Inspiration: I Spy Quilts

Kate,
It's me again! I'm back on a crafting role, hopefully I'll have to catch up again soon! :)

I had to post this inspiration. I remember you were going to make (I'm not sure if you ever finished them, I can't remember) "I Spy" inspired items. This blog (CraftHours) I follow features a dad (yes a DAD crafter!) who shows lots of options for I Spy quilts. I'm thinking I'm inspired to try this with a bunch of the scrap fabrics I have and I'm sure to collect more scraps.

Hope to see you soon!
Laura

Princess and the Pea Napping/Sleeping Bag

Kate,

A few weeks back I blogged about the Princess and the Pea sleeping bag I wanted to make here. Well I did it! It took a few long hours at night and a few mishaps along the way, but it's completed. And I personally love it. V hasn't woken up yet to see the fabulous work, but I know she'll be excited since she's been talking about it all week.

Just for a refresher, this was the inspiration for the Princess and the Pea theme http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/05/princess-pea-blanket.html and I was inspired to make it look similar to the Pottery Barn Kids sleeping bags. And this was sort of the tutorial I followed, except I made mine much larger, following the dimensions of the Pottery Barn Kids bags http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/08/sleeping-bag-tutorial-so-fun.html.

The project started with the purchase of a honey bun, which is a just a roll of 40 - 1.5" fabric pieces. 40 is the perfect number to represent the 20 mattresses and 20 quilts from the Princess and the Pea story. I got a great deal buying it off ebay. I used the Moda Me & My Sister Clementine honey bun fabric. I wanted bright, fun colors for my little girl. My favorite part was having a girls day out last weekend with just V. We went to the fabric store and she helped pick up the purple polka dot outside fabric and the purple and white gingham flannel fabric for the inside of the sleeping bag.

So with G gone all week, I spent the evenings piecing it together. Sewing the 40 strips took FOREVER! I thought it would be quick, but with the pinning, ironing and sewing, it took almost 4 hours to just sew the strips together. I'm definately glad I opted to buy the honey bun with precut fabric, if I had to cut all that fabric, I can't imagine how long it would have been. Then I used old scraps of fabric to make the princess. It took me a few tries because in my delirious state, I ironed the face applique on TWICE (yes, twice!) with the wonder-under sticking up. So rather than adhering to the fabric, it adhered to my iron. And then it took another night just to get the applique sewed on. I had to keep switching thread colors, rethreading bobbins and readjusting the settings on the sewing machine.

But in last night I completed it. I made the sandwich of the front, back and batting and added a strap. The 2 layers of high-loft batting and the fabric made for a hard sew, but my machine made it! It's time to rest my poor machine for a bit.

So here it is.....

Princess and the Pea sleeping bag/nap sack.

The princess applique!

The pea button!

Now, here's to hoping she uses it for quiet/nap time. And maybe even take a little nap!

I'm inspired to keep making blankets or projects from storytime. They're just so darn adorable.

Laura

Seuss Quilt Complete

Kate,

Thanks to our very productive (even though short) craft session on Saturday, I made huge strides in the piecing together of R's first birthday quilt. I was super excited and motivated, so I spent a couple hours Sunday and today during the ever so rare naptime to complete it. I think it's awesome! I know R will love all the textures with the soft, bumpy fabrics, cotton and corduroy. Thank you so much for your advice, help and patience as I complete these sorts of projects. It is amazing how improved I am from the first quilt I did for V two years ago.

Here is the finished photograph. The picture doesn't capture the cuteness. I can't wait to give it to him in May!

Side note: I learrned a wonderful lesson working with this soft, bumpy fabric. Don't iron it, the bumps go away! Luckily I caught on before too much was hurt.

Now on to birthday planning,
Laura

I Spy Projects

Kate,

I'm really starting to love the idea of these "I Spy" projects you have been talking about at our crafting sessions. One of the blogs I follow posted this cute featuring the same "I Spy" theme. Very cute! And great way to use up those old scraps of fabric filling up our bins.

http://crafterhours.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-spy-completed-quilt.html

Happy crafting,
Laura

Another Quilting Project in the Works

Kate,

This is probably a bit ambitious for me. But I'm on the brink of crazy because of a toddler who refuses to nap. And right now I'm tired of her waking her brother (since they share a room) and I'm tired of her in my bed, so I had a brillant idea. How about a sleeping bag all her own. V loves the one at Gamas.

This bright idea led me to spend precious naptime searching the internet for great ideas and tutorials. I found a tutorial no problem. Now here's the tricky part, I fell absolutely in LOVE with this quilt from Moda Bake Shop (one of the many blogs I stalk). I'm thinking it would be awesome to incorporate this quilt into a sleeping bag for V. It would be even better (and probably a little insane) to complete it for Easter. It's perfect, we read Princess and the Pea everyday. It's one of her favorites. And this is too adorable for words.

So the question is, am I absolutely insane to think about another quilting project while I'm still needing to complete R's first birthday quilt?

I can't wait to see you Saturday so we can start sewing R's quilt. The cutting of fabric is complete. Now it's time to work our magic!

Laura

Birthday Projects and More

Kate,
Wow! I'm embarassed at my lack of contributions this month. It's been almost a whole month since I've posted. But I promise I have been busy with crafts. Thanks to your help these past two weekends, I've actually boosted my productivity. The craft day at your moms helped me jump start and almost complete the fabric dollhouse (almost 6 months after starting it!) and meeting up at JoAnns in Columbia this past Friday made me fall in love with R's first birthday quilt idea all over again. Thank you!

So here's what I've been up to....

Scrapbooking
No pretty bragging pictures or anything. But I promise, I set up shop right next to our large living room window and watched the blizzards come through and hubby shoveling the snow, while I organized pictures and got cracking on R's pregnancy journal, baby book and completing journaling V's baby book. Very productive, I am very proud of myself. I still have alot more to work on, but here's to hoping it might actually be completed before R's first birthday party!

Valentines
V and I actually worked on V day cards. You wouldn't believe it since they were never completed and only 2 went out (one to each set of grandparents). I still have them set away in a drawer, hoping I'll completing them so more family members can have some, but I'm having doubts since we're almost hitting easter! I thought it would be a quick and easy craft to do while snowed in, but instead V was easily distracted and only wanted to do a handprint or two at a time. We spent time setting up paper, paint and paper, covering our clothes to prevent stains, just to stamp two handprints, then have to clean it all up again (all while R was napping, because I knew it would be a disaster if he got a hold of any of the paint). So needless to say, we were not productive.

Fabric Dollhouse
The fabric dollhouse inspired by this blog posting http://uklassinus.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabric-dollhouse-tutorial.html is finally in it's last stages. I had put this thing together before Christmas (it was supposed to be V's christmas gift), but realized it wasn't working correctly, so ripped it all apart to start over. Thanks to the craft day at your mom's two weekends ago, I was able to concentrate on it again without kids as a distraction and got pretty far. It's in it's final stages, only needing the handle and button closure. So next time we meet up in a coffee shop (hopefully next weekend), I can quickly hand sew it together and be done. Looks like it's going to be V's 3rd birthday present :)

R's First Birthday
I can't believe we're already starting the planning for R's first birthday. It seems like not that long ago we were doing this for V. I'm super excited about the Dr. Seuss theme. Thank you so much helping pick out coordinating fabrics. I've been playing around with the fabric and the layout possibilities while V is at church and R is napping. I'm thinking about not using the pillow sham I originally was going to use as the center, and instead use the cat in the hat from the fabric. I just wasn't liking the blue color of the sham. I can return the sham to Pottery Barn. What do you think?

I'm hoping to start cutting the squares soon (once I make a decision on the layout). And then I can start sewing this thing together!

V's Pillowcase

Of course, my little girl has grown fairly found of the fabric store, since we visit it a little too often. So when we were picking out R's seuss fabrics, she decided to pick out some of her own. She fell in love with this cute ice cream print. And of course, Kate, you persuaded me to get it and make something. I was hesitant about the pillowcase idea. But it really was SUPER EASY! I was shocked. I'm tempted to make more now. I used this tutorial http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2008/07/novelty-pillowcase-tutorial.html . I completed it in 20 minutes tops and that's while juggling two kids who were eating breakfast. I even added a third fabric for the trim, it's leftover from V's first birthday strawberry quilt, it's the pink satin. It's adorable and goes really well in her polka dot bed.

Dinosaur Print

I am still smitten with that dinosaur print we found at JoAnns. I'm still on the lookout for something to make with it. I did see this cute reversible pant (http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2010/02/guest-post-fold-up-cuff-pants-tutorial.html), but that might be too big of a project for me right now. So any ideas, please shoot them my way. I am dying to use it!

I promise more crafting and pictures soon.

Laura