Henry's Big Boy Quilt : Deer & Geometric Twin Quilt

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As weird as it was to face facts that Henry was going to be in a big-boy bed, I knew this was a perfect opportunity to add a crafty touch to his new room.  I fell in love with the deer, the triangles, just the colors in these two fabrics!  I used the deer and triangles to find matching solids, and used coordinating dots as well. 

"Elk Family Multi" by Jay-Cyn Designs

 

"Serengeti Right Angle" by Jay-Cyn Designs

 

I used a simple, straight-up square pattern.  Each square measures 5". The final dimensions of the quilt are 62 x 80 (approx. twin size).

Now the catch: the child refuses to sleep with a blanket on his bed!!  (Photo above is 100% staged.) I mean, not even folded up at the end, or tossed over the footboard!  So guess who uses this now? Me! I used a high-loft batting, which made it a little trickier for machine quilting (oops, tucks and gathers here and there)...but oh-so warm and cozy.  If he wants it back, he's going to have to fight me for it.

fantastic mr. fox

As I mentioned before Christmas, I took some time off for some much needed other-than-Etsy crafting.  My sissy Shannon is expecting her first baby in a few weeks, so I knew I needed to give the little guy some handmade love. Since the theme of the nursery is "Woodland Friends," I found this super cute Mr. Fox pattern.  It was so easy and fun! 

 

 

When I gave it to her at our family shower, Auntie Chris asked if I could make one to give to her friend whose last name is Fox.  Of course!  This little guy is an Arctic Fox.

 

 

I highly recommend Dolls and Daydreams if you are looking for doll patterns.  Sarah's instructions were very easy to follow and included lots of pictures.  Plus everything in her shop is crazy adorable!  You can even get patterns to make clothes for the dolls.  Um, how cute are these?!

gettin crafty - halloween prep!

 Some quick teaser shots from yesterday's crafternoon with Opal and Emily...  Emily and I started working on a special costume for Miss Opal while Opal got in the crafty action by coloring at my desk.  I told her the theme of the day was "colorful" and she went with it!

What could it be???

old news : a crochet story

this is classic.
Anyone remember this post?  The one dated February 27, 2011 - in which I speak of a cute crocheted dress I'm working on?  Hm. Well, it was sort of supposed to be for sweet Opal, who at the time was 1 1/2.  Well, Opal turned 2, then 2 1/2...and THEN I finally finished the dress.
 

Sorry girlie, this one isn't going to fit you.  Maybe your Cabbage Patch Kid?  But I DID finish it.  I even managed to finish it despite the news that I was having a boy... miracle? Still love this pattern!

art with Oliver

 I got to hang out with Oliver this morning, and he helped me get started on the next project for Henry's room.  We made drawings of every member of our family.  Sounds like no big deal right?  Well, do you know how big our family has become?  Let's see, we have...

Grandma Mary

Grandpa Mike

Shannon

Jeff

Adam

Sarah

Pearl

Emily

Tom

Oliver

Opal

Molly

Jamie

Henry

Alli

and

John

...sheesh!

so that's what Baby Henry will look like!

 Oliver drew like a champ.  I expected him to lose interest after two drawings or so, but he did most of them!  Then I went over his drawings with ultra-thin sharpie, and finally we colored them in with colored pencils (this is when he finally decided he was done).

Stay tuned for the next phase of this project...

more quiet book pages

More Quiet Book pages to show you today!  This one was done except for attaching a few snaps (to my sadness I actually had to purchase more snaps...I was hoping to make the entire thing ONLY with existing items in my sewing room. Oh well):

It's a ferris wheel, can you tell?  Yeah probably not.  I thought it was too boring.  So I added some passengers on the ferris wheel!  Finished page:

And when you match the shapes...

And finally, count the birds on the fence:

I'm sorta out of ideas now.  Anyone?

shhhh... it's a Quiet Book!

It started with a banana. This banana, in fact.

Why would I make a zippered banana? For a Quiet Book of course! A Quiet Book is, by definition, a book of quiet activities (usually made from fabric or felt--so much more quiet than paper) with which a little munchkin might practice such fine motor skills as zipping, buttoning, lacing, snapping and such cognitive skills as matching, counting, and recognizing shapes and letters. And here you thought I just really liked bananas!

So anyway, I'm not sure exactly when I made it, but I'm fairly positive that I still lived in my old apartment with my sissy, so that was at least 2 1/2 years ago! Who knows what inspired me to dig it out today and actually continue the project. But here is the finished page...

Hmmm... what is it? Well, unzip the banana...

...and make your own banana split!

I had so much fun making the Banana Split page that followed it up with a Button-the-Flower-on-the-Stem page:


Sooooo...two pages down, at LEAST 6 more to go, I'm hoping. Also hoping that subsequent pages will be finished and appear here in less than one year...but I can't make any promises.

best night ever!

all three nieces/nephews under one roof? you bet it was the best night ever!!
so fun having Pearl and Sarah stay with us for a few days!

happiness is...

...this one!

in the hat I crocheted for her for Christmas! The ears were supposed to be more "lamb" than "vampire bat."

baby love

So many people I know are having babies right now! My cousin Liz and her husband Riley just had their baby girl yesterday! I have babies on the brain. (Not for ME to have, of course...yet) In honor of baby love, I found this picture- a little bear I knit ages ago. I would never give it to a small child though, because I'm sure the head would get ripped off and present a choking hazard. Yyyyyeah. Other than that I'm super proud of it.

sweet opal

OK, on to describing the Happy Events of 2009. On the very same day my dad died, my amazing sissy brought her baby girl into the world: sweet, sweet Opal! What an amazing turn of events, huh? Opal really is the sweetest little thing. I am a proud auntie AND her godmother!

My sister-in-law Sarah knit the cute little hat she is wearing here. I love this picture of you, Em!

I knit this sweater a while back, and Emily always had her eye on it. So it became Opal's! I can't believe she has already outgrown it. Stop growing so fast, baby girl!

a book holder

So about what I made (see last post).

Sister wanted a book holder for young Oliver. Did I mention that my nephew is a genius? He is just over two, can say his ABCs, count to 10, and read several books. By "reading" I mean memorizing and repeating. Still! OK, so Oliver loves his books and just got a Big Boy Bed. My sister wanted a book holder to help with the book organization. Brilliant! -and- so easy. She got the idea from this super cute blog...but as I'm trying to link to the blog...I get the dreaded "Oops! This link appears to be broken." :( Sad! I hope they didn't go out of blog business. Anyway, here is the book holder, not hung yet:

ps. Stupid Blogger.com! Does it ever refuse to load the image the right way for anyone else? Grr. I am posting it anyway. Maybe it will fix itself. Just tilt your head slightly to the left and you'll get the idea. yes, like that.

Cutie Booties

I feel a little ashamed not blogging all last week, when I had the week off! I was super busy with lots of custom orders to fill. I'm all caught up now! I also spent a day crafting with Sister #2. We made baby booties! She is going to make a pair for every one of her baby girl's outfits. I am going to document each one here. (you heard that right, sister!)

Anyway, here is the first pair we made. Cute, no?

Baby Love

Maybe it’s because there are several babies on the way, but I have felt this huge urge to do more with kid’s fabric! The first round of my friends having babies seemed to all have boys…not that there is ANYthing wrong with boys, but when I found out of several girl babies now on the horizon, I could not resist the urge to go out and spend way more than I should have on cute little girl prints. (I found some cute little boy prints too, don’t worry.)

Remember this blanket? I’ve been thinking about it ever since I made it. So I made another one, this time with a different birdie print.

More to come…

Wee Elephants

It was a busy holiday season, but I did manage to eek out a few handmade gifts. I made these elephants from the "Peanut the Wee Elephant" pattern in "Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts." One for Pearl...

And one for Oliver....

It was pretty hilarious trying to get a picture of Oliver with the Elephant. He seemed to prefer the old (but also handmade) teddy bear that lives at my parents' house.

Oh well, maybe he will love it someday!

Pearl is Here!

Speak of the devil! Little Pearl decided to arrive yesterday... 2 months early! She must have sensed how much fun her family is and couldn't wait to be out with us. What a suprise! I spent all day waiting for my mom to call with updates...and sewing 12 jewelry cases. Yeesh! Aren't they wonderful altogether though?

Waiting for Pearl

Did I tell you I'm going to be an auntie again? I'm not sure if you have experienced the pleasure of being and auntie, but it's just about the greatest thing in the world. Little Pearl is on the way, and we had a shower to celebrate her approaching arrival. I crafted a scalloped-edge blanket for her, another Amy Karol pattern!It was so much fun to make. I may have to make several more for my several friends who have had babies. See how I need to quit my day job?!

Really Stinkin Cute

Hi (12 days left).

I've been trying REALLY hard to be a SUPER patient teacher during these last days of the year. Oh wait, I mean, I'm always 100% patient. (ha!) Everyone is really ready for summer vacation. But we have been working hard and studying Africa. I had the kids make a bulletin board of an African wildlife game reserve. A little scary--leave the entire thing up to them? I wasn't sure what we'd come up with. Well the little rascals made a pretty stinkin cute bulletin board! They were super into it, too. Part of the assignment was to photograph the game reserve and make a scrap book. Adorable!

Giraffe, Owl, Warthog

Hyena

Rhinos

Lions

A salute to budding artists!