Bias tape roses!

My mom found a box of bias tape in different widths/colors/folds/
materials. I have flowers on the brain right now, so I decided to see
what I could make...
I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt!

Birthday presents!

For a special little cowboy friend

(this card makes more sense after you see the gift, but I cant figure out how to move pics around...)
I free motioned on a plain card. the star is with a long straight stitch, and the K was a long zigzag stitch.

Here's the main gift: a toddler backpack
D has a Thomas backpack from Target that's a great size, but the zipper is super hard for him (cheapo from Target, duh)... I'm planning on making one of these for him, but K needed a present, and since he's about to get a little brother, I figured a toddler backpack that doesn't require his moms help might be cool.
He's really into cowboy stuff, so I found this heavyweight striped cotton in the stash I "borrowed" from my gram.
the browns, red and navy matched the cowboy invite we got to his party...
I originally planned on embroidering a cowboy boot on the front, but then hit on this take on a sherrif's badge instead.
I free-motion zigzagged the K first, then lightly sketched the star (with water soluble marker), so the points would be roughly even, and straightstitched those... then I just went around and around and around the K/Star to make it slightly more badge-like.
despite planning on making this for a month, I waited until 11pm the night before.
luckily for me, the pattern was SUPER easy to follow, and even with embellishment, I was done by 1.
yay!

Inside I put a little felt playset I made...
I also made a set for my boy, so I'll get around to photographing that soon!

What I've been up to all week:

WIP Wednesdays

I'm sure lots of people have their own versions of WIP Wednesdays, but I discovered the concept here... so, here's my (semi-realistic) list for today:

sew this quilt top together. Here are 4 of 11 strips, pinned together. this should take less than an hour to sew up, right? then I need to sew the back, so I can baste (spray-baste, but baste, nonetheless) it tomorrow and tie it tomorrow night/over the weekend?

here's my helper, using clothespins to pick up quilting pins one at a time and hand them to me. (the bean was on my back for this...)

I've already cut out, and need to sew the items here...

counterclockwise, starting with the JellyBean dress:

1.The Bean's B-day Party dress, just needs sleeve and skirt finishing, and button sewing-on.

2. a white cotton knit sleepsack for the bean (i'm testing out my pattern with scraps from:)

3. a white cotton knit raglan shirt for D (to wear under his ghost costume)

4. white cotton sweatpants for D (with cargo pockets) (again, to wear under his ghost costume)

the final stack of fabric in the above pic is white textured cotton to make into the Bean's dedication ceremony dress, and some colored felt to make into a game/activity idea I have in my head...

but first, before doing ANYTHING else, I need to sit here for a minute and enjoy my FAVORITE fruit. I LOVE POMEGRANATES. I think I might need to make myself a shirt with that quote...

Good morning!

We've all got colds again. Here it is, 1/2 way through October, 75
degrees outside everyday, but somehow D and I are on our second cold
each already!
I'm working on this jellybean dress for the Bean's 1st bday party.
It's the Oliver+S playdate dress. While I stamped all the fabric, D
painted my scraps, and he got some paint on the otherwise pristinely
white yoke. I love it. I think I'm going to hand embroider her name
and some jelly beans on the yoke near the splotch... Maybe. I was
originally planning on covering the splotch with the ruffles suggested
by the pattern, but it was just too busy.
Clearly I need to think on it more.
My thinking time these days is in the am, with the Bean strapped on my
back (I love my Ergo baby carrier!), while I clean the chicken coop
(and dog poop) and generally just let the chickens have monitored free
time in the backyard. Alice loves it, Carrie refuses to come out of
the coop, and Betty is somewhere in the middle. Alice particularly
loves nibbling on cheeseweed, which is lucky, cause we've got lots o'
that!

Guilt

I love all my other pets too!!!
2 pups (Harper is blond, Guinness is dark), 3 other kitties (Kieran,
Tisa, and Murphy), and 3 hens (Alice, Betty, and Carrie).
It's dark outside, so the other kitts are hunting outside, and it's
too dark to snap shots of the hens, so here are my puppies, to excited
to pose.

My helper

I've been switching back and forth between piecing a quilt, sewing for
Halloween, sewing for the birthday party, and knitting. Hence the mess.
But my kitten keeps me company. I love love love this fluffy ball of
orange fur.

how to make cute cloth booties!

Both my 3 y/o son and my 1y/o daughter needed warm slippers for around the house... so rather than drive 45 minutes each way to spend $40+/each on a pair of Robeez booties (although I do LOVE them, and have several pairs for them, all in the wrong sizes for right now), I made some. They worked so well, that I made these for a friend:

aren't they cute!!!???!!

I put together a tutorial in the most visual way I could.

look at each picture for the directions pertinent to that step.

I forgot to talk about fabrics though... I used high-quality quilting cotton for the floral shoes, and faux suede for the brown shoes. Both pairs are lined with Minkee, and the soles are made from home-dec faux suede... it had a thick backing, it felt a little foam-y, so it provides a little bit of cushioning. 1/8 of a yard (of 60" wide home-dec fabric) is enough to make 3 pairs of toddler sized soles.

Cut all the pattern pieces (the finished pattern is 3 pieces: a sole, a toe flap and a heel rectangle) in outer fabric and a lining fabric. I interfaced one pair, and found it unnecessary. It is necessary to attach the sole pieces together in the middle, just so the sole doesn't slip and slide... I liked the results I got with stitch-witchery.

I know it's a vague tute, but hopefully it'll help. It might be easier to make some of these awesome shoes first, to learn the process (and use their patterns as a jumping off point), and then try adapting them to make my booties.

PLEASE let me know if you need help/have questions...

so far I've made 5 different pairs of shoes, following these steps, and while all slightly different, all have worked out perfectly for the kiddos.

Meringue ghosts

so I saw these... (scroll down to the end of the post)

and was planning on making them, but then, while searching for a recipe, I found these, and I let D decide which he wanted to make...

Voila

D put in all the chocolate chips...

aren't they so cute!?!?!?!

D's owl shirt appliqué

D needs more long sleeved shirts to get him through "winter" here in So Cal. I'm trying to make, not buy, so I pulled out my bin-o-knits, and found some jersey heavy enough to withstand all the grubby-little-boy activities he so loves.

One of the bits I found was a shade of pumpkin-y, orangy-brown, perfect to make into a jack-o-lantern shirt. wouldn't that be so cute? I could totally picture the little black appliques turning my boy into a pumpkin.

WHen I asked him about it, he was excited, but also very clear that it had to be a friendly pumpkin, NOT a scary pumpkin face. ... so... I decided to do a search for templates so I could run the design by him.

... while searching for a traditional, happy jack-o-lantern, I found THIS:

(here)

ergo:

I used some scrap bright orange jersey for the owl, and a teeny piece of nice tissue jersey for the branch... traced the shapes (hence the stencil still on the window) onto Steam-A-Seam, (hence the reverse of the stencil, because I didn't really care which way the owl faced), cut the shapes out, ironed them on and you see what we get.

I love the idea of using JUST steam-a-seam, but I totally don't trust it. at least not for something that will need to get thoroughly washed at least once a week)

so I decided to free-motion all over it to hold the appliques down:

I'm in LOVE

isn't it so cool!?!?!?

CLEARLY I need to do more of these... I might need a shirt this cool for myself.

(assuming, of course, that this shirt actually gets sewn and fits well, etc)

I'm waiting to decide if I should put in the moon, I have some white jersey.... I'm also thinking about stamping in some little stars (in lieu of the dots)

HELP! advice/input appreciated!