Bears, Beards, and Snails

My husband’s and my friends are getting ready to welcome their first baby, a boy, this fall. I got a super early start on their baby gift because who knows what I will have time for once school and soccer season start back up again in a few weeks.

Here’s a look at the whole package.

This is a travel changing pad made with laminated fabric on the outside and fuzzy terry cloth on the inside. I didn’t get a picture of it opened up, but it has a pocket on the inside to hold a diaper or two and a small pack of wipes.

The onesie, bib, and burp cloth are all coordinating with cute snail fabric.

The crocheted bear hat is my favorite and was a breeze to whip up. It only took an hour from start to finish.

 

My husband specifically requested that I make a bearded beanie as a funny addition to the package. I found a great tutorial here:

http://www.imtopsyturvy.com/crochet-bobble-beard-pattern-multiple-sizes/

This is a picture from her blog post so you can get an idea of what it looks like with a baby in it. SO STINKIN’ FUNNY!

I used a receiving blanket to wrap it all up in and it’s ready to be put in the mail. 

Oh the Places We’ve Lived

I’ve been wanting to make this project for a while and I finally got around to doing it. With the help of my Cricut, it only took me one afternoon. I used my Cricut States cartridge and cut the shape of the states out contact paper. Then I stuck it down on the canvases and painted over it. Once the paint was dry, I peeled the contact paper off and painted a small red heart where the city that we live(d) in is located.

 

Provo/Orem, UT

Orlando, FL

Topeka, KS

Las Vegas, NV

Every time I look at my wall, it brings back fond memories of all the fun places we have lived since hubby and I have been married.

Red, White, and Blue Table Runner

I decided to use up some of my patriotic colored fabric scraps and made a table runner for Independence Day. It was super fast and easy to make and I finished it in one afternoon the day before the 4th.

Gender Reveal Party

My friend is preggers with #3 and instead of having a traditional baby shower, I thought it would be fun to have a gender reveal party for her and her family. We BBQ’d, the kids played, and we enjoyed each other’s company without any cheesy shower games. I found a lot of fun ideas online and went with the “What will it bee?” theme instead of a pink and blue theme. I also didn’t want to make a pink or blue cake to reveal the gender and wanted a way for her two kids to be involved in the big reveal so I made a poster that, when the kids pulled on the string, unrolled to reveal that she is having a boy.

The dessert/treat table with cake, cupcakes, vanilla and chocolate oreos, and yellow and black candies

Drink station

“What will it bee?” banner

Beehive cake with marzipan bees

Everyone had to make their prediction before the big reveal.

The kids ready to pull their strings

Everyone was thrilled with the news. Congratulations Mary and David!

Paper Mache

I haven’t had much time to craft at all lately, but I came across this cute paper mache confetti bowl had to make one for myself. It was fast and easy to make and it’s now sitting cheerily on my coffee table. It’s not very sturdy, but it sure is fun to look at.

Hexagon Ambitions

Ever since I saw my first English garden quilt, I have had the desire to make a hexi quilt. They are time consuming because they are done pretty much completely by hand and time isn’t always something I have a lot of. The other night, on a whim, I started cutting out a bunch of hexagons from all my scraps. I have done several baby quilts lately with similar color schemes and thought it would be a great way to start clearing them out.

A bunch of hexi's ready to go

My very first ever hexi flower block

And my second

I set a goal of doing one block a day, but that is overly ambitious of me. Honestly, if I get the quilt done by the end of the year, I will be happy.

Angela’s baby gift

After having three boys, a very dear friend of mine will be having her first baby girl soon. I am so excited for her! I jumped on the opportunity to make some fun girly baby stuff.

Skirt, embellished onesie, headband, and burp cloth

Dress, diaper cover and shoes



I LOVE the shoes!

Bib

Hairclips


Of course I had to make a quilt.

Close-ups






Back of the quilt

The fabric is “The Simple Life” by Tasha Noel from Riley Blake. I hand quilted it with Size 8 Pearl Cotton Thread

Teacher Christmas gifts

Between my four girls, they have a total of 12 school teachers so I had to come up with something inexpensive and easy to make for them all.

For the girl teachers, I made homemade bath salts. They are super easy. You just mix 1 part Epsom salt with 1 part sea salt, add a few drops of essential oil to make it smell good, and put it in a jar. Then I attached an ornament and a tag and they were good to go.

For the boy teachers, I made an easy batch of homemade caramels. I had to taste test them first and they were super yummy. I found the recipe here.

Scrappy Blues and Tans

I started this quilt in the spring. My goal was to finish it by the time summer break was over. That didn’t happen but at least I finished before fall break started. It’s a fairly big quilt (72 x 88 inches) so I used up a lot of my blue and tan/brown scraps. I even did a scrappy binding. I hand quilted it with #8 Perle Cotton thread with the same big, chunky stitches that I used on this baby quilt. While the hand quilting is what took me forever to finish the quilt, I love it.

I’m linking up at:

http://tatertotsandjello.com/

A Baby Girl Quilt

I made this one for my oldest daughter’s amazing chorus teacher. I wouldn’t ordinarily go through this much trouble for a teacher that she only spends about 45 minutes a day with, but she is truly an awesome teacher. The quilt was a super simple strip quilt made with Children at Play by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller Fabrics. I absolutely adore every single fabric in the line. The backing was all white with the exception of one strip of some pinwheel fabric in the line.

When I was learning to quilt, I always heard that if you hand quilted, you had to use these teeny tiny stitches that are perfectly uniform and, in my opinion, impossible to achieve. Recently, I have seen some quilts where the quilter used big, chunky, not so perfect stitches and I loved the effect had so I did that on this quilt and am so happy I did. 

The bib is made out of the same fabric

and the same chunky stitches.

Where was this fabric when I was having babies? I’m seriously in love with it!