Sunday, January 30, 2011

Weekend Sewing

I have just about burned myself out on sewing, but I finished a couple more projects this weekend. And one more that is top secret because it is a gift for someone, but SOOOOO cute -- I can't wait to show you! Here are the ones I did finish...
Our pretty firewood carrier (Darryl would like me clarify that, in the above picture, the pretty carrier is being held by my very handsome firewood carrier -- just so there's no confusion)! I made it out of really durable indoor/outdoor fabric with dowel handles following the directions found here: http://sew4home.com/projects/storage-solutions/741-noel-home-sturdy-stylin-firewood-carrier. It's a fast and easy project that turned out great!

The other project was a silly, but very necessary one. Miss Madeline has told me on numerous occasions that she was sad she didn't have a minky baby blanket like I've made for many babies (Logan, Rosie, Quinn...) and so.... drumroll, please..... Maddy's baby blanket (2 weeks before her 8th birthday!)


It even has her name on it (which I did to compensate for my boneheaded cutting mistake that lead to the one block of 9-patch. Oops.)

Hope you had a good weekend!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Pockets and Hearts

I had a number of projects cooking all at the same time AND I was waiting to finish them all up before posting any pictures.... First, I made bedside organizers for the kids. They enjoy staying up past bedtime and reading books by flashlight, and clearly, they needed someplace to put said books and flashlight. I got the initial inspiration here http://sew4home.com/projects/storage-solutions/400-bed-caddy but changed ours quite a bit in the end. (Still love those gusseted pockets!)



I was excited (intimidated) to learn how to sew buttons and buttonholes using my new machine, but as it turns out, the buttons the kids picked out were too big. So I had to learn how to sew buttonholes without a cool, one-touch button on my machine. Hopefully they won't fall apart -- they are really wonky and crazy, but functional (so far). I did sew on the buttons with the machine and that was slick.




 The other project that has completely consumed me recently was making crayon hearts for Valentine's Day. In another burst of organizing, I discovered a shameful amount of broken crayon bits and off-brand crayons. I decided to get the kids involved (ha ha) and make something for their friends and classmates. We (mostly me) melted the broken bits and pieces in our new heart-shaped mini muffin pan. In the end, the pan ended up looking nearly as lovely as the hearts themselves....


That's it for now. Next on the docket is a firewood carrier, favor bags for Madeline's birthday party, Valentine's tea towels.... I sure I'll think of some more!

Saturday, January 15, 2011