Rainbow Quilt

Brandon has been asking me to make him another quilt for well over a year.  I found lots of different quilt ideas and asked Brandon to pick one.  He loved this one.  I LOVE the colors, but I still don't understand the whole puff quilt thing.  He wanted it very similar and loved the fabric colors, so I then started hunting for fabric in June.  Yes, I have been working on this for over 6 months.  The color fabric is all from Riley Blake Designs collection.   I drove to MANY quilt shops before finding some of the fabric in Pella, IA .  Although to be honest, I mostly went for the bakery and didn't actual think I'd find my fabric!  The white fabric I used on the front is from JoAnn's and it is white with white circles on it.  The back of the quilt is plain Kona white fabric.

So, here's what I did.  The color squares were cut at 4.5 inches and the white strips are 1.5 inches wide.  I sewed the white onto the top and bottom of each color square and then came back and sewed 1.5 strips on to each side.  Using a quarter inch seem, the finished size of each block ended up being 6 inches (the color is 4 inches, and the white is an inch all the way around).  

After laying them out and deciding on my pattern, I sewed them together from top to bottom (which is actually left to right in this picture).  Once I had all 11 columns done, I sewed them together making sure to like up seems as best I am able.   To sandwich it together, I used plain cotton batting.

I completely put this  quilt together with my plain old sewing machine.  I machine quilted a line straight across touching a colored square, once where the two white strips lined up, and once again on the top of the next colored square, so between each colored square there are 3 lines straight across (and up and down) on the quilt.  I used a 3 inch double binding and sewed it first to the back of the quilt and then used a zig-zag stitch to bind it on the front.  I ended up having the kiddos write their names on a colored block and I hand stitched them into the quilt.  It isn't the most readable, but it added a nice personal touch. The quilt is roughly 66 by 84 inches.  I love this quilt so much that I wish I would have made it king size for our bed, but Brandon is very thankful that this blanket is just for him.

Washcloths

Kelly made these washcloths as part of her Christmas gifts for her mom this year.

Merry {Ugly} Christmas : )

Mike had an ugly sweater bar hop to attend and after seeing this on pinterest I knew that last minute craftiness was in order... I free handed all the shapes out of felt and then hot-glued on his buttons and booties and sewed down the rest.  It was the least stressful craft I have done since the whole goal was to make something ugly..... check : )

Christmas Star

Kelly made this Christmas Star for her front window.  She purchased 5 yard sticks from Home Dept at $.69 a piece.  Then she bought a pack of nuts and bolts ($1.18) to put it all together.  She used a strand of white lights she had to wrap around the star.

Here is the view of the star from the road.

Getting Nutty : )

With opening weekend of Nutcracker drawing near I am finishing up all my nutcracker gifts.  First I made cards for the children that I have - they are party boys and rats so I tried to combine it and make them "party rats"

"party rats" cards : )

Then for the Company I personalized all their ornaments according to their parts.  A huge thank you to Gail and my mom for helping me glitter all the insides of the ornaments (and thanks to Erin for the pledge!)  Then I finally put my silhouette to good use and cut out adhesive backed vinyl for all the different characters.  The fronts I made all the same so they would have the year.

Ornament Fronts

Ornament Backs

And here are a few of my favorites:

For Nutcracker, Snow Pas, and Cavalier

Flower Queen who also dances in Mirlitons and Snow

Clown Soloist, Flowers and Snow

Mirlitons, Chinese, and Snow

I can't wait to give them all out... now just to fill out the 40 cards I made...hmmm....

Birthday Shirts

 My son turned 3 this month and his two current obsessions are Legos and Angry Birds.  So I used my Silhouette and heat transfer to make him a shirt of each. They were a hit.

Wool Dryer Balls

If you don't know, dryer sheets and fabric softener are like the worst thing you can do to your clothes.  Throwing balls in your dryer is a much better alternative without the chemicals.  I've been using tennis balls in my dryer for awhile now (which still has rubber and whatever else they are made out of) and decided that I should upgrade myself to wool dryer balls.  They are natural and will help dry your clothes faster, by moving the clothes around better as well as absorbing some of the moisture out of your clothes and have then be static free.

I wasn't sure what to buy for yarn, so I bought a couple to start and ended up going back for more.  The yarn on the left is 100% wool while the yarn on the right was part wool and part something else (I don't seem to have the package still).  They both worked just fine.  The most important thing you are looking for is yarn that specifically says that it must be hand washed and cannot be machine washed.  Both of these yarns said this.  I also made more balls out of a gray and white yarn which is also the same as the pink one pictures above.

All you have to do is wind the yarn up into tight balls.  When you get it to the size you want, you just use a crochet hook or something else to loop the end underneath other layers of yarn to keep it together.  I made my first ones quite large, so I ended up making these out of 2 more sets of yarn.  I used half a skein of yarn which seems to be a good size.  It's important to have a few balls in the dryer so they work together to move your clothes around and the more wool you have in there, the more it will aid in drying your clothes faster.

Then you put them in an old panty hose, or since I don't have any of those a large sock will do.  Make sure to tie off between the balls so they don't felt together.  On my last set of balls, I simply put 1 in each sock and that worked also, just as long as your ball of yarn is nice and tightly put together.  Now is the fun part.  Wash them.  Over and over again.  Hot wash water, cold rinse water.  I just left mine in the washer all day on laundry day and then put in the dryer with the last load.  My second set, I just washed on a extra hot load and then put them into the dryer and that worked well for them.


Here they are, the finished product. They will continue to felt more and more as they are in the dryer.  The most important thing is to just make sure that they are felting together and are hard to peel apart before you start using them.  I'm very happy with how they turned out and that I can now my tennis balls can officially become kids toys! 

 

I'm adding this comment a month after the post.  I like the grey and white balls the most with how they have continued to felt and look, but that is really just a personal preference.  Also, It seems that the larger the ball, the better.  The little grey ones more often than not get stuck inside the sleeve of a shirt or somewhere.  I'm always taking them back to the dryer.  Whereas, the pink and white ones normally reside in the dryer.  If I ever make more, I would make 1 ball out of 1 skein of yarn.  I have found that my clothes have more static with these than with the tennis balls I was using, but my clothes are certainly getting dryer faster with the wool balls.  The dryer is always done 10 or more minutes before the washer.  I'm going to stick with the wool balls over the tennis balls! 

Halloween Costume

This month Allison helped her friend, Nicole make this great costume of Melanie Daniels from "The Birds."  They found the dress at goodwill, purchased the birds at a craft store and hot glued them to the dress.  The "peck marks" are red lipstick.  Nice job!  Great pose too:)

Rag Rug

This month Kelly was inspired by this post.  She decided to maker her own rag rug for her basement to give it a nice pop of color.  Turned out great and her dog is enjoying it too:)

Superhero Capes

This month, I made superhero capes for family photos!  I made 3 for my boys, and 2 for my niece and nephew (for Christmas).  My mom was here to help me out, but I did all of the actual sewing.  We mostly followed this tutorial using broadcloth for the outside, and matching superhero flannel on the inside.  We did modify the length's of the capes for the different children.  For my oldest two (4.5 and 6), I made them as long as I could and used almost the whole yard of material.  For the other three, I had to make them smaller (2/3 of a yard would probably be plenty of fabric for theirs.)

I also wasn't a fan of ties for capes (as it isn't the safest and let's face it, I'm too lazy to tie them every time they want to put them on) and Velcro (it gets dirty or strings in it and then it just isn't the nicest anymore...perhaps I'm too picky...)  Anyway, while looking at my options at the fabric store, I stumbled across some magnetic closures.  They are quite stronger than I need, but the boys are perfectly 'cape'able to put them on anytime they desire and no one will be strangled while playing with them!  Yea!

So here is one side of my neck part.  I cut two small slits for the clasps to go through.  I used some liquid nails glue, (aren't I crafty) and put it around the wholes to make sure it won't fray and to also give the fabric a little extra strength.

 

Then I added an extra piece of flannel to give it just a little more strength. (Did I mention that these are some strong magnets??)  The metal was also a tad sharp, so I thought this would help make these capes last forever.  Once they were sewed and turned inside out, you can't tell that the flannel is even in there.

Oh...and to add the jagged edges on the bottom of Batman's cape, I started with the cape folded in half.  Then, I cut out a triangle template.  I started at center, and just cut the jags in all the way to the edge.  It seemed a lot easier to do that then all of the measuring and marking that the instructions did.  I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

I also used HTV for the logos on the back along with my heat press.  It was SO much easier than trying to cut it out in fabric and sew it on! 

I think the pictures turned out great!  I am so happy that I made these and didn't pawn these off to Grandma to make!  Thanks to It Happened On Mulberry Street Photography for the wonderful photos!  Click the link if you want to see more of my boys!

Vinyled Pan

I made pumpkin bars for teacher appreciation at school and needed to have the pan I was sending them to school labeled.  I decided to decorate this lid very similar to what I did to a container last year for school.  I only decorated the lid and used Oracal 651 vinyl that will last through washings.  Last year's container is still going strong.

Crafty Cards

Card

A wonderful couple we know had their house warming party this last weekend and we were at a loss of what we could get them - so we decided to make something!  Mike gets most all of the credit for this project... We printed out the map, he pre drilled the holes and hammered in all the nails, then started lacing through the twine.  We finished it off by putting their name on it and a cute saying in vinyl.  We had seen this idea all over pinterest lately.... Also I looked around on piniterest and found lots of cute ideas like this for their housewarming card!!  Thanks pinterest-ers!!

State String Art

 

This past weekend I got a jump start on my Nutcracker gifts... Gail and my mom helped me make twenty some Nutcracker glitter ornaments for all the different dancers - putting vinyl on all of them and finishing them up will most likely be my November craft : )  I also made all of their cards -- Gail helped me cut out all the half circles and then I added stickers, snowflakes and stickles to make them more fun!  Thank you guys for all your help! 

Fronts

Backs

Jump Start on Christmas

This month we had a crafting weekend with some aunts and cousins. We made a lot of things and I decided to get a jump start on some Christmas Decor items.  I made the snowflake wreath from a OTC kit that I had.  I also finally cut out all my boxes and put them together for my Silhouette Advent Calendar. Now I just need to add my numbers to the boxes.  I also made some glitter ornaments (like Karen has shown) and a countdown flip chart for December. Hopefully pictures of those to follow.

Christmas Hot Pads

This month Vicki had Christmas on her radar.  She knitted some holiday hot pads.

Monster Windows

This month Kelly got a jump on Halloween.   After seeing this on Pinterest she decided to do her own version.

 Kelly purchased black poster board at the Dollar Tree.  She had chalk and tissue paper on hand so she went to work creating some fun monsters.

The whole craft was less than $4.00 - love it!  So simple, so fun.

Everyday Cards

This month Allison made some cards that work for any occasion.  She took photos she had of her parents garden and used them as covers for the cards.

Happy Coffee Day!

I was recently informed that last Sunday was National Coffee Day so I decided that it definitely needed to be celebrated!  My friend Katie and I threw a party for the dancers to basically get together to drink coffee and eat sugar, I am sure our director would approve : )  We decided that if we were going to do it. we might as well craft it up a bit!  I think we almost had more fun getting everything ready: baking cupcakes, making a banner, making frozen sugar spoons, and decorating the labels.  The decorations were a hit and everyone left thoroughly caffeinated and happy : )

Coffee Filter Flower Banner

Close-up! We wrote coffee quotes on each filter

Our Full Table Set up (Sign was made by Gail!)

Close up of the Coffee Cupcakes with Chocolate Handles and Our Stir Sticks!

First Birthday Shirts

 This month Erin and Gail took a request from a friend to make 1st birthday party shirts for her son.  The cute sock monkey on the brown shirt was a full iron-on purchased at Hobby Lobby.  The white shirt we designed with the silhouette to match the invites and used heat transfer in red, brown, cream, and black to cut out and heat press.  We learned a few new tricks in creating the shirts so that's always helpful!

Quilted Place Mats

 
I quilted these place mats using a disappearing 9 patch that has been window paned.  I followed this video.  By all means, they are not perfect, but I'm really happy that I learned a lot about my sewing machine as I completely made this by machine; I even machine quilted them.

They were VERY easy to make since most of the squares came straight from this charm pack.  FYI - a charm pack is precut squares of fabric.  I did have to add a few squares of a different fabric and the  black to make these this size and to have 5 of them for our family.  I didn't take a picture of the back, but I used a mostly black fabric with dancing skeletons for the baking.  Now, I am looking for an awesome Christmas themed charm pack!

Baby Onesies

Here are some baby onesies I made up for a baby shower and a couple to have on hand.  I think these turned out great.  Once again, I vut out heat transfer vinyl with my Silhouette Cameo and pressed it with my heat press.  The tie dyed oneses are from the batch I made earlier this month.