Scraps!

I am beginning to build up quite a collection of scrap fabrics from my many projects. It's kind of fun looking through them and remembering what I made with each one. I thought one way to preserve some of these memories would be to make a quilt out of all of them. The quilt I want to make is inspired by this book cover. I actually bought this book just for this cover quilt.

Mine will end up looking a little different than this, but it was the directions for the dresden plates that I needed. I really like dresden plates, they have an antique feel to them. I got the idea for a dresden plate quilt from my mom who has been working on one using wedges my great grandma cut out. With that, I figured I would go ahead and cut some wedges for the plates from my scrap fabric. Here's a little preview. I will continue to cut these from fabric I use as I go and someday I'll have enough wedges to complete the quilt. It may be many years from now, but this will be a fun project over time!

Three Little Monkeys

Here they are -- the three little Molly Monkeys -- Jordan, Kady and Alex.

Rainy Weekend = More Molly Monkeys

With rain expected all weekend I figured it would be a good time for some sewing. I have LOTS of corduroy left from Olivia's Christmas Molly Monkey and Owl so I decided I would make more Molly Monkeys. I am making them for Michelle and Shawn's girls -- Jordan, Kady and new arrival Alex. I went to Craft Essentials to pick up some fabric, but they were closed being New Year's Day, so instead I dedicated much of Saturday to cutting out all the corduroy pieces and sewing on the faces for all three monkeys. This took a long time, but was a good way to spend the day while Mike was out in the garage installing the engine in his car. At 10 am this morning, I headed back over to Craft Essentials and picked up some fabric for the monkey clothes. I found these really cute stawberries and cherries that I thought would make fun skirts. I picked up matching polka dots for the shirts and white with a little swirly design for the socks.

I was planning on mixing and matching all these fabrics -- a red polka dot shirt with a stawberry skirt, a pink polka dot shirt with a cherry skirt -- but the third one was up in the air. I brought Mike in from the garage to get his opinion and he thought it would be best to make all the monkeys the same and have different skirts instead of having two red or two pink shirts and only one of the other. So I went with it and all the monkeys have a red shirt and will have patchwork skirts of the other fabrics (the girls will be able to tell whose monkey is whose by their embroidered names on the bum). Once this decision was made it was smooth sailing. I made three identical monkeys and found my new sewing tools very handy! The Mini Clover Iron proved to be great for ironing seams down after piecing as you can see here:

And the pinking sheers were awesome for trimming seam allowances:

At the end of the day, there were three Molly Monkeys waiting to be sewn together and stuffed. But that will have to wait for another day. Here's a preview of the three identical monkeys -- this one happens to be Kady's.

Best Friends

Olivia's Christmas gift can finally be revealed! It's a Molly Monkey! I found the pattern for this cute stuffed monkey on www.mmmcrafts.blogspot.com. I thought it would be perfect for little Olivia and I am very happy with the way it turned out. I think Olivia and Molly Monkey will be best friends growing up :)

O is for Olivia's Owl

Tasha really liked the first owl I made last weekend, but I didn't like it enough to give to Olivia, so I gave it another go using left over fabric from Olivia's Christmas present. This attempt is much cuter and less spooky. Tasha especially liked the bizarre look of the first one, but I think this version is less likely to scare O. The tail is better placed in this version also, but you can't see it in either of these photos. I even embroidered Olivia's initials on the bum. I'm sure O will grow up loving this stuffed owl!

Things That Go Hoot In The Night

I thought I would change gears and dabble in some stuffed crafts this weekend. With the long weekend I figured it was time to try something new and do a little experimenting. This funny (almost creepy) owl is what came out of my experiment. The eyes, beak and inner ear pieces are cut from felt and hand stitched with matching embroidery thread. The hand stitching gives the doll a sort of vintage feel. The shirt and socks are made from regular cotton fabric and the head, wings, tail and part of the legs are made from corduroy. I thought the skirt might make it a little more girly, but I think I like the owl better without it. The fabrics are just a little too crazy to be put together. The tail is weird because it hangs between the legs if the doll is standing, but I couldn't figure out any other way to attach it -- it looks ok if it's sitting, though! I should probably stick to quilting after this not-so-successful crafting day!

Potted Christmas Tree Skirt

Mike and I decided to put a Christmas tree up this year, but just a little one. We went to La Sumida (a local nursery where I inspected some small trees for work last week) and bought a Dwarf Alberta Spruce. It's the perfect size to sit on top of one of the speakers. The container the tree is potted in is a green plastic, but it didn't look very festive, so I decided to make a skirt for it. I made a tube with elastic at the top and bottom to cover the actual pot and then a square skirt to wrap around the base. Now it's ready for gifts to be placed underneath :)