Matching Jumpers

Finally I can post some pictures of Christmas gifts!


I made the jumper on the left for my 16-month-old goddaughter. The jumper on the right if for her brand new baby sister. This was my first real foray into making my own baby clothes. I decided to use Simplicity patterns (4383 and 9911) in the hope that they were actually simple. I think it was a wise choice on my part.

I found that baby clothes are a lot more forgiving than big-people clothes. You don't have to worry about fitting them precisely. There are no darts in baby jumpers! I also found that girl clothes are so much more fun than boy clothes. There is a lot more variety involved in making a dress than in making the same old shirt-and-pants play outfit. I'm tempted to start making dresses and hoarding them away in the hopes that one day I will have a girl of my own, but when I suggested this to my husband he gave me a look that said he thought I was a crazy person. I may be crazy, but at least I will have a well-dressed imaginary daughter!

OK, OK, I'm not going to start making dresses for imaginary future children. I will most likely make many dresses for the daughters of my friends. They are just so, so sweet, aren't they?

I think I have a problem. Admitting it is the first step, right?

Merry Christmas to Me!

The presents are all wrapped, the dishes I'm bring to Christmas dinner are all prepared and in the fridge, the house is clean, and good friends are coming over for dinner tonight. I can't wait!


In celebration of actually finishing all of my Christmas presents, I decided to give myself a present by making this embroidered quilted pillow using the free pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. I also decided to use some of my birthday money to buy patterns for the Wee Wonderfuls make-a-long dolls. I've wanted them since they came out, but couldn't justify the purchase since I had no reason to make them. I still don't have a reason, but I love them and birthday money is supposed to be used for fun, right?

Have a great Christmas. I hope you all enjoy good friends, good food, and good health.

Christmas Ornaments

I've been busy with social engagements and making Christmas presents and, as a result, this poor blog has been neglected. I still can't show what I've been making, so I thought I'd show off some of my favorite handmade Christmas ornaments.

I don't decorate too much for Christmas. I have a few decorations, an advent calendar (haven't gotten good pictures of that one yet) and the tree. I like to cover my tree with as many ornaments as possible, with no particular theme. This year, the ornaments aren't as plentiful because we are trying to populate the tree with baby friendly ornaments only.

I LOVE homemade ornaments. They're just better than store-bought ornaments for so many reasons. Here are some of the ones on my tree.

This is a stick my sister painted brown and then painted over with a Santa head. He has a long, skinny beard that extends all the way down the stick. I couldn't get a very good picture of this ornament, but I love it so much that I had to include it here anyway.

This little girl was made by my grandmother (not the one who gave me all that fabric from her stash, but the other one). She's made from felt and appears to be hand sewn and embroidered. The date embroidered on the back tells me that she was made in 1985. I was eight years old.

My sister beaded and painted this sweet little angel. She hangs near the top of the tree, so she can play with the angel tree topper.

This angel is another felt ornament that was hand sewn and embroidered by my grandmother. This is Simon's favorite ornament, since he keeps snatching it off the tree and flinging it around. If you look in the background of this picture you can see the godseye which was my sister's very first handmade Christmas ornament.

And here, finally, is an ornament made by me. I made it for my first Christmas after graduating college, shortly after I discovered cross stitching. I really need to make more Christmas ornaments. My goal is to design a new one every year. I should start thinking about next year now!

Baby Gift Delivered!

I finished this wall hanging over the weekend, but it wasn't received until today and I've been dying to post about it! I really, really like it, but realize that the color choices/combinations may not be to everyone's taste, so I was nervous about giving it away. I was assured that it was appreciated and will be hung up very soon.

The appliqué and embroidery were done by hand. Hand appliqué just looks so much better and can be quite soothing. Sometimes.

The piecing and quilting were done by machine. After basting all the layers together, I briefly thought about doing the quilting by hand since so much hand work had already gone into it. But then I woke up from my delusion and realized that if I were to hand quilt it, the baby would probably be a teenager by the time I finished. My first idea was to do some echo quilting around the flower and butterfly. I started marking it and quickly realized that it was not the look I was going for. So, I then settled upon some nice straight lines, to complement the curves of the appliqué. I could have done it all with my walking foot and the bar attachments, but I was nervous about trying that over the appliqué, so my perfectionist self actually marked all of the lines and quilted over them. It doesn't save time, but it does save my sanity.

I haven't been crafting like crazy lately, but I have completed a few projects. Unfortunately, they are all Christmas gifts and I can't post about them. I've also been meaning to post about a few of my handmade Christmas ornaments, but I'm having difficulty finding the time to take pictures of them while there is still daylight. Here's hoping that I get to it soon.

New Baby!

A good friend had her second baby today and I got to go visit her in the hospital. I'm working on a very special gift for the baby, but it's not finished yet and I couldn't just show up empty handed! Ellen (the mom) had mentioned that she wanted a new blanket for the baby, as the first baby is sort of possessive of all the existing blankets. Well, I just happened to have a pieced blanket backed with chenille that I made a few months ago and never really finished.


Inspired by both Heidi and Amy, I decided to tie the quilt. This worked out great with the chenille backing, as trying to quilt it with my machine proved disastrous. I used DMC floss and tied a little tie at the corner of each "square" of fabric. I was very pleased with the results and hope the litle baby is too.

I made this matching headband for Ellen with some leftover fabric I had. I wanted to give Ellen something because the mommy often gets ignored in favor of all that baby cuteness. I figured a headband is something that a woman who had just delivered a baby could probably use. I know, that I sure could have used one when I was in the hospital after having Simon. He was delivered by C-section and I threw up while I was on the operating table - right into my hair. My husband did the best he could to clean up my hair, but I never did get a chance to wash it until three days later when I came home. A headband wouldn't have helped the grossness, but it would have disguised the badness of the hair and made it look better for pictures. Or, at the very least, it would have drawn attention away from my hair and towards the pretty headband.

Another Gift Crossed Off the List

I bought Simon a set of wooden blocks for Christmas this year. I read in some literature I got from the pediatrician that kids don't need any fancy toys at this age. They really only need balls, puzzles and blocks. I've embraced this philosophy, although Simon has plenty of other toys from his grandparents. Lots and lots of toys.

Anyway, I thought these blocks looked fun and that Simon would enjoy them. The only problem was that they came in this flimsy, disposable plastic packaging. I don't know what the manufacturers are thinking will happen to these blocks once they are opened, but I imagined them strewn all over my house and floating around the toy box. So, I bought the blocks with the intention of making a bag to store them in. Last night I finally got around to starting it, and I was able to finish it during Simon's nap this afternoon.





You may recognize the fabric as something that I got from my grandmother's stash. The flowers and the slug had buttons sewn on as embellishment, but I removed them (choking hazards) and replaced them with some non-life-threatening embroidery. This was my first drawstring bag and I made it up as I went along. It was a pretty simple process. The only snag I hit was that I didn't think that the blocks would take up much more space when not packaged (duh!). Thankfully, I made the bag much larger than I thought was necessary and it ended up being just the right size. 100 wooden blocks are pretty heavy - Simon is going to have a hard time lugging them around. Maybe I'll keep half of them stored somewhere else until he's a little bigger so he doesn't get discouraged.

Free Motion Quilting

So, I've been trying to figure out how to quilt my latest quilt. I'm the kind of person who likes to mark everything on the quilt top - even the free motion stuff. I decided that this is a bad habit (not to mention one that wastes a lot of time!) and committed myself to doing some true, free motion quilting. I did these sweet flowers and leaves all by myself - no washout markers needed. And, I did it on my bottom-of-the-line Bernina (a fabulous machine). All you need is a darning foot and some faith. Stay tuned for the finished quilt...