Kachow!

Today we celebrated my son's 6th birthday with a few of his friends. He chose the theme for his party...Lightening McQueen from the Cars movie. I wasn't terribly surprised about this because he loves those little cars but I was a touch disappointed because I had a hard time thinking of crafty ideas to go along with it! For the invitations and party bags, we drove matchboxes through paint and rolled them onto the cards and bags. Then we embellished with Cars stickers and the kids' names in a neat tire tread font we found online.

At my son's request, the cake pictured a scene from the movie where Sheriff was chasing Lightening McQueen through Radiator Springs. I made cacti from spearmint leaves and toothpicks, the sand was made from graham crackers and the road from chocolate graham crackers.

With the help of my husband, we constructed a simple racetrack. It was two pieces of wood with holes drilled in them to hold checkered flags. I bought checkered flag material and used my hemming presser foot to hem them and attached them with hot glue to the dowels. The finish line was a piece of the checkered material. The kids raced balloon powered cars and the winner won the "Piston Cup" which I constructed out of a paper cup and corrugated cardboard and spray painted gold. Much to my delight, it was a coveted prize! Each child could keep their racer and a checkered flag.

After we opened gifts, we headed out to the barn for a pinata. We were tired of store bought pinatas that wouldn't break no matter how hard they were hit so I made my own. It is supposed to be a Lightyear tire. It actually worked well. Each child had two turns but on their last turn, things were flying out of the pinata.

A fun time was had by all!

Wear Me/Wash Me

I found a fun tutorial on Sew Mama Sew for lingerie bags. http://sommerdesigns.typepad.com/sommer_designs/2008/01/tutorial-linger.html.
I recently needed gifts for two women who travel a lot and thought I would make these. They were a big hit! I made the bags slightly larger than the tutorial suggests and added the words "Wear Me" and "Wash Me."

"Tulip, the Wee Elephant" and Receiving Blankets

Recently, I borrowed Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts from our library through interlibrary loan. It's a fun book with lots of simple projects. I had to try one of my favorites, "Peanut, the Wee Elephant" by Hillary Lang from Wee Wonderfuls. It said that it was a 4-8 hour project but I would estimate that it only took about two. It was really quite easy to make and so adorable! I didn't have any yarn for the tail so I used embroidery floss. All the fabric came from my stash. The little tulip print has been around forever. I think it might have come from my mother or grandmother originally. Due to the print, I have named my version "Tulip, the Wee Elephant."


I also liked the very simple idea of binding a yard of flannel in order to make a receiving blanket. The idea is so simple but the results are very polished looking. Instead of using solid white flannel and a patterned binding, I found some patterned flannel that I liked and then used cotton fabric from my stash to bind the edges. These would make a great baby shower gift! They really aren't that fun to make though as the majority of the time spent making them involves handsewing the binding on the back. I just don't like the look of machine stitched binding though so I felt it was worth the time.

All in all, it is a fun book. I would like to try the little calico birds pictured in the book at some point too but I have a little boy's birthday party coming up this weekend that I have to focus on for the moment!

Practicing on Runners

Before I worked on the baby's quilts seen below, I decided to practice my quilting skills a bit with some runners after being inspired by a Christmas runner on a friend's dining room table, made by her talented mother-in-law. I copied the general idea of that runner, though not the fabrics or measurements to make my Christmas runner. It is handquilted with metalic thread because I didn't have a needle on my machine for metallic thread.

When my husband's friend saw the runner, he mentioned how much he liked it and would like one for his dining room table. His birthday was a couple of days ago so I obliged with a runner in fall colors, at his request.

Then I fell in love with some batik fabric at my local quilting store and made a wintery runner that I have out now. I used the following tutorial to make the log cabin squares http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/08/baby-quilt-week-day-3.html. The tutorial happened to be the exact square size that I was looking for so it saved me a lot of time. These last two runners were machine quilted but before I got my walking foot and free motion foot. Now it is so much easier! These projects gave me something to do though while I was waiting for my feet to come in the mail!

Teddy Bear to Match Quilt

Years ago, I bought a Simplicity Crafts 8418 pattern to make teddy bears. Over the years I have made countless bears for baby shower gifts, birthday gifts, etc. I made each of my children one to match their rooms. I am showing them here even though they now look well loved having been slept with every night for roughly 3 years and washed multiple times! The one above, I made for the baby with quilt scraps. As my son said, "Mommy, you need to make the baby a bear too or she will feel leftout." Instead of sewing on button eyes or using felt as the pattern suggests, I use fabric paint so they are fully washable, dryable and safe even for babies. I hope this teddy will be loved as well as the other two!

Baby #3's Quilt

We are expecting a baby girl in early June and I think that nesting has kicked in early! As soon as we learned that she was a girl, I headed to the fabric store. Because my older daughter's room is done up in pinks and greens, I decided to use lilac for this room but wanted a pretty shade that didn't lean toward the drab greys as some lilacs/lavenders do. She will have a small room so I wanted to keep it relatively bright.

I made the twin quilt first and then used scraps from it to make a baby size quilt. The twin quilt was inpired by this one. I didn't actually use the pattern that she referenced but looked at the idea and mapped out my own version on graph paper. They are likely pretty much the same thing.

The baby sized quilt was inspired by this one. These quilts were my first attempts at free motion machine quilting. I am pretty happy with the results and can't wait to try more!