Two more down...

So here's where I am at NOW:

I don't know why I like to do the rest of the stitching after the fact. I call it the detail stitching.
I guess it might have to do with the fact that I did one with all the details and realized I had to redo the entire thing because I thought what I did was what I was supposed to do but I was wrong.

It sucked.
Two more to go before I get to the "detail stitching". Slowly but surely. I'll get there.

Let the crafting begin!

Of course, now that I have less than a month to finish some Christmas gifts, I am in a mad dash to get it all done. *sigh*

Remember this blanket?





Well, here's where I am now:

Late last night.

Way too early this morning. Those two are done; four more to go...

Recently finished objects

CURTAINS... The second thing to dresses that I have learned to sew so far.

I don't really know HOW...I just looked at the curtains that I had bought....bought fabric and measured my windows. (I know all the people who sew out there are like "uh oh!" and I'll explain for the rest of us in a minute why...lol) and sewed away.

Ok...so my mistakes...

Measure the windows first (duh!)

Then buy fabric...

Then measure before cutting fabric

Then pin, pin, pin the edges.

Did I say pin the edges?
Pin the edges

Then sew.... oh a straight line is preferred... pins help

TADA!!

The above were my first. They came out perfect. The ones below, my second...not so perfect.

My fabric was way tooo short (but oh so cute!) so I thought that I would solve that by splitting it the way that I did. However, I didn't think it through I cut them out as two seperate panels including what I had decided to make the valance. Which is fine for the panels but not for the valance.

UPDATED: I should add close-ups of the fabric so you can see it's cuteness...lol

Here's the valance and below is one of the panels.

But still, all was not lost. My next mistake (yup, another) is that I thought "Heck, those lines on the other set of curtains were so easy. I probably don't need to measure or pin." and so I didn't.

Now for the shoulds...

My valance came out crooked. If I had thought it through I should have left that one piece. Even after I cut it, I should have either sewed it back together as one piece and then measured and pinned or I should have measured them exactly and pinned them to make sure they were sewn exactly the same.

Of course, if I wanted to be picky...I should have opened the fabric before I bought it and measured. But hey, the fabric was only $1 a yard! It was a steal!

If I wanted to be really picky, I should have had the measurements of the windows in my purse so I would have known exactly what I need but uh what's that saying about Hindsight...*giggle*

But...seems to me the great thing about sewing is that it can be undone.

So, for now the second curtains hang while I ponder exactly how to fix them. I want to make sure I think this through because I have this plan....

HA! Wasn't that the funniest

thing you ever read a YEAR ago... so naive.

I've been missing crafting forever. Actually, I have made a couple of things that I should say rocked my world for several weeks being that I needed to learn to sew and how to use a sewing machine.

But I made three baptismal dresses for the kids earlier in the year. It might have been a smidge easier if the kids were still babies... but here they are:


uh...well...can't find the pics without them in them and I can't post those with them in them. I'll take pics of them and post them later.



The other thing I have been working on is my nephe/Godson's (Isaiah) blanket. Here's some of the cross -stitching I have done so far:

I have to go back in and do the fill in work but I like to save that for last for some weird reason.

The theme is transportation. I've already chosen the fabric that these are going to be quilted on. I have about 4 or 6 more transportation objects to cross-stitch before I go back and fill them in. I should take a pic of the fabric I chose for the background and post that too.

That will be for another time though since I've had this sitting in draft for 25 days already...

Back to craft blogging...YAY!~

The blog that seemed to have died--sort of...

I haven't had much time to do crafting BUT I will be resuming any day now. I have to get busy on scarves and a few other things that have fallen by the wayside while adjusting to having 5 kids now.

Can't wait. I miss it.

Care Bear Progress

Back to the Care Bear Blanket

I've been quietly working on the Care Bear blanket once again.

Here's how far I am to date...

The Blankie is done

It has an error in it that I didn't see until I laid it out to take the picture...damn!

Not sure what I did wrong and I don't think it's fixable. At least I was just making this one for fun.

I was thinking I might make another one if I find the right yarn.

Santa Hat

I decided to take a break from the new baby blankie and crochet this up really quick. It's adorable, I think! lol

Baby Blanket Progress

New Baby Blanket.

No, I haven't given up on my other projects. Sometimes, I just like to switch up on quicker projects before I go back to the longer ones. These work up faster. I really liked this design.
Maybe if I make another one, I will change up the center or use varigated yarn.



Here are the first couple of rounds of it. I'm not sure how big I am going to make it. We will see as it progresses.

Pumpkin Hat

For large preemie or newborn (5-8 lbs)

I don't know why the orange came out so orange in the picture, it's really not that bright.

Ethanael's Blanket is ready for quilting!

Finally~!

I finished all the outlining. Here's what it looks like.

Here's what's left... the lines for the sewing and quilting part. I've never done that before so we will see how it goes. It's on hold for now until I can get to the craft store in a couple of weeks.

2 more bears done, one bear on the moon to go...

Progress on Ethanael's Blankie

So I have two bears outlined and two more bears to outline and the middle moon and bear outlining to go. Looks like I'll make my deadline!

Preemie Burial Romper

I ended up working on this last night until around 4 am. I modified it some as I thought my idea would be cuter. I had also thought about cross stitching on the front rather than the ribbon I had put on it, but... I just put the ribbon in the long run. The picture below is the front of the romper.


This second picture is the back. I don't see why it has to be a burial romper. Why couldn't a preemie wear this any time? Maybe there's something I don't know.


I was supposed to put snaps or velcro on the back and at the bottom of the crotch, but instead I laced some ribbon on the back that could tie and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the crotch, I just think snaps or velcro would be bad for a preemie. At least if the child were still alive and wearing the outfit.

Preemie Burial Pouch

I also worked on this. I'm looking for another charity to volunteer for and I decided to look in the baby area because I want to give back in Bela's memory. I don't know if this will be what I choose to do or not but here is the pouch.

As I made it, I realized it was just a single granny square (12 rows) with a half granny square attached and I thought of the poor preemie babies that are so tiny. I chose to put a blue ribbon on this one.

Once the baby is placed inside the ribbon is tied up like so. It's really sad to think about, but I think it would be nice to have something like this to wrap your baby in for burial.

I also have a pattern for a preemie burial gown and a preemie burial romper for boys. I think I am going to give those a shot as well. I'm not sure when though.

Market bag...

Ok, I got bored outlining stuff and was itching to work on some other things last night so I looked for some quick patterns that I could make up in a night or so. I had wanted to try making a market bag to see what it would look like. We don't want to bring home anymore paper or plastic bags from the store, so I told Sean I would make some up and that I had a pattern for one.
Here it is. It's a lot more narrow than I thought it would be. I think I can tweak the pattern to make it a more appropriate size for our shopping needs. It was very easy to make and did make up very quickly.

Time for the outlining...

I'm getting there. I completed the last bear on the blanket and now I just need to go back and outline everything. Looks like I am on target so far for Ethanael's first birthday. Unfortunately, all my other projects have been on standstill while I work on this one. I've been dying to switch off but I've been good so far.

Where I am at now...

This morning I was able to get the blanket under the teddy bear completed.

Throughout the day, I worked on filling in the teddy bear and that's what he looks like completed.

This is what the whole blanket looks like now and below is the last part that needs to be cross stitched before I start the outlining. Hopefully, I can get some work done on that tomorrow.