Sylvia's Quilt

I finished another baby quilt.  This one went to our new niece Sylvia.  I used the fat quarter pattern from Two Little Banshees again.  It is such a quick and easy pattern, and it's nice to be able to shop for fabric in bundles instead of individually (especially since I don't have a car at my disposal to go fabric-store hopping these days).  Plus I like that Sylvia's quilt used the same pattern as her brother Owen's.  So they have a little set of matching quilts, albeit with very different fabrics.

I bought the fat quarter bundle from Hawthorne Threads.  They have a lot of really pretty bundles to choose from.  I loved picking such a girly bunch of fabrics for this little lady.  My sister in law Jessica does not shy away from the girly colors.  She loves pink and Sylvia has a gorgeous pink nursery.  I think these bright feminine prints will fit in nicely.

I was frustrated yet again when it came to the quilting of this quilt.  I was pleased with the top (for which I used the pattern), and I was pleased with the back (which I pieced together randomly from scraps),  and I felt like I ruined them once began quilting.  I had a lot of puckers again.  I think it might have been due to my deficient basting process.  Or the fact that I took off my walking foot and used the regular foot to do my quilting.  Whatever the cause, it didn't work out well, and my quilting was less than stellar.  Again.  I'll keep trying, though.  The good thing was that after I washed and dried it, the puckers and mistakes were much less evident.

I added a few hand-stitched details on this quilt, which I like to do when I have time.  I hope Miss Sylvia will get some good snuggles and naps out of this quilt!  I enjoyed making it for her and holding her for a few hours when I met her last weekend.  Not many things in this world sweeter than a brand new baby.

this year's ornaments

Christmas crafting!  We tried three different things this year, with varying results.

I wanted to make these snowglobes.  I found pictures of the boys in the snow and laminated them.  I was so excited to put these together but they were duds.  My problem was that I did not leave enough space around the inner edge of the lid, and the jars would not close.   On one of the three, I could get the lid on, but it wouldn't seal, and so it leaked.  I think I used the wrong kind of glue, for starters, and I may have been trying to cram too much stuff into each snowglobe.  I was focused mainly on the look and how cute they would be with sprigs of this and that.... I should have been primarily concerned with whether the darn things would close.  So, these potentially adorable snowglobes were a bust for us.  Maybe we will try again next year.

Incidentally, one of the other moms in S's class wanted to to do snowglobes as the craft for the whole class during the winter party.  So I was able to experience all the same technical difficulties, times twenty.  I felt so bad as each kid walked away from the sink, which was my station, with either a leaky snowglobe or with one that wouldn't close at all.  That was quite an afternoon.


These next ornaments we tried were these little wintery scenes.  I think these turned out okay, even though some of our trees and deer dried at a crooked angle.  The tricky part of these was not getting glue all over the stuffing that we used for the snow.  And also keeping the stuffing inside the cup as you put it over the top of the scene.  So these took a bit of dexterity and patience.  Because of that they weren't very kid-friendly.  I had to do most of the work myself, which isn't the idea.  But they made cute gifts for teachers and grandparents.  I love the one we kept for our tree.

Lastly, we made these sparkly snowflakes.  These were super easy for the boys, but it took a surprisingly long time to do 5 beads per pipecleaner.  Turning on some tv as a distraction helped us get through it.  We made most according to the directions, but I also tried one version where I kept the pipecleaners longer and then I curled them to make a more flowery look.

Next year I'm going to try to limit myself to one or two ornaments, and I'll try to pick ones that will be a little easier for the boys.  The whole point is to do these WITH them, not for me to slave away after they've gone to bed.  

One more thing I did this year.  I used our box advent calendar again, but this year I put magnets on the backs of the boxes.  In the past I had hung them on a door or wall using poster putty.  But it never worked very well.  We would often have boxes falling down  and their contents spilling out.  The magnets worked much better.  I put them all on a cookie sheet from IKEA.  Voila.  No more falling boxes.

Just for fun, a few pictures of our decorations this year.  I love the mantle in our apartment. 

finally did something with the beautiful leaves we made 4 years ago

I wrote a post about this garland I made over on my tumblr.  Are you guys following me there too?  Because I plan to start posting more over there, mostly the things that I make.  Click over, friends!  

xoxo

How to make Harry Potter robes out of plastic tablecloths.

Well, I meant to write this post about 8 months ago, right after I threw my son a Harry Potter party in March.  Life got in the way, but I've had a few requests for a how-to on the robes I made for the kids out of black plastic.  So here it is!  Better late than never?  

My main goal for these robes was that they be cheap and quick.  I had a lot of other details I was working on for the party   (You can see the full write-up of the party here.)  Spending lots of time or money on robes for wild boys who would probably just destroy them anyway was not appealing.  These robes are great because they require no sewing.  The only supplies necessary are black plastic and packing tape.

So I bought several table cloths from Oriental Trading for $1.25 each.  I needed robes for 11 boys.  The table covers were 54" x 9 feet.  I was able to get several robes out of each table cloth, but I'm sorry that I can't remember how many.  I should have written that down, huh?  Probably if I was better at math I could figure it out.  Maybe my husband can help me calculate it when he gets home.  :)

I held the plastic up to my kid before I cut it down to size.  I tried to make it extra loose for him, because he's such a skinny guy and I knew some of his guests would be a little bigger.  So I'll tell you the measurements I used, but these are approximate, and you might need to adjust them to the size of your child.  I was making them for 9 & 10 year olds.  If your kids/guests are older or younger, you'll need to adjust for that so they're not tripping over their robes all day, or busting at the "seams".

I cut my plastic table covers down to approximately 40"x46".  Use your kids as models and cut your plastic down to the size you think will work.  It's cheap enough that you can try a couple of times until you get it right!

Fold down the top about 8 inches.  Place a piece of packing tape at the far edges of the fold, to hold the fold in place.  This will make the opening of your robe's sleeves.

Next push the middle of the folded down plastic up toward the top.  Use something to hold it in place.  I used a little bowl of Lemonheads, my power-fuel while preparing this party.  :)

While the folded down plastic is being pushed upward, it should create angles that can be taped down in order to create sleeves.  Flatten out the edge of the plastic and tape it down.  Don't tape all the way up to the top.  You have to leave room for arms to get in!  Tape at an upward angle for about 6 inches.  Play around and see what works for you and your child.

That's it!  That's all you have to do. The robes move great, they're easy for the kids to get on and off by themselves, and they look fantastic (from far enough away).  :) 

 Easy, cheap, quick, and totally fun on party day.

new traditions --- pumpkin party with friends

One of the hardest parts about moving is that we can't continue all our holiday traditions in the same ways.  Since we aren't as close to family, some of the things we used to do with them will now be done on our own.  Sad but true.  It used to be that the boys would pick out pumpkins at a local farm, and then Grandma Debbie would carve pumpkins "with" them.  I put the quotations on "with" because she would really carve the pumpkins for them.  She would let them pick out any template from the book and then proceed to carve it expertly no matter how difficult the design.  That was our tradition and the boys loved it. I did too, honestly, because I didn't have to do much!

So this year I knew we would be carving pumpkins by ourselves.  I felt overwhelmed by the thought of finding time to do it.... I was afraid I would drop the ball or put it off until it was too late.  I decided to set it up as a social event so that I couldn't back out or somehow not manage to find the time.  I think it was a good strategy.  Throwing a pumpkin carving party is easy.  Just ask people to bring their own pumpkins, provide a little food, get your table ready to hold pounds of slimy goop, and you're golden.

We didn't go to a farm for our pumpkins.  We went to the Dominics parking lot.  And that was okay.  Also the boys didn't get to pick fancy templates for someone to carve for them.  I told them they had to draw their own faces and keep them simple.  Okay, truth be told, they didn't exactly stick to those stipulations.  Nate found instructions for a Poke ball that he put on S's pumpkin.  And before I realized what was happening, T had drawn 4 small, detailed faces on his pumpkin, one on each side.  Ideally he would have drawn a big, simple face on one side of his pumpkin.  But, hey.  Nate was willing to carve them all out, so it was okay.

We didn't have a huge turnout for our pumpkin party.  But what a great way to spend an afternoon with friends.  We had fun chatting, catching up, getting messy, and eating soup.  I regret that I didn't take a picture of our guests' pumpkins.  I'll try to remember next year.  I think we found a new tradition.

p.s. S is conspicuously absent in these photos because he was my photographer for much of the day.  Nate was carving his pumpkin for him, and Si's boredom was manifesting itself in obnoxious behaviors.  But I let him have the good camera to take pictures and he magically transformed into a happy helper.  He took most of the pictures for his post and I think he did a great job.  

gifts for girls

I always enjoy making gifts for my nieces, or other little girls I know.  It's fun to use the girly colors or motifs that I have to skip when I'm making things for my boys.  Here are a few things I made for my twin nieces, who recently turned 7!

They requested shirts with butterflies, because they had grown out of shirts I had made them previously.  Of course I was flattered that they wanted a repeat, so I couldn't deny that request.

I wanted to make them another shirt each, and for reasons unknown I was inspired to do these all-over prints.  I just went with what I knew were their favorite things  at the moment (horses and dolphins, respectively) and set them on repeat.  I used my silhouette cameo and freezer paper to make all of these stencils.

Horses for Naomi.

Dolphins (and other oceanic goodies) for Grace.

From making Naomi's shirt, I had lots of little freezer paper horses left over that I couldn't bear to throw away.  I decided to try a reverse stencil with them, using a bleaching stencil method.  There are tons of tutorials online for doing this; I used Ashley's. 

So I ironed the horses onto these loop jersey scarves.  Then I used a spray bottle and a sponge to apply the bleach.

 

The scarves came out a little crazy.  I may have used too much bleach.  The silhouette of the horses were not as prominent as I hoped they would be.  A lot of the legs and manes got lost to the bleach.  

 I thought they ended up looking like ancient cave paintings.  Which is actually kind of cool.  But I wasn't sure they were really in keeping with a 7 year old girl's aesthetic.  I didn't know if they would even be able to tell they were horses, especially when they were bunched up around their necks.  So I decided to keep them for myself.

And I am wearing them quite a bit.  :)

I would like to try bleach stenciling again.  Maybe my nieces will get some scarves for Christmas.