Neglected Nails

Will someone please clean up my mess? I just don't have the motivation or time. Pretty please? If you do, I'll give you those twist donuts you see in the picture. I tried to photograph them, but couldn't get them to look good.


And while you're at it, will you also trim my kid's nails? When I take pictures he likes to join me and find me things to take pictures of. Looking at this picture and the poor kids nails makes me realize that's another thing I haven't noticed/had time for.

Gourdy's Gang and Tom Turkey

I finished these guys just in time to put up my Halloween decorations. It's the Gourdy's Gang pattern from Threads That Bind. The stitch used throughout this entire piece is the blanket stitch, which is a pretty easy one to learn, so even you're not a big sewer, it is a pretty fun, beginner level project.

If you live anywhere in the Salt Lake valley you must go to The Handmaiden for all your wool felt needs. Their selection puts Joann to shame. Shame on you Joann for only carrying 6 colors. The Handmaiden is also right across the street from Quilt Ect., a really great quilt shop. Even if you don't quilt (which I don't) you will be inspired to do so and buy numerous quilting patterns to attempt (which I did) if you happen to stop by. So be warned.











Another project I finished was my November's Sugar Cookie Set of the Month. The cookie set of the month was something I started last month. Each month I create a set of specialty sugar cookies that involve the colors, holidays, and seasons within that month.

November's set includes a Tom turkey, a pilgrim's hat, a sunflower, and a leaf. Isn't that turkey cute? There's even a little fiberfill in his tummy to make it round and squishy.

5,132

5,132. To be exact. Is the amount of projects I am working on/would like to be working on. Homeschooling two kids is taking up a lot of my time. Which is why I have resorted to waking up at 5:30 am every morning to get my craft on. Much to my surprise I am not any more tired at the end of the day than I usually am. Here's some stuff I've been working on in the wee hours.

Felt Fall Sweet Set

Spooky and Sweet Sugar Cookies

A new Petal Purse

Trick or Treat bag

Check out the pumpkins I've got growing. They are beauties (they deserve a post a of their own). This is one girl ready for fall and Halloween. What has everyone else been crafting lately?

Baby Legs

So it has been likely about a year since I have contributed to this blog. It isn't that I haven't been crafting because believe you me I have. I have simply been lazy. But I wanted to share my latest creation.

I crocheted these baby legs for my daughter.And while I was at it, I whipped up a few pairs for my new nieces. I experimented with different sizes, so they will have to let me know how the fit is.

Emma's quilt is finished!

Hey, remember this? Probably not, but I certainly do. Some time ago, my sister-in-law and I started working on this quilt for this baby.


Her mother is a good friend of mine and I really wanted to throw her a big and beautiful baby shower like she did for me, but Emma was born three months after we moved to Missouri so I settled on making her a baby quilt. My first quilt ever. The top went together in no time thanks to my sister-in-law Jen- the real hold-up came next when I realized that hand-quilting is not for me. So over the course of the next THREE AND A HALF YEARS (!) I hand-quilted each of the patchwork squares. I can't believe it took me that long. Then a few weeks ago, I machine quilted lines through all of the sashing, attached the binding and finally stuffed the quilt in a package en route to "baby" Emma, who now looks like this.


Sigh. I wonder if I'll ever send a gift on time. Here's what the quilt looks like:

And the winner is...

Thanks to everybody that left me comments in my Mini Cutie Giveaway. The winner (decided by random.org) is bparks! If you haven't already bparks, head over to Sewn Sweets (www.smollerup.etsy.com) to view the 5 sets of Mini Cuties debuted last week to pick your favorite set. Then just drop me a convo on Etsy to let me know which is your fave, and give me your shipping info. Thanks so much. I had a lot of fun with this giveaway and it will probably not be my last!

guilty as charged

I'm an Etsy thief! I know this is frowned upon, but I couldn't help myself after I saw these pillows at littlestitch.

My couches have been naked now for months and I've had some suede fabric folded and collecting dust, just waiting to be made into throw pillows. I just could not decide what to do with them, until I stumbled upon littlestitch's etsy shop. Here's what I came up with. My couches are so happy!

I just used felt and thick embroidery thread and sewed them all together! Really easy and fun. Just the sort of thing I was looking for.

The one on the left uses the same fabric I used for the curtains upstairs.

This one on the far right- lovingly referred to as the "apple tree pillow" by my girls- coordinates with the fabric I used for my downstairs curtains.

I've got a few more in the works. These babies are addictive.

One Year Etsiversary, that's right, I said Etsiversary

these are Mini Cuties - this is a set of 4 that I have already listed in my shop

Today is my one year Etsiversary. One year ago today I joined Etsy and it has been amazing. I owe many thanks to the people who heart my shop, who have blogged my sweets, and have loved my sugary creations enough to purchase them. I also owe a special thanks to my friend Katherine who has not only generously shared a spot with me on her craft blog, but was the one who introduced me to Etsy.

to get an idea of the size of these cuties, this in one in my 4 year old's hand

In honor of this anniversary I am hosting a giveaway (my first ever). Each day next week, starting July 20th, I will debut a brand new pair of Mini Cuties. I hope you'll check in with me in each day to see what flavor I come up with next.

To be a part of this giveaway, just leave me a comment on this post and at the end of next week I will randomly pick a winner who will receive a set of 2 of their favorite Mini Cuties. Comments will be accepted starting from today, until the end of next Friday, the 24th. Thanks so much for making my first year on Etsy a great one!

Nona's Quilt

It feels so good to finish a quilt. I made this lap quilt as a "thank you" slash Mother's Day present for my mother-in-law, who came and spent a whole week with my kids so we could go on our cruise. I told my sister-in-law Jen about my plans for Louise's gift and she helped me find the pattern in one of her books late one night while we were visiting them in Kansas City. I need to find the instructions and type them here in case I ever want to make this one again. So, pattern will come later. Louise loves these small print reproduction fabrics and they always make me think of her. The kids loves having their Nona here and so did I! We're always so sad when she has to leave. This was my first attempt at machine-quilting- if you can call it that- I couldn't figure out the walking foot or the darning foot method on my Mom's sewing machine. (I need some serious help with that machine. I'm seriously worried I've ruined my mom's antique Bernina, commonly referred to as the '57 Chevy of sewing machines!) So I basically just pushed the quilt through my sewing machine with my regular foot. Kind of a mess, but I still like the way it looks.

Now, let's get down to the KNIT-ty gritty

Raise your hand if you think it's lame to give your Dad a knitted dishcloth for Father's Day? Yeah, me too. Don't worry, I sent him another perfectly respectable Father's Day present a couple weeks later. I choked. It happens.

So I really love to knit. I am crazy about it. What appears to be a scarf in the picture above is actually the start of a very big and cozy and blanket. I've been obsessed with the idea of a knitted blanket ever since Jena sold me on them at her house about four months ago. I found that pretty blue and thought it would be nice to do blocks of that brown and blue and alternate them to make a big blanket. Then I learned how to knit in a new color from my new favorite knitting book with a naughty title. And then I just started changing colors willy-nilly. So this blanket is going to be crazy and fun, and it's going to look like my first big project. And that is just fine with me!

And I was missing my best friend and worried about her because they just moved to a new town and their car broke down and their old house isn't selling and her husband's slavery to the hospital was reinstated just like my husband's, so I made her this dishcloth. That's bound to solve all her problems, right?

Secret Weapons Revealed- Red Vines and Diet Coke

I am going to start posting my craf-T endeavors on this blog again or so help me... I've got a fist full of red vines and some Diet Coke on standby. (After all it is only 7:30 in the morning.) Sheesh. How long has it been? Since I made that potholder for Ashley's birthday?

Yikes.

Well, I recently forgot my sister-in-law's birthday and hurriedly got to work on another potholder. I'm currently working on a matching dishcloth. I just love pink and red together.


I also made this cute little Mama owl. Next I want to make her a little baby owl.

Felt, have I told you lately that I love you? Have I told you that there's no one else above you?

I love fabric. Sometimes I long to buy loads of fabric that I see at specialty quilt shops, and make tons of cool projects with it. Tons of cool projects. because felt has no patterns or prints. it's boring right? Who loves to buy felt, just one row of solid colored bolts, when there is an entire store filled with the coolest fabric starting at $9.99/yd?

But then I remember I am creative, I am crafty, I can take a needle, a piece of thread, and some scraps of felt and create something cool. Felt is cool. I am cool. And felt? Have I told you lately that I love you?

Latest Creations

I haven't posted in awhile for a number of reasons.

1. No one else was posting and I thought people might be tiring of just me (I know you've been crocheting Katherine, show the world what you've made!).

2. Because of said lack of posts from other girls gone craf-t I was considering defecting to my own craft blog (really I was, I even had a super cool name picked out). Though I decided I wasn't mature enough to be responsible for my own blog.

3. I've been fairly lazy, what with trying to quit diet coke and all. It stinks. The quitting that is, not diet coke. Diet Coke is devine.


4. And lastly, Facebook. Why does facebook take up so much of my time?

So, here are a few things I've made lately. Strawberry Shortcakes, Donuts with rainbow sprinkles and M&M Cookies, a little bag to hold my DS, and a new twist on my Chocolate Covered Strawberries - strawberries dipped in white chocolate and drizzles with milk chocolate.

Maybe I'll start my own blog some day when I grow up and can handle the responsibility. Until then, it's just me and Katherine's craft blog, as long as she let's me stay here.

A Dozen (felt) Donuts

I have a lot of people that say things like "ooh, you should make - " and then go on to list off really fun tasty treats, that are however, impossible for me to make (my skills only go so far). But when the husband said "you should make a dozen donuts" I thought, yes, I can do that. So here are my dozen felt donuts. They were a lot of fun to make.















My favorite has to be the raspberry filled jelly donut dusted with powdered sugar.
















I have them listed as a set in my shop.

I HAVE MADE FIRE!

Ok, not really, fire, just felt cupcakes, though I'm sure my feelings of elation at creating the perfect cupcake would mirror the elation one would feel if they created fire whilst stranded on a deserted island.

It was a very long and arduous process for me to make these little cuppies. I have for awhile now, not been very fond of my tea party cupcakes, not just as far as making them goes, but also the fact that they looked more like a little fondant covered mini cake, rather than an actual cupcake. So one evening a month or so ago I got out my rusty, trusty muffin tin and began trying to figure out how to get the right size and shape.

It was a long battle, going from tyring to make an actual cupcake liner with a separate cupcake to go inside, or a liner with a sewn-in cupcake, or just the actual cupcake. The only thing I succeeded in doing was finally getting a chance to use my new pinking shears. I dropped the project out of frustration - nothing I did looked good/right.

Then, last week, I picked up one of the failed patterns I'd made - I traced, I cut, I stitched, and then like magic, or a spark of fire, I had created the perfect cupcake. Yes! A skill I'm sure would help me if I were ever to get stranded on an island.

Sweet Girlie Purse

A new purse for my shop. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I can name my little girl's purses I would love to hear them. I really like the pattern I came up with for my purse and want to stick with it (as I'm not really in the business of making purses) so I feel the need to name it.

For awhile I called them Prairie point purses, but then went back to Sweet Girlie Purse (which I'm not a fan of really) because I didn't think most people would realize that the little fabric triangles are called Prairie Points and then therefore not understand the correlation between the item and the title. I want them to have a cute name, but also one that says that these are little girls purses. Any suggestions would be welcome!

The Art of Crochet

Ever since my friend Ash came to visit in January and showed me how to crochet flowers, I've become obsessed with learning how to knit and crochet. My grandma helped my cousin Jennifer and I crochet potholders. She showed us this awesome method. I called her to tell her how I wished she could teach me again and she explained it over the phone. She said, "You won't believe what will happen, it's the coolest thing!" And she was right. Man, I never thought I'd get so excited about things like knitting and crocheting when I was younger. BUT I DO! I love them.

So here's what I did: I chained like 60 stitches. (I wanted it to be an over-sized potholder.) Then I single crocheted along that first row. Then I turned on the other side, chained off the stitch and then I skipped the first two stitches on the other side, and single-crocheted along that row. Let me say, I am so unqualified to give these instructions it's not even funny. So try it and see what happens. Don't be afraid to come back and tell me these instructions are useless. I promise, I can take it.

As for the flowers, I followed this pattern which also includes a video which I found very helpful. I'm finding this website to be a great resource.

When I called my Grandma she said that she'd love to teach me but that I should just learn the way she did, from one of those pamphlets you can buy in the craft section at Walmart. But you know what I've found even more helpful? Youtube videos. Here's the one that finally helped me figure out how to knit: The Knit Stitch.

Cream Pie Cookies

So I'm pretty much in love with this new creation of mine. I am desperately craving cream pie cookies now. I actually discovered how to make these while trying to make something else. I think they turned out fabulous - they're soft, and squishy (as I used 3 layers of batting instead of fiberfill) and I really want to eat one.

Orange Slices

Sometimes I drive myself crazy trying to create something new. Luckily these only took me one day to figure out. I made them to go with a set of bacon and eggs for my shop.

Stay tuned for my cream pie cookies I've got in the works - chocolate chip cream pie cookies, oatmeal cream pie cookies, chocolate cream pie cookies...

Happy Go Lucky

I made this little sign out of felt. Surprise, surprise. I totally forgot St. Patrick's Day this year. No special meal, no gold coins for the kiddos to find. I remembered in the middle of the day and we all had to have a wardrobe change to stop the pinching. Thankfully my kids didn't mind - me forgetting or the pinching.

Felt Raspberries

I spent most of this past weekend trying to make felt raspberries. It wasn't pretty. I started out searching the internet for felt raspberries just to look at them, see if I could figure out how they made them. No luck - there are very few examples of felt raspberries out there. Then began trial and error. Folks, I almost didn't make it through, my attempts were so horrid. Here are the 11 misses:
I'm not quite sure how I did it, but I figured it out. Here is the best looking felt raspberry I have ever seen (you can fact check that statement. Go ahead, google "felt raspberries." I dare you.
I liked them so much I had to make a fruit tart for my shop.

Peeps

I made Peeps. Who rocks the blanket stitch? Yeah, that's right, I do.

Have you ever visited the official Peeps website? You should, it's weird.

Machine Organizer

I made this for my mother-in-law for Valentine's Day. I had made a few of them for Christmas presents for some sewers I know and my mother-in-law requested one. They're actually pretty handy. You just sit your sewing machine on it and let the pockets hang over the edge of your table. I haven't once had to search and search for my seam ripper since I started using mine.















I also use one of the pockets to stuff the threads I trim off. My floors have never been cleaner.

This is from Simplicity pattern 3776. Pretty easy beginner stuff. There are five sewing accessory projects, one of which they call a Project Organizer that has handles and lots of pockets - I made them last summer and converted (by converted I mean I used shark and lizard fabric, not that I actually changed the pattern) them into travel bags for my boys. It's a good pattern, that 3776.