Trip Around the World Quilt

I made this yesterday morning. Cut, sewed, and binded in about five hours. Not a difficult quilt. I do not do any fancy quilting. I basically stitch-in-the-ditch around the border. This is for my friend Ro's baby on the way. I'm so excited for her. I still have to get burp cloths, bibs, and pillow done.

Back to the quilt, it's a really easy pattern from the "Quilt in a Day" by Eleanor Burns series. This is my fourth I've ever made so it definitely gets easier. I like square designs. I don't sweat being perfect, in fact I ran out of green fabric so I had to sub in a different green. I'm a huge believer in getting done, not being perfect.

I really hope her baby will enjoy laying on it, drooling on it, or the ultimate, if it becomes his favorite stinky blankies. My boys still drag along their stinkies (why stinky? Because it's a sad day when they actually let you wash it and by then it's been two weeks overdue-eeewwwhh).

Revamped Aprons

Isn't it about time? With life kind of going crazy, working on projects and posting them seem to be impossible. However, when my favorite white shirt got spaghetti sauce on it-it was go time for aprons.

I love aprons. If you drop by my house, you will often find me wearing an apron. Aprons make it possible for an under 5 feet mama to get cooking without getting the top part of my shirts dirty or wet. What is an average height countertop goes to my armpits. I need maximum coverage on top.

Another reason is when I am wearing my apron, I can let my gut relax and I don't see my tummy rolls. And the pockets of the aprons holds many a small pieces of legos, paper, and whatnots as I walk through my house picking up after two juicy boys.

Here's where thrifty meets creativity. I found these six aprons at a thrift store for $0.50 each. Not my style because half aprons don't work for my shortframe b/c of the beforementioned height problem. I had to buy them because some lady somewhere took the time to make these wonderful aprons. And I do love me a crafty woman.

So, I cut them up and turned them into my favorite full-length version. Yes, they do look like they can fit an eight-year old...

One bag of quilt pieces in the shape of crayons. The little, old lady I bought it from just plain ran out of steam and couldn't finish it. I bought it in a bundle last year with a ton of other material for $5.

The crayon shapes are very cute but I not talented enough to figure out how I would piece into one, big quilt with the triangles. So, I am taking the tips off and piecing the rectangles so it could work for a wider range of the population. What will I do with this quilt? I give them to the local Alternatives to Violence shelter. So far, I've made three quilts for the shelter. I try to make them twin size because violence does not discriminate and I want to have larger size for the older kids or adults that need them.

Booties for Baby Cooper. Go Cougs!!

Your Tutorial My Sewing Machine: Baprons

I love blogs. I love blogs with sewing tutorials. From time to time I will try to recreate their masterpieces. Here's one. I saw this at: www.u-createcrafts.com/search/label/baby-bibs.

So, here's my version of them. My friend just had a baby girl so game on. I have a target, an excuse to make baby stuff and not get the "why are you making more baby stuff?" look from my lovely hubby.

sew Gerbil sew

Gerbil is a nickname my husband's family fondly calls me when I'm going a million miles a minute, I remind them of a caged gerbil spinning on a wheel.

So here's what this Gerb has been working on.

Pic #1: Robeez knock-offs for my friend

Pic #2: Hooded towel with an "H" appliqued for my niece

Pic #3: A barrette and headband holder for my niece

Scraps

Three years ago, I made flannel nightgowns and pajama pants for my nieces and nephews. Well, I had a bunch of scraps left from those projects and have held onto them thinking I would do something with them. Well, I was browsing through blogs this morning and someone made a scrap quilt like this. So, while the boys were playing, I ironed, cut, and pieced together the scraps from leftover flannel fabric from the girls' nightgowns. I still have to piece the border and backing but I've been forgetful about taking pictures of my projects and didn't take a picture of another quilt I just finished for our favorite doctor.

Mom's quilt

I made this quilt for my mom. I started this quilt in November and I am finally done with it. I have been wanting to do a family tree quilt of some sort for a very long time but not sure how to do this. I found this tree design from another blogger's website and I copied it to make this quilt. Six trees are embroidered with names of my family on the quilt. I am happy to have it finished. The center tree has my parents' names on the trunk and five branches for my siblings and I (there's five of us). Then, there's five trees surrounding it with each of my siblings and their kids' names. The quilt looks bumpy because instead of using cotton for the backing, I use fleece for the softness and warmth.

Girls & sewing

I had two elementary school aged girls over today and they made an apron and purse. They did a reallly good job and if I can get a picture of it without their faces, I can post it. In the meantime, got this shirt with a two buttons missing and took it from the sleeves and then cut it up and made a little girl's summer shirt out of it.

Slippers Part 1

Slippers Part 2

My feet are cold. Very cold. So, why not make slippers?

re-upholstered kids' furniture

Koo's preschool asked me to make a slipcover for these kids' furniture. The fabric was free (see earlier post on fabric) leftover from a friend. The zippers I had from previous jobs so all in all it was free with my donated time. I love it when I can help bring new life to old things. I hate thinking this could be in a landfill somewhere because of wear and tear.

How was this accomplished? I cut out pieces of fabric to the exact measurements of the cushions plus 0.5 inch for seam allowances. Next, I baised the pieces fabric inside out directly on the seat themselves with the exception of the piece on the bottom. Then, I carefully removed it from the seat and sewed all the pieces together. Lastly, I attached the zipper to each bottom piece and attached it to the seat. Hope this wasn't too confusing.

sewing projects

So when are you ever going to post any of your repurpose projects lady? Okay, so I've been making pillow pets and they are fun. Unfortunately, I can only make dogs. Sorry. So here's two I made.

Second, I repurposed this sweater that my mom would wear to church. It's in great condition but totally out of date. It was getting chucked so I saved it and turned it into a pillow. The pillow form brand new for $0.99. I'm giving to my friend for Christmas. If you have a bag of unique, out-of-date clothes that you don't think will sell at a Goodwill or any other thrift store...I will gladly take your goods.

Fancy rubber gloves

What do you do to fancy up your rubber gloves? Take the end scraps from a pair of pajama pants that I hemmed up, add a white trim, and sew it to the end of a pair of rubber gloves. Voila!! Fancy rubber gloves to clean in.

It was so much fun, made another one for my friend Patricia. Her hands have been cracked lately due to the cold weather and use of cleaning products.

I got the idea when I goggled them and found that they cost $16!!! It offended my cheapness when the gloves cost $2.23 at Walmart. Not a bad knockoff huh?