Christmas Stockings

When my brothers and I were born, my grandma made us each a quilted Christmas stocking. Maybe it's because I grew up only ever seeing these homemade ones, but these are really the only ones I like. Whenever I go to other people's houses, or look at stockings at the store, none of them seem right to me. Last year when we put up the Christmas tree, we bought some cheap stockings from Target just to have something to hang, but I really didn't care for them. So, this year I decided to make us some! I found a pattern (via pinterest, LOVE that site!), picked out some fabric, and got to work yesterday morning.

The first few steps were easy. Cut the outer pieces, lining, and batting, using the pattern, make a quilt sandwich, quilt the pieces together however you want (I did straight diagonal lines on mine, and followed the pattern of the squares on Tony's), put the pieces right sides together, sew a 1/4 seam around the edge, and flip right side out. Around this point I was feeling so proud of myself because this project was turning out to be pretty simple. Then I got to the band at the top and got incredibly frustrated because the directions were not very clear and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get these pieces sewn together. I had to take a long break and come back to it later. Once I googled directions and saw a picture of what the directions were asking I realized how simple it was. Took me just a few minutes to finish them up from there. yay!

Here are the finished products. All I have to do is add our names to the top. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that up tomorrow. I think they turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself! :)

 My stocking

Tony's stocking

Tony's Halloween Costume

I know it's been a number of weeks since Halloween, but I just haven't been in the blogging mood so this hasn't made it up yet.

I came home from school one afternoon, a few weeks before Halloween, and Tony informed me he wanted to be dead Caesar for Halloween, and he wanted me to make his costume! I was not quite sure how well this was going to turn out given that I have never sewed any type of clothing before, but he assured me I could do a better job than what he could find at the store. We spent some time picking out fabric and researching what a Roman tunic should look like (I also whipped up a toga, but that was much simpler and didn't take any time at all). When it was finally time for me to get to work on it, I was SO nervous I was going to screw it up. Tony had such faith in me, and I had no confidence at all that this project was going to be a success. I am happy to report though, that the costume turned out great! I think it turned out better than I could have hoped actually. The whole thing just came together really nicely. Tony loved it, and everyone knew who he was right away, so I would consider it a success overall. I felt so proud of myself for actually making something that not only fit him, but also looked great. Here are a few pictures so you can see how it turned out:

Superhero Capes!

As you may know, I am nannying for my three favorite boys in the world again this summer. The oldest has a birthday coming up in a little over a week, and the twins had a birthday the week before I started working with them. I figured since I missed the twins' birthday, and it is so close to their older brother's, it would be okay for me to get all three of them something and just give them each a gift on the upcoming birthday.

The boys are (just turned) 4, and (about to turn) 6. All day long they play make believe games. They are fixated on pretending to have some sort of super powers. For example, Q can "move as fast as a rocket!" and T can "never be hurt or killed". I got it in my head that I should make all three of them superhero capes for their birthdays. I looked around online and found some cute ones with some basic instructions and decided to get to work. I am INCREDIBLY amazed this turned out as well as it did given that I had no pattern or any real measurements of any kind to work with, only pictures for ideas.

I'll post pictures of all three when they are done, but for now I'll post about the one I finished the other day (disclaimer: the pictures don't all match the finished cape. I sort of forgot to take pictures as I was going so some pictures go to one cape, some to another):

How to Make a Superhero Cape!

1. fold fabric in half selvage to selvage. Use fabric chalk to freehand the shape of the cape like this, and cut out:

Mine is about 11 inches wide, and 28 inches tall.

Here is what your cape looks like unfolded (you'll need two of these for each cape):

If you're making more than one cape, I'd suggest working on all three at each step.

2. On your background color of felt, draw the shape you want for the superhero emblem. I just freehanded mine using a ruler.

3. Using double sided fusible interfacing, trace the background shape, then draw the superhero emblem inside it (make sure to draw it backwards if need be because it will be mirrored when you iron it on to the fabric). Iron this on to the second color of felt, cut out, remove interfacing, and iron on to the background color.

4. Lay the emblem on one piece of the cape and center it where you want it. Iron it on using the fusible interfacing. Using the zig zag stitch on your sewing machine (and a contrasting color thread), stitch around all the edges on the emblem to add some detail while securing it to the cape fabric.

5. Place both pieces of cape fabric right sides together. Stitch all the way around but leave about 6 inches open to pull the fabric through. Pull fabric through to the right side and iron. Then, using the contrasting thread, stitch around the edge using a 1/4 seam. Sew velcro on to the neck pieces to make it easy for kids to get on and off themselves.

6. Be amazed that you actually made something that looks like a cape not having any real directions, measurements, or pattern!

I'm finishing up the last of the three capes this weekend and giving them to the boys on Tuesday. I'll take some pictures of them wearing them and post them later. :) Such a fun, simple project. The total cost came out to be $8 per cape. What a great inexpensive gift! Anyone have a little boy who needs a cape?!?

Quilt for Baby Tate

My friend (and teammate) Courtney is having a baby in a few weeks. As a gift, I decided to make her a baby quilt. I picked out the fabric and sewed together the top piece a long time ago, but then got stuck on the actual quilting part. Thus far all I have done is quilting in the ditch, which means you just sew over the lines you already sewed to put the layers together. Because of the way this quilt looked on the back, this wasn't going to look good at all. After putting it off for weeks, I finally figured out my solution: freezer paper. I used freezer paper to draw a squiggly design, then pinned it to the quilt, and traced over it with the thread, then ripped the paper off leaving only the stitching. Easier said than done for sure ... there were major amounts of tears involved in this at one point. BUT, I finally finished last night! I think it turned out so cute, and Courtney really seemed to like it. I was slightly sad giving it away though haha. All my other quilts I have kept for myself so it was a little hard to let go of after how much work I put into it. Hope baby Tate enjoys it! I cannot wait to meet him (2 1/2 weeks!) :)

The front:

The back:

Quilt Retreat 2009

This past weekend was been a nice relaxing break from the reality of my life.  I probably didn't have time to take a break from my life (actually, I KNOW I didn't have time to take a break), but oh well.  

Just like last summer, I drove up to Milford, Texas (North of Waco about half way to Dallas/Ft Worth) with a bunch of ladies for a quilting retreat. We stayed at this bed and breakfast that is made for groups of quilters or scrapbookers.  It's really nice, because apart from the rooms where you stay, they have this large craft room set up so that each person staying has their own large workstation. They have cutting tables set up, ironing boards, and craft walls, so it's very convenient for you to work.  Plus, they fix these amazing meals so you pretty much get to just stuff yourself silly and quilt for a whole weekend.

I wasn't really on my game this year (perhaps that's because I feel so lethargic about life in general) but I did manage to get one project completely pieced together (no picture because it may end up being a gift), 

help with a baby quilt for Molly, 

and make some very good progress on my scrap quilt I started working on last summer.

 But mostly, it was nice to just sit around and chat.

Year two of our quilt retreat was a success ... and year three is already booked for next summer.

Unfortunately, now it's back to real life; and real life is not so good right now ...