Finishing touches

I have spent the last week working on finishing all the gifts I started in October with great intentions of getting done early. Oops. So this week I have:

made my mom a necklace... this one I actually started this morning because somehow I missed her on my list...

Sewn this fabric Frosty the Snowman book for Moo,Finished binding this quilt for my Sister-in-law's mother, who will be joining us for Christmas.This quilt took 12 hours to quilt, and I used 27 bobbins! Not sure I will do pebble quilting this small again, but I love the finished look. Thank goodness it's just a lap quilt!

I have also almost finished a doorway puppet theatre (another post on that later), made a dozen scrapbook pages for my mother-in-law's book, made a dress for a friend's daughter, sewn 8 microwaveable rice bags for an order, finished knitting a hat, and beaded 3 lanyards for namebadges for a coworker. Thank goodness my family is okay with pizza, frozen noodle dinners and spaghetti for dinner!

Winter Wonderland

I saw this adorable winter scene on Chasing Cheerios, and Bug begged to make her own house. We still have a lot of felt from a great thrift store find, and we put it to good use. We dug through the felt and she chose colors while I cut.

I love how she decorated the tree. And the pink snow. That's my Buggie for you. The final scene is really cute - I imagine we will play with it a lot during Moo's naps in the coming weeks.

and... after another entire day knitting this hat again, I think it looks like I tried to knit armor from the game hubby has been playing on the xbox. Not a great look. So, I ripped it all out. Again. And started another hat. Hopefully success with this one!

testing, testing...

I have been picking up knitting the last two weeks, and started AND finished 10 hats in 12 days. Wow. Five of these are for Christmas gifts, I still need to make a little boy hat and then Christmas knitting will be done.

I am still new to knitting, and have not ventured with anything too fancy. However... after my mom brought this book over, I knew I had to try something new. I love all three 'One Skein Wonder' books {hint hint hubby}. Just missing the other two...

Well, after a few tears and a 'yarn over' lesson from my mom, I felt confident and began knitting. Three + hours and 24 rows later, I realized the hat I was making for myself would fit my two year old neice who has a small head. Oops. So, out came all those stitches. I went up a needle size, grabbed a Diet Dr. Pepper and began again. Hope my guage is right this time!

Impromptu Project

I try to do little 'projects' with Bug's help on a regular basis. I would say we do 5 or so art projects a week, although they are usually pretty basic stuff. I have been a little lazy lately, and she has noticed. When I got home from work tonight (I work 4pm-12:30am) she was up (again... we really need to work on her sleep schedule!) and begged to make her daddy a project. Just one. How could I tell her no? I had this snowman printed off, and she got to coloring. Have little kids? Check out the coloring page, it's a good one. A little glue, and she was a happy girl with a project to give her Daddy.
Notice the clock in the background? Oh, you can't see it underneath the dirt? Well it says 1:02 am. Seriously.

Christmas sewing - round two

I have been working on bags this weekend - first I made these matching 'church bags' for the girls. I will fill them with coloring books and finger puppets... and other quiet toys. Just for Sundays so they will be a special treat. They each got one, although you can see from the arm in the picture they may not be a surprise or even stay hidden until Christmas.

Next, I made bed book bags to hang on the outside of their beds. Bug loves "Ten, Nine, Eight" and it's often missing at bedtime. I am hoping we can just keep it in one spot and have bedtime go a little smoother. These bags are big enough to hold a couple books and made out of a sturdy canvas (again, from our thrift store... $1) and fabric that matches their blankets- I wanted them to be specific to each girl. I used this 'kidlet' tutorial as a guide, but added two separate straps so I could button them on. I will upgrade from the safety pins.

I love it when in one night of sewing I can make four projects start to finish.

Two little Indians

Bug and I have been talking about Thanksgiving and making turkey crafts this week. I told her we might make a feather 'hat' like an Indian girl would wear. She then said "and you make me Indian girl dress too? Thanks." So, off to the thrift store I went in search of fabric. Since I live 75 minutes from a clothing fabric store (and civilization), that is my go-to place for last minute supplies. I found this dress that came with a jacket, and the fabric was really soft (and only $4) - perfect!

I wanted it to be more of a dress-up dress, so I used this pattern again, so it's easy to get off and on. The only thing I did different was I added a reverse applique zig-zag at the bottom. I really wanted to avoid fringe, and I thought zig-zag would be a similar look but a lot easier. It was time-consuming, but I love the finished look. I did double rows of stitching because of how much this fabric might fray.
I had dreams of my girls playing together for pictures, but when it came time, {reality check} they both decided they wanted this spray bottle with water. This is the result of my photo shoot: Once Moo was distracted with Diego, I did get one of Bug that's a good shot of the dress. It's exactly what I had in mind, and simple enough that even Daddy approves!{UPDATE}

We did get a better (no fighting) picture on our way to Thanksgiving dinner!

Finishing touches

I have been working on cleaning out my 'craft room' this last week, and it is a little more work than I hoped it would be. However, in the process, I have stumbled upon unfinished projects. Bug was sure pleased to see this again. All it needed was the binding sewn on by hand and done! So, I got to two of them before she got horribly impatient and cranky, so two down, two to go. These are actually leftover pieces from a quilt top I made for the quilt shop, and instead of a small quilt I opted to go with individual dolls. Cross your fingers for me, they might be easier to share this way!