Quilt and Fish Tail Towel Hanger

I’ve got a gazillion projects either waiting to be finished or waiting to be recorded.  I’ve been trying to get myself organized again since moving into our first home and sending our oldest daughter to Kindergarten.  It’s been quite the struggle to manage schedules and I’ll admit I don’t like having to work my life around school now.  It’s always been nice to just pick up and go whenever I wanted.  The worst part is the schedule crunching is just beginning and I know it will only get crazier the older she gets and as her siblings join her.  Life sure is crazy!

Anyways enough with my rant…

Here are some pictures of a couple of projects I just finished:

This is the baby quilt I made for my sister’s little girl who was born last January (this tells you how far behind I am)

This fish tail towel hanger came out of necessity when the kids hung on the original towel rod and it cam off the wall (thankfully not damaging the kids or the wall).  This makes it so the kids (except the baby) can now hang their own towels after their bath.

A Blanket and Barbequed Pizza

Blanket

With the arrival of our baby girl fast approaching (tentatively planned for this coming Wednesday) I’ve been trying to finish up the blankets I planned to make her.  Here’s the first one that is done:

I appliquéd the picture to a purple flannel.  I tried to incorporate different textured fabrics for the appliqués.  I used flannel, fleece, corduroy, some sort of cotton with flower embellishments, silk, and minky fabrics.

The border is the same as the back of the quilt.  I just folded the back over to the front and then did a zig-zag stitch around the inner and outer edge of the border. 

Barbequed Pizza

So my husband had this idea about a month ago that he wanted to try Barbequed Pizza.  Not as in Pizza with BBQ sauce on it, as in cooking a pizza on the grill.  Well I finally planned it into our meals for this week.  It turned out great except for the crust cooked a little to fast and I had to move it onto tinfoil so it

Ta Da!!!

We are a crazy crew!!!

Baby Shower Sail Boats

A friend of mine had a baby shower about a month ago.  I had seen how people were presenting some simple gifts like receiving blankets as cute little flowers and wanted to do something like that except since she was having a boy I wanted it to be boyish.  So I came up with these cute little sail boats:

Materials:

Receiving Blanket

Burp Cloth

Wash Cloths or Cotton Balls

1/4” x 12” Dowel

Baby Toy (Optional)

Shredded Paper Strips

Gift Bag

Instructions:

I made my own receiving blanket and burp cloths.  The receiving blanket was 36” square and the burp cloths I think were 12” x 24” (I’m not 100% sure on the dimensions of the burp cloths).

Making the Boat:

1 & 2: Lay out your receiving blanket and then fold one corner of the receiving blanket to the opposite corner forming a triangle. 

3.  Grab another point and fold it over making a smaller triangle. 

4 &5.  Keep grabbing one point and folding it over. 

6.  Once you get it folded to the size you want your boat (I folded mine six times) then tape across the points that want to fold away from each other.

7.  Push the middle point up into the center of the last fold you did to create a flat bottom.   You may want to do a little taping along the side to keep it closed.

8.  Sit your boat up and stick your dowel through off to the side that doesn’t have the folded point in the way.  Now either use your wash cloths or some cotton balls to stuff inside the boat around the dowel to hold it in place. 

Making the Flag:

1. Lay your burp cloth out.

2.  Fold it in half

3.  Fold one corner over to form the triangle.

4.  Keep folding until you have the size you want for your flag (I made 4 folds including the folding in half in step 2).  Then tape the corner to hold it together.

Putting Boat and Flag Together:

Slide your dowel up through the middle along the folded side.  You will probably want to put a few strips of tape along both open sides especially on the bottom side, right next to where the dowel goes into the flag.

Plop a toy into the boat and now your ready for the packaging.

I made my own paper filling by taking two shades of blue construction paper and sending it through the CD slot on my paper shredder.  It made the perfect little strips.  After that I just scrunched the paper strips in my hands.

Now just get you a gift bag (I used one of my Scentsy delivery bags and it sure smelt good!!!).  Layer the paper shreds on the bottom and then insert a sailboat or two.  Tie the top with some ribbon and add a card and your ready to go!!!!

I’m back and Last Minute Quilts

I’m back from vacation. It was great to spend some time with family. I was so happy the everyone liked the gifts I made, although for next year I really need to start making them much earlier so I’m not stressed for time. My one brother-in-law and my sister’s fiancé both loved the marshmallow guns we made (my husband did most of the work on those). I wish I had taken some pictures of them playing with them.

The last few items I had to finish up before Christmas were three quilts. I made an I-Spy quilt for each of my kids and a patchwork quilt for my husband. Patchwork quilts aren’t to sew but they are quick and easy.

As I piled flannel bolt after flannel bolt into my cart I received all sorts of looks and then was questioned by the associate what I was making when I asked for only 1/4th of a yard of each. It was so fun to find the fabrics. Oh and if you plan to do this don’t forget to check the remnants racks for a good deal. I backed both quilts with two microplush throws (they were only $2.99 at JoAnn’s on Black Friday). I had enough of the microplush fabric left over to make matching pillowcases.

I used boyish printed flannels for my son’s quilt.

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and I used girlish printed flannels for my daughter’s quilt.

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Then for my husbands quilt, I just pieced the quilt blocks together and then printed off the letters and pinned them onto a strip of grey fleece. I then separated the letters (not actually cutting the letters out) and then pinned the letters and grey fleece onto the quilt. I then did a straight stitch around the letters following the lines on the printed paper. After I sewed them down I was able to remove the paper and trim the excess fleece close to the stitching. It was pretty easy!!!

Hope everyone has had a Wonderful Holiday Season!!!

Holiday Gift Extravaganza: GiFTS FoR CHiLDReN (Updated)

Here’s for Day #2: Gifts for Children!! (click on picture to go to tutorial)

Don’t forget to leave a comment to enter into the Giveaway!!!

Hooded Doll Blanket

Tie Onsies

These little guys are different in that only the top part of the tie is attached to the onsie making them more real looking!

Placemat Apron

Guitar Appliqué Shirt

Baby Legs from Socks

Crocheted Bracelet

Satin Wrapped Tutu

Alphabet Flashcards

These flashcards are made by taking pictures of things around your house that your child sees often.

Silk Flower Clips

Toy Tool Belt

Sock Animals

Daisy Chain Beanie

Lacing Cards

Faux Makeup

Purse Notebook

Bean Bags

Doll House

Share Parents update….

Here’s all the blankets and diapers we made for Share Parents (you can find a little more information about them Share Parents here.  Thanks everyone who helped out.  They unfortunately had to use one of the diapers yesterday, but she said it made all the difference for the pictures they take to have the little baby in a cute diaper.

Quilt Creations

So I've been doing a lot of brainstorming for some fun and unique quilt designs. It took some brainstorming, some revision, and some inspiration from my Hubby to put them together.

Drum Roll Please..................................... TaDa!!!


I would love to hear what you think.
Right now I have a mini version of this quilt available at my KrafyMum shop, but I will have a larger version available soon!