My own thundering herd

With Christmas swiftly approaching I once again chose to be the "Crazy Aunt that gives homemade gifts"... Most of the recipients (or their parents) are savvy enough to recognize a cute trendy gift when they see it the others will just have to be happy that each one has their initial on it.

I chose this cute elephant for all the cousins. Lucky for me they are all still little enough to like stuffies. This is a Wee Wonderfuls pattern. I added the tassels and the monogram to the blankets, though.
This little guy is a one off... after him, I used flannel for the rest, but wanted to try and use this fabric. He is so cute I might just make another one for me...
I just noticed his ears are upside down... funny how you don't see things like that when you are working on them!


Here are boys' elephants. Of course I made one for my boys as well...


Here are the girls' elephants.


Now this one is different and special. Mostly because I wanted to do a heavily embroidered one with less finger trapping places for the youngest recipient...


I am happy with how cute these are and am very pleased that the major chunk of my Christmas presents are finished and ready to be shipped! And I am even happier that this was almost completely a stash project... I had to by yarn for the tails and stuffing, but that is all! Yea!

Two more quilts

I finally found a
use for extra binding... trim a matching pillowcase!

This quilt was my first commissioned piece. I really like it, I hope the intended recipient does, too!


This quilt was being snuggled before I even finished the binding...


She must have known it was for the wall...

Quilts away!

Baby E has gotten her quilts and her Mommy just loves them! Which is good because I love them both dearly( and daddy too!)

You can see the embroidery and quilting of this one in earlier posts but here is the label I made using PolkaDotBunny's embroidery design.


I also made this Peter Rabbit quilt for her. I have been saving this fabric for a while to make a quilt for this baby!


The little carrots and radishes make me smile.


I even thought far enough ahead to buy the matching flannel for the backing.
I happened to have enough of that floral binding left over from when I was binding tea towels, and it was jut complementary enough to be cute.


All folded up and ready to be shipped.


There is only one more baby due in the near future and his quilt is done already... I will post it later...
now I have to finish my commissioned quilt and will start planning Christmas presents...

conquering the WISP's

Hello all!
This last week I have slowly been conquering my pile of wisps (works in slow progress) that are taking over my desk and staring at me...

This project I started last December and it is going to be put back on the shelf for a while! I hate how it looks and am not sure what I want to do with it... right now it puts the crappy in scrappy...



This quilt top I started last year as well, but the pattern was written poorly and when it came time for final assembly the blocks didn't fit together, so I put it away in frustration.
I got it out this last week ironed and re-measured everything and cut some of the blocks down to fit and the top is now done and ready for quilting! Hooray!

I used this opportunity to try to match the pattern of the border with mitered corners. I like how they turned out quite a bit.


I also made two more pairs of nine patch squares for the one a day quilt along...


I also made this 9 patch from some left over hst from another quilt...


I used about half of the completed squares to make a baby quilt for my cousin's new baby girl.


I have had this cute flannel for a while. I picked it up off of the clearance table before we moved...
I also found that really cute stripe fabric that I think will be binding the next few baby quilts...


I used the leftover binding to finish off this project that I started a couple months ago...
I saw a organizer like this in a Magellan's catalog and knew I could make one my self...
here it is completely open showing the outside...


Here is the inside... you can tell from the crooked pockets that I didn't really have a pattern that I was working from. I was just winging it, and I didn't really even bother to pin it...
There are 4 rows of 7 pockets each one is approximately 4 1/2" x 3".


To close it up you fold the two sides to the center and then feed the ribbons through the buttonhole in the center there.


Then fold it shut like a book and tie the ribbons...

This works really well for me... I dose out my daily medications and vitamins into little plastic bags that I got from the package store in the mall and have almost a whole month ready to go...
I keep this on the top shelf in the kitchen (right above the coffee mugs) so I see it and remember to take my vitamins everyday while keeping everything safely out of reach of the boys.

I also have pictures of some other quilts that are on their way to their owner, so I won't post those pictures until next week...

more blocks...

Here are blocks 14-17 for the QAL.


I am also to this point on all the baskets for my commissioned quilt. Tomorrow I will add the bottoms and then I can start embellishing the baskets that will be in the center...

This pink is the secondary color for the baskets... the majority of them are plum colored.

Keeping myself busy...

I have been chugging away at the block a day quilt along.
I have been making twins of each pair all with white alternating blocks...

Here are pairs 6-9.


And 10-13. That's 26 total blocks...

I am not making one block a day as you can guess. but am definitely averaging it!


I also finished Baby E's quilt and am washing it now... I am waiting on the delivery of my printable fabric so I can make the label...


A better shot to see the quilting...
Please don't laugh at my uneven and wobbly stitches... this is my first handquilting project...

Quilts and crafts

I have joined up on a quilt along since I have nothing else to do around here...
This one is sponsored by Crazy Mom Quilts and is the One-A-Day quilt along. The goal is to make one nine patch a day for 70 days. I got a head start this weekend and picked out the majority of my green stash and the white on white prints.


I am actually making "twins" of each set so that I can set this qult without any sashing.



I made an art smock for Jimmy for when he goes to school.


and it's reversible.


I made a tablecloth as a present that is yet to be mailed. All the chicks are dancing differently.

One more top almost finished

I had originally purchased this pattern to be Joey's bed quilt, but now have second thoughts about it. I have added a black and rainbow batik border to try to tone down the pink, but it still is a fairly girl looking quilt and Daddy is grumbling about it being on his boys' bed...
So it may end up being a present for someone who needs a rainbow! You never know...

Pajama day rocks!

We had a massive size change over here at chez crafty and Jimmy came up on the short side for pajama pants. I let him dig through my fabric and made him a few new pairs.

He loves to wear his pajamas all day!


He now has quite the variety to choose from.


This was a great stash buster! I forgot I had this lizard fabric...

I finally finished the embroidery on the whole cloth quilt for Camas's baybee!
I think after all this embroidery in a row, I might not need a thimble to quilt it, the callus on my finger is getting so thick!
Now I just have to settle on a quilting pattern. I have been staring at it too long close up, so this is currently hanging on the wall until I get ready to mark the quilting. probably later this weekend...

You can click on the picture for a closer look.


I also got two wall hangings back from my long arm quilter. I finished binding this one today. Tomorrow I can put the label up and hang it on my poor empty wall!
This is from Mount Redoubt Designs. With my own modifications of course...


I am looking forward to getting the rest of my quilts back from quilting, and have to decide which color of my two color wall hanging to bind it with... decisions, decisions!

A gift for Baby K

There is a bun in one of my favorite ovens and it will be done in three more months...
Time to get stitching!

This whole cloth quilt is using the patterns from this book.
I'm almost half way done with it...
I still haven't decided if I will have time to try to quilt it or if I should tie it...


Cute baby animals and little crawling things play all over this quilt...

Mama's been painting

Sorry it has been so long since I posted here, but there has been much going on in the way of moving. I am just getting back into the crafting groove. The first thing to be done in out new house was to paint.
Jimmy asked for a jungle room and we picked out this mural from Elephants on the Wall.

This was great fun to do and I really enjoyed adding my own touches to it.


Jimmy says that the monkey dancing is the Mama, the hanging monkey is the Daddy, the swinging monkey is Jimmy and the climbing monkey is Joey...

So among other things (like a river, fancy nails and lips) the Mama and Daddy monkey have wedding rings on.

A look into this corner where there is a mini-mural, connected with a free handed bird of paradise in bloom and other plants along the bottom.


And off to this corner where I extended a branch around the corner to add some parrots at a later date. I also added a red ti plant and you can see where the river flows off into the distance...


Joey's murals were from Moppet Murals on esty. The train mural is just ast the pattern intended with the exception of a blue sky- I thought it was redundant on a blue wall...


Joey also has a city scene. This is the as far as the pattern goes. I am currently expanding it down the wall and have added a park and a hot air balloon. I will be adding in a bike trail and our family on bikes and a trio of wind generators in the background. I am still trying to cope in my little green heart that there are three exhaust billowing cars going down the road... maybe I should add little "H's" to them to show that they are hybrid or, even better, hydrogen powered and those billowing clouds are water vapor? We shall have to wait and see.


Remember you can click on any of the pictures to see more details. I highly suggest that you do!