Gingercake

In Progress and Taking Advice

 

This is going to be one awesome pattern if I ever get it done.  It has been over a year since I first made one of these.  I am wondering if it is too complicated but all the pictures are already taken and uploaded to my computer so I am going to move forward!  This afternoon begins the writing of the pattern.  A process that I love and hate at the same time since it is hard work but really satisfying to create a good pattern.

In other news, I participated in Jen's "try it" flickr group.  Cal was still in his PJs and the light was pretty meager but I figured I could just try since waiting for the sun to shine in January in Western PA could take weeks!  Also, I took Vanessa's advice and bought a fliter/ reflector that not only softens bright sunlight but also will reflect a little light to give a better affect.  The result was a great capture of my boy. 

He is "framed" by the table in the background and I used the reflector side to give extra light to his face.  I took about 50 pictures to try this out and this one was the first!  What have you been trying out lately? Jenny is going to do a series on this "try it" theme and I am looking forward to getting more tips!  Check out her flickr page to see how beautifully she photographs her children (and mine since they are her neices and nephew!)

 

Hooped Valentines

Whenever I see embroidery hoops at the thrift store, i gather them up in my basket.  They are addictive!  I have too many now and it is time to start using them up.  I thought Valentine's day would be the perfect time to get started!

These are on our stocking nails which I thought was the perfect place.  The idea began as just hearts with fun fabrics and I could practice my embroidery stitches.  I then changed them into including envelopes to encourage valentine notes (more about this later).

I made Cal's first.  I also tried chain stitch for the first time.  Remember when I made the quilt I said I was trying to flex my crafty muscles?  Well this is about doing that again.  The stitching is a little messy and the fabric choices are a little more country than I usually like.  I was going for boyish though so this is what I got...

Not bad.  He likes it- especially the truck.

Next came Elsie's valentine hoop.  She is 7 and loving purple, pink & girlyness in general (You would never know she loves getting dirty in the garden and pushing kids over on the soccer field).

Again, I wanted to practice some new things here so I used Jessica's felt flower tutorial (fun and EASY) and worked again on the chain stitch.  It turned out nicer this time!  Loving the chain stitch.  I also told Amy recently that I didn't know how to use trim so I stuck some trim ribbon in the corner.  Hmmm?  Not sure about that choice but I DID use some trim!

Finally came Anne's which is my favorite.  She wanted (after my suggestion!) a rainbow theme.  I tried all sorts of different ways to get the look I wanted and then remembered this technique that I saw on pinterest.  It worked great and I loved the final look.

The rainbow and thrifted crochet doily took up the entire hoop so I added this simple duck cloth envelope to the bottom.  The heart is made from wool felt and then I used my embroidery threads to do a simple stitch to mimic the rainbow colors.  Whole lotta cuteness.  

And one more shot of the rainbow.  Wouldn't this make the sweetest baby quilt on a biger scale?  

The kids are really excited about these.  Valentine making and giving has been at an all time high.

Aren't they cute?  You would never know with all this love going around that I had a crazy meltdown last night after I had to clean up yet another HUGE valentine making mess.  This time included glitter EVERYWHERE.  I yelled at them that I was going to throw it all away and that I was done with all of this!  They looked at me with shocked little faces and then we (aka Me) decided to create some valentine making boundaries- no more paint or glitter and only small pieces of paper.  Of course Anne's painted and glittered one up there is so beautiful that we all know I am going to crack and open it all up again.  YACK! 

What do you think?  I liked the idea of having the valentine giving be constant the next couple of weeks.  Compliments and lovey notes are pretty fabulous really- especially in the dead of winter when we are all cooped up in the house together.  The kids are asking where my hoop and their dad's hoop is.  Hopefully I'll get around to that!  

Here are some details- I used 10" hoops.  I used the full embroidery thread-all 6 strands.  On Cal's and Elsie's I made the top with cotton fabrics and wool felt pieces.  I did not use interfacing on the envelopes although with Elsie's fabric envelope it would have been better if I had since it is a little thin.  I backed Elsie and Cal's tops with 100% cotton fusible interfacing to firm them up.  Anne's blue "sky" fabric was lightweight and when I used the interfacing it puckered around the name embroidery, so I just backed it with an extra layer of white cotton fabric and it worked fine too.  For the back of the hoops, I ironed the fabric back and then glued it down.  Easy peasy!  If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me and I will try to answer!  

What do you have cooking for V day?  Are you trying some new techiques to flex your crafty muscles?  Let me know about it so I can keep up my work out!

PDF Pattern Organizers Sale!!

Time to sew up some organizers!

This sale includes the On the Go Organizer Sale, The Notebook Slipcover, The Crayon Art Folio, & the Art Caddy!  Sale will end February 1st, 2012.

Thanks Friends!

Boy Time

True to my plan from last week, I did a little more crafting with Cal today.  I have discovered that boy crafting is much less complicated than girl crafting- at least in my house!  Cal wants to keep it simple and I am liking that.  A LOT.

We decided to do more with his popsicle sticks.  Anne was using this book last night so it was out on the table.  I bought is awhile back on a whim since I always loved these types of books as a kid.  Remember them?  They give you step by step instructions to make all these funny faces.

As an adult I look at this book and see the genius of Ed Emberley.  It is awesome.  

Cal chose his favorite faces and I drew them (it was so fun!) and he cut them out and glued them to popsicle sticks.  Then we made a theater out of a box (the box is about 12" x 18") and made curtains in fabric that he chose- "BOY fabric only mommy."  I used a long knitting needle as my curtain rod.

No decorating the theater with glitter, no elaborate dresses to go with the faces, and no complicated story lines for the performance.  This is boy crafting at it's best, friends.   Here is his play...

   

Fox, crocodile and robber are the bad guys.  Foorball man, band leader, cowboy, alien and policeman are the good guys.  At the beginning, Cal is saying "Hey!  We're gonna rob a bank!"  Then "Not so fast little robbers!"  Nice bed head on my boy, huh?  

I liked hearing your craft ideas last week!  Working my way toward something valentine :)  What's your favorite valentine project?

Sheets Quilt- Finally Accomplished!

When I ripped up all my sheets awhile back, I did it to sell the bundles in my shop but also so that I could make a quilt for Anne's bed with all their soft and pretty glory. 

This was my first full bed size quilt.  Once I started it, I was on a mission to finish.  That is a a quality about me that is both a blessing and a curse- it probably would have been nice to do a little, put it aside and make something else, then come back for a little more.  From what I read on other blogs, this is how most people do their quilting.  But I worked on it for days and got it DONE.

Anne and I looked through some simple quilt pattern tutorials and she chose this Plus quilt by Jeni of In color Order.  She does a great job with her directions.  I wish that I had made it a little longer but it is great for now.  Anne loved the plus idea since she likes numbers so much (like all Kindergarteners!).  She likes tracing out the plus signs over and over again.

I did the backing with 20 eighteen inch squares of sheets.  I liked the thought of the the plus sign patterns showing through on the back.  It turned out really pretty.

  I ordered some pretty fabric from Amy's shop for the binding but my impatience to be finished took over and I did a cheater binding.  Now I get to use my new fabric for something else!

The size of my backing fabric gave me about 5" overhang on all sides so I cut it down to 2" and ironed it back toward the back.  I stitched this down with my machine with about a 1/4" seam allowance.  Then I ironed it back toward the front and double folded it under.  I wanted it to look like binding on both sides.

The corners are not perfect but turned out pretty good.  I just folded the corner in the front to make it look like a mitered corner.  I need to hand sew the corner down though so it doesn't come unraveled with washing!  I figured I could easily take it off and do a real binding later if I ever feel the need.

Anne loves the quilt.  She loves looking at the plus pattern and she loves all the colors.  Nothing muted for this girl!  She calls it rainbow colors.  I like how it feels like a family heirloom already- soft and sweet.  Now I need to make a matching sham to finish the look!

The penguin will do for now!   Are you ready to try a quilt?  Seems like quilters can't get enough of their craft.  I am not totally sold since it is such a long and involved process.  I wanted to try though- it's important to flex your crafty muscles, don't you think?  I did flex some muscles moving all this fabric around and cutting out all these squares!  

PLUS, now I know I can make a quilt :)  What's on your list to try?

 

Snowflakes today

Today we have real snowflakes outside.  Not the fun kind you can play in though- the kind that whip around and burn your face.  Not enough to sled, but still covering the ground and making our house feel cozy.  One of the things I want to do this year is create more with my kids.  Cal in particular since he is my last one home- but the girls too at least once a week after school.  

Nothing huge or complicated.  Nothing junky and trashy.  Pinterest is helping me a lot here!  It's a challenge for me to find kid projects that are worth the mess.  Here is the one Cal and I did today to honor the snow that has finally come!  I saw the project here.  It's on my For the Kids Pinterest board.

 We only had this bronze glitter but I like it.  What about you?  Are planning to create more with your kids?  I admit that I feel nervous since many projects have ended in frustration.  Working with one is much easier!  Do you have some suggestions for me?  

Say Hello to My New Friend

Say hello to my new friend in the sewing room...

Isn't she gorgeous?  Probably the best part of blogging is reaching out to people.  Sometimes your motivation for fiddling around with pictures and describing in detail your projects can get low.  You think "Nobody cares!!" but then you remember that your best blog friends and commenters (and your mom!) will care and like seeing what you have made.  The great friend who made this for me motivates me to keep blogging and she motivates me with her beautiful style and creations.  Thank you for this beautiful gift Amy!

This pin cushion is awesome!  Genius with the thread catcher and organizer.  Amy describes more about this project in her blog post.  It is so nice to have something beautiful for me in my sewing room.  I am always just making do so I can work on stuff for the kids or the shop and this is so pretty.

Yes, blogging is about reaching out to people and letting them reach out to you.  You may just find a real connection to someone even if you have never even heard their voice!   Thanks again Amy.  I am working on my first quilt thanks to you and using my new friend as I do it!

Six Today

Today my Anne turned 6.  

I am so happy for her.  She had a great day.  Most of it spent away from Mommy at school.  I am keeping my chin up about this whole growing older thing.  I still have plenty of time, right??  I can't think about it too much.  I have to keep telling my self "the present is my present."

She still likes my birthday shirts!  That's good.  She is the best- bright and fun and caring.  We had a penguin party and lots more pictures to come but here is a sneak peek...

Here is one more when I asked her to pose before the party began.  She is saying "MOM!  enough of the pictures!  When are my cousins coming!  I am SIX!"  

My SIL Jenny was there with her awesome camera and great talent so I know I will be sharing more of this day soon.  There were penguins games and a penguin cake. All was happy for the middle child.  Basking in all her penguin glory.  Happy Birthday Anne!  

Nine Minute Everyday Napkins Tutorial

For a while I have been using cloth napkins that I made using this mitered corner tutorial. I love using them- not only for the nice feeling they have or how much prettier my table looks, but because I know I am doing a small thing to help reduce waste.  A wise friend once told me that every little thing you do adds up to make a difference.  So although I could be doing MUCH more, here is small thing that helps and makes your table look prettier every night too!  I admit that I get pretty psyched about a nice looking table at dinner even when I am serving kid stuff all the time.

The napkins I made last year are great except making them was kinda a pain in the neck with all the ironing and looking for little folds, etc.  Don't get me wrong, that Katy is brilliant!  I also used the same method to make my scrap color baby quilt backing.  When I decided to give these as gifts for christmas this year, I discovered an even faster way to do the corners which makes the whole project a snap! 

Let's begin by choosing our fabric and how much to use.   To switch your family over to fabric napkins you need to make at least 8 napkins and 12 is even better.  We have 5 in our family and 12 works great so that I wash every few days.  To make 12 you need 2.7 yards of 100% cotton fabric.  I like to make my napkins 16" x 16".  This is a good size for grown ups and kids.  If you have only grown ups and teenagers using the napkins, then you could go up to 18" x 18".  That is too big for the little hands in our house right now.

Using a rotary cutter, self healing mat, and a large clear ruler, cut squares that are 16" x 16".  Try to make your squares as "square" as possible!

Next you will mark off a 45 degree angle on each corner of the fabric piece.  Do this on the wrong side of the fabric.  Most self healing mats will have markings to guide you.  I just use a pencil to make this mark 1 inch down from the corner tip.  I don't like how chalk rubs off and you need to be able to see this line in several steps.

Make this mark on all 4 corners.

Fold the corner edge together (to make a right triangle) and put a pin through to mark the middle and hold it in place.

Below is the other side view of that pinned corner.  See how the line is on both sides?

 Now over to your sewing machine.  Sew a short line from the fabric fold edge to the pin you placed in the middle of the line you made in the last step.  Make sure you do a backstitch at the beginning and end of this small stitched line.  It will only be about 1/2".

You need to repeat this on all 4 corners.  Instead of stopping and clipping my threads after each small corner stitch, I just give my piece a pull, make the thread long enough and move to the next corner.  Then I just do all my thread cuts in the next step!  Easy and time saving.  See the picture below.

Next, with your scissors, clip off each corner about 3/16" above your corner guide line. In this step, also clip off those threads from the stitches of the last step.  Clip all 4 corners.

Use a chopstick or some type of blunt tip to poke each corner right side out like in the picture below.

Poke out all four corners and and napkin should look like the picture below.  You are still working on the wrong side of the fabric.

Next over to your ironing board.  You can see in the picture above how the corners make the edges of the napkin roll in.  Use your fingers to pull it a little taunt and then iron that edge flat like in the picture below.  The corners will not iron perfectly flat but that will work out in the next step. 

Now that you have ironed all 4 sides, go back and fold that edge under again to make a hem that is about 3/8" wide.  Take advantage of how the edge naturally folds under from when you made the corner.  

Iron the hem nice an flat.  The corners should lay flat too.  It there is a slight imperfection, don't fuss too much since it works out nicely in the end.

See slight imperfection below?  A bump after it has been ironed.  But it will sew flat in the next step.

Now, if you feel like you can't live without pins here, go ahead and use some, but i think it is easier to not use pins and let the fabric make natural adjustments as you sew around your edges.  Begin a couple inches above one of your corners (starting at a corner usually ends up badly!), and sew around all four sides of your napkin until you overlap where you began.  Clip your threads and move on the next napkin! 

I made this batch of napkins as gifts for friends and family this year.  I ironed them really well and then made some clip art which you are welcome to use for personal gifts too!

Download 6everyday napkins

I printed out the page on cardstock and then cut out the shapes.  I then used a small hole punch and strung some bakers twine (yes!  I am now officially a user of bakers twine.  I don't really get what the big deal is but since i bought so much, you'll be seeing lots of it here!) through to make this cute presentation.

 I actually did time myself and the napkin took only 9 minutes to make!!  That will take a little practice but you will probably have it down by your 3rd napkin.  If you make them assembly line style it could take even less time!  6 napkins in less than an hour is pretty awesome.

You may use this method to sell all the handmade napkins you would like.  The clip art is for personal use only please!  I hope this may be the final push to make those napkins you have been putting off making for yourself.  Say goodbye to buying all those paper napkins and hello to pretty fabric and less waste!

Happy New Year friends!

And this was supposed to be the year I didn't do as much Handmade...

I decided not to go overboard on handmade this year.  And really, compared to the effort I made in past years, it's not so much!  This post is going to be picture heavy and word light since I am supposed to pick the kids up in half an hour and I can't be listing these pictures while they are home!  Those kids are getting pretty smart about catching me in the act :)

First, Elsie's gift was a special request and is a holiday dress for her American girl doll Kit...

Yack!  Doll clothes!  They are harder than they look and working with cheap velvet from Joanns is not recommended.  But, hey!  It turned out pretty and I know my girl will like it.

Next, Anne requested a purse and wallet AND a credit card that spends.  Hmmmm.  The credit card that spends is not happening as of this point.  Maybe a gift card? 

I had fun making that one.  I used some pinterest inspiration and just made up what to do.  I liked using those kind of handles!  Very cute.

For the wallet I used Noodlehead's Zippy Wallet tutorial which was very fast and easy.  Learned some new skills too!  I love how she does her zipper.  The owl one is for Elsie since I couldn't just make one of those cute little wallets!

Cal's gift was my own idea since he is not really interested in thinking about gifts and what he wants for Christmas.  He has mentioned a haunted house with bats but I am not going to attempt to make that!

I used Wee Wonderful's Space boy and Robot pattern which I have had for several years now.  That yellow t-shirt is a cape that is not my best work but it goes with the robot so I'm sure he'll like it.  I used this tutorial.

For Elsie's class party we made Cake Pops.  They were a challenge!  But I have been wanting to try them for so long!  There were 2 left over that we are saving for some beloved cousins on Christmas Eve.

We decorated our Candy Cottage at the end of last week.  I will NEVER go back to making real gingerbread!  This is so much more fun and less pressure (for me at least!).  All 3 kids helped this time, although Cal did a lot of eating candy and Anne somehow ended up with frosting on her ears! 

I made Caramel Corn for neighbors and relatives.  AWESOME!  EASY!  It tastes really good too.

My husband has a huge family so I also made some everday napkins to gift.  These have a back story and I am excited about sharing how I made these. I hope to make a quick tutorial after all this holidaying has calmed down.  I have the pictures taken and ready to go!

Like everyone who likes to sew, I had plans to do more but I am happy that I am pretty much ready for Christmas now.  Last year on the day after Chritmas I felt like I had been run over by a train!  I had no idea how stressed out the whole thing had made me.  I really wanted to scale back so i wouldn't feel so deflated again and I could enjoy the days after the holiday as much as the days before.

Last are a few more decorations that we are loving!   A playmobil nativity set that a good friend gave us.  I love that the kids are playing with the characters so much.  So sweet.  Playmobil is wonderful!

Also, I found this vintage gem at the thrift stoer for only $.50!  What a steal.  She is adorable!

Happy Christmas to you all!  I am not sure if I will be back next week so Happy New Year too!  Thank you for reading the blog and being part of my crafting life.  It is a real pleasure to share my work with you.  I am truly grateful to have this creative outlet and you to share it with!