Inspiration

I love Vanessa's blog - she posts tutorials that are fun and seem "doable."

Here's a couple things I've made using her instructions -

Quilt for Dedra's baby boy, Graham

Rainbow tie-dyed onesies -

Sign (looking sort of aged)

Stay-put Kitchen Towel

Found this tutorial the other day and thought it was really cute/easy. Here's my version (in terrible lighting) -

Homemade

I always have high hopes of getting a lot of homemade presents made for the holidays. I didn't get a lot made this year, but I was happy with the ones I did.

A reversible cape I made my for my 3-year-old nephew. (Brett was my "size model" and didn't even seem to mind that it wasn't for him.) I found the idea here. (I didn't do velcro - I had just made the straps long enough that he could tie it in a knot. This seemed to be easier for everyone!)





















I also made three of these block photo puzzles. It's a fun idea when you have pictures of friends you don't get to see often enough :)



















Oh, and I also made some of these for breakfast. They were quite tasty and easy.

Patchwork Ball

Remember this? It actually turned into this -



I put a little bell in the middle so it makes noise when you throw it around. Luckily we have a few friends having little boys soon, so will gift it to one of them (before my boys start thinking they need it :)

In Progress

Hopefully it turns into the "patchwork ball" from this book. The fabric is all scraps (cotton, cordoroy, flannel) and I thought it would be a small project that I could get done pretty quickly. One of my coworker's just had a baby boy so would like to give it to him if it turns out okay.

Just add ruffles

My sister-in-law, Becky, asked if I could add some ruffles and make jean shorts out of her girl's jeans. Here's a couple of them - I think they turned out really cute!

Little things

Things are super crazy right now with work, Brady's baseball, Ed's corporate challenge and weekend activities. But I still have a list of things I want to make (and some of them have a deadline - Brett's bday!) and these pillows were one of them.

1 down, 1 to go! Completing the pillow made me happy amidst the craziness - it's the little things :)

Worth the Wait?

I'm late on delivering a birthday gift to my 6-year-old niece, but I got the idea to make something and add it to her gift - then decided to make one for her brother and sister too (after I made one for my boys and they started fighting over it!).

SO . . . . . . .it's going to be late, but I hope they like/use them. Here's a snapshot of the fabric I used for the girls' version.

Quilted

We picked it up last night. The quilter did a great job and put stars and lassos randomly throughout. Brady loves to tell Brett "mom made this for me" and I'm proud to hear him say it :) Now I just need to make one for little britches. Oh . . . and bind this one so it's really complete.



See the star?

Progress

After getting the material cut, the amount of each fabric I had cut wasn't working out with the outer design so I had a slight delay. . . . .but tonight I finished it and now just need to add the outer border which is a light brown fabric with cowboys on it (used throughout the quilt also).

It's quite bright, isn't it?

Handprint pillows

I saw this idea for a handprint wreath (on paper) online somewhere and thought it would be fun to use fabric paint and make pillows for grandma's to help them decorate this Christmas. Best of all, the boys really enjoyed making them. They loved having their hands painted, which was good because we made three of them! (I used green and red plaid fabric on the back)

Quilt In Progress

It seems like I started working on this "cowboy" quilt for Brady shortly after he was born, but it probably hasn't been THAT long. But I know collecting and cutting all of the fabric took me more than a year! It's hard to tell what is on the fabric (in the picture), but there are horses, little horse shoes, stars, etc.

I'm happy to say putting the first two rows together has gone quite fast. I have 5 more rows like this to add (and then there will be pieced blocks that go around those and then a little strip that goes around that).

I'm excited to think this project might actually get done!

Farm Chick

It doesn't happen all that often, but I found some fabric at Joanne's I love - it's red (my current favorite color) and has a ton of cute sayings/pictures on it. Here's a snapshot from a little something I made for Jennifer, our neighbor, this week - I'm not going to show the whole thing because I'll probably be making some more as little gifts (and for myself!).

Onesies

We're having a baby shower for my coworker this Thursday and I decorated these onesies for her. She doesn't know what she's having so I tried to keep them "gender neutral" - although Ed says the pumpkin (which I like the most - it's brown fabric with stars on it) looks like a girl. I tried to work with fabric I already had so I didn't have any "real" Halloween fabric. . . .

Monkeying Around

She took me about a week to make (a little bit every night) and she's finally finished! At first I thought I might give her away, but the boys immediately claimed her so she will probably be living at our house. And since the boys started fighting over her, I'm going to make another one (I bought a blue pair of socks too) so we'll have a "couple" of monkeys at our house (not that we don't already!).

And yes, I realize her tail is in a bad position on the first shot, so I'll have to take another one and replace it :)