For the birthday girl

I decided to go ahead and work on my sister's birthday present after that last post. My mother-in-law got me this giraffe pattern quite awhile ago and I just love it. It is really versatile. I have made it with novelty cottons, batiks and upholstery fabrics and every single one has turned out gorgeous.

Shopping for a fabric for a 14 year old girl who hates anything and everything pink or girlie can be kind of tough. My usual way to select the fabric for a project is to walk all around the store taking mental note of things that might possibly work, then I go back and pick up whatever inspires me. In this case, I was sort of dreading the trip. I knew I needed it, I knew she wanted a giraffe but she can be so picky! And she is not even a little bit shy about telling you when you have disappointed her.

I stumbled upon this not very girlie zodiac print fabric with little gold accents and frantically called my mom to find out if my sister even reads her horoscope. She does! Yipee!



It's hard to tell in the photos, but the fabric I used for the horns and hooves has gold glitter outlining the scroll that coordinates awesomely with the metallic print used for some of the stars and the names of the signs on the main fabric. I even found some adorable clear plastic star buttons with gold glitter all through them. I love it when things come together so perfectly in only one trip to the fabric store!



I'm so pleased with how it turned out. The only thing I'm slightly apprehensive about is that her sign, Pisces, is only on the giraffe once. I hope she forgives me for that oversight!



This project was my first time ever using rayon embroidery floss. I saw the sheen on it and thought it was much better fitting for the mane and tail of such a sparkle laden animal than just plain floss. I kind of hated it. I should have known I would. It did not stay knotted very well as shiny stuff tends to be slippery stuff. Rayon floss might be great for some other project, but it was not a choice I'll soon repeat for giraffe hair.

As I knew I would be

I am completely unable to make a decision on a purse...well, that isn't exactly true.

I keep seeing little patchwork bags all over the mall, and I thought, "I could make one of these." Of course I'm not looking to make the exact same ones I'm seeing. I'm a little too old for anything too terribly trendy, lest I feel like some sort of ridiculous poser.

I have the perfect fabric and I found a pretty cute bag I'd like to emulate. The problem then? It's all fall colors. Some of it even has adorable little acorns on it. I do have a bunch of bright summery prints that I could also use, I just can't decide if they would be too terribly busy. Usually when you cut busy into little chunks and pair it with several other types of busy, you just get one horrible mess. I'm too much of a chicken to actually cut the fabric into the chunks and lay it next to each other to see how it would look.

Decisions, decisions...it would be so much easier to just work on my sister's 14th birthday present. I know EXACTLY what I'm doing when it comes to stuffed animals.

February slump

Last year I made my son into Valentines. I wanted to do it again this year, but a 15 month old just isn't as easy to pose as a 3 month old. Who knew?

I'm posting my Valentine because that is still one of my favorite pictures ever, and because I have been slacking on the crafty lately. My creativity has been limited to picking out whole new settings for my table (to compliment a perfectly planned romantic Valentine's Day dinner for my husband) and finding just the right frame and matting for each and every one of the adorable 1 year photos of my son.

Slacking has been kind of nice, but I'm a little stressed thinking about all of the things I want to get done. I am in desperate need of a new purse. Perhaps I'll take a break from working on things for other people and do something for myself. Of course, making the purse means I actually have to decide which fabric from my stash I want to use...I am much better at being decisive for others.

Sock and Glove

My totally awesome friend Erin mailed me the Sock and Glove book awhile ago. I had been drooling over it for some months, and then it just showed up on my doorstep because I mentioned it once and she's cool like that.

Anyway, I am just now getting into making some of the animals from it and I am so in love with these little guys. I wish I had bought more than six pair of gloves to play with. Even though it's only 28 degrees in Grand Rapids today, the retail stores seem to think it's spring. All the gloves are gone. Boo!

I will have to look into gardening gloves, or just work on the sock portion of the book until the fall when they start carrying gloves again.



Incidentally, the instructions for the bunny and the puppy are available here for free. Just close out the video (or watch it, it's probably helpful) and there is a link to the pdf files for these two little guys.

The book is great though. There's a pig, a bear, and a panda in the glove section that you can't get for free and of course tons of things made out of socks, even little sock clothes for the sock animals to wear!

I am a sucker for cute.

Curses!

I cursed myself saying the second batch would go quicker. I thought it would be fun to create the cupcakes in a baker's dozen, or at least a dozen, but by the time I had made ten wrappers and ten frosting piles I was a little less than excited about doing another two or three.

Now that I am actually layering them together I have decided I don't like the remaining three wrappers with the remaining three frosting colors. So it looks like I'll be doing a baker's dozen anyway to use the pieces I've already made. Shoot!

In other news, I have had this picture sitting on my computer for awhile almost daring myself to post it here. I am sort of afraid though. If I put it up and say that I'm going to do something with it, but then don't actually get it done for another two months...well, that would be lame.

Alright, here goes nothing...



Coming soon: a project inspired by this guy. Care to guess what it is?

Sweet thang

I started these adorable cupcake key chains months ago. A bunch of my girlfriends got together and got me this totally awesome gift just when I needed a pick-me-up. The idea was something sweet for someone sweet. Of course, by the time I actually finished all 15 of them....

Oh well! It's still a fun thing even if they now require a lengthy explanation. I'm thinking I'll start whipping up a second batch. Hopefully I won't lose steam this time. It should be easier without a baby blanket and a bunch of Christmas projects in the way.

Finished!

The baby quilt is done! I feel this huge sense of accomplishment. I made a quilt...albeit a baby quilt, I still completed an entire blanket. Wahoo!

The quilt is both a congratulatory gift and a thank you gift for a man my husband works with. Back in August my husband lost his job. It took three months for him to find steady work with a former employer. This guy knew how much we were hurting and actually took time off, gave up entire days of work, just so that our family could have some money coming in. In the midst of all of this, he found out his wife was pregnant.

We really feel like their sacrifice for us deserves some kind of gesture. There is no way we can repay them the money they lost out on helping us, but I do have a fabric stash and a sewing machine. I truly hope that they love it, and that their baby boy or girl (they're going for the big surprise) gets plenty of use out of it.



I must say though, that I am sort of disappointed in how the pictures of it turned out. In person it's so soft and cute. Just holding it made me wish I was bringing home a new baby. Sigh...