Craft-A-Little

Who said there would be no crafting in our place these days? 

There is.  It is just toddler style.  We made puppies. 

Well, despite my insane list of things to do before my baby is born (due date= less than 3 weeks away!!), I decided that I wanted to participate in the Ice Cream Social hosted by Amy.  I meant to blog about it before I actually finished my Ice Cream dress and shirt, but it just didn’t happen.  Remember the insane list that I mentioned?  

So…my results of the ice cream social…

A dress…

I had been debating the linen of a pink fabric for the top and bottom and in the end I decided on the linen and I love it!  This is going to look so great on Little Helper!  Well, whenever it fits.  I made a 3T and I am pretty sure it will be huge on her.  She won’t try it on yet though.  I haven’t put a button on it, so she refuses. 

I made her a shirt too- also in View C. And 3T.  And with no button yet, so she won’t try it on.  So particular! 

(Sorry for sideways photos.  I was so surprised that they worked and I couldn’t easily figure out how to flip them after they were uploaded.  I didn’t want to push my luck!  I do have them rotated in my flickr stream.)

I also finished the baby sleep sack for my brother and sister in law and their little girl that is due a few weeks after my baby.  I LOVE how it turned out!  I did a horrible job of blogging the process, just after I promised.  But I just didn’t have time!!  Especially because I did have some frustrations along the way. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I didn’t like that the pattern didn’t involve a zipper and I couldn’t decide on a back fabric.  Well, as much as I wanted to do a zipper, I don’t quite think that I am an experienced enough sewer to start adding in zippers yet- well, at least not on this pattern.  I couldn’t quite figure out how to do it without having made it before.  So, I stuck with velcro.  And the back fabric- I chose this dark pink that I actually had originally purchased to be part of the ice cream dress that I made for Little Helper and then decided not to use.  I think that it works perfectly! 

Here is the finished product:

I just LOVE how it turned out.  I really hope that my brother and sister in law do too!  I lined it with flannel as suggest in Anna Maria Horner’s pattern.  I didn’t find the instructions to be all that clear though.  I was a little disappointed in them.  I don’t know if I am just spoiled with O+S directions, or if these just really weren’t that great.  I am not turned off from the book though- I do really love the sleep sack!  And there are a few other things that I still want to make from it. 

I am also working on 3 quilts that I want done before the baby is born.  Well, I guess it is 4.  Hmmm….   One (stripe quilt) of them just needed the binding to be re-done.  I did the machine sewing on that a few weeks ago and it has been waiting to be hand sewn to the back.   Another (block quilt) needed a back, quilted, and needed binding.  Oh- and yeah- those were both supposed to be gifts.  Haha.  Not anymore!  I also had a colorwheel quilt top done and another top made with some Tula Pink Plume charm packs.  Little Helper has claimed that one.  She insisted that I put and A on the back for her name.    So here is where I am on these:

1.  Stirpe quilt- my mom is had sewing the back as I type.    She is visiting this weekend and didn’t want to sit around and do nothing.  I suggest she work on quilt bindings.  Funny story- I asked her how she did this part on her quilts.  She said that she gave it to her mom to do.  So, I am learning quickly!

2. Block Quilt:  I basted it, quilted it, made the binding, sewed the binding on.  Now it is waiting for my mom to finish sewing the binding on the stripe quilt.  Just kidding- it could be waiting for me to get to it. 

3.  Colorwheel quilt:  basted and ready to quilt.  I am taking vacation on Wednesday and I plan on staying home from work all by myself.  I am thinking that I might quilt it on Wednesday. 

4.  Tula Pink Charm quilt- I am in the process of quilting it!  I have the binding picked out, I just need to get to that part!  I have decided to try some flowers from a tutorial from Oh Fransson.  So far it is going pretty well!  I am almost halfway done and I expect to be done with quilting it tomorrow. 

I just tried to upload this photo and it errored on me.  I guess my luck ran out!  I am showing you a picture that is of a pretty good flower.  They aren’t all this nice.  But, they look pretty good!  I am happy with them. 

Well, I think that I am going to go do a bit of knitting- I have a blanket that I need to finish before this baby is born!  I didn’t have Little Helper’s blanket finished until she was 1- I need this one to be done before he/she is born! 

Have a great night!

Well, I still can’t upload a photo to my blog.  I keep forgetting to have my IT dept take a look at it.  I think that the problem is that I am trying to upload photos that are too big.  So, I need to learn how to make them smaller before uploading them.  I am sure that I will learn that soon!  In the mean time…I am using flickr.  Unfortunately, I can’t get my blog to link to flickr and I don’t know what the deal is with that.  But…my IT dept isn’t home tonight, so it will have to wait.  For now, I will just link you to photos on flickr. 

I have a few things to share…first…I finished my doll quiltfor DQS9.  It isn’t as fancy as most of the ones that people are making.  I kind of feel like mine isn’t as cool as everyone else’s.  But I really like it.  And Little Helper keeps asking me if it is hers.  I have had to promise that I will make one for her.  But since I put the first letter of my partner’s name on the back, I have told her that hers will have an A for her name on the back and that is how she will know it is hers. 

I am also working on the sleep sack for my neice that will be born in September.  It took me a while to choose fabric, but I finally did!  Here is what I chose.  I kind of went back and forth on whether I wanted to follow the same idea that AMH did in the book and do 2 in squares for the patchwork front or if I was going to switch it up and do something different.  In the end, I decided 2 in squares (well, I cut them to 2.5 and finished they are 2 in).  I decided on the squares for 2 reasons:  I really like how it looked in the book done that way and I feel somewhat short on time and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time doing something and then end up not liking it. 

I did think that rather than doing a 20×24 in rectangle as suggested in the book, I cut out my pattern front and used it as I went to just sew together enough squares to cover the pattern.  I think that this picture shows what I mean.  And here is the fabric not covered by the pattern ease. 

Now I have 2 decisions to make. 

1. What fabric should I used for the back?  My husband has suggested thisone.  This fabric looks totally different in person than it does in thie picture.  I was really trying hard to figure out if it was the same one.  I was thinking the clouds.  What do you think??
2. Do I want to try to add a zipper?  I really prefer sleep sacks with zippers, but I am not sure if it is a good idea to add a zipper the first time I make it.  I am not sure if I am that experienced of a sewer yet!  I have to go to Joann’s tomorrow for some flannel lining and velcro anyway, so I might pick up a zipper and see how things go!

I am hoping to have this sleep sack done this weekend!  Hopefully I will be sharing finished photos of this by the end of day Sunday.  I also have to admit, that if I have a little girl, I might totally copy the sleep sack that AMH did in her book.  I just so LOVE the one that she did in her pink Little Folks Voile.  It is also possible that if I have a boy, I will just copy it, but in blue. 

I love baby sleep sacks.  They are pretty much my favorite piece of a baby’s wardrobe. 

Here is Little Helper in my favorite one that she ever had, sleeping in our bed when she was 2 months old.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but it is white with tiny little pink polka dots on it and pink edging.  I got it on sale at Pottery Barn Kids shortly after she was born. 

For Mother’s Day, my husband and Little Helper gave me Anna Maria Horner’s latest book Handmade Beginnings and there is a pattern in it for a baby sleep sack and I NEED to make one.  But I have decided that I actually need to make 2.  I want to make one for my baby, but I am going to wait until after he/she is born so that I can make it gender specific.  And it won’t be used right away anyway- this baby is due in August! 

The second one that I need to make is for my brother and sister in law.  They are going to have a little girl shortly after my baby is born.  This is where my stumped post title comes in.  I can’t decide what fabric to use!!!  I am trying to make something girly that isn’t too pink.  And I have enough fabric that I should be able to pick something out that isn’t all the same fabric line and isn’t all pink, but is sweet and girly.  But I am stumped.  I don’t know what to use.  I don’t know for sure what sort of patchwork front I want to do.  I am stumped. 

So where does this leave me?  I will tell you.  I am going to take the process pledge.   And my first thing to post about is going to be this baby sleep sack for my brother and sister in law- well, I guess it is actually for my neice. 

The first part of my process is going to happen today.  I am going to look through the fabric that I have and I will take some pictures of some combos that I am thinking of.  I will share those with you soon!

I, Rebecca, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear.   I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.  

I have been busy!!!

Today, during Little Helper’s nap, I thought it was time to try to catch up on Quilt Bee Blocks.  I am officially caught up now!  Well, I have my May ones left to do, but since May is not over yet, I am not behind yet.  Here are my blocks for Becca in A Piece of Work B.  She sent all of us different fabrics and told us to do whatever we wanted- just do not follow a pattern.  One of our fabrics was the focus fabric.  My focus fabric was the hippos. 

I have been sewing colored pencil rolls.  It all started as a going away gift for a friend’s daughter because they were moving to Texas.   The first one I made (no photo) had a plain linen exterior.  My seam allowances on the inside color strip must be a little larger than 1/4 in. because my color strip ended up being too long.  With the first one I made, I (foolishly) trimmed the ends so that it would be the right length.  This made it really difficult to fit the end colored pencils in.  So when it came time to make my other 2, the linen pieces that I had cut were too short.  So I had to dip into my fabric stash to find something else that would work.  And I found frogs! 

Little Helper likes hers.  She chose the one with the pink and orange frogs.  The one with green frogs will be going into the mail to another little girl right around Little Helper’s age. 

The pattern for this is from the book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.  I did a couple of things differently than they said.  It said to hand sew in a part and I chose to edge stitch with my machine instead.  I don’t really like hand sewing that much and I am not very good at it.  I think that the edge stitching looks just fine too!

I also finished the 2+2 Blouses that I showed you fabric for a while ago.  I LOVE how they turned out!  I finished them (except for buttons and button holes) last Sunday.  Then, Wednesday night, I finished sewing the buttons on one of them- and Little Helper wore it on Thursday.  I washed it and she found it in the laundry basket this morning and decided that she wanted to wear it again.  I love that she is choosing to wear the things that I make for her. 

Here is the other one that I made:

I gave Little Helper a choice on which one she wanted.  She picked the one that was just faces.  Although, I think that I would have picked the other!  She tells me the other is for someone else.  So…looks like this goes into the gift pile!

I expect to be working on a few more gifts in the coming weeks.  So, lots of little projects.  But that should also mean that I will have lots of pictures to share!

As a side note, I am currently between good cameras.  We decided to upgrade our DSLR camera and we sold our old one yesterday.  We expect our new one to come in the mail tomorrow.  In the mean time, I am stuck with my point and shoot and the quality of photo is really not very good, particularly after looking at my DSLR camera pictures for the last year and a half!

I finally finished the silk dupioni tea party dress that I said that I was making for Little Helper!  Yay!!  Ok- it actually didn’t take me all that long once I started working on it.  I cut it all out a few weeks ago and then I sewed it all in one weekend.  Well, I did the hem and put the buttons on in Mexico after Little Helper went to bed one night. 

(I just took all of my photos today and the dress needs to take a trip to the dry cleaners- it is nice and wrinkly and has a small spot of food on it. )

Let me just say- I LOVE how this turned out.  And so does Little Helper!  I lined the bodice in pink cotton.  I found that sewing with the silk was easier than I expected, but I still had a bit of trouble.  Trying to attach the interfacing was a bit of a problem.  I am not sure that it ever attached properly.  But when I finally had to sew edges and I caught the interfacing, I was sure that it wasn’t going to slip out of place! 

I also found that it puckered a bit more than quilting cotton does.  There is one small pucker on the back where the bodice and the skirt meet- notice I didn’t show a picture of that.    I also had a hard time getting going points on the back bodice part with the button holes. 

I found the buttons at Joann’s- and just LOVED them!  They are just perfect for the dress.  I was so thrilled!!  Little Helper wore silver sandals with the dress and she was so cute in it!  Other than the bride, I am pretty sure that she got the most attention at the wedding. 

And here is the whole family at the wedding.  My husband was in the wedding, so he had to wear the groomsman outfit.  The wedding was down on the beach and just beautiful.  Well- SUPER windy, but very pretty and nice.  During the vows Little Helper decided that she just HAD to have her Daddy, so I sent her up to stand with him and the rest of the groomsman.  She is such a cutie. 

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Another exciting thing that happened- I won a giveaway!!!!  Melissa over at Elemental Stiches hosted a giveaway of four books from Shambhala books and I won one!!  I am particularly excited because she was giving away Carefree Clothes for Girlsand she has also been hosting a sew along with that book.  Now I might be able to participate next month!  Yay!!

Little Helper turned 2 on Tuesday!  I cannot believe that she is 2 already!  I did a post on my private family blog sharing a bunch of things that she does and says now.  Here are a few of my favorites:

…calls penguins snowmen.
…hugs her babies and tells them that it is ok.
…loves to read stories and her favorite changes weekly. Right now it is Moo, Baa, La la la.
…thinks that my fabric is blankets for her to play with
…is day potty trained.
…tells me that her baby is scared of the airplane as she consoles her baby.
…LOVES babies. whether they are real or toys. She LOVES them.
…thinks that reheating food in the microwave is cooking. (it saddens me that my child thinks
this!)
…is really good at and loves doing puzzles.
…loves going to swimming lessons. Her favorite part is when she gets to jump in the water.
…goes under water in our swimming class!
…remembers that you get owies at the doctor’s office.
…will set up her babies and animals in all the chairs at her table and feeds them dinner.
…loves to paint.
…calls her gloves “gums”.
…likes to wear my shoes.
…kisses the books goodnight when we are reading them right before bed.
…pats me on the back when gives me a hug.
…holds on tightly around my shoulder when I am snuggling with her before she goes to bed.
…gives me kisses, and hugs, and nose kisses.
…loves to be tickled.

Here she is getting ready to blow out the candles- she blew them out like 9 or 10 times.  That was really fun.  We just did cupcakes on Tuesday because we had the bigger party today!  I got everyone to make party hats today for the party.  Everyone did a really nice job.  See the one all the way on the left with  a heart on it?  That one was made by my husband’s 32 year old brother.  He put nice pretty princess ribbons on it.  There were only 2 kids at the party (including the birthday girl!) and the wouldn’t wear the hats.  All 9 adults did a really nice job of participating in the hats and in wearing the polka dots that I made for everyone to put on their clothes.  The hats were made following this tutorial. 

I baked a cake.  It tasted really good, but it wasn’t very pretty.  I did polka dots on it and they melted all over the place.  And one of my layers broke before I got the cake built and it was sliding all over the place.  My guests we ok with it, but I am not sure that I can show a picture here! 

But I can show…

Oliver and S bubble dress:

Streamers for the party:  I have seen these around the internet in various places.  They were pretty quick and easy to make. 

Advent calendar:  (following this tutorial)

3 WIP finishes this weekend!!  Finally! 

Oh- and Little Helper got a pretty nice gift from my friend…

Homemade slippers!!  They also gave her the penguin boots that her daughter is wearing in the backround.  Given that Little Helper LOVES shoes- this gift was better than any toy would have been!

We have been lucky enough to acquire a new piece of furniture this weekend.  It is a small chair for Little Helper.

Apparently, this chair is worth $3000.  No, I am not kidding.  It is the most valuable piece of furniture in our house, and I can’t even sit on it!  My husband’s Grandparents are moving out of their house and into assisted living facilities.  Well, I guess they have already moved.  So that leaves Will’s mom and 2 aunts cleaning out their (large and VERY full ) house.  Will’s grandma saved EVERTYTHING and they were (are) pretty well off, so there is a lot of stuff.  We stopped by last Thursday evening on our way to dinner with the family and saw all of the stuff that they have been cleaning out.  There was an entire (VERY LARGE) closet FULL of silver.  Real silver.  Like flatware, serving platters, pitchers, and various other items made out of silver.  I have nothing that is silver.  Well, I have things that are the color silver- like my kitchen faucet.  But I am renting, so that isn’t even mine. 

Anyway, when we stopped by we saw this little chair in one of the rooms.  And A LOVES little chairs.  Everywhere we go, if there is a little chair, she finds it.  And she gets so mad when we have to leave them.  So she was so excited when Grandma brought the little chair over yesterday.  She has been sitting on it almost nonstop since then. 

OK- so I know you are all wondering, what makes it so valuable.  Well, Will spent a little time looking up the history online today.  It is an Eames chair that was made in a single production in 1947-48.  Only 5000 or so were made at the time.   They didn’t do very well, so they didn’t do another production of them.  That is what makes it valuable to the collectors.  We just like that Grandma Abby played with it and Will remembers playing with it as a child too.