a quilt for little lottie

hello and happy new year! my, i was gone for awhile wasn't i? it's been a busy year. i took on a second part time job and then the holidays hit and the next thing you know, bam! it's 2013. i haven't been too crafty lately but there was a big project that i took me about ten months to complete and i wanted to share it with you.

last winter, i threw my sister a baby shower and one of the activities was to design a quilt square. i pre-cut several cotton squares (and sealed the edges with a fray check) and provided permanent fabric markers for guests to doodle on or write messages to my growing neice.

once they were done, it was time to take the squares home and sew them together, cut the batting and backing, and bind it all together.

 

and that's where it usually goes downhill for me. bindings are my weakness, my achilles heel. but this time i was determined to do it well. so i did a lot of research on youtube and discovered that there are a million ways to bind a quilt. i found this video by HeirloomCreations to be incredibly helpful in learning how to make your own binding, mitered corners and pockets.

i was so proud of my first mitered corner! they're so tidy and satisfying and surprising easy to make. i used a premade binding since i'm lazy but in the future i think i'll make my own.

then came the time for some hand stitching to secure the binding to the backing of the quilt. more youtube research led me to the ladder stitch. this little stitch is amazing. it's so easy (almost therapeutic) and results in a beautifully finished binding! hand stitching the binding is now easily my favorite part of quilt making.

 and here is the finished quilt! it took about eight months longer than i had hoped (sewing a quilt in a steamy hot summer apartment is not my idea of a fun time) but it's done! i'm quite proud of the results and am a lot more confident of my sewing/quilting skills now. i hope little lottie likes it too <3 br="br">

new supplies

last weekend, i went to michaels looking for some replacement blades for my cricut (was there a national shortage of cricut blades?? it took months to find a store that had them in stock) and i came out with a bunch of new crafty things to play with and i thought i'd share my finds.

i stepped into an aisle and found myself looking at a wall of washi tape. holy guacamole! michaels' brand, recollections, makes washi tape in a huge variety of styles and for really great prices. this is going to be dangerous.

 i find it hard to resist anything travel themed.

crocheted flowers. not something i usually use in my scrapbooks but these were in the clearance section and i love the colors. i suppose i could make them myself but i feel like crocheting with thread would make me go blind(er).

i love new supplies and how they inspire me to try something new. woo!

luau for little miss d

my friend mrs. pk has the most gorgeous baby girl who is just about to turn one! sadly, i couldn't make to the party since we live on opposite sides of the country... *tear*. i sent them a special gift though! it's more for my friend than little miss d since it's a huge choking hazard. she had been looking for cake toppers to go with the party's luau theme so i decided to paint her some as a surprise gift.

sorry! these photos really aren't the best (i took them when we were getting some much needed rain here in boston). the greatest challenge was figuring out how to make an aloha shirt on something so small! the answer was lots of dots using the smallest paint brush i could find. and little miss d's dress went through a few revisions. it started as a plain pink dress but the result wasn't special enough. i found a photo from their recent trip to hawaii in which she was wearing a super cute white dress with eyelet lace and a pink flower in her hair so i designed version 3.0 using that as a model. one of the great things about working with these dolls is that if you make a mistake or change your mind, a bit of sandpaper gives you a clean slate to start all over with. so don't be intimidated!

i purchased the unpainted dolls from goose grease undone, the same place where i got the dolls for our wedding cake topper. i really do love their customer service and products. i had actually purchased two larger adult dolls that once i had in my hands, were huge in comparison to the baby doll. the ratio was a bit too much for what i had in mind. thankfully, goose grease undone had included a free sample of their fair trade columbian dolls which were a bit smaller than the regular adult dolls and a perfect fit for what i was looking for. the wood is gorgeous and i'll definitely be ordering more in the future. to learn more about their fair trade agreement with a little columbian carpentry shop, visit their website. and be sure to check out their video to see how a doll is made! i love it when cuteness does good in the world :)

happy, happy birthday to little miss d! and mrs. pk, i cannot wait to see photos of the party. i know it's going to be amazing. little miss d is so lucky to have you as her mommy!

i heart boston

an americorps VISTA friend is leaving boston for grad school in new york. it's always so sad to say farewell to a friend but i'm thankful that she'll still be on the east coast and just a bus ride away. as a good luck gift, i made her a little canvas to remind her of her years in boston. i used my cricut to cut the shape of massachusetts from a map showing her neighborhood. a little red heart marks boston and the edges i painted yellow which is her favorite color. the edges were a little rough so i'll have to experiment some more on future projects.

good luck and visit us soon ash!

colored doilies

i recently got a japanese scrapbooking book (that sounds odd) that showed how to tint paper doilies using dyes. i can't read the description because i can't read japanese so i went to blick and had a little brainstorming discussion with one of their associates. here's what i came up with!

supplies: old ink pads that you no longer use, shallow containers (these round take out containers work great!), water, white paper doilies and paper towels (lots of them).

pour a bit of water into the container. about half an inch of water should be enough.

take your ink pad and swirl the surface of it in the water. this is a great way to squeeze one last use out of old ink pads that are drying out.

once you get to a color that you like, place the doily into the water.

make sure it's fully submerged.

let's try it with blue too.

swirl swirl swirl

hm... this doily was a little too big for the container which made it hard to get it all under water. next time i'll use a bigger container since it's best if they lay flat.

after a few minutes, take out your doily to see how it's coming along. this looks about right to me.

place it on a paper towel to dry.

they're ready!

the pink one turned out pretty well and even colored. the blue had darker spots that looked like wrinkles but that might have been because i squished the doily into the container. be sure to lay down lots of paper towels since the dye water will (surprise) stain everything! my bookshelf now has pretty pink marks on it. i think next time i'll try experimenting with watercolor paints.

have fun playing with your new colorful doilies :) happy weekend!

burp cloths

my sister's shower was this past weekend! she and my brother in law were happy so i'm happy. and once i got home, i promptly got sick and was stuck in bed unable to eat anything for a day and a half. oof. i dragged myself to work yesterday and stumbled around until i could go home and crawl back into bed. but on to happier things!

as a part of my sister's shower gift, i made her some cute burp cloths. i had seen a few tutorials around the web and decided that it would be a simple and practical project to tackle. and i figured if my sister has a barfing baby over her shoulder, she should at least have something cute to catch the barf. apparently, burp cloths made from cloth diapers make awesome, super absorbent burp cloths. i used this tutorial by sew she sews. so easy and fast to make! just don't run out of thread like i did...

i found these diapers at target. nice and plush.

the joann fabrics that i went to didn't have the greatest selection of flannels so i went with regular quilting fabric.

tad dah! finished burp cloths!

holiday craftiness

looking for a holiday craft project? happy weekend!

1. crocheted snowflakes by sarah london; 2. gold stars by strawberry chic via pinterest; 4. polymer gift tags by poppytalk; 5. nativity ornament by wild olive; 5. shimmery tree made of newspaper by martha stewart

fabric flower garlands

made using a tutorial by dolci odille via once wed

crepe paper

oh beautiful crepe paper... have i got plans for you :)

here comes the bride

i saw this "here comes the bride" banner on martha stewart's website and knew i had to include it in our wedding. and i had the perfect banner bearers in mind for the job!

supplies:

linen fabric

iron on transfer paper

disappearing ink marker

wooden dowel

sewing machine (optional. this can all be done by hand too!)

iron

printer

it was a challenge finding iron on transfers with good ratings. i grabbed these at A.C. Moore with a 40% coupon. i used my home inkjet printer and the print quality was excellent.

definitely do a test run to get a feel for how much heat, pressure and time you need to get a good transfer.

not too shabby! they say to cut as close to the edge as possible but i liked leaving a small border. it helped when ironing on those darn serifs later on.

the instructions said not to use an ironing board but a hard surface like a table or countertop. a pillowcase will protect your table.

i drew lines using a disappearing ink marker to help me to keep everything nice and straight.

looking good so far!

i ran into some trouble with the serifs. if i ever use this font again on an iron on transfer, i'll focus extra hard on the serifs and use the point of my iron to apply some really intense pressure. peel slowly! don't get impatient like i did.

photos stop here since the sun set and i ran out of good photo light :)

from there, just sew a few straight seams to finish the edges. fold over and sew the top of the banner to create an opening for the wooden dowel. slip in the dowel and hand it off to a couple of cute kids! 

photo by our friend marco at magic touch photography

the banner in action! the banner bearers are my cousin's ridiculously adorable and awesome kids. they were total pros! it was such a fun way to include kids our wedding.