5 Brand New Crayons!

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 5 Brand New Crayons!

...Plus a few extra incase those first 5 get broken :)

I love crayon rolls!

It's my personal opinion that if you have a child between the ages of 3 and 8 a great go-to gift is always going to be a crayon roll!

Kids are so creative at that age and these give coloring there own style and even more fun!

I've been looking for the perfect way to use this great novelty print from Bunny Hill Designs (Japanese Import fabrics) and this is going to be perfect!

And to top it off they're really simple!

You can make one from a fat quarter, a batting scrap, and some binding in an hour or so! Seriously!

Christmas gift done? Check!

I love that!

To make your own~

cut 2-5"x20"strips (one is the outside) and 1-6"x20" (I left mine long and trimmed later, all of my strips were approx. 8"x22" but if using a fat quarter you'll need to be a little more stingy with your fabric!)

Fold the 6" strip in half lengthwise and stack on the matching 5" strip lining up across the bottom edge. Sandwich with the outside layer, a piece of batting cut slightly larger than the whole project, and the inside strip and folded strip.

Now baste, pin, whatever, just prep it for quilting. Sew strips across the short width of the quilt sandwich, 3/4" apart, to quilt and make your crayon pockets at the same time.

Making sure you have enough pockets for the number of crayons you will be using (I have 24 crayons and trimmed it to 26 pockets so I could bind it)

Square and trim your mini quilt roll to approx 5"x 18 1/2"

Bind as desired and add your crayons. Roll up and place a pin where the overlap ends.

Unroll and remove the crayons (atleast the 4 around the pin) and stitch in place a 1" piece of velcro sewing only on the already stitched seams. Cut out a shape from an accent fabric batting and backing, (Mine was cut from excess that was already quilted together) quilt it and attach half to the end of the crayon roll sew the other side of the velcro to the underside of the shape.

Put all your crayons back in and roll it up!

Your Done!

(After the fact, I measured and if you want to add your velcro during the first stage of quilting it should go on between about 7 3/4" and 8 1/4" according to my finished roll. I have yet to test that number though :) Good Luck!)

Three Sleeping Bears!

OK only 1 but there was no way I was making 3 of these! I don't care if there were 3 french hens. I'm not french anyway.

Have you ever made a teddy bear?

Yeah, me neither :)

Making one was enough but, it's exciting! You should try at least once!

(By the way, fur is very forgiving)

On this third day of Christmas I made (with my daughter) a teddy bear!

This is the pattern we settled on.

http://folkgal.tripod.com/freeaussie1.jpg

http://folkgal.tripod.com/freeaussie2.jpg

I'm not fond of the top image on the main page but the pattern looked easy to deal with and well proportioned. After the fact I think the arms are a little long but not to bad. I would recommend using a slightly shorter fur fabric for this. (Ally chose long fur :) )

My daughter did most of the sewing on this project so it is definitely beginner friendly with a few tips to help.

Leave a hole to turn every piece of the bear (2 openings on the body, 1 in the back and one for the neck, only the back opening is marked. Oops). Brush/push the fur away from the edge when cutting and sewing otherwise the fur gets sewn into the seam or cut off completely on one side. Very frustrating. Oh and pin your fabric particularly on the turns, fur stretches. Again, oops.

I printed the pattern on cardstock, it worked, but cut out the pattern entirely and so you can use your good scissors to cut around the pattern and not screw them up.

Stuffing is easy. Attach the head to the body before stuffing but otherwise the body parts are stuffed separately. Then hand sew the openings closed and attach them to the main body.

When you hand sew openings closed and body parts together use a heavy thread if you have one. I saw someone comment that they used dental floss.

When I attached the arms and legs to the body I sewed completely through the body and leg/arm to the outside looped around and went back through leg/arm, body, and the opposite leg/arm, and back again a couple times. The fur hid the stitching completely! I don't think this is the correct way (something to do with pins and washers etc. to much for me and my daughters little gift.) but it worked.

One last thing on the hand sewing. I didn't turn in any edges. Nothing showed and it went together with less stress.

Sewing the nose was the worst part! I'm starting to think that I should just take a little triangle of black fabric and stitch it on instead. To many seams to cover, to much fur, to much pain. Yuck.

Let's move on from the yuck and show you my nearly finished bear.

Poor thing is still missing it's eyes :D I'm thinking once he gets those it will stop looking so much like a puppy... hmm... if not, oh well! My girls like puppies too!

I love a good laugh but seriously this was an amazing experience to see a stuffed animal come from my sewing machine and my daughters hands! Definitely a cool experience, even with all the mistakes, there were many missed seams and pointed corners that now look perfect. Amazing.

And to top it off we made a little 9 patch midwest modern blankie for the teddy bear to cuddle.

Easy to do with any leftover quilt squares!

...and tada!

Happy bears under the tree and happy little people on Christmas morning!

On the 2nd Day of Christmas - 2 Monkey Belts

For our 2nd Day of Christmas we're making 2 Monkey belts! I'm finally breaking into my Anna Griffin fabric that I was thrilled to pick up at Market during sample spree! Look at the amazing colors! I love them! And hopefully my girls will love there stylin' new belts made from this fabulous stuff!

Here's our list of Materials (for one belt)~

1- 2.5"-5" strip cut to the WOF (width of fabric)
Meaning- Depending on how thick you want your belt to end up choose 1-5" strip, 2-2.5" strips, 1-2.5" strip, or 2- 1.5" strips, etc. Which means it doesn't really matter break out some leftover jelly roll or honey bun strips or whatever else you have lying around!
1-strip of heavy iron on interfacing cut to the same thickness
1- wide skirt or pants style hook should look something like this
Begin by choosing your main fabric and ironing the interfacing to the back of it.
Next grab the waist measurements or a pair of jeans belonging to the child your making this for.

Measure around the waist band.

My basic measurement is going to be 26" But I'm also making a belt for a child slightly smaller than this one so I going to start my hooks a little small and if I'm lucky they'll share :)
Instead of making loops or buttonholes or other closures to attach our hooks I'm making sturdy pleats. They won't look out of place regardless of which space her belt hooks and it's not gonna fray or cause other problems.

For the pleats start by pining about an inch before the full measurement. My daughters belt size was 26" so I'm placing my first pleat at approximately 25"
(I'm putting in quite a few pleats so I'm not to worried about seam allowances and exact placement. My goal is for it to adjustable and versatile... and low stress :) )

The first pins you'll place 1" apart after that place a pin every 1.5" I put in around 8 pins.

When you fold your pleats over fold the first so the pins meet, pulling the fabric toward the main length of the belt. Iron and pin the pleat in place.

As you continue folding your pleats over pull them so they come to the bottom edge of the pleat in front of it. You'll have to do this by feel.
(If you want pins to match up to, put one every 1", then 1/2", then 1", then 1/2", etc. and you'll pull up each pin that is 1" apart to meet the one in front of it... I didn't want to do that much work so I eyeballed it.)

When your through pining fold the belt in half (or sew together if using 2 pieces) and iron and stitch along the ironed center line. (this keeps the pleats in place for easier turning)

Fold right sides together and stitch closed along the edge open edge leaving the end near the pleats open for turning. (Mine is stitched twice because I decided to make it a little thinner, oops)
Turn your belt and finger press flat. Turn in the open end and stitch closed. Stitch 2 lines down the length of your belt leaving an approximate 1/2" space down the middle, so there's enough room for the hook to grab, backstitch the ends. If desired fussy cut a shape from excess interfaced fabric and sew to the front of the un-pleated side of the belt. Attach your hook to the inside of the belt under the fussy cut image.

And you're done! Great job!
Gift #2... check!

Enjoy your Merry Christmas!

Make some treats today! Hopefully, not for a school bake sale.
Enjoy!

Poinsettia's - Day 1

I found my Camera!!!!
Yay!
I've been searching for it since the 14th of November after the baptism of my daughter ...my camera was left in the church building.
I couldn't take anything but phone pics of my sis boom blocks and now my phone is dying and I can't even get those off.
My fireplace has been torn out of the wall since the week of thanksgiving, we're "fixing it" It will be better but at the moment it doesn't feel like it :)
I traced a gorgeous embroidery pattern out to do before Christmas and then left it in MO at Sarah's quilt shop. She's now embroidering it. Ah, sisters :) Yes that smiles still pasted on there :D

So I'm terribly sorry I've been so missing in action things, as they say, have been crazy. though I'm sure they could have been worse. The happy things recently?

My little son turned 1


I cried, and my husband started a job after 10 and 1/2 months of unemployment.


I'm thinking we Celebrate!
How about a twelve days of Christmas from the stash!
I like these I think I work best under pressure :D
Now my stash is fairly limited, lots of precuts not so much on the yardage but a little.
I also have mostly girls but I will be trying to force out a boy thing or two and I'll be doing mostly Christmas gifts and projects since that's what we (I) need right now! there are currently 14 days until Christmas so I get 2 days off.... hopefully I'll make those Christmas and Christmas eve :D

To start, I've been working on this silly flower for a week now
and by working I mean watching it sit on the ironing board spreading guilt and frustration because it's not done yet so today I'm finishing it!

You all basically know how to make one of these I'll assume.
Very basic steps, say them with me know, Cut a template, cut the leaves & petals, stack & sew!
Very good people!
OK, now for the quirks of my particular flower.
I cut a five point template that I used for the green leaves and the top 2 layers of petals. It's a bad pick but the template has 3 1/2" long petals. I traced the template onto the green once and twice on the red then stitched around it three times each, I then free handed a smaller template in the same style (not perfectly!) for the center petal set.
After cutting them all out, I did a running stitch from the center end of the petal to about an inch from the tip and gathered it just slightly to give a little texture.I stacked the flower with the leaves at the base, then the ungathered large petals, the gathered large petals, and last the small petals.
I sewed them together with a pile of ribbon french knots. Pull the ribbon through from the base.
bring your needle around so its pointing toward the ribbon going out of the fabric and wrap the needle 1-3 times depending on the thickness of the ribbon and how fat you want your knots. I wrapped mine twice.
Then go back through the fabric almost in the same place as where you came out.
Continue until you have a pile of french knots filling the center of your flower. If desired attach a clip, safety pin, clasp, velcro, or whatever to the back of your flower and enjoy a little wearable Christmas spirit! I'm showing mine on the scarf my daughter wanted this for :) And there you have it Poinsettia's for the Christmas season or to stuff a stocking with!
Merry first day of Christmas!