Snap Towels for the Holidays

So in an effort to get caught up (I am probably about six months behind on posts since I am so inconsistent with posting... something I hope to change in the new year), here is a photo dump of things that I made in October of 2012 (WOW).

Fabric Books... Easily Addicting

So my little man really likes trains. At a year old, the boy loves trains. I think nit has a lot to do with the fact that his father likes trains, but who knows? My cousins (bless their hearts) passed down to us a Thomas the Tank Engine train table and all the goodies that go with it. That boy is always playing with those trains. Since he's a boy he's also starting to collect Thomas the Tank Engine toys and even a book or two.

Well imagine my suprise and joy when I was digging through fabric at Wal-Mart (I know, bad, bad, bad) and I stubmled across a Thomas the Tank Engine fabric book.

















This next fabric book I actually purchased (from JoAnn's) and put together LAST YEAR, before Christmas. I'm just not sure why it never got posted.















My final item for this post is an idea that I ripped off Lakeshore Learning. The item below I made exactly like Lakeshore has them, well more or less. This was not a very tough concept.



You'll find the orginal Lakeshore item here. You know how much they wanted for these? $39.95! Seriously? I know that they are in the business of trying to make money and that you get 30 of them, but what a rip off. You know how much I paid for mine? $0.

Well at least $0 that day. I had everything on hand that I needed: velcro, snaps, buttons, and felt. Somone that does a lot of sewing or at the very lest some sewing, probably has most of these items on hand.

I think hacking Lakeshore products has become one of my new favorite pastimes. It was a thrill, I'll be honest. I'm going straight to see the guy with the horns for sure. But I figure, as long as I'm not SELLING these and using them for my own personal use, what's the harm? Right?

Right?

Do have any idea how much

Halloween... my favorite time of year

For the longest time I have wanted to quilt. It just looked hard and I got frustrated just trying to learn. Today, I'm not sure what motivated me, but I basically said screw it. I'm going to give it a try. So I got out my fabric stash, too LM to JoAnns and picked up some more Halloween fabric. After he went to bed, I started cutting, ironing, sewing, and basically just flying by the seat of my pants.

I had ten different fabric prints. I cut out a 6" square out of each print four times. Sewed them in a pattern and viola. Then I cut strips of green with black dots (used all I had, which is why its only on the sides and not the top and bottom). I made it for my LM so I got out his animal quilt that came with his bedroom set (that we don't even use) to get an approximate measurement. This blanket is a little bit bigger, but I don't mind. He'll grow into it.



I'm positively in love with this blanket. I'd make a Christmas one if I had the time (this puppy took 5 hours. Seriously? I am slow...) and the fabric stash on hand.







All in all I'm pretty pleased for a project that I sewed blindly on, had no experience, and it something I've wanted to try for a very long time. Its by no means perfect (an experienced quilter would be horrified by some of my mistakes, I am sure!). However, I still find it stinking cute. I'm a long way off from those dozy of quilts that you at stat fairs and the like, but I feel that this is a good start.

Next Halloween craft (finished a few days ago) was a steal. I saw this Halloween fabric book at JoAnns back in July. I thought it was cute. I bought it on impluse. Sticker price said $8.99. When she rang it up? 99 cents. The lady at the register double and triple checked it, but it kept coming up as 99 cents, so that's what they sold it to me for. SCORE. Doesn't get any better than that.

Fabric books and Angry Birds...

Its been a while, but as always, its because I've been busy. I really, really need to make up a "blogging" schedule. I'm crafting whenver possible but rarely post. Bad blogger! So... in my quest for baby crafts in the 24 hours before my son was born I stumbled across this beautiful thing called a quiet book. However, one thing I noticed was that people seem to call pictures books (with no activities) as quiet books. Call me upity or anal (I am both) but I define a quiet book as a book with activities. A book made of fabric (with no activities) is a fabric book. I know. I'm crazy.

Over the last few days of my winter break I started to make my son a colors fabric book. To put it kindly... it was a disaster. However, I didn't purchase a single material for this book. Everything I used I had in my stash.

The cover:


I used binder rings, button holes, and white cotton twill throughout the book.


I cross stitched the names of the colors and sewed them onto the pages (something I WILL NEVER try again).








Yes... I know I skipped white, but that was in all honesty, be being lazy. I intend to make him another one (that's less crappy). But there you have it, my very first - designed by me - fabric book (not a quiet book!) I am working on a quiet book for him. I've set a deadline of Easter for myself so that I can put it in his very first easter basket. He won't be able to use it yet, but I think it'll be cute.

Onto geekiness... my comfort zone. My husband is loves Angry Birds (See his birthday present here after the jump) and I wanted to incorporate that into Valentine's Day somehow. So I came up with this:



I stitched it on 14 count Aida and placed it in a 3" embroidery hoop. I sold one just like it in my Etsy shop. Haven't sold anymore since, don't think I will, and I'm okay with that. I do plan to release a pattern (though any experienced stitcher can probably figure it out by just looking at it) for free when I find sometime to convert it to the computer and upload it to google docs.

Coming up:
1. Birthday gift for the husband (yes, its in June and I do have a while to go but this year I'm def. outdoing myself)
2. A quiet book for the little man
3. Harry Potter cross stitch
4. Star Wars fabric book
5. Recipe book and menu planner

Keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks.

Baby Overload

I didn't get much crafting done in July or in August, as I was preparing to go back to work. Boo. I also didn't have much motivation. I was running around like a mad woman trying to get not only my classroom set up, but also get it ready so I can go on maternity leave.

My due date was Sept. 18th. I was planning on working up until I went into labor, but then I was feeling pretty miserable (mostly at night and probably because I was working all day), so my husband and I discussed it and decided to make my last day at work Friday, Sept. 9th. At that point I want crazy with surfing the internet (thank you google!) for baby crafts and digging through my sewing patterns stash (love those 99 cents sales at JoAnns).

I got to work pulling together a list of ideas and then materials (I've mostly been working through my stash, buying very little), crafting. I worked nonstop on Monday, Sept. 12th... then my water broke (more like slowly started leaking) that evening.

Baby Alexander was born the following morning (via C-Section, he was breeched). Good thing my last day was a week earlier! So... to make a long story, shorter, here's what I got completed before my precious little son was born:

First up, are some items I created using (and I hang my head in shame at this) Simplicity patterns. Good thing I refuse to pay full price for those patterns, cuz these I probably could have sketched up on my own - if I ever paid attention to babies and their things before.

These all came from the same pattern (I don't have the number in front of me) but I think the title was something along the lines of "diaper bag and diaper bag acessories".

This is a portable changing pad. I LOVE this item. Since our baby is sleeping in a pack-in-play with an attached changing table in our bedroom currently, this is a great item that we are using right now. Once we start traveling with our baby this can be rolled up and placed in the diaper bag. The fabric is sandwhiched between vinyl (I hate working with that stuff) and terrycloth. The vinyl is great (even though I hate using it with my sewing machine) because I can just wipe down any messes he makes.





The next item that came from this batch of patterns is a tummy pillow. No its not a breast feeding pillow (its not big enough for that). Once baby gets a little bigger (and can hold his head up) it'll be a great item to help make his tummy muscles stronger. My husband and I chose the jungle fabric because his nursery is jungle themed.



The final item that I managed to finish (from the Simplicity pattern) before Alexander made his debut was a burping cloth (well, actually three). Easy pattern. One side is the fabric the back side is terry cloth. I only bought enough fabric to make one (the pattern called for 3/4yd) but guess what? 3/4 of a yard gets you three plus some extra! I wish I had made more though... he spits up so much.





While my husband and I were digging through the nursery prints at JoAnn's, we found some fabric to make those awesome cloth books. I used fusible batting in between the pages instead of quilt batting (quilt batting would have been WAY too thick to make this work with my sewing machine). Oddly enough, the characters on the tummy pillow are the same characters in the cloth book and on the wall hanging that I made (which I don't have pictures of yet.)

Here's the book:















(I still need to use fabric markers to fill out the back page).

The final item that I managed to get through (well half way through) before my little bundle of joy arrived were these write rattles. I made WAY too many, but they were so easy to make, I couldn't help myself.

I found this great pattern on how to make wrist rattles. I use fabric scraps and fat quarters that I had home. The only thing new I had to purchase were the little patches (which came nine in a pack). I probably should have saved the patches for something else to make for him, but I was on a crafting overload. Plus these things were just too cute! I couldn't help myself.























I have TONS of more things that I want to make for my wonderful baby. I need more geek crafts (I have a Yoda and Boba Fett rattle in mind, along with a Star Wars Quiet Book and Mario Brothers booties). I also want to make some crinkle toys, bibs, and covers for my nursing pillow. I'm on maternity leave through Thanksgiving and I have the perfect little man who sleeps all the time, so we'll see what I get done.