Random crafts

Oh, I have been crafting a bit, but posting pretty much none. So here's a little catch up post to get a few things I've made this month up. So in no particular order;

I made a chevron cozy for my cuppow jar

A perler/hama bead rendition of Duck Hunt

Tried my hand at painting bread (it's supposed to be a Stargate)

I made a reversible cape for my nephew (being modeled by my wooshing husband)

And last but not least we made another doll bed. This one red and yellow by request

Doll Bed & Quilt

We are having a silent auction at our church, so my husband and I decided to make a doll bed with a quilt and matching bedding. I think it turned out cute. The pillows are my favorite, they have blue ticking pillows and then cute pillow cases. We were having fun with mini pillow fights! Hopefully it will raise a nice chunk of change!

Liam's Quilt Top

Well, I have been working with Liam to make him the "perfect" quilt. He found this dragon fabric a few years ago, and knew he wanted it in his quilt. I have had a really hard time figuring out how to make it what he wanted.

Well, we finally decided we would just do it!

So we drew, we talked, we hunted for fabrics. He decided he didn't really want me cutting up his precious dragon fabric, so it will be used on the back. I cut and sewed, and FINALLY I have the top done! Now I have to figure out how I'm going to quilt it, and if I'm going to add some embroidery.

Decisions are what take me so long! The sewing went quickly as did the cutting. Well, it's a huge milestone, I'm over the hump at least. Hopefully I will have a chance to finish it next week!

PS The picture is before it was pressed, and I added a bit more black to the outside. It's a super twin size, all the men in my husband and my family are at least 6' tall, so I wanted this to last my Liam for awhile.

Row Robin Quilt Signups!!--CLOSED

Sign-ups will be until Feb 28th 2009
Your first row with your Theme will be mailed out by April 1st 2009
We will be making a quilt row by row. You will have 6 weeks to finish each row. The first month you will make your own row. After that you will be adding a row to another member’s quilt each month. At the end you will have enough rows to put together a quilt. Each row will be made by a different member of the group (one by you.) The goal of this is to combine the skills of different quilters in different areas with different skill levels together to make one beautiful quilt for each of us. I want everyone in this swap to have fun and expand your creativity. The swap guidelines are specific to ensure that no one is disappointed in the end.

The Rules:
-Use only 100% quality cotton fabrics. Nothing with a loose weave and please pre-wash and press all fabrics.
-This is a commitment! This is a big swap, and no one wants to let anyone else down. Communication is key! If something happens let us know. We can always pass on the package to the next person, or come back to you. We understand, but don’t go missing, keep talking to us!
I would like every week to have some sort of communication. Either a picture on the flickr group, posting to the flickr group, or an email directly to me (faerydaydreams @ gmail.com). Something to let me know you are still with us.
-Each row should be unique. Try not to repeat what other rows have done. We want variety.
-Fabric & Rows must be placed in zip top bags. Please don’t use the slide zipper style bags as this adds quite a bit to shipping.
-Everyone must put a note/card in with their first row. On it should be the owner's name, email address, mail address, likes/dislikes. this will stay with the quilt rows the whole swap.
-Do not attach your row to the next row! This will be done by the quilt owner. They will be able to decide if they want sashing and what order they want the rows to be in
-Treat each quilt with respect, keeping it in a clean, dry and safe place.
-You will always pass the quilt to the next person on the list following your name. The last person always sends to the first person on the list.
-When you send you must email the organizer, owner, & person you’re sending it to.
When you receive you must email the organizer, owner, & person who sent it to you.
You must get delivery confirmation!
-Follow the Golden Rule of Quilting "work on another’s quilt like you would your own!"

Theme
We will be doing a mystery block row quilt. You will decide on a broad theme or colors for your quilt (ex: all purple, stars, Christmas, etc). The other swappers will decide on the blocks to use, thus the mystery!
Everyone must put a note/card in with their first row. On it should be the owner’s name, email address, mail address, likes/dislikes. Everyone will do their best to make a row they believe you will like. You should not try to dictate what is on your quilt. You can suggest or make requests, but they may not be followed exactly as you had hoped. Feel free to list colors/color schemes that you prefer. Feel free to give it a “theme,” but remember to keep it simple.
(Example 1: Colors- green, red, white, Dislike- orange, Theme- Christmas, Dislike- please no angels. [This is fairly detailed, but totally do-able by everyone]
Example 2: Colors- I only want red, teal, and yellow, Theme- I want only pinup girls in Cowgirl outfits. They all must have blond hair. [This would be really limiting, if you want a quilt like that, go for it, (I'd love to see it!) but this isn’t that type of swap])

Rows
You will make your own first row. That row will set the tone, colors, length, and orientation of the rows. We will make rows for a quilt that is either 48" to 60" long. You decide what the length of rows should be for your top. One swapper may want a top no larger than 48" and another swapper may need their top to be 60". (please note: these are 'finished' row lengths, a 60" top will actually measure 60.5" with the seam allowance etc)You may make your top Vertical or Horizontal. Do not attach your row to the previous row. Place your row in the bag with the other rows and pass it on to the next name on the list. The owner will decide what order they want the rows in and if they want to add any additional sashing, rows or borders.
You must make your rows to the length and orientation (vertical/horizontal) requested by the owner. All rows need to be between 5" & 16" wide (this is up to you.) Remember there will be a seam allowance, keep that in mind when you make your rows.
**Edited To Add- You will be supplying the fabric for each row that you make. You can use from stash and/or go buy, but please use fabric that the owner will like and use 100% cotton fabrics. If you have a fabric or two that you really would like the other rows to have you may include that when you mail your row. Put a note on your card that you would really like if they would be able to include that fabric in your row somehow.

Block Pattern & Size
You will decide each month which block pattern would be best for a quilt as it comes to you. All blocks in a row do not have to be the same pattern or even the same size. Blocks don’t have to be square. Please do not repeat blocks used in a previous row for that quilt. We want you to use your creativity and this is all part of the challenge. Be sure to use whole blocks … no half blocks, please. Keep with the theme of the quilt using your own fabric and any fabrics that may have been mailed. Traditional piecing, paper piecing, or finished applique, make the row special for the owner.

Mailing Information
The deadline to pass the quilt on will be either the 1st of the month or the 15th. The deadline to mail your first row and any theme / background fabrics is April 1st. If you finish a row early, then please send it on. When you mail out each package, please use a label and put the next person’s mailing address on the outside of the Ziploc bag that contains all the rows! If the package becomes damaged en route, then the postal people have a name and address to forward it to. *If you are mailing in the US please buy a tracking number. If you are mailing the rows to a different country than yours, please make sure the rows are sent airmail. Please be aware that there may be International swappers in your group. The earlier you can get the rows mailed if they are going out of the country the better. Do not mail your rows if you know the person you are mailing to has more than two sets of rows already, please contact your hostess for further information. Please post weekly, whenever you mail and receive a package of rows. Communication is vital to the success of this swap!

Mail dates for these rows will be;
April 1st (Your starter row)
May 15th
July 1st
August 15th
October 1st
November 15th

If you have any troubles, questions, or comments anytime during or before the swap, please ask, you probably aren't the only one. You can email me at faerydaydreams @ gmail (dot) com, or leave a comment here.

To Sign Up
Send me an email at faerydaydreams @ gmail.com (take the spaces away from around the @ symbol before sending.)In that email please include the following;
Real name
Mailing address (include zipcode & country)
email address
your flickr account (if you have one)
blog address (if you have one)
Do you mind sending outside of the USA ?
If you know already, what your color/theme preferences would be. (If you don't know yet that's ok)
Any questions or comments you may have, or anything else you want people to know

*There has been some interest from people outside the US, so I thought if enough people don't mind sending outside the States, we could include them. If not we'll do that on another round or maybe one group will have international senders and one won't.

PS. I am looking to have a button pic made up. If anyone is interested let me know!

Participants (so far)
Tab (Me)
Bobbi
Sudi-Laura
Harley
Melissa
Tracey
Valerie
Darlene
Carrie
Natasha
Lori
Angela
Robin
Marty
Margaret
Jessica
Dianne
Susan

Row Robin Quilt Swap Anyone?

I have been wanting to host a swap for awhile now, and I realize now is probably the best time.
First, I'm just going to throw out a line and see if anyone is interested. This isn't an official sign up! I simply want to know if there is enough interest out there to proceed.
I'm thinking of hosting a Row Robin Quilt Swap.
For those of you who don't know, (this was a new concept to me until recently,) You create a row up to 54" long (determined by the owner.) You would be allowed to use applique, piecing, etc... to create this row. Then you send what you made to the next person and they make a row for this quilt also. This continues through all of the participants. Then the quilt strips would be sent to the owner and she/he would piece them together and have a finished quilt top. I think there would be 5-6 people per quilt.
If you are having difficulties picturing what this would look like. Imagine some of the most beautiful row quilts. Here are a few I found online. Some were row robin swaps while others were done by a single person.
memaquilter's row robin quilt
Pat on the hill's row robin quilt
krommama's liberated row quilt
dianezirin's rowrowrow your quilt
cactuspatches christmas row quilt
stitchnagain's row quilt
These are just a few that I thought were quite lovely.
I know life happens, so I believe in generous craft times!
So, anyone interested?
If you are even a little interested please leave a comment on here. We only need 4-5 interested to do it!

***Edited to add, I think since this is my first non-affiliated swap to host (I've hosted tons on craftster,) and because of the style of swap this is, it will be a USA only swap. If I get a lot of interested from international parties, I may revisit this***

Swaps Received

I've received some lovely swaps lately, and thought I should quick share


My dishcloths from Kimtastic on craftster.org


My mini quilt from taylynnsbean on flickr


and this one I made for taylynnsbean on flickr the theme was "out of the box" mini quilts. I have always wanted to do hexes, but they seem so daunting on a big quilt. I have been obsessed with wanting a beehive lately, so they sort of went together. I really like this, and may have to make one for myself. The bee was hand embroidered.

Stuff I've Been Working On

Ok, here's 2 of the things I've done recently. First is the tea towel for the tea towel tour. She requested our state or something that represents it and the year it was established. So here's what I did.

And here is the doll quilt I made for the Doll Quilt Swap I was in. She's received it, so I can show it now.

Away too long!

Wow, I can't belive it's been over a month since my last post. Life outside the internet just sort of got away from me. I should be posting a bit more regularly now that the kids are on their way back to school next week.

We took the last week to enjoy some time together (also we had some bugger of computer and internet problems.)

We went camping finally! Tim's been working so much he had a really hard time getting away, so we really needed this.

We took a train ride (new to all of us,) to Chicago and did some touristy things there. We visited the Sears Tower (have I mentioned to you all how afraid of heights I am?) We went to Navy Pier (Have I mentioned how deathly afraid of piers, bridges and heights I am?) We went to Shedd Aquarium (Have I mentioned I'm allergic to fish of all kinds and the trainer didn't wash her hand before shaking mine ?? Yep that sucked!) We went to the LEGO store, rode trolleys and took taxis. Lots of these were firsts for the boys, some were firsts for Tim and myself too. Overall it was a lovely trip, but I definitely realized how much I love home. It was far too loud in Chicago for me! The train ride was wonderful and we're trying to plan another one soon. I should have pictures when I find where the boys put their camera.

We are going camping again this weekend for Labor Day, then the kids are back to school.

Oh, I received my GORGEOUS Doll Quilt from the Doll Quilt Swap 4 on Flickr.

Here's my best closeup. SheltonDHW made it for me. She also sent along some yarn and a needle book and a lovely embroidered card. Pics of those are on my flickr, you can see the yarn a bit though.

What else have I been up to? Well, soccer has begun and hit us full force. 3-4 games a week, plus some practices. It's a town over, so that's a bit more running than we'd like, but the kids LOVE it, so that's what matters. And it's only through mid October.

That's about all I can think of right now. I'll have to go through things better, I know I'm forgetting something.

Baseball embroidery

Here's the crayon tinted and embroidered one of Lore. The colors are off because it's early in the morning and hazy. I'll try to take another one later, but once the day starts that just always becomes less likely.

The waterbottle isn't as wonky as it looks on the picture either.

Now to make the rest of the doll quilt. Picking the colors may be difficult for me. I matched his clothes and such to what he actually wore, but those colors won't match my living room at all, so I want it to look nice on it's own, but match my living room. (Pink walls, light blue curtains with red white and pink in them.)

Gifts For the Nieces

We made a few gifts and were able to give them to the recipients this weekend.

First, you've seen me working on this, but it is finished. I wanted to keep it simple, and I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Here's the finished front. (I these this crazy early in the morning, so I know the color is a little funny.)

Here's a bit of a close up, and you can see a peak of the corner of the back, and my mild label.

We also made my nieces (the ones in the quilt above) a frog game. The boys had tons of fun making/helping with these. We took the idea from Mama Urchin's Lilypad Game. We also used the same Purl Bee Frogs and they worked excellent.

Just a simple zipper bag to keep it all in. I meant to add handles, but I made it quite late at night, and forgot, so..... ooops.

And also, something I forgot to post a picture of. My Levi was in a musical version of Treasure Island. He played Chief Pigaloo. He spoke Pig-Latin and ROCKED THE PART! I was so proud, and truly impressed!

Sketch #2

Ok, so I fiddled around with the picture, and I took some suggestions, and this is my second try.

I got rid of much of the bench. Put in a bat and ball, and added his water bottle. What do you think?

Baseball- Embroidery

To a point baseball has consumed our lives. Funny thing is, only one of my boys is playing this year. Lore loves baseball, he especially loves being catcher. I think all of that gear gives him a sense of power!

I love baseball too. Mine is far more selfish than it should be. Practices and games for kids around 7 years old, is a lot of waiting. Not a whole lot of action much of the time. But we're outside in the lovely fresh air just sitting... or not. I have a hard time sitting still. Especially as the controlling person I truly am inside. So I need something to distract me. In comes embroidery.

Oh, Embroidery, how I love thee!

My doodles (and the patterns of others,) look so lovely stitched out. Far better than mine do on paper!

I have been on a doll quilt kick, and I have another one in the works now. I will work on this as I watch my little Lore running, catching, batting, making sandcastles, leaping onto home then doing a pirouette because he made a run and all of the other fun things he does while playing baseball.

I am fairly happy with it, but I feel it is missing something. I tried a chain link fence, but it didn't look right, and it made it too busy. I was considering some birds or something flying/sitting above the bench. Any other suggestions?

PS The mohawk was much more difficult to draw than I had anticipated.

Picnic Quilt WIP

I know I posted this before, but I am in a quilt square swap on craftster.org. We sent out our fabrics to everyone, they made a square and sent it back to us. (They are signing up for another round if you're interested.)

Anyway, here are the squares I've received so far.

I am planning on making a picnic quilt out of them. I can't decide what color sashing/borders/binding to do. My gut says white sashing, then blue border and red binding, but it's a picnic quilt, and I'm afraid the white sashing may be a bad idea. I'm open to suggestions. I also want to put something in the middle, but I'm not quite sure what. I don't want it too "picnic-y" but I think it needs something other than a plain pannel.

I really love it, the picture doesn't do it justice as I had to quick run out during a spot of sun, and before the rain cloud hit which was right behind the sunlight. I did get wet, but I wanted a sunny picture.

Doll Quilt 4 Swap Preview

I have been having lots of fun working on my swap doll quilt. I haven't been able to do any real sewing since the flooding, so this is what I've been still able to work on.


The picture is something I've been working on for quite awhile. I took inspiration from a few different pictures, but it was all totally drawn by me. It's supposed to look like my oldest son. I guess it's how I imagined his first kiss will be, and the girl is supposed to look like the girl I imagined it would be with, but it must not look too much like her because my son and my husband didn't recognize her, so I said I made her up. We'll see how psychic I am.


Anyway, I colored it in crayon, set it, then embroidered everything in brown with a backstitch.

I forgot my camera at friends' house, so it's a scan, hence the little ripples.

Another Square finished

I have another quilt square finished.

Quilt Square Swap

I am participating in a quilt square swap on craftster. The details of this swap are we send our fabrics out to 12 different people. They do the same. Every person makes one square for each participant out of their own fabrics, so we'll have a cohesive quilt when it's finished. I sent some blues, whites, and reds, and a little mixed color fabrics. I am hoping to make a picnic blanket with mine. Here are some of the squares I have finished already.

mimw- this is for a man


critterpants- I really like the simplicity of this square.

Snow Days

We've had a few snow days recently, so we've had to keep busy. Here are some stuffies that the boys decided to make.

The two bears on the right were made by tracing another bear that they already had for the pattern. They did all the tracing, cutting and sewing. I helped a bit with the safety eyes and closing up after stuffing. The penguin on the left was my eldest's design. He did everything except the final stitching of the stuffing hole.



The penguin's beak fell off, so he has a temporary paper one until we have a chance to sew it back on.


I am working on making some doll sized quilts for my wall in our living room. The Challenge on Flickr is Chinese coins. Here's my take on it. This is the top so far. I embroidered my husband's favorite quote in white. I didn't want it to be screaming obvious, but I think we need more quotes around the house! It says "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. but without it, we go nowhere" -Carl Sagan

Birthdays and Presents

Well, my birthday was last Saturday. I turned 30. I see no difference, so I guess that's good. For my birthday I decided to treat myself to something I made. So I made myself a pink and brown purse. I used scraps from other projects. I used brown corduroy from a jacket I am making. I used a bunch of pink cotton fabric from a few baby quilts I've made. And this is what I came out with. It's certainly not my finest work, but it went together quickly, and it has lots of my favorite pink fabrics, and I just LOVE corduroy. It's big enough to carry the essentials, plus some. I can fit my big camera and a water bottle in it.
Inside of bag. You can see the zipper pocket, magnetic snap, and d-ring (which will hold my keys once I make a keychain for my keys. The little plastic vial in the middle is the extracted DNA from wheat germ. I should probably toss it, but the kids were so proud.


One side of the bag


Other side of bag

Dick & Jane go on a trip

I made this overnight bag for my niece's 4th birthday. I was truly hoping for a lovely day to take beautiful pictures, but it's cloudy, cold & horribly windy, so I just had to take some indoors before I give this to her tomorrow.All of these pictures are of the bag empty, so you can see how well it stands up on it's own.




Here's a close up of the wallet I made to go with it. It hangs from a D-ring, but she'll probably put it on her belt loops most of the time.


And here's a shot of the inside of the bag, it just has one blue hanging pocket. The yellow fabric inside matches far better than the picture shows.
The dick and jane fabric is a Michael Miller fabric . The yellow gingham and yellow with green flowers (inside) I have had forever, so I'm not sure what those are.
The dark blue is an old pillow case that had a hole in it that I was able to save.

I can't wait to give it to her. I am pretty excited, I know she'll use it a lot!

Teacher Gifts

My sons wanted to make something special for their teachers as an end of the year "thank you". So they decided on a pillow. They drew a picture of their teachers with them and embroidered over the pictures. We (mostly me because of my horrible procrastination habit,) have been making them into pillows. They wanted them scrappy and "not too straight" as Lore insisted.

They aren't the best pictures, and it's raining here, so absolutely no good light. But it gives you an idea.

For their teacher aids we are giving them each Haagen Dazs ice cream gift certificates. With a spoon that says "You're the sweetest."

I hope they are well received.

I'm hoping to finish all of these up by tomorrow night.