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

I am alive...and crafting!

Kate,
WOW! It's been a long time since a post. Believe it or not, I have been up to some crafting this summer. I feel like you and I both have valid excuses for slacking off on the blog this summer. With you traveling to South Africa (so jealous!) and my hubby being away for most of the summer, there is little time or energy to keep up with the posting. But I promise, I am back! I need crafting to keep my sanity!

So what have I been up to this summer? Here's a few little things...

More snack bags and sandwich wraps for member of the MOMS Club. Just a little something I've been doing for the moms. Ecofriendly and super easy to whip up.

Yoga mat bag. This was my sister's birthday gift, including a new yoga mat.

A beach/sand toy bag. I whipped this up so cheap - less than $5 and in less than an hour. Thanks for Martha Stewart Crafts for the idea. This will be great for when we head on our beach vacation. Surprisingly I didn't already have one. I think a mesh bag is critical when having little kids.

Can't wait to see what you've been up to. And I will be posting again in the next two weeks with some more projects in the works.

Laura

Destruction of a sleeping bag

Kate,

Remember that tedious princess and the pea sleeping bag I made? I (and V) loved it and it's gotten so much use every day. Unfortunately it has been destroyed by my washing machine. Completely my fault, now I'm sick to my stomach. V had peed on it during naptime and just like I have two previous times, I threw it in the washing machine. I dont know what was different this time, but when it came out of the dryer, I noticed it had lots of tears. I dont know if it's fixable or not at this point. It has tears along at least 8 seams of the "mattresses".

Do you have any advice? I guess I could always resew it and downsize it a bit since some fabric will inevitably be missing now.

Here are some pics of the damage:

I have some more projects to post about that I've been working on, but I'm too depressed right now, maybe later this weekend.

- Laura

More Snack Bags from Scrap Fabric

Kate,
Wow! It's been a really long time since I've posted and a while since I've spent some quality time with my sewing machine. But I'm back, for a little while. As you know, I gave up the fabric store to save some money. Well, it didn't last too long, but I am still avoiding it for the most part. My weekly trips just to browse have stopped, I only go for necessities. For example, I only went to buy some thread, velcro and a yard of nylon for a few projects.

I've been working on more snack bags. Part of the eco-friendly transition. I'm trying to rid my house of ziploc bags and wasted plastic. I have already been using a sandwich wrap for Victoria, but still needing bags for snacks and such. (We are really into picnics with the warm weather, at least twice a week!) So I made some snack bags. All using scrap fabrics I had, all I needed was some nylon. They're cute, practical and I'm already putting them to use.

Here they are. And if you want to make some of your own....here's the tutorial I followed....http://ihavetosay.typepad.com/photos/reusable_snack_bag_tutori/index.html. They are super easy and quick, I made all of these in like 2 hours time (and that's with the kids awake and R attacking the sewing machine pedal all the time). I made them in all sorts of sizes, basically whatever sized fabric I had left.

I do have a few more to make. And I have some other projects reusing my scraps in the works. Like heming up too short pants into capris and shorts for the summer and adding some fabric to too short shirts to refurbish them. We'll see how they turn out. I'm a little nervous, but I figure I'm donating the clothes anyway, so I might as well try to get use out of them.

By the way, love the knitted bunny. Too cute!!! I dont have the patience for the finishing of those sort of things. You are an inspiration.

Hopefully I'll see you soon! Laura

Finally Finshed

Hi babe!

Well I have finally finished a project that I started a year ago FEBRUARY! What a slacker! Well, I hate seaming. And toys are all seaming. So at least she is done. She is mighty cute. Right?

I also finished this bear for the Mother Bear Project. I dropped him off at Lovely Yarn in Hamden, MD. My sister Emily and I spent the day there. Cute shop, lovely staff. Obviously, I need to work on my embroidery skills.

I was going to post more, but the sun just came out. Off to my porch with a book.

Miss you tons!

Kate

PS. Have you noticed that my pics are looking better? Thank Brian, thats all him :)

For Spring!

Hi Laura!

I was doing a little SPRING cleaning at my parents a few weekends ago and I came across a latch hook kit I brought maybe seven or eight years ago. I bought it with the intention of making for a friends wife who was pregnant. Well, I guess I never finished it. When I found buried in my old room about a third was complete. I thought about just pitching it. What would I do with a Winnie the Pooh wall hanging besides "gift" it to you? :) Ha! You would of hung me from my toes!

I felt a little eco-guilt about trashing it. It's all plastic!!!! So I finished it. It took most of a long rainy weekend on the floor in my living room watching a That 70's Show marathon, but I finally finished it a few days later.

As I was packing it up, my husband asked what my plans were for the yarn monstrosity which had been consuming the living room floor for the better part of week. And in the way he asked I could tell that he had become attached to it (he hooked 4 times). So here it stays, at my new house, until I find a reason to use it (not any time soon) or my sister has kids. Its cute right?

My friend Amy and I made these Easter/SPRING baskets from Moda

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/03/fabric-easter-basket.html

It was fun to do something besides knitting. Although I have to admit that my hand sewing is not what it use to be, so I cheated and used hot glue. Well, my hot glue skills are not what they use to be either and the baskets kinda suck. I am pretty sure it was me and not the pattern ;)

I have done plenty more, a lot of clean up and few simple things are on tap for Mothers Day and someones 1st birthday. I wonder who?

More later, craft'in sister!

Kate

PS. The sock saga still rages on and on and on.

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