Home(made) for the Holidays

This December, like most others, I'm busy crafting and cooking. With Christmas drawing closer I'm starting to wonder if I put too much on my plate this year but I wouldn't be happy if I wasn't busy and there's something about making something with your own two hands that's so much more satisfying than buying the same thing.

I can't go into much detail (yet!) on some of my projects (spoilers!) but here's what I've got in the works this year:

To kick things off I made my sister a Cookie Monster scarf for her birthday at the end of November. I forgot to snap a picture of it before shipping it off. Maybe she'll be nice enough to send one or wearing it of her wearing it so I can share it with you.

Rainy Day Play "Quilt"

After a very rainy week the sun made a perfectly timed reappearance on Columbus Day when the Mr had a day off of work allowing us to go apple picking, something that's been on my Fall bucket list for years. unfortunately I knew the ground would be wet and that we would probably end up sitting on the ground at some point. Knowing that the regular blankets we usually use as play areas for her weren't going to cut it in the mud, I whipped up this water proof "quilt" during her morning nap before venturing out for an afternoon at the apple orchard.

I'll start out by saying I have NO experience in quilting but I was able to complete this project from concept to packing it in the diaper bag in about 2 hours, with a little help from my husband to cut and pin a few pieces.

Rainy Day Play "Quilt"

Materials: 3 large scraps of fabric about 1/2 yd each (A,B,C)
1 yd PUL
thread
embroidery floss

1. Cut nine 1 ft square pieces of fabric, 3 of each color (A,B,C).

2. Pin sqaures right sides together into 3 rows of three in the following order: 

• Row 1: A, B, C
• Row 2: C, A, B
• Row 3: B, C, A

3. Sew the squares to form the three rows using a 1/2 inch seam allowance. 

4. Now pin the rows right sides together matching up and pinning open the seams. You can take the extra step of using an iron to press the seams open but I was in a hurry and it turned out just fine when I only pinned them open to sew. Sew using 1/2 inch seam allowance to form a large square from now on called the Quilt Square.

5. Now that you have your Quilt Square pieced together, lay it onto the PUL matching up one of the corners and two edges. Cut the PUL along the remaining two sides of the Quilt Sqaure to make a PUL square of the same size.
6. Match up the sides and pin the Quilt Square to the PUL square right sides together and sew using 1/2 inch seam allowance and leaving a gap a few inches wide to pull the piece through.

7. Trim the edges to 1/4 inch and clip the corners to the seam then turn the piece right side out through the gap you left.
8. Pin the edges smooth and sew a 1/4 inch hem all the way around to close the gap and keep the edges in place. We want a mat not a bag! :)
9. Now the whole point of this is to have a dry place to sit on damp/muddy ground. That's what the PUL is for; it keeps water from seeping through the blanket to baby's bum the way a normal blanket would. Now the more holes we put in the PUL by sewing through it, the more places there are for water to leak through so we can't stitch all over quilt style to keep the two sides of the blanket from slipping around. Instead I used embroidery floss in a complimentary color to stitch small Xs at the four corners of the central square in my "quilt." You can do French knots instead if you prefer the look or place the stitches in the center of some of your quilt squares instead but I recommend as few stitches as possible to hole the piece together in order to maximize water-proofing.
Enjoy!

Stitching up a storm!

There are lots of new babies in my life and on the way which means I've been doing lots of crafting!
I'm pretty new to crochet but I already prefer it to knitting. Since I'm not a master crocheter yet I've enjoyed making these super simple jumbo granny square baby blankets. If you can make a granny square you can make this! No need to join squares, which I haven't attempted yet, just keep going around and around until the blanket is the size you want it.
I'm trying to expand my horizons with crochet. It's easier on my fingers and faster (for me) than knitting. To that end I found and joined a site called Ravelry. I highly recommend it for fellow stitchers! It's a social network and database for knitting and crochet meaning it's very awesome!. They have a huge searchable database of patterns that is very easy to use. You can search projects by age, gender, difficulty, cost (many are free), format (online, pdf, book etc.), and product (clothing, toy, craft...). Then you can create a library of patterns you like and a to-do list. The social part comes in because you can share which pattern you are working on, and update your progress. Then you can share a review and photo of your finished product that other users will see when they view the pattern. All very cool stuff, and did I mention the site is free!

Mr also bought me this book. I haven't tried anything from it yet but it's a collection of crochet stitches wonderfully organized with a large color photo of each stitch. I'm looking forward to using it to jazz up simple patterns, especially sweaters/cardigans once I figure out how the basics of those.


On to sewing!
I made this super cute baby carrier using this pattern by Jan Andrea I found on Pinterest. It's so easy I think even a beginner sewer could manage it. At any rate, I used some heavy weight "home decor" fabric from Walmart at something like $8/yd. The pattern used about 1 1/2 yds so for about $12 and an hour of effort, I had this handy cutey! Baby carriers usually sell for $25 minimum so I think this is a pretty great deal, plus I got to choose my own pretty fabric. I only made a very basic carrier but now that I know it's so fast, easy, and cheap, I can definitely see myself customizing future "luxury models" but maybe only after I've gotten to test drive this one so see what would be useful. Sure, the carriers online with retractable hoods, padded straps, and zipper pockets look cool, but how much of that will I really use? Only time will tell!
Anyway, if you sew and need a gift for a friend with a baby, I recommend this. I recently learned from friends that expecting moms end up with more baby blankets than they know what to do with so this seems like a practical, cute, and easy alternative for a gift made with love.
I also made a shopping cart cover with this pattern. Another quick and easy project. Way cuter and cheaper than a store bought cover. I bought my fleece on sale for $6 but even at it's normal $10/yd this project works up well below the usual $30 for a store bought cover. I haven't test driven it yet so any picture of the final product outside a cart just looks like a blob but I did customize the pattern by adding a pocket that the whole thing folds neatly into and I had enough fabric left over for a separate matching pouch. Maybe I'll go back and add some sort of closure to it and use it for toys and snacks.

Bree's Bubbles & Bows Tablecloth

My friend asked me to make a tablecloth for my god-daughter's new play table. I'm pleased with the results. I love this polka dot fabric I found at Jo-ann's. The tablecloth is super simple but the crisp edges and cute details really make it special.
On to the tutorial!