone else’s shirts. 
                                      
I don’t think that my desert lasted an hour after we started eating it, and I’ve actually already been asked to make it again so I guess it was a hit!!  We had so much fun on the 4th watching the parade and fireworks, my boys loved it!!
            
           
And I must say Independence day is my ALL time favorite holiday!!  After all it is the day after mine and my Dad’s birthday so they must be popping the fireworks for us, right?  It is amazing how beautiful the fireworks are I could watch them all year long for hours at a time!!!

Ok now onto what else I was wanting to share with yall today.  I have never made anything special for anyone and have only been to 1 craft show and I only sold a few things at that show so the thought of selling the things I make has been pretty far fetched for awhile.  BUT the other day I was asked by a friend from my personal Facebook to make cell phone purse for her that she could clip on any bag and could be washable, so after a few practice runs I finally got it right and wanted to share it with yall today just to get some opinions.
The first one was my second attempt and the handle was too long and it is a little to small for the type of phone she has so I decided I would keep it.  The second one (green with pink polka dots) is the one that I am sending to her, what do yall think?
                                   
I must say I am pretty proud of them both because this was the first time I have ever used snaps and on the one that I will be sending to her, I actually made a tag for it.  Honest opinions please, what do yall think?  Well I’m going to go be productive, but I will try my hardest to not disappear for so long next time!!  So until then………………..

Happy Crafting!!

So much to share

Good afternoon everyone!!

We had such a busy weekend around here that I have several things to share with yall!!

  But first and foremost, today is my cousin's 28th birthday!!  Happy Birthday J, I wish you were still here so we could all celebrate with you, but I know that you are looking down on us from above and I know you can feel the love that we all have for you!!!  We miss you with all of our hearts and can't wait to see you again!!

Ok now onto a few things that aren't so sad today.  My oldest son played his first t-ball game on Saturday and it was so much fun to go and watch him play!!  They did so great!!

There was a point when he was playing third baseman and he was getting not action so he sat down and starting pulling up grass, it was so funny watching all the funny things kids do at this age.



Ok, now onto the other things that filled my weekend.  On Sunday my Aunt came over and we made hair bows for her t-ball team because she's a coach of an all girls t-ball team named the ladybugs and they have their first game this evening.  We had so much fun making the hair bows.  We found a tutorial on line that we followed, so if I can find it again I will definitely link back to it.

                                            The ladybugs have landed!!  Aren't they cute?!?

We also made these bows for them as well.  I think the plan is for the girls to wear the ladybugs on their visors and these bows in their hair.

Can you tell what color the team is?  We just loved these bows and they were a learning experience.  When we were done with these we just started messing around with some of the left over ribbon and this is the bow I came up with for one of my other nieces that lives about 20 miles away be cause the ribbon mathced her school colors.

Oh and she loved it by the way, I couldn't have been happier!!!  Ok, now onto the other project I've been working on.  My oldest son and my niece are in the same grade in school (pre-k) and they are going to be performing in their first program on Thursday for Cinco De Mayo.  They have to have a certain costume for the play that first in with the theme, so I did some research using google to try and find a simple dress I could make for my niece and this is what I came up with.

It was a very quick project.  I used one of the boys old t-shirts that had a stain on it and a piece of a dress that I bought at the thrift store quite awhile back and a piece of orange material from my stash to make the sash.  I also made a big flower for her to wear with from a piece of the dress and some felt.

So what do yall think?  Does it look like it will go along with holiday?  I sure hope so because she has to have it at school in the morning.  How busy was your weekend??  What did you do??  So until next time.............

Happy Crafting!!!