Dot Art Sign

I made this cute little dot art sign for my Mom. It was so simple but it really looks spectacular in person. All I did was dip the ends of my different sized paint brushes and even pencil tips into the paint to create a random dot pattern, kinda swirly for the sun. Same thing for the edges. I used tiny black dots to make up the lettering. No talent required for this one, honestly.

Baby Quilts

I made baby quilts for my niece and nephew, both due in early April. I didn't have a pattern for either so I just kind of made it up as I went along. They are easy so a pattern isn't necessary!

For the pink and green quilt, I cut strips of I think 23 different fabrics in sizes that ranged from 1 1/4 inch wide by 12 1/2 inches long to 3 1/2 inches wide by 12 1/2 inches long. I made both side panels first and planned to stop once the length was 36 inches but it ended up being a little bit longer. Then I made the center panel, adjusting as necessary so no matching fabrics would end up in the rows directly next to each other. Once it was all pieced I squared up the quilt, cutting off extra length from the rows if necessary.

I layered the bottom fabric, the warm and natural batting and the pieced top and pinned it together. I want to try to baste it together next time and see if I like that better. I don't like the safety pin holes in the fabric.

To quilt it, I hand quilted different sized hearts all over the quilt. Then I folded the backing fabric over to make the binding and pinned and sewed it up on my machine.

Love it! My sisters said they were all putting in their orders for when they are married and expecting girls!



For my sister Hannah's son's quilt I wanted a different pattern. Although these colors would have looked great in the stripey pattern too.

I made 6 inch blocks by cutting two 6 1/2 by 2 1/2 inch strips and two 2 1/2 inch squares of the same fabric and then one 2 1/2 inch square of a contrasting fabric. I cut it all out before I sewed anything together so I could rearrange the fabrics until I got it just so. The 2 1/2 inch squares get sewn together first with the matching ones on the outside edges of the row and then the longer strips get sewn to the top and bottom of that pieced row. Easy! Just be consistent in your quarter inch seam!

I love how this one turned out too! Hope my nephew gets a lot of snuggles in it!

Old Stuff...

I made these forever ago but I just stumbled on the old photographs this morning so I decided to post them. I loved those dolls! I really need to make some more of these soon. It's so satisfying to make something you like even when you look at it 8 years later! I made the first doll for my sister-in-law on Rob's side, Erica. The other two were for my little sister, Holly. The wood plate, I painted for my mother-in-law several Christmases ago.

Baby Shower Invitations

My sister-in-law and I got together last night to put together some baby shower invitations. (Addresses and phone numbers are blocked out just because that doesn't need to be all over the internet...)

We kept it really simple, just printed our invitation on white cardstock, four to a sheet and then cut those out. Then we stamped two corners with a big flower, using pigment ink and a piece of scratch paper underneath since the whole stamp didn't go on the invitation. Immediately after stamping we sprinkled it with embossing powder and then melted it with a heat gun. We cut out larger rectangles of the patterned pink cardstock and inked the edges of both the white and pink papers with a cotton ball and black pigment ink and allowed them to dry before we used double sided tape in the corners to adhere them. Not pictured are the cute envelopes which we stamped in the lower left corner with a simple black flower (no embossing) using the same flower stamp.

When we were done we were sitting there saying, "Oh my goodness, these are SO CUTE!" It's nice when you can impress yourself! :)

Flowers...

For Valentine's Day I made candy flowers for the ladies I visit teach. Except for one elderly woman who is diabetic and got real flowers.

It's really easy to use wired floral sticks to wrap one end of the candy wrapper. Then cover that with floral tape and push it into a square of tissue paper to cover a styrofoam ball. Wrap a fabric bow around a clay pot and voilà! I also added a few beaded flowers to mine. So cute and so easy to let a friend know you were thinking about them.

In the past I've also used chocolate bars as flowers...which are a little trickier to wrap, because they're heavier, but worth the effort. Once I even glued chocolate to a big food storage can and made a "cake" for a chocolate loving friend's birthday. The effort makes a simple gift really cute.