Sewing (and more) for Baby -- Update #3

My Sew/Craft/Etc. for Baby List 

• Fitted Sheets for Co-Sleeper Mattress:
• 2 Cotton -- both now have elastic and have been washed

•  2 flannel -- maybe later?? 
• Is 3 enough? Am I crazy? 

• Zipper Front Sleep Sack
• At least 2? -- Um... I'm thinking I might not get around to this one. I've got some other sleep sacks from gifts and I might see if I can make it work with those. If baby is as hot a sleeper as Greg, I'll have to come back to this one and try something lighter weight than the fleece once we got! 

• Changing Pad Cover
• 2+ 
  
• At least 3 1 quilts/blankets (mostly to use as play mats)
• Panda Quilt -- in Progress

• Minky Cat and Mouse Quilt -- Done

• Autumn Woods Patchwork/Panel -- Done

• A Quiet Book (for later, but should start as time allows)

• Bibs -- in progress!
• I've got 6 ready for snaps -- just haven't gone outside to pound on them with a hammer! 

• Wipes
• Single weight flannel
• Double weight flannel

• Wash Cloths
• Flannel/cuddle fabric
• Flannel/texture fabric
• A couple for a gift

• Burp Cloths
• I'm guessing we want quite a few of these? 

I wound up with a lot of extra flat diapers, so for now I'm going with those. Most of them are still white / untouched, but I may end up dying more of them if time allows. I love the finished look -- even when the color doesn't turn out as expected, which is more than 50% of the time --but the process is time consuming, and the 'rinse' process is especially frustrating for me. I've dyed a few over the last few months, thinking we might use them either as part of the diapering process or the burp cloth (or a general clean up whatever is happening cloth!) but I have a LOT more white ones to go -- and I can only dye about 4 at a time before the coverage turns out really spotty. 

In addition to dying some of the flat diapers, we also dyed a few onesies, tops, and two of the plain white swaddles we were given. 

The process is a little frustrating to me, but I really like the outcome... If I do end up taking some kind of maternity leave before baby is actually here, I might have enough hours to do a few more, but if I work right on through there's no way I'll have the time. So, we'll see! 

• Hooded Towels
• 2 for gifts
• 2 for us

2 hooded towels -- one with yellow trim, one with original

• Leg Warmers
• 3 made, which is a good enough start for something that may or may not work out. I'm calling this good until we see how they work out in reality. 
• 
  
• Texture 'lovie' blankets
• 3 for us

2 small 'lovies' for us, plus 2 wash cloths

• 1-2 for gifts -- 1 down, 1 smaller one to go

The larger gift texture 'lovie' blanket

Not on the 'sewing' list, but I have finished one other project for the baby too... 

It's not quite as lovely as the examples I've been drooling over on Pinterest... but it'll work for now and I can always dress it up later if need be.

Glitter Bomb

Do kids in school still get to play with glitter during arts and crafts? Do kids these days even get to have an arts and crafts class? I grew up in a house with a lot of crafts -- but glitter was almost exclusive to school. Probably for mess reasons.

That's an attitude I've kept all my life -- until today.

Yes, today I brought home what I believe to be my first purchase of glitter. Not only that, I brought home 21 colors of glitter.

Okay, okay, they were small bags of glitter, not a massive indulgence. And they were purchased with a very specific plan in mind.

My original plan came from an image I came across on Pinterest: an image of what appears to be glitter in plain, glass ornaments. That seemed simple enough, right? Except instead of a single color, I knew I wanted a variety. So, a few messy minutes later I wound up with this:

I did use a hot glue gun to seal around the top, and so far no glitter has escaped when I shook them upside down. I hope that means the glitter is well contained.

I'm pretty happy with how these globes turned out -- but the real winning project is what I was able to do with those little bitty bottles I found -- by accident -- in the scrap booking area.

These ones turned out super cute. I think I'm going to have to go back for more, if I can find them. I'm not quite finished with these ones, as I think I'd better glue the corks in place if I can. My goal is to find a way to hang them up as tree decorations also.

And yes, I do have bats hanging around my kitchen. In December. They might just hang out with me all year long at this point.

Keys in Trees

I don't know what it is about the winter holidays that gets me in the mood to do something crafty, but it seems like I'm always more interested in little diy projects during November and December.

This year, one of the two major projects I wanted to accomplish was something a little like this:

I've been collecting interesting looking keys for about 5 years now, and I finally felt like I had enough keys to start on this project.

It doesn't look it from very far away, but there's a lot of variety going on. Fortunately, everything blends together into a fairly cohesive look, but it's still possible to glance through and pick out a few favorites.

Ugh, pardon the extreme blur, but this one shows some of the variety -- cut out scraps of lace detail in the center, metal wings on either edge.

Right now, they're doing a test hang on our little tree from last year, but if all goes as planned, there's a good chance they'll be moving over to our new and improved (larger) tree for the Christmas House this year. I'm looking forward to it -- I hope it works out in reality as well as it has in my mind.



The Christmas House isn't anything official (though I know there are groups that do official things under that name). For us, it's the place where my in-laws and we will be having Christmas. Right now, we're unofficially in charge -- being the ones nearest and most involved in the planning -- so we've been stocking up on decorations and other supplies for what I hope will be a magical holiday. Thanks to a little borrowing, a little scavenging, a little diy, and a little shopping, I think we've got an artificial tree for every room. We've also picked up a couple Bath and Bodyworks candles that will make up for the loss of real tree smell, some stocking stuffers, and a few treats to welcome everyone 'home' for the holiday.

Finishing up getting ready for the Christmas House is going to take up about a week of December, so I'm sure I'll be back with more -- and I'll be sharing photos of these flying keys in action with everything else.

It's the busiest, and happiest, time of the year!

Slow, but Not Gone

My terribly grown up plan of getting to sleep before midnight has gone out the window the last few weeks -- and I'm still not accomplishing enough with the extra 2.5 hours in my day!

Aside from work and other boring things, here's a pretty good hint of what I've been working on:

1) A cat costume. Yes, I know, I probably could have purchased something similar in any store right now for about $5-10. But, right now I'm sitting at $1 + time + things I already owned, and it helps that it doesn't have any glitter or sparkles.

2) Unless I chicken out, I'm about to attend my first costume party since -- wait, ever. It'll be my first time wearing a costume -- for a reason other than a play -- since I was about seven years old. Yikes. More nervous than I should be. Currently working on 4 costumes so I can go back and forth right up until we walk in. Yikes, again.

3) All those scraps? Mostly not from the ears. Mostly from my currently 6 page long tutorial/outline for my upcoming attempt on 'teaching' wonky stars. Yeah, I way over did it. But that's who I am. Sometimes.

4) No, not packing or moving. That's actually a box from my last move -- when I had no idea how long I'd be away from my things and absolutely did write the title of every book in that box on every side of that box -- and all the others I packed. That box is now completely full of random thread colors I picked up at a garage sale. I had to dig it out to get some black thread so I could finish the ears. Which better be tomorrow.

5) And because photos make me feel less like I've been neglecting to keep track of anything, here's a little more of the unplanned but fun wonky star project I started as part of the tutorial making process.

It needs trimmed up a little, but not bad for my first extra wonky star. I'm winding up with a growing pile of scrappy background wonky stars. I think I'm seeing another mini quilt in my future, but I might hold out and press on for a baby quilt instead. Never know -- I think I'm going to be sending out three in the next month...

2013 Cross Stitch Portrait -- Finally!

I can't believe we're already coming up on the end of April and not only have I zero completed quilts to show for 2014, I'm only now finishing the 2013 cross stitch portrait I had hoped to finish in January! Like everything else I'm working on right now, there's nothing complex about the pattern, or the process, I just haven't been able to set aside enough time to do much of anything!

Although I plan out the stitches for the people, I tend to just freehand the numbers -- and this year, I was a little closer to the heads than I had hoped. Unfortunately, by the time I realizes that, I was pretty dedicated to the plan and just went with it. Yes, I could have grabbed my trusty seam ripper and taken the stitches out even though they were a little too wound together to un-stitch, but the orange thread left a little bit of color behind, and I didn't really want to deal with all those slightly orange dots and paths. I also figure no one else will be quite as critical towards it as me, so if I can live with it, it should be just fine. But next year I hope to be a little smarter about it.

Getting a photo of all four portraits together was a struggle. Between the glare from the flash (even when I dampened it) and the glare from the lights in the room, this is the best I was able to get.

Overall, I'm not displeased with it - but I wish I'd paid more attention to the lack of contrast between the cat and 'my' outfit. On paper and in my plots, it looked like enough contrast, but in reality, a little more contrast would have been better. I'm also not sold on the shorts for Greg, but he's happier that it's a more realistic representation of his usual outfit.

It might have been nice if I'd planned for things to be a little more coordinated or regular through the pieces - like our placement within the frame - but at this point, I'm also beginning to suspect that I should have just put a single large piece in a frame and added to it instead of doing each one individually. I think 2014 will be individual as well, but at that point (since I'll be out of room on the wall anyway) I'll begin thinking about starting 2015 on in a larger frame, or possibly redoing these in a larger piece.

All that said, I also kind of like the random placements. It kind of fits with how we live around here - a little wonky and a little random!

I think I'd better start the 2014 portrait in November or December, just to make sure it gets done in a more timely manner!

Bunting Project

I've been working on using up some of my supply of vintage sheets. Turning some of them into pixel heart style quilts has been keeping me busy- patchwork keeps me really on my toes -but today I really wanted to try my hand on something that would give faster results.

I took a single large pillowcase that had previously avoided being cut up thanks to being more textured looking than the others I've been working on (the weave of the fabric is slightly more apparent than the others I've grouped) and used my rotary cutter to cut it into several triangles.

If I'd been clever, I would have turned the pillowcase inside out to cut the triangles so they would have been face to face. Since I wasn't, I had to flip each set before sewing them together. Using a wide quarter inch seam, l sewed two sides together then ironed  them, flipped them outside out and ironed again.

I did attempt to top stitch along the finished edges on one, The edges did look nicely finished, but my machine refused to feed the point. Newer or sturdier fabric might be able to handle the tug but this vintage fabric couldn't cope.

So, now I have a pile of triangles just waiting for me to find ribbon or bias tape to attach them to before I can call them finished. It's nothing like a quilt top - but I am loving having something more 'finished' to show for my time already. I still love quilting, but it can take so much time before I feel rewarded for my effort -- especially when working patchwork style. I'm off to search the stash and see if I've got the right finishing touches for these!

Pinterest Challenge: Lace Candle Jars

Still haunted by mountains of lace I don't really know what to do with, but don't really want to toss or put in the giveaway pile, I spend about 15 minutes a week dedicated to searching Pinterest for ideas on turning the piles into anything more interesting or functional.

Along with November's lace trees, I found some cute looking lace candle jars that I knew I immediately wanted to use as inspiration.

Inspired by both Annaboo's House (home of the original inspiring image) as well as Another Nicole (who I found while attempting to search out the correct link for the pinned image), I broke out some of the chunks of lace, and a little glue. Lacking any tea lights or other loose candles, I picked an older glass votive holder and two oldish glass jar candles from Bath & Body Works.

Unlit 

Lit

The mid-sized container on the right most is very freshly glued, which is why you can see some of the glue. After a couple hours of drying, the glue is basically invisible, as you can see in the two others which had dried overnight. 

Since I started with decent jars to begin with, rather than recycled pickle jars - which I could certainly use, if I could figure out how to get the masses of old label glue off of them! - the improvement isn't quite as large as it might have been. I can't decide if I think these look romantic or spooky. Either way, I like it.

My only regret so far is that the lace on the largest candle is thick enough that the lid won't go back on properly. Fortunately, this is a winter scent I'm happy to use at the moment, so that's a minor issue. But next time I will be paying more attention and either use a thinner lace (like I did with the mid-sized one) or drop down far enough to let the lid seal cleanly.

Pinterest Challenge: Lace Trees

Whoops - this was supposed to get shared in November, but I went on vacation instead! Oh well, it makes more sense in December anyway! 

Ever since lace began taking over my house, I spend one hour a week looking through Pinterest (and the rest of the internet, just in case...) for ideas of what to do with it. It hasn't been particularly fruitful searching, but one of the ideas that turned up early on was a photo linking to this Lace Christmas Tree Forest tutorial at Mitzi's Miscellany.

Edit: Also, apparently I had pinned (and misplaced) these gorgeous trees, which look more like what I attempted than the picture I set out to use as inspiration. 

Inspired by the idea - though admittedly, not following the tutorial at all - I picked up three foam cones and went to town with some of my least favorite pieces of lace and trim, and some glue.

It took about two episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent* to end up with these three happy little trees:

Yes, two of the three are resting on other things while the glue sets up a little more - but I couldn't wait to take photos. And yes, I did use a combination of different cream/ecru tones with white. For the first few pieces I thought the combination of off-white with white wasn't going to work (just like the combination of matte vs. shiny), but I pushed through and in the end I really like the combination.

I think my favorite one is the larger of the three - mostly because I do like the largest single piece of trim passing around the center of it, the one with the long lines of 'droplets' hanging from it. The only reason it wound up in the 'craft/dislike' pile instead of the 'hang on/do like' pile is that this is the only piece I had - not enough to use in any of the usual ways like trimming an outfit, quilt, or bag. I think that sorting worked out though; it looks great on my biggest little tree.

For the moment, all three have little 'crowns' at the top - but after taking another look at the tutorial, I'm toying with finding a little something more to top them off. Two of the trees shown in the tutorial have silver balls at the top, and I really like that finishing touch. I haven't pulled out the rest of the holiday decorations yet, but when I do I am going to see if I still have some little silver bulbs or something else I could use to finish them off just a little more.

I'm going to give them a couple days to dry before I mess with them again (since I used a tacky kind of glue instead of hot glue). I suspect I'll want to come back and give them permanent bases (the canning jar lid is working well, I might just look for a few more spares of those) before calling them finished. I'm also searching the house for the perfect location - fortunately, I have several options to try and a few weeks before I'll be feeling obligated to get some more decor up around here and a couple more days to figure something out...




*The television in the living room gets one channel, so on the rare occasion we have it on, we watch whatever it shows - mostly reruns of lots of other detective/cop type shows. And the same four movies all weekend long, all year long. Not my favorite thing, but I was already gluey fingered before I thought to change over to a movie. Next time I'll be more prepared.