Christmas, Part I

Okay, so I have been waiting until after Christmas to post my Christmas projects because I didn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone. I worked myself to the bone, up almost every night past midnight to get things done. Now I wish I had taken better pictures of things, because I have given a few away with no pictures. Oh well.

So here is the quilt that I made for Chloe and the matching "thinking chair" that I made for Cadie (fellow toddler moms will know just what a thinking chair is). I know, she's only 7 months, but she loves her chair already.



I laid her in it for a nap the other day because it was about dinnertime and I didn't want her sleeping too long, and it was perfect. I just had to keep an eye on her so she didn't wake up and roll out before I could catch her! I figure pretty soon she will be climbing all over it. Until then, it is all the kids' favorite lounging spot.

The pattern for the chair is McCalls 9665, which, by the way, is much cuter in real life than on the envelope. And it was fun because the other kids helped me stuff the pillow forms for the inside and they still had no idea what it would turn out to be. I'm really glad I made it, but it was a lot of work.

I'm also very pleased with Chloe's quilt. Like I mentioned earlier, it's my first time to try a real quilt, and lots of friends and family members just rolled their eyes when they heard what a huge one I had undertaken. Now that it's done, I can look back and wonder if I should have tried a few things differently, but I love the quilt anyway. I depended a lot on advice from the "Oh Fransson" blog (see list to the right). She really makes it look easy. Maybe it's her fault that I decided to make it queen sized.

Oh, and to practice free-motion quilting before I tackled the actual quilt, I made these hotpads:

I made a whole bunch because I cut too many quilt squares that turned out being the perfect size for a nice big hot pad. And they were a great gift for friends, sisters, school teachers, etc. These are my last few, and I wish I had more. The first one that I kept for myself is now my favorite thing in the kitchen. This pattern is free here at YCMT, by the way.

Winners!

Hey Girls! I had so much fun reading your comments all week. Thanks to everybody for sharing your stories. I really love this sewing community and the way we can all be connected online. Now I get to announce the winners... Sarah G. and Brie! Watch for an email about your prize. If you want to email me a pic of your finished pillow, I'll post it for everyone to see.

My First Giveaway - How did you learn to sew?

I think everybody I have talked to about sewing knows what a big fan I am of YouCanMakeThis.com. A couple of my friends have asked me to teach them how to sew, and I told both of them, "find a pattern you like on YouCanMakeThis.com, and then come over and we'll sew it together." The patterns all come with step-by-step photographed instructions that make it impossible to fail. And they are up-to-the-minute cute.

So anyway, for my first giveaway, I'm going to choose two lucky winners to receive the adorable pillow pattern shown above. Just leave me a comment below, answering one little question... who taught you how to sew? Or did you teach yourself using a book, the web, or something else? Next Friday on December 18th, at 10:00 pm I will draw two numbers from a hat based on how many comments there are. If one of the numbers matches your comment (1 for the first comment, 2 for the second, etc...) you'll receive an email with instructions on how to download the pattern!

If you haven't learned how to sew yet, maybe you will win and learn from this very pattern! My offer still stands, come on over and we'll sew it together!

Getting started on the stocking stuffers

I disentangled my sewing machine from Chloe's quilt today (why I chose to make my first real quilt a queen sized beast just boggles everyone's mind - including my own...) and got re-inspired for Christmas with these cute little necklaces.

They are so easy and are featured in a tutorial here on the YouCanMakeThis.Com blog. They are doing all kinds of diy Christmas stocking stuffers and gifts. The only issue I had with the tutorial was that I didn't think my fabric tubes were long enough. I had to sew 2 together and put a knot on the seam, then continue adding beads and tying until it was the length I wanted. That little step would have been a lot easier if I had known to do it before I had a bunch of beads on my necklace. In any event, I now have two necklaces to send to a little niece, and two hidden away for Chloe's stocking :).

Laura's nursing cover

This is how I spent my kids’ naptime today.

Then it was such a lovely day outside that I had to go out to take the pictures. Days like today are why “snowbirds” spend the winter months in Florida.

On the day of Laura’s baby shower I drove 30 minutes to get there and then realized that I had left her gift sitting on my kitchen counter.  I apologized and she was very sweet about it. Later, I needed to nurse Cadie, so I pulled my balled-up nursing cover out of my diaper bag. She went crazy over it and so did her mom, so I decided that would make a way better gift than just more baby clothes.

And that’s why I made another one. There are a bunch of patterns out there, but I’ve been using one that I found here.

The only thing I would change about this pattern is the way she tells you to put on the D-rings. She says to sew the shorter strap closed without them, and then use pliers to open the D-rings and put them on. When I made my cover, I had such a hard time getting those D-rings open, I had to ask my husband for help. He got them open and shut again, but they never looked quite right after that. This time I just slipped them on before I sewed the short strap together, and it was easy.

Oh, and I also make triangle pockets instead of square. I just think they’re cute. This time I used nice soft terrycloth. These weigh down the corners a bit, and are also good for wiping messy faces. And the whole thing can be thrown in the washer every so often.

If anyone is wondering about this thing’s practicality, let me tell you this is the best invention since the nursing bra. I don’t use it every day, but when I need it, I am SOOOO glad to have it. There is nothing worse than holding a screaming hungry baby and looking for a private place to nurse when you know you could deal with a semi-private place if you had some kind of cover. Just my opinion…