LUCK O' THE IRISH

I wanted to make St. Patrick's Day shirts for the kids and since the iron-on stuff here DOES NOT WORK (ACK!!!!! so many ruined projects!) reliably (is it the humidity?), I had to sew.  I went to Cafe Press for some inspiration and found what I was looking for.

Today I made the Littles these Sham Rock shirts for St. Patrick's Day (and good news!  they are Mardi Gras appropriate!)

 

I bought the shirts at Old Navy (on clearance) and then cut up one of Rachel's Guarantee Girls cleaning shirts (Larry says that's very "sustainable" of me).  I used Old English Text MC and made the letters about 3" tall and traced them, reversed, onto Wonder Under.  

I used this shamrock from a blog (and I can't find it!  Rats! If you know where I got it please tell me) that I had saved to my images folder.  I made it into a guitar.  First I ironed on the letters and then I top-stitched around everything and put the knobs and strings on the guitar.

  

It took longer than I thought to do all that sewing,  but in the end, I'm pretty happy with the result.  I like it so much, I'm going to make a pillow ... sham.

MY LAST LOVE

pillow love that is. 

 

I am sorry to say I can't remember where I saw this - I've seen it only canvas, wood, and fabric, with the letters painted, vinyl, and fabric.  So really, I guess no one place.

I used my favorite t-shirt (which was showing the love with a few holes and a bleach spot) behind the red letters.  It was a good way to memorialize my shirt.

FAVORITE THING I'VE EVER MADE

well, okay, second favorite thing I've ever made (to my kids)

I made a Dresden plate pillow!  This is my first ever Dresden plate anything.

No ordinary center would do, so I layered 6 pieces of flannel and then sewed it into a bulls-eye and cut through the top five layers down the middle of the seams and rubbed it with my fingers and Viola! Faux chenille!

I love it SO much.  I love the colors.  I love the pattern.  I love the (faux) chenille center.

Sigh.

I'm going to go look at it now.

It holds still when I look at it, unlike my other six favorite things I've made.

RUFFLE PILLOW

When I was here checking out the heart pillow I noticed the ruffle pillow in the background.  LOVELY!  Sew I got out my ruffler foot (am I the only person who gets so aggravated with that thing?!  It's probably because I try to go too fast.)  Anyway, I did a ton of WOF double thickness ruffles and put them on the pillow front.  I kind of wish now that I had scooshed them together more, but I do like it the way it is.  I also put warm and natural behind the front before I sewed on the ruffles and to line the back piece, too.  I like the extra structure it gives, but it is still super soft.  I made the back an envelope so I can slip the pillow form out and bleach it.  Let's face it - it's not going to stay white.

BATH TOWEL WRAP

A few years ago I made Rachel a wrap around towel for after her showers.  It's worn out and she needs a new one so I made her and Sari one.  They are super easy!

Sari's is just like this, except it's turquoise and has the letter "S".  Crazy.  I know.

The initials are on the outside pockets.

I ran the washcloth to the inside of the towel and there is a pocket there also.

I sewed a strip of fabric together and made a loop so it is easier to hang.  The top has elastic in a casing across the back and velcro in the front to hold it on.  (Verrrrrry important.)

Making it is the easy part.  Getting to the post office to mail it ... that is the part that gives me a hard time.

ps I LOVE YOU

I found this cuteness on Flamingo Toes and had to copy.

See how she did it here.

What I did different - I put a piece of warm and natural behind the white fabric before I sew anything - on the machine or by hand.  That makes it so the threads are hidden and I like the extra weight.  I hand wrote the words with a pencil and sewed over them.  I also added the heart.  I used red flannel and white cotton for the flowers.  I sewed them together as I wrapped them up.  I also added the heart.

GATHERED HEART PILLOW

I saw this pillow on V and Co. and made one for myself.  I did mine a little different but the overall concept was the same.

You can go here to get the instructions.

I knew when I sewed it I would hate the ruffles on the edges and I totally cannot take it another day!  I've torn it apart and I'm redoing it.  Pic to come ...

WHITE ELEPHANT AMIGURUMI

Our friendshad a White Elephant Gift Exchange Party back in ,ahem, December.

I made this guy out of chenille yarn (he is deliciously soft) and Erika of DRY Ink took him home.  She also took this great picture of him.  I just sort of followed the free pattern on LionBrand's website.  Beware of the trunk.  It's terribly unruly.

CHRISTMAS PILLOW

Twin Stitches showed this pattern on some website that I can't remember.  I love the occasional back-stitch only embroidery.  (Don't ask me to do anything else!)  True to me, I just finished this.  I am so prepared for 2011!

Close up of the pattern:

Remind me to tell you about buying the fabric sometime... ugh.

You can buy your pattern here.

CHRISTMAS LIST

Copying the girls at Eighteen25, I turned our summer to do list into a Christmas to do list.

MUG RUGS

You know that I have a cup (LARGE) of hot chocolate every morning, right?  With whole wheat toast and peanut butter or a whole wheat english muffin?

EVERY single morning.

So, have you seen the mug rugs EVERYWHERE in blog land?

 

I had a bunch of CUTE fall scraps from a failed project last year and when I saw these I knew what to do!  First, I just made one for Rachel. Then, I admit, I got a little carried away and started thinking of people who would also enjoy one.

 

Perfect size for a mug and a muffin or cookie (or three).

Mine are about 6"x9".  I think I'm in love.

I HATE hand binding.  I am so over that.  I am not doing it again!  (But I did watch the whole season of Sister Wives while doing it.)  I'm going back to the cheater way of machine binding.  SO much easier on the fingertips!

HOOKER HALLOWEEN

I was addicted to making these and these (to name just a few).  When I saw this on the Lion Brand website I knew what I would be making.

Here's the pumpkin and ghost.

The bat and the spider.

The mummy and the candy corn.

They crochet (hook) up pretty quickly which is perfect for my short attention span!

FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS YEAR

I think my kids were pretty much over another round of BINGO and word finds and so forth.  Then I saw this idea on Sugardoodle and again on A Bushel and a Peck of FUN and I was hooked!  I bought several of these at the neighborhood Walmart:

In PowerPoint I printed up the newest apostle, taking the image from Google by Googling their names and making them 1" wide and 1 1/4 " long (or so). The rest I printed from Sugardoodle.  Some were made black and white and some color and I was super frustrated but moved on.  There's the perfect project and then there's the completed project.

Using clear packing tape, I caught up the picture and stuck it on the side of the page so it tabs:

 

and folds over to secure it to the back.

The kids wrote in what they learned from the BIG FIFTEEN at General Conference. 

 These pictures are all of Daniel's book but Joseph and Jack filled their books and Matthew wrote in his, too.

 

After each successful summary they got a couple of candies to get them through to the next speaker.

 

I am for sure continuing to do this.  My kids are old enough to pay attention and take notes, not just argue about and count who has the most blue m&ms and whether or not someone ate one to look like they have less, and so forth.  (Not that that sort of thing EVER happens at my house.)

WOOD and VINYL

 

While I was in SLC I went to the Wood Connection and picked up a couple of crafts to get me through the Fall that is nonexistent here in Louisiana (and I really wouldn't care about that, except I love Fall most of all - the smell in the air, the sweater weather, the football games where you stomp your feet because it's too cold to take off your gloves, etc.).  These are just 2x6 blocks in different heights with vinyl letters of differing heights splatted down.  I painted the wood white, put down the letters, stained it hickory, then sprayed it with a finishing spray. I also painted my boring bulletin board sparkly turquoise a week or so ago and now I LOVE it.  Makes me happy every day.

This took second place for easiest because it had two vinyls which required some lining up.  It is HUMONGOUS - 12"x24".  My friend Julie is in charge of Relief Society education in my old ward in Spokane.  They do fun stuff ( here we don't - although I am not complaining - I have plenty of unfinished projects to finish. Plus, complainers get put in charge and I say "no, thank you" to that!). Anyway, Julie had a left over and hooked me up.  I love it, too.

Doing stuff like this makes me feel better about not doing other stuff, like laundry and dishes.

SEWING

I've been working on this:

Sorry, not my story to tell, but I do get to sew it and it's been fun. I'll let you know when you can take a looksy!

And in relation to the above, I made this. I wish I could remember where I first saw it, but it's been a few years. I was going to make one for Joseph but didn't - since we were moving and all. Now it's for Emme DeGraff who is getting baptized on Sunday.

Here's the full length shot.

There's more things I've been sewing, I'll post about the others soon.