Transformation Part 2

This was a quick, no-sew project, there's not much, but you can see Part 1 here. This isn't a tutorial, all I did was use Heat 'n' Bond (so follow the directions on the package) to apply the images to the burlap that I covered the original wall hanging with. Easy 'nuff. First I had to sketch out what I wanted things to sort of look like and then I cut the pieces individually from the Heat 'n' Bond backed fabric. This allowed me to play with different layouts.

I used this Heat 'n' Bond because it was all that I had, probably could have used the heavier duty version for the burlap, but this worked just fine, just had to apply heat a little longer than the instructions indicated.

Don't forget when using Heat N Bond to keep in mind what side you need everything to be on or you'll end up with your images flipped. No big deal here, I just cut the tree into 3 sections and 'pieced' them together.

And....voila, a little family of owls (they represent the family members of my friend's family)!

I loved making it for you, Annie, and hope it works for what you need it to!

Transformation Part 1

Come back and see how I'm in the process of making over this wall hanging for a dear friend's new baby nursery.

My friend wanted to turn this bee wall hanging from her daughter's nursery (from nearly 5 years ago) into something with owls for her new baby boy. I told her I would do it for her as a gift....and since Liam is nearly a month old, I had better get it finished!

(pictures aren't showing up too great, but guess that helps to keep a bit of the element of surprise in play)

Hey, I never claimed to be an artist!

Now, if only I could reclaim my crafting area (aka the dining room table)! Mama needs, okay, wants a sewing room in a bad way! It will be designed similar to this!!

Baby Food Jars

Last year I posted this about a childhood Christmas decoration memory. My Dad read the post and we talked about the baby food jar Christmas tree decorations. Turns out he had been collecting baby food jars throughout the year and this was my Christmas present:

It's so fancy I asked "did you make this?" and even after he answered yes I had to say it again; "you really made this?" He just put a lot of time and effort into it, each jar has a little 'ornament' glued to the center of the inside and is filled with sparkly 'grass', they're sitting on a nice wooden base and even the back looks so professional, all of the lids are painted the same green as the base!

Thanks, Dad! I will treasure it always and hopefully my kids will remember always decorating with a baby food jar Christmas tree when they're all grown up!

Funky Monkey

These are my last few creations with a new, updated look:

(Hunter wanted to keep this yellow and gray one - he was quite cute)

Do you love the big button eyes and shorter arms?

These 3 friends are gone to good homes (2 were sold, the other was given as a gift) but I have several more pairs of funky socks just waiting to be turned into Funky Sock Monkeys!

Cards

I made this for my sister's Birthday card:

I got the idea from Julie, thanks!

The sun is actually sewn on using my machine...I wasn't too sure about the way it turned out looking like just a bunch of holes in the card, but it's not bad. Maybe it looked that way because I was using black top thread and white in the bobbin? Anyway, I thought the concept was cute, and my sister thought it was pretty cool too!

The Quilt Group

My last post, a month ago exactly (sad), I mentioned a quilt group I was starting with some friends. Some of us met the weekend before last so I could distribute my fabric, go over the details of my quilt and we could pick our 'line up' for the other quilters.

The basic rundown of how things works is this:

1. The 'host quilter' (as I like to call it) hosts a get together for anyone who wants to come on the 3rd Saturday of the month. At this time they distribute their fabrics to each member of the group (there are 13 of us!) and they go over the particulars - what size of block they want, pattern, etc.

2. The quilters have 1 month to complete their square - a super easy task...it's very doable to make a square in one afternoon (or even as little as an hour, depending on experience and difficulty of the square).

3. At the next get together, the quilters will bring their completed squares for the previous host quilter or, if they're not yet finished, they can use the get together to get suggestions or even help to finish their square.

4. Once the host quilter gets all of their squares back, they can assemble the top and quilt as they choose, and on their own time frame.

It's relatively easy. We have some members of our group who have little sewing experience and I'm thinking (hoping) they are going to find this an enjoyable, stress free experience.

I am the host quilter for February, since I didn't mind having my quilt be the guinea pig and my instructions for the blocks were simple - create a 12.5" square using various sized squares and rectangles. Here are some pictures so far:

My fabric - bought to match the floral print which is a vintage sheet I found on ebay awhile back

My first block - I made this one to be sure I was providing enough fabric for each quilter

Izzy's block

My second block - I think I provided everyone with enough fabric to do 2 blocks, so I made another one the other day. Just seeing that extra fabric sitting there made me anxious to do another one!

I cannot wait to see what the other people make but most of all I cannot wait to work on blocks for the other people and see what everyone comes up with!

Holiday Decoration Blast From the Past

Have you ever seen one of these?

Did you ever decorate with one?

Either my mom, or a grandma, or both had one when I was young. When I was searching for ideas for my Baby's First Christmas theme wreath I'm making for the wreath auction at work (which I'd totally welcome suggestions for), I came upon the tutorial for the Baby Food Jar Christmas Tree.

I almost cried.

I hadn't thought about these in a LONG time and it just brought back the memories of the holidays in my past. Things seemed so simple then, probably just because I was a kid and didn't have a clue what was going on around me.

I wish things were that simple now - I suppose they could be if I adopted an "I don't care" attitude but I guess I'm too nice, or a sucker...I haven't decided which yet.

I'm totally going to make one of these trees this year! I need it, I need the idea of it.

Random

I just saw this and I wanted to share this link to one of the coolest "tablecloths" I have ever seen! It is super cute! I want to make one.

I haven't posted in so long. We haven't really been doing much. I've been gone 2 nights/week at fitness classes that I started at the beginning of this month. We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for Dana (Travis' dad), Julia (his dad's wife) and Helen (his dad's mom). We just made this decision today (the Thursday before Thanksgiving) so I've got a lot to do. I'm going shopping today once Calvin wakes up from his nap and some of my things are make ahead (though only one I could actually make this far ahead) so that will help. That also means a lot of cleaning to do!

I want to make some of these for Christmas gifts:

Maybe a HOBO BAG or two!

Someone from work suggested vests for some of the men. Not trendy argyle vests, but more of a flannel, wool lined rugged manly type vest. Anyone have a good tutorial/link/pattern for such a thing? I'm still so stuck on most of the men's gifts.

I also want to make some decorations:

Paver Snowmen

A wreath

So much to do, so little time, ambition, money (oh, if only I had unlimited funds to turn all of my want to dos into have dones).

Happy Halloween

Today when I was wrestling Calvin into his "smedium" Robin shirt, it ripped down the seam so I'm going to have to make some adjustments to it before tomorrow - the boys are going to be Trick-or-Treating at Grandma Records' place!

Mixed Media Weekend

Travis went hunting last night after work so the boys and I are hanging out around the house. Actually, we kind of have to hang out around the house because Travis had to come back and get my Explorer because his pickup was having issues and he was worried it wouldn't have made it in all the way to, or out of, their hunting camp. I stayed up until 4 am last night working on various projects. It was nice having some alone time. While I really could have put that time to better use (ex. cleaning my neglected house), it was much more fun doing the things I did. Maybe I can clean tomorrow.

I baked Chocolate Scotcheroos for the first time maybe ever. I've had them several times before, but I can't recall a time when I have actually made them. I ♥ them a lot!

Next I dyed my hair because it had been FOREVER since I've done so.

It's not really a whole lot different.

I took a picture of Hunter and myself since it had been too long since our last one and I decided to make a change.

I finished stamping the message on the inside of all of my Christmas cards so they are ready to be signed, sealed and delivered - but not until it's a bit closer to Christmas.

I started and completed my section of 'Jack Frost' - one of the current blankets being worked on by West Coast Oddball Knitters (my section is the top dark part only).

Today, Hunter and I finished painting some wooden Halloween decorations we had gotten awhile back from the craft store.

I did some more glass etching, in fact I finished the projects I had in mind (and had materials for). I'm trying to think if there are any other gift ideas I could do for anyone on my list. I didn't use the one set of initials I had printed out to somewhat match the first set of glasses I had done...it just wasn't "doing it for me" anymore. I ended up with this instead:

I'm fairly certain the people I'm making these gifts for don't read my blog....if for some reason they do, guess they won't be surprised much on Christmas. Ha! Actually, most of them can be for many different people I know so if you have a 'J' or 'A' for either your first or last initial...it could be you, but maybe not - guess you'll find out in 2 months (can you believe Christmas is only 2 MONTHS away?!)

I was going to stay up awhile again tonight and work on getting my backing for my quilt completed but I'm tired after only sleeping 5 hours last night (though I'm perfectly capable of functioning on that amount) so I think I'm going to call it a night "early" - it's already 11 pm.

Glass Etching

I went over to Becky's on Sunday to do a fun project we've both been wanting to do: etch glass.

First we made our pattern and printed it out. I'm doing initials for Christmas gifts.

Next we traced our pattern onto clear contact paper (you have to do this for each piece you're doing - i.e. you can't reuse one piece of contact paper). You have to do it on the clear side, not the paper backing or your pattern will be backwards!

Place the contact paper on the glass and smooth out any bubbles around your pattern. You don't want etching cream to leak outside of your pattern.

Apply the etching cream. We used this and let it sit twice as long as the directions said - 10 minutes total - because we just didn't like the effect after only 5 minutes. The little 3 oz bottle doesn't seem like much, but we didn't even put a dent in it with our project (I did 4 pilsner glasses and Becky did 4 shot glasses).

Rinse the etching cream off under water and be sure to use gloves! Dry your glasses and admire your work (though it hardly seems like work - it's soooo easy)!

I have at least a set of wine glasses and a set of shot glasses to do still.

OH - the best part! You can get a set of 4 wine glasses or these pilsner glasses at Walmart for less than $5, the shot glasses are less than $3! The etching cream may seem a bit expensive (I think Becky said it was around $10), but if you split the cost with a friend, or even just consider how much you can do with one bottle, it's not really bad at all. I'm thinking of giving the glasses with the recipient's favorite wine, beer, etc.

Sidekick

My Batman now has a sidekick. Well, he always does...now the little sidekick is dressed accordingly!

I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the details (hem the arms, etc) because he'll only wear it for a short while and I doubt it will get passed on to anyone else. I found the green turtleneck shirt at Walmart along with a remnant of red fabric and I already had some black and yellow so it was a cheap project (the way I like it). I just made the red part as a separate shirt, sleeveless. It's a bit snug! I've never made clothing before (as you can probably tell) and I was not thinking when I was sewing the red to the black (which is what the back is) so I had to work at it longer than probably necessary. All in all, I probably finished it in about an hour. Then I made a little cape that I just need to add some velcro to along with some to the shirt so it can just velcro on. I did get velcro today so Hunter's cape is complete, and we got him some black sweats...now he just really wants a belt.

I'll post pictures of the boys in their costumes after Halloween, don't want to ruin the surprise of cuteness for anyone (does that sound a bit conceited? Sorry, hopefully you get what I mean).

Na, na, na, na, na....

Hunter wants to be Batman for Halloween, he already has a mask and I thought I could make a cape to help keep things on the cheaper side. We went and got fabric today, then after I got home I found this tutorial. I wish I would have found it before I went, and I would have made it double sided, just for future use. Oh well, luckily I had some yellow fabric on hand and some heat 'n' bond for the emblem (it was going to be just plain, but it's so much cuter with the emblem). I finished it in only about 2 hours, including finding the right pattern (which I ended up just improvising), cutting out both fabrics (the satin on top and cotton on inside), applying emblem, etc. Now I just need to get some velcro to add to the 'ties' part!

And We're Back in Business!

I can't make these pictures any bigger (or maybe I can...I just don't know how).   Maybe because they were taken on my phone, then uploaded on facebook, then copied to my desktop from there and uploaded to blogger.  

Here are all of my quilt squares cut out and ready to be pieced together.  Don't you just love the fabrics?  It's going to be hard to give this away, especially being my first quilt and all. 

After I did that, I just had to get the layout done.  So here are the squares pinned to a sheet hanging in front of my windows.  

I have all of the rows sewn together and 3 of them are all sewn together (does that make sense?).  So pretty much I just have to sew the other 3 rows on and my quilt top is complete!!  I'll take pictures after that.  I've kind of lost momentum on it this week, just have been overly tired or something.  I hope to have it all done tonight though so I can start working on a couple of other special projects over the weekend!