Scrapbook pages & a special request

Kit is Siblings are Forever

I did the Speed Scrap last night on the My Memories Facebook page. I needed a single page in my 2012 book that I'm finishing up to keep a two page layout together, so even though I am planning on doing a separate book of the kids professional photos, I created a single page highlighting how hectic that day was. These are some of my favorites of the "bad" pictures, because you can just see how each kid was doing their own thing! 

Kit and alpha are Forest Friends

I also made a page for our lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I'm getting so close to finishing 2012! I used a Mye De Leon kit for this page, which brings me to the special request part of this post. Mye has been a favorite designer of mine for a long time, and she needs help. I have used her kits to create some of my favorite pages like this one and this one.

If you are a digital scrapper, please consider buying something from Mye, as she is desperately trying to raise money for a surgery her newborn son needs to live! There is also a place to directly donate and a $20 mega kit that you can purchase to benefit her sweet baby! Nothing like fueling your habits and helping out a great cause! 

A sewing finish!

Back in March I posted a photo of an embroidered face I had finished for a doll. Recently, a very good friend asked me if I had anything I could finish quickly for an auction to benefit the family of a cancer victim. I love it when things come together perfectly!

I love how she turned out in vintage inspired prints in red/pink and blue! I may whip up something else for the silent auction if I have time, but I have a couple other projects that I have promised to my youngest sister that I need to finish first. 

If you'd like to make your own bunny, the pattern can be found here, as can the skirt. I seriously altered it to make this gathered, aproned number, but the skirts included are so cute! 

Fabric Giveaways

I didn't have a Monday Moment this week, which usually prompts me to go out and do something, but I'm getting to that point in my pregnancy where I have appointments all the time! Three this week for different doctors, nurses, classes...Yuck!

I did manage to sit at the sewing machine for quite awhile though and finish up the top of my baby quilt I have been working on. I'd show you, but I'm saving the big reveal as part of a giveaway I'm hosting later this week.

In the meantime, here are some other giveaways to hold you over.

Sara at FairyFace Designs is always putting up beautiful things on her blog and Flikr, and apparently she's been doing that for a year now. In celebration, she's giving away six almost fat quarter pieces of Amy Butler!

Green Fairy Quilts is giving away a huge fat quarter bundle, a jelly roll and a layer cake. Of course, they are encouraging donations to their charity, but you don't have to donate to enter, and if you do, in ANY amount, you get three extra chances at the fabric goodies. Amazing!

Finally!

I can't really talk much about this one. I got sick, then I got worse before I got better. And in the meantime I found out a lot of things I didn't like that were going on with the charity it was for. I let a whole lot of personal feelings get in the way of something that shouldn't have been personal. Now it is finished and chalked up to a big, huge learning experience...finally!

First of three

Remember those charity quilts I posted a preview of not too long ago? Well, sadly the benefit occurred while I was still hospitalized. My husband took photos of the completed tops and the bidding was done based on those with the promise of free shipping when I was back on my feet.



I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. But slightly drained at the thought of immediately jumping into quilting the blue one. They have already sold though, and I owe it to the person who bought them to do my best to finish as soon as possible.

Oh, and I'm going to be an aunt again. So I will be making another little bird blanket in the very near future. I'll definitely do something to switch it up in between though. For the record, this is a near perfect rectangle, I just had to take the photo at a weird angle to avoid getting my shadow in it. I need a clothesline I think. I always adore the quilt on the clothesline photos.

Charitable preview

I thought I'd share a little peek at what I have been working on, and a bit of information on what they're for.



These are the main parts of some small stroller/tummy time sized baby blankets. I needed something little, easy to complete, yet still irresistibly adorable because I want people to pay a lot of money for them.

Over spring break we got an e-mail from my husband's cousin asking us to join a group on Facebook called Get Well Luke. The e-mail had said something about Luke having cancer, and try as he might, my husband couldn't think of a single Luke that he and his cousin both knew. That was because my husband couldn't fathom that the person was a 15 year old family member. We sat in stunned silence when we got to the page full of well wishing from high school kids.

Luke has lymphoma. He is undergoing treatment for at least four tumors, and if the medical bills weren't crippling enough, his family lost an income when his mom had to sit by his hospital bed for weeks at a time. The family is holding a benefit in Kalamazoo, MI on June 5. There will be a dinner, a raffle and a silent auction, which is where I'll be placing these blankets (hopefully along with a matching rattle if I can figure out a pattern) when they're finished.

I forgot

One more thing happened yesterday that added to the amazing feeling I had going, I finally finished and shipped off all of my dolls to Haiti. These were my last six.



I thought I would not single out my favorite doll this time and show you my son's favorite. My husband loves Hawaiian shirts and Gabe officially dubbed this the "Daddy doll!" It was very cute and will probably lead to me making him his own little Hawaiian shirted boy.



Here are all 16 of my dolls together. After this photo I folded and twisted them all into a 12X12X12 box and sent them off to the Abundant Ground Foundation in New York, where they will be combined with all of the other Dolly Donations dolls and sent to Haiti. I'm very excited to tell you that seven days before the deadline, the goal of 181 dollies have already been shipped to New York! I can't wait to find out what the final total ends up being and I just can't imagine the joy they are all going to bring to the Haitian children.

Boys

I finished three boy dolls for Dolly Donations this week. These were going to be my last three dolls, but my awesome friend Keli would hear none of it and sent me a whole yard of brown fabric so I could keep creating. Thanks, so much, Keli!

As a result of my limited fabric, my boys could not be bare legged, like I made them previously. But now that I have more I am certainly planning on making more brown legs wrapped up in little shorts.

Okay, enough blabbing, are you ready to see their feet?!



I LOVE these little shoes. They turned out almost exactly as they were in my mind. I would love to make them just a little larger so I could do a white/black/white layered felt bottom and have them look like real Converse, but I was really going for something easy and quick. And I think they do the job nicely!

Shoes

I made one new girl doll for Dolly Donations this past week. It was my intent from the beginning to have shoes on all of my dolls before they were shipped off to New York, but for awhile there it was way more fun to sit in the sewing room constructing the dolls themselves.

This weekend, though, was perfectly relaxing and I found myself just wanting to sit in the living room and hang out with the family. The absolute best time to bust out a little hand sewing!



I can now say that all of my finished dolls (with the exception of the boys in shorts, because I think they should remain barefoot) have shoes. These are the girls. Two black, one brown, one purple and one blue pair of shoes, all hand sewn with a chunky, cute running stitch or a thin, pretty blanket stitch.

I made something equally cute for the three boys I finished this past week, but I am going to make you all wait until Tuesday for those.

More Dolly Donations

I finished the four dolls I started last week for Dolly Donations. I am both less and more pleased with this batch. I keep trying to be critical of my work, but all I can think is that somewhere in Haiti there is a child without a single toy who is not going to notice uneven eyelashes or a slight curve in a seam that is supposed to be straight.



This is my favorite doll this time around. As I was working on him I couldn't decide if he was ugly or cute. I have now definitely decided cute. I really like his features. I have just a tiny bit of the brown fabric I used to make him left. I am thinking about tweaking the way I have been making the dolls in order to get as many as I can out of this last tiny scrap. I think I might be able to do three or four if I do it right.

Dolly Donations

I know I'm late to the party here, but I just found out about Dolly Donations a few days ago. For those of you who aren't aware, Dolly Donations is collecting handmade dolls for Haitian orphans. There is a goal of 181 dolls and any extra that they receive will be delivered to other needy children in the area, orphans or not.

I don't have much money, but I do have a little bit of time and a whole lot of craft supplies. I pulled every bit of brown fabric I had and cut out two dolls as a start (they want you to make more than one so that no orphan feels singled out for having a doll very different from someone else).



I finished these girls in just one night. With a March 31 deadline I wasn't sure how much I could accomplish, but the pattern is really so simple (I actually made it more difficult and added the socks) that you can do a lot in a little time.

I have since started on four more dolls, two boys and two girls. I have more fabric left too, so depending on how quickly those four finish up I should have plenty of time for even more to be made and shipped to New York before the deadline.

Did I mention that your shipping is tax deductible? And that Dolly Donations has a PDF form to fill out on the blog that will get you a receipt for the fair market value of the dolls you send to deduct that from your taxes too? Check out the blog for the super simple pattern and shipping directions if you'd like to join in!