Minnie Mouse Hat

A Christmas present for my niece, she loves Minnie. I'm so excited about this, it makes me feel so professional! The bow is even attached with a hair clip so she can wear it separately if she so desires. And get this, the ruffle at the bottom wasn't in the pattern, it's my own idea AND design. I am a professional!

Crocheted Hat

Merry Christmas, little sister! I finished my first long-term crochet project. I must admit I never thought it would turn into a hat as I was going along. I am definitely proud of it, and the finished project resembles the finished pattern, however, my stitches don't resemble the pattern stitches, like, at all. Thank you, Vickie Howell, for the pattern, however, if she saw my interpretation she may not want her props :)
One Christmas present done, too many to count left!

Baby Outfit

I made the dress and headband, recognize my newly crocheted flower accent? The outfit is completed with orange tights, too cute! Actually, completed would be with shoes... whatever happened to my baby shoe endeavor?

Christmas Crafting Begins

Here's my sister's gift, can't post it all cuz she can't see it! I'm planning on crocheting gifts this year.

Learning to Crochet

   This is the 7th or 8th flower attempt. I enjoy crocheting but not sure if it enjoys me yet. This is the final attempt for this project. New baby girl no-name will not mind it, I'm sure. Welcome to the family, little one! I'll post the entire gift when it's finished.

Knitting? Been there done that

I'm not the best or most talented knitter, I'll leave that title to my dear friend,Lacey, who made the most incredible, beautiful knitted quilt for my new baby. But I did manage to knit a washcloth (whoopee, right?) and a square elephant, which I was hoping to adorn with a tutu. Not happening this baby around, maybe next time.

Sadness

My sewing machine broke :( Until I get it repaired it looks like I'll be taking up knitting. Off to the craft store...

The Next Project Begins

Can you tell what the next project is going to be? A chubby belly bathing suit top! I was hoping to buy a white one to use with other bottoms I have, but alas, there are none in existence. So I shall make one! Or attempt to! Here is the next produce bag I finished, I am much more pleased with my leaf patterns this time around, but my photo is so lacking and sideways, what happened?

Produce Bags

I saw these in a green craft book probably a year ago or more. Just now getting around to it. Think of all the wasted plastic produce bags in the meantime! I really wanted some sheer fabric but didn't find anything perfect enough. I hope the cashiers don't mind. I also am not fond of my leaf printing on my first bag, but was so excited to hurry up and get it done. Please let me know if you want some! I will make prettier leaf prints as I go, I swear.

Birthday Cake

I know I'm behind, and I need to play catch up. I've been a crafting fool lately, hopefully I can soon make something to sell! I'm thinking baby shoes... we'll see. Anyways, here's some pics of the train birthday cake. It was pretty simple seeing that I bought a train this year. The train is going through the cake tunnel.  You see, last birthday we were also obsessed with trains and the cake was the train, so this year it needed to be different. I guess I actually forgot a finished picture. I added grass around and on the mountain to cover up all the ugly you see here. It was delicious, too, an awesome dense sponge cake with chocolate ganache frosting. Mmmm. I love making real cakes.

The Finished Quilt!

I suppose I didn't really finish by the birthday party, but I was very close. Everything was pinned in place, but my last two days were spent making the cake; yet another crafty urge of mine. I brought it home from my mom's with pins in it where we stayed at a friend's for two days to watch her dog while she was out of town and the hubby finished up the train bed. I finished it at her house and we even used it our second night there. It was ready by the time we got home to see the new bed, and that's what really matters. So, drum roll please...

Tada!

I'm happy with it! Here's a close up of the train, my original from over a year ago!

And of course some props to my husband for all his hard work on the bed. He drew the plans up himself and built everything. If anyone needs a train bed, I know just the guy to call. Our two projects look great together, though not in this particular photo.

The Final Steps

Well, my quilt is done and in use, but since I left so many steps and pictures out while I was at my mom's here goes a history post to let you know how I got to the end...
Picture of my batting hanging to dry. This took remarkably long to do, despite it being pretty thin. Probably 48 hours-ish.

I sewed my edges onto the front sheet first. Just thought it seemed right. I cut 3 edges so that they folded over. The last had to be sewn together. I wanted this to be on the bottom. OF COURSE I did not leave extra seam allowance here and had to manipulate the sides to meet up with this one.

And, my very first 45 degree corner cut on the top edge was the wrong way. Fixing it meant I did not have enough fabric and had to patch a piece in the middle. This was now my bottom and the sewn edge is on top.

This is pinning the batting onto the front sheet. Apparently something was not square, either the batting or my quilt, I'll let you decide. There is a Frankenstein fix where the uneveness meets.

Here's my biggest accomplishment so far: I finished an ENTIRE spool of thread! Had to go buy more. How many people can say that? I'm sure millions of quilters and other crafters worldwide, but until now, not me.

I have a blanket! It feels so cushy and comfy!

Moving

So I have packed up my sewing machine, Cricut machine, and any and all quilting accessories and moved up to my mother's house. My son insisted on having his birthday party up at Grammie's. Thank goodness they have a recently evicted roommate, so I have an entire room dedicated to crafting! I'm so special. I spent a lot of time on the birthday invitations on my Cricut which look like??? trains. Duh. I have presoaked the batting for my quilt and had it shrunk a little I guess. I don't know, it looks huge so I'll have to cut it. Still contemplating on the best way to get it inside the blanket. Maybe I made the blanket way too small? Why would it not fit? Whatever. My husband is back at home busily building away at the most amazing and in-depth train bed one can imagine. By the time we come home, the entire bedroom will be transformed into a train wonderland. How cool is that? Really, really wish I could post pictures. I know my mom has a cord around here somewhere to do so, but she's been moving home office locations so it is currently missing. I, of course, forgot mine. At least I remembered all things quilting related so it may still be finished... hopefully on time! The party is Saturday!

The Back is Done

So... the back is done! That about says it all. Diagonal squares are not my favorite. Running out of fabric mid blanket is not my favorite. Not being able to find the old fabric is not my favorite. But all in all, it worked out and looks swell to the untrained eye. The edges are already cut, so I guess that's next? Or the batting? I don't know. Perhaps it will come to me in a dream.

Fitting the Back to the Front

Does everyone suppose this is how the professionals do it?

I told you I was trying diagonal squares on the back. The patterned ones were quite fun to cut. By fun I mean not so much. The red ones are just normal cut squares. So anyways, I used my 9th grade geometery (thanks Mr. Keyserling!) to determine the hypotenuse (have no idea if that's the right term or spelling). a squared + b squared = c squared, right? This horrific math was used to determine how many squares I would need to meet my blanket dimensions. It's working! So weird, but it seriously is about right. Now I'm just laying it out on the front sheet so that I know where I can use the pieces of un-squares (it seems that cutting diagonal squares uses much more fabric, so add that to the fact that I NEVER measure prior to buying fabric and I didn't have enough - go figure!) and know where to sew another one and how big to make it and where to cut it. It will all work out in the end. I promise. I think.

I have begun!!

So I have gotten all the large squares of the front of my quilt sewn together! See, I keep calling it a quilt, but when I pick up a book on quilting, it is and will be significantly different than what I'm doing. I'm really just making a blanket out of squares. If you call it a quilt I'm probably doing it wrong.
Speaking of wrong, here's my first gigantic mistake. I had cut all my large sqaures 12x12. I had started it before a year ago, but had no real idea how to cut. They were 13x13 last year so that left me some room to play when I restarted this year. The deal with actual quilt cutting is that you must cut to near perfection and sew a perfect 1/4" seam, which means at the end of the day all your squares and corners and triangles or whatever else you cut match up. My squares from last year would have left me with a triangle shaped blanket I'm sure. Just horrible. Ok... back to my mistake this year...I cut my big ones 12x12 and wanted to use more of the discontinued fabric (cuz its in my train) so I decided to make the periodic smaller squares. I cut them 6x6... half right? Ha. So after I sewed them all together using my perfect 1/4" seam, guess what size that square was? Snap. Not 12x12 anymore! My whole thing will be off and I'm out of that fabric! I could have gone back and cut all my other ones, but if you haven't learned that I'm lazy yet, you will now know. I don't think so. I tried my darnedest to fix it by using a 1/2" seam on the big squares while piecing it all together. A real quilter would probably be grimacing right now.
I would assume that one is supposed to sew all the peices of the rows together and then sew them into rows. With perfection as discussed before, this would magically make a quilt. I learned quickly that my squares were still not cut perfectly enough and that my 1/2" seam here and 1/4" seam there made for some not so perfect sewing. I sewed most of the pieces one by one so that I could stretch the appropriate side just enough to get seams to match. Fun.
Anyways, bottom line... it don't look so bad! Moving to the back; and taking on diagonal squares! Oh ya, no large, boring single piece of fabric on the back of my quilt! Ha ha ha!

My Amateur Quilting Project

So I decided a long time ago to make my son a train quilt. He loves trains. It was originally for his toddler bed when he was turning two, which puts me at just a year ago. This time it is for his big bed for when he's turning three. So, when I started it a year ago, I quit smack in the middle thinking, "wow, I really don't know how to quilt." I managed to make the train, but realized I had no idea how to make the blanket or put the train on it. So, I'll just take a quilting class. Fast forward to a year later, and I have finally done so. Quilting 101 at my local craft store was on Jan. 20. I could not believe how much there was to learn. I thought quilters were sewers that knew a little more. Wrong. They are quilters. I was so incredibly overwhelmed from that class. The first thing the instructor asked was, "Is there anyone who is not planning on taking Quilting 102?" Crap. Do I have to? Cuz I need to finish my train quilt by February 25th. Blank stares and cricket noises. Anyways, I learned how to cut that night. Very in depth. Had no idea. We didn't even get around to sewing our square together. Well, good thing I learned something cuz guess what yall? I still need to get a train quilt done by Feb. 25. Here goes nothing.