Lily's Berry Hat

A friend of mine had a baby last month, a sweet little girl.  And doesn't every little girl need a berry hat to keep them warm and snuggly through the winter snow?

I used the Berry Baby Hat pattern from Ravelry.com.  It was simple, fast, and super cute!

Happy New Year!

Tractors and Gingerbread Men

The other day I posted this ballerina I made for a little friend of mine.  Today I'm showing off the ornaments I made for her brothers.

I had originally planned to make a train ornament for the older boy.  Then I asked him if he likes trains or trucks better.

And he said trucks.

As I was rethinking my plans, I noticed he played with tractors almost the whole time I was there.  A tractor it was!

It's unbelievably difficult to find a cute pattern for a felt tractor.  In fact, I couldn't find one at all.  But I did find a few inspirations that gave me a place to start for drawing my own pattern.  I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

For the five-month-old I wanted to make a baby's 1st Christmas ornament, but I couldn't find very many baby boy ornament ideas that were cute.  I decided to go with an old favorite and make a Christmas stocking with a gingerbread man on it.  Not particularly baby-ish but very, very cute.

Have a very Merry Christmas full of blessings as you celebrate the birth of our Lord!

You Can Never Have Too Much Pink

I babysit a precious little girl who loves ballerinas, so when I discovered this cute ballerina on Pinterest one day I decided I wanted to make her one as a Christmas ornament.

You may notice that the blog is not in English...  It took me a few minutes to find the pattern, but I did find it here.  (And then discovered the "translate" button, haha)

Here's my ballerina:

The bead flower in her hair and her tulle tutu make her somewhat 3D, which I really like.  And instead of having a solid background there is actually a back of her body.  She turned out so well, I almost wanted to keep her and make another one for my little friend.  Almost.  ;)

I hope she'll love her as much as I do!  Next the ornaments for her little brothers...

Too Early

I love Christmas!  Every fall I have a hard time waiting until after Thanksgiving to turn on the Christmas tunes and get out the decorations.  But I do wait.  Because I must.

But I have a confession to make.

I bought Celtic Thunder's new album Christmas Voices.  And listened to it.  All the way through.  Just one time and then dutifully put it on the shelf until after Thanksgiving.  I may or may not have hummed a few festive tunes afterwards...

Not only did I commit this unthinkable crime, I also indulged in some Christmas crafting!  My excuse is that a friend is visiting from across the country and I wanted to introduce her to wool felt...

I had a pattern for Santa and the tree, but I made the mushroom based on a picture I found on Etsy.  When I finished I was told it looked like Toad from Mario Brothers.  Not really what I was going for...

My friend had never made anything with wool felt, but now she's addicted.  ;)  I love how her ornaments turned out!

And this little one did a wonderful job learning to sew buttons.  It took some patience to sit still and concentrate on the tiny holes, but she did a terrific job with her ornament!

I'm looking forward to Christmas time...  But now it's time to go back to fall and Thanksgiving thoughts!

Dress Beginnings

While trying on some dresses as Old Navy I found one I really liked, but would have preferred it to be a little longer on me.  So I decided to make my own!

New Look 6936 was almost exactly what I wanted, but the sleeves weren't quite right and I wanted the waist to be closer to my actual waist instead of empire.  My mom had a vintage 70s pattern in her sewing stash that had a perfect sleeve shape, but I didn't particularly care for the neckline options.  So I decided to be brave and try to combine the two patterns to get the look I want.

After an evening of drafting, I think the two combined rather well!  I'm hoping it goes together quickly and without mishap so I can wear it to a conference next weekend.  :)

Now if this little guy would just move off my fabric so I can sew...  Who am I kidding?  I'll let him sit there as long as he wants.  :)

Pink Ruffles

Ruffles are so delightfully adorable that every girl should have several ruffled pieces in their closet, right?

Having seen a few online, I started daydreaming about making a ruffled skirt.  Then it occurred to me that a pink fabric I'd been given a few years ago would be perfect - I'd get a new skirt and stash bust!

I looked up a few tutorials (most helpful being here and here), but liked the look of the larger ruffles on this skirt:

http://allnewfashions.com/archives/5105

I used Simplicity 5462 which is a pretty basic straight skirt and just added ruffles (approximately 6" width) to each skirt piece before attaching them.  It worked pretty well, and - besides a weird zipper snafu - everything went rather smoothly.

I don't know what kind of fabric this is, but it ravels quite easily.  After I cut out each piece I zigzagged all the edges, and didn't do any hemming.  I rather like the look of the unfinished ruffles.  :)

Ruffles are just so feminine, and this made the perfect girly addition to my wardrobe!

Dress Corilynn

I recently found myself on Dress Corilynn admiring some very lovely skirts.  Just check out the really cute pictures scrolling on her site header.  Instant love.  :)

I recommend checking out the blog.  I haven't read much yet, but I really like what I was able to read quickly.  I'll definitely be visiting her site again!

Sailboat Bag

When you find an adorable, sailboat-covered upholstery fabric there is only one thing to do;  make a messenger bag!

I'd been looking at this tutorial for a while, and this was the perfect time to try it.  It is wonderful!  Very easy to follow - great for an afternoon project.

I like larger bags, and this one has great pockets which makes it really nice and easier to find things.

My newest purse is definitely a winner!

Pencil Skirt Inspiration

I love pencil skirts.  Neutrals, bright colors, it doesn't matter...

 

http://www.studentswife.com/

http://www.kendieveryday.com/

http://www.extrapetite.com/

Now don't you want one, too?  :)

Quilt Kitty

Cats are very helpful on quilting evenings.  It's so inspiring to have an adorable kitty by my feet.  :)

My sister and I are officially halfway done with the quilting!!!

Elias's Blanket

Elias's blanket is ready to welcome him into the world, and I can't wait to meet the little guy!

This was my first time using a printed fabric for backing, and I love how it turned out!  I actually purchased this backing fabric because our local fabric store had only one blue flannel.  And since pink didn't really seem appropriate for this project...  But I love this flannel!  I'll definitely keep an eye out for printed flannel in the future.

Deciding what color to use for the running stitch along the binding was a hard decision.  Orange or yellow?  Then I realized I didn't have enough orange embroidery floss to make it around the entire blanket, so yellow it was!  Love it when hard decisions become so easy.  :)

Because I used the yellow around the perimeter, I chose orange for the message on the back.

Praise God for the blessings of children!

Puddle Ducks

For lunch today we took a dear friend to a local tea shop to celebrate her 10th birthday.  We had a lovely time, and after finishing our tea luncheon we popped in the quilting store.

I wasn't planning to buy anything, but then I found this delightful fat quarter that begged me to take it home.  I kindly acquiesced.  :)

The 3 little ducklings hiding beneath the mushroom are my favorite.  Now to find the perfect project for this fabric...

Just the Topping

I put together the top for baby's blanket, but wasn't able to finish as I had yet to purchase backing fabric...

But when I got a text this morning saying that little Elias had been born, I made sure a visit to the local quilting store was included in our afternoon errand-running.

So the backing flannel is in our dryer right now, and I'll hopefully finish the blanket tomorrow.  :)

Quilt, Quilt, Quilt!

You may remember that my sister and I are working on a quilt for our bed.  Well, we have finally made it to the actual quilting process and are making significant progress!

I just love looking at the back of quilts - all the tiny stitches making patterns on solid backing fabric.  And the white-on-navy makes it easy to see what you've already done!

We went ahead and painted our room "Nantucket Dune".  Yes, I choose a paint with a nautical name.  :)  But I also really love the sandy color.

I hadn't painted much before, so it was a bit of an adventure...  But now that the pink walls are gone, I'm very motivated to work on the quilt and finish my room makeover!

Fabric Squares

I have a friend who is pregnant with a little boy, and as I was trying to decide what to make her, I remembered I had some left over squares from the boat baby blanket I made a couple years ago.  So I got a few coordinating fabrics, figured out how many squares I'll need, and started cutting!

I have exactly enough squares to make 2 blankets - one for my friend and an extra.  It never hurts to have a baby gift around for busy times of the year!

Oh, and just so you know, my friend doesn't read my blog so I'm not ruining any surprises here.  :)

An Unexpected Journey

I don't know how many of you are Lord of the Rings fans, but they are my all-time favorite movies.  Have been for many years.  So I was very excited about The Hobbit coming out in December, and the movie didn't disappoint!

I hope you all went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey because it was amazing!!!  If you are a book purist you might not appreciate it as much as I did, but I thought Peter Jackson did a great job!  And the costumes were awesome, especially Bilbo and Thorin's.

We went to the midnight premiere (my first midnight movie!) and so a lot of our group decided to costume.  Unfortunately I didn't get my Eowyn vest completely finished, but I wore it - unfinished as it was - with my friend's Padme` nightgown.

I'll do a better and more detailed post when it's finished, but here's a close up of the embroidery, which is about a fifth of the way done.  :)

I'm hoping to get my costume finished soon so it will be done long before The Desolation of Smaug comes out next December.  Hopefully we'll have no more of this last minute rushing!