How much would you pay for

• 18 used T-Shirts (to make a rag rug for the play house)
• 4 vintage pillow cases (for a patchwork quilt)
• 1 brand new set of designer cloth napkins (to make some cute aprons)
• 1 vintage set of lace curtains (I’m thinking dresses for the little girls)
• 1 used book (just because)
• 1 brand new Battleship game still in the cellophane wrap (because Hailey begged for it)

I went to two different Goodwill stores in town looking specifically for t-shirts and sheets or pillowcases and I came home with all of the above for only $35 and some change. Best deal ever! Time to get crafting…just as soon as I finish washing it all.

Sweet Shop playhouse

Several months ago, I saw a pattern for sale for a card table playhouse that looked like a bakeshop. I knew a card table sized playhouse would be nowhere big enough to fit my youngest girls and I also knew that I could easily do it without a pattern. I bought the fabric back in September and started working on it by October. I finally finished the day before Christmas Eve. It is 54 inches tall and 58 inches long on each side.

The front of the shop (the open sign can be turned around to say “closed”)My favorite part is the little birdie in the window.

One side has ice removable ice cream cones that are attached with Velcro.

The other side has cupcakes attached the same way.

I also made them matching chefs hats, oven mitts, and aprons.

They tell me it is the best Christmas present ever and have spent every ounce of free time playing bake shop. They have already come up with menus, order tickets, and have even thrown a grand opening party, which you had to “pay real money to get into, unless you have a coupon.” Luckily they were kind enough to give me and their dad a coupon to get in so we didn’t have to fork out the cash.

 

I’m linking up at:

Tatertots&Jello

I heart Nap Time

Christmas Card Wall

I have had a big empty wall in my living room ever since we moved in and I decided that I would fill it, at least for the Holidays, with some Christmas cards. Either the wall is way too big or I don’t have nearly enough friends (at least ones who send cards) to fill the whole thing with cards alone so I found a few ideas online, combined them with my own and came up with my Christmas card wall. I still want to get a star to put up above it all, but who knows if I will ever get around to it so here it is, for now.

For the big sign in the middle, I cut the letters out of vinyl and put them on a canvas. I spray painted red over the entire canvas, waited for it to dry, and peeled off the vinyl.

For either side of the canvas, I printed off some old looking Christmas music and mounted it to foam boards that I had wrapped with festive scrapbook paper. I punched a couple of holes in the top of each board, threaded ribbon through them, and tied the ends of the ribbon.

Once the canvas and the songs were hung, I strung some twine in the shape of a manger around it all. Finally, I attached my Christmas cards to the twine. I can’t wait to watch it fill up as we get closer to Christmas.

I linked up:

Mary Poppins Cake

My twins wanted a Mary Poppins cake for their birthday. We didn’t have a party, but we just finished reading the book by P.L. Travers before their big day and they are all excited about watching the movie this weekend. I think they will be shocked at how different the movie is from the book. I have seen the movie, which I LOVE, many times but after reading the book, I was annoyed at how different the two are. I know movies are always at least a little different from the books, but I found the differences here extreme. The book had lots of fun adventures that never made it into the movie. In the book, Jane and Michael also have younger siblings who are twins, which my twins thought was pretty cool. Even though they played a very minor role, I’m sure my twins will be disappointed when there aren’t any twins in the movie. 

The silhouette I made was based on the cover of the book.

Fort in a bucket

For my sister’s kids’ Christmas present, I made them a Family Fort Kit. I wanted to do something that they could all enjoy together and help build memories. I loved building blanket forts as a kid (who didn’t?) and thought it would be fun to put everything they might need for their fort in a big bucket and send it off to them.

I included vinyl tablecloths, twine, clothespins, suction cup hooks, binder clips for building their fort and games, books, and popcorn for enjoying in their fort once it’s built. I used my Cricut to cut the vinyl lettering for the lid. Now I just have to get it shipped.

Baby Girl Gift and Chevron Striped Quilt Top How To

Another friend is getting ready for the arrival of a baby girl and I’ve just finished her gift. I did a simple burp cloth and onesie and made a couple of headbands too. My favorite part is the chevron striped quilt I made. I love the way it turned out.

So cute, right? I did a scrappy back because I didn’t have enough of one fabric to do a solid one. I just used the fabric strips I had left from the front mixed in with some white flannel that I had lying around and I think it turned out really cute too. You can kind of see from the back that I just outlined the chevron stripes for my quilting.

I didn’t have a pattern for the chevron stripes, but they are really easy to do. Here is a basic rundown on how I did mine if you are interested and already familiar with the basics of quilting. It would be an easy beginner project.

• Cut your fabric into 4” strips, then cut the strips into 4” squares. Obviously you can make your squares bigger or smaller if you want bigger or smaller stripes. You will need at least 2 different contrasting colors of fabrics.

• Cut your squares in half to make half-square triangles.

• Sew the light triangles to the dark triangles, right sides together, along the long side of the triangles. Press your seams toward the darker fabric.

• Arrange your newly sewn squares into the layout as show in the photo below:

• Sew the top two squares together for all of your blocks. Then sew the bottom two squares together. Press the top seam in the opposite direction that you press the bottom seam.

• Sew the top rectangles to the bottom rectangles, press the seam, and you have your finished quilt squares.

• Sew your squares together to make rows. Make sure you keep the squares all facing the same direction when you do this or the pattern won’t turn out right. Press all your seams for each row in the same direction, but alternate the direction of the seam for each row.

• Sew your rows together, again making sure that the rows are all facing the same direction, press your seams anyway you want, and your quilt top is done.

Now the real work of actually quilting and binding the quilt begins. Have fun!

I am linking up at:
http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011

Double Nine Patch Quilt

I bought the kit for this quilt over three years ago from a quilt shop in Kansas. I pieced it shortly after getting it but then it sat unfinished for quite sometime. About a year ago, I decided to finish it and got the top, batting, and backing all pinned together and ready to be quilted. Unfortunately, the actual quilting is my least favorite part of quilt making (mostly because I really don’t have the right sewing machine for the task, especially on a quilt this large) and so it sat for another while just waiting to be quilted. I gradually quilted a little at time and finally finished the last bit of quilting and started binding it yesterday. Today, I finished the binding and am so relieved to have finally finished my quilt.

This is the first quilt  that I have made just for ME and maybe that is part of the reason why it took so long. Every time I thought of a project for someone else, it would get put on the back burner and forgotten. 

It is a reproduction of a vintage quilt that belongs to the quilt shop where I bought the kit. While I love all the modern quilt patterns and fabrics that are available today, I really appreciate quilts that have a story and some history behind them. I don’t know if it gets cold enough in Florida to use it much, but I sure like looking at it.