Some Handmade Gifts

I started making Darci's daughter a doll blanket for her Christmas gift ... then it got moved back to a belated Christmas gift ... then it finally made it to her for a birthday gift ... hey, it was on time for her birthday! And I also made a doll to go with the quilt.

I used the Black Apple Doll Pattern found on Martha Stewart. I'll tell you - that is one fidgety pattern. If I had to do it again (which I may never) then I'll enlarge the pattern a LOT more to make it easier to fit all the appendages in when you have to stuff everything inside to sew her closed. Her arms and legs were so frustrating to attach, consequently her legs are a little off centered and her arms hang a little too low. Oh well, hopefully Gwenie won't mind!

I used felt for her hair and added pigtails even though the pattern didn't call for them - Gwen always is wearing pigtails. :) I embroidered her face on and then gave her little bows in her hair that matched her leggings.

The quilt was lots easier in comparison and was fun to put together - because I used a bunch of 2" scraps and made it a little rainbow-y.

On the back of the quilt I used long strips and made another rainbow:

And then bound it in some rainbow-y fabric that matched pretty well with all the colors. There was also a little pillow with matching pillowcase, you can see her resting her sweet head on the pillow here, all tucked in with her quilt.

It was also Darci's birthday recently (um, in January) and I made her a few quick little things to throw into Gwen's package.

A little stuffed owl, a felt needle book & a mini little fabric basket filled with fabric! Thanks for letting me steal that last picture off your Flickr, Darc!

Another Sewing Update

The past few weeks have been sewing, sewing and more sewing. Partly because I'm crazy and got myself into three different sewing bees, a charity project and a quilt swap - and partly because I am participating in the Oh Sweet Sadie! Art and Gift Show this weekend in my neighborhood.

I'm so excited to be doing Oh Sweet Sadie! -- Utah has a ton of boutiques and art shows but this one really is one of the best. This weekend it's in Daybreak in the Destination Model Homes. If you are local you should come by! It's on Friday from 9:30 am - 7pm and Saturday from 9:30 am - 5pm. They've got awesome vendors with lots of great crafts, clothes, home dec items and more. They've even got a playroom for the kids! You can look at their blog for more info and directions.

The month of April was my month for the Pieced Together Quilting Bee. That meant that I went and bought enough fabric for a quilt, and sent it out to the other 17 people in the group. They are all making me great quilt blocks and mailing them back to me so that I can finish them all into a quilt. I choose mostly red and yellow prints with a little blue mixed in.

It's been so fun getting blocks back already from everyone - I can't wait to get this quilt made!

Here's a few of the quilt blocks I've been making for everyone else over the past couple of months.

For Katie:

For Viv:

For Stephanie:

For Sew-Do-I:

And for Sara:

That last block is called a Spiderweb block and it was SO challenging for me. It was my first experience with paper piecing, which is basically where you sew your material onto a template that is printed onto a piece of paper. It was easy once I got the hang of it but made me really nervous, especially since I was doing it for someone else. Darci and I were sewing ours together on speaker phone the whole time, going step by step so that we could understand it better together! It worked out great!

Check out how the whole quilt is going to look once Sara gets all the blocks from everyone. It's going to be so neat!

Lastly, the block that I made for Project Improv. You can read more about this awesome charity project at Jacquies blog.

I choose the red/aqua color scheme to make a block to donate to the project. I love these 2 colors together and can't wait to see it in the finished quilt that is going to be donated.

Catching up

When I go for so long without blogging I just keep putting it off and putting it off and just never know what to come here and write? Do I try to catch up on all the stuff I missed? Do I try to do separate posts on everything or one big post? Do I just start over and go from here on out? Who knows, I still don't have it figured out. But I wanted to record a few random things we've been doing lately ... I haven't gotten any pictures off my camera in about a month so most of these pics are crappy iPhone pictures ... it's just too convenient that I can snap a pic on there and immediately email it to my Flickr account!

Easter: I made Mason a tie because he has no dress up clothes. It turned out pretty cute but next time I make one (if there is a next time) I'll enlarge the pattern because it shrunk up a lot and was almost impossible to get over his head.

I made Mason's little friends some felt carrots and eggs for a little Easter surprise. Actually we had them over to stuff the carrots themselves - so cute. Then I sewed them up and put the tops on and stuffed the little eggs with some goodies.

I made the pattern for the carrots up on my own (though there are plenty online available) but the eggs I used a tutorial found here.

I made both things completely with my huge bucket of felt scraps, as you can see here:

I knew keeping all those scraps would come in handy! Now what to do with the other 3 garbage bags full of scraps ...

We also had a little neighborhood Easter Egg hunt for just 30 or so of the kids around here. Mason had a blast running around the park and getting eggs into his basket!

Also opening every egg as he found it to see if the candy inside was worth eating right then (Reeses peanut butter eggs, Hersheys kisses) or saving for later (Smarties, jellybeans).

"Mason, is there any candy in your mouth!!?" *swallowing* "No, Mama!"

I've also been super busy with capes, sewing, and my online quilting bees and swaps. This is my month for one of the bees I'm in (which means I sent out fabric to 20 people, who are now making and sending me back quilt blocks) which is super fun and exciting to get the mail everyday. It's going to be a great quilt! But that is a post in and of itself, so that one will come soon.

A little catch up feels good!