Little Crafts

As promised, I made Simon a bigger owl to keep the little owl company. He really seems to enjoy them and is constantly crooning, "owl, oooowl."



I also made a quilted zippered pouch from the scraps leftover from this quilt. I had just enough triangles already cut out to make this design. I love the challenge of making something useful/pretty out of scraps that have already been cut out. It's fun and thrifty!

Stuffies Galore

I've made a few stuffed creatures lately and want to show them off. Here is my very first teddy bear, made out of a t-shirt I didn't like much and some fabric from my stash.


I tried embroidering the eyes and nose at first, but just couldn't get it to work. The t-shirt material was just too stretchy and the embroidery floss couldn't cope. So, I used felt for the eyes and nose and embroidered them on with a blanket stitch. I love his lopsided smile.

And here is a little stuffed owl I made for Simon:

Simon likes to make a lot of noise, but he doesn't have many actual words yet. One of his few words, though, is "owl". And it's so cute the way he drawls it out. Last week we went to the library and he found a stuffed owl there and got very upset when we had to leave it behind. So, I made him his very own owl (the pattern is from a Japanese craft magazine - I found it on Craftster). He loves it - mostly because he knows what to call it. It's rather small, though. So, I'm planning on making him another, bigger owl to be its friend.

Wall Art

I had a hard time coming up with an idea for this month's whiplash competition. I wanted to be sure that I really used trash/waste and not things that I wouldn't otherwise be throwing away. For example, I have a TON of fabric scraps, but I don't consider them waste because I plan on using them all up one day. The problem there, though, is that I'm always adding to the scraps much faster than I use them up.

Anyway, I eventually decided on using phone books in my project because they are most definitely waste. Every year we get a new set of phone books and every year I ask my husband to remove the old books from our house, but they're all still here in one gigantic pile. We have at least four year's worth of phone books and I don't think we've ever used one of them. The internet is just so much more convenient. Add some empty cereal boxes to the mix and a bottle of Modge Podge (which will represent the 10% non-waste portion of this project) and I'm ready to go!



I had never tried decoupage before, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. I got the idea to frame a decoupaged word for some wall art, because I believe that you can never have enough wall art. I eventually settled upon the word "art" (as suggested by my husband) because it accurately describes the purpose of this project and it has the added benefit of only being three letters long.

I cut out the letters from the cereal box and pilfered all of the interesting-looking colored adds from the yellow pages. I tried to add a few things that had meaning to me. I included a little map of the town I live in and an add for Orioles and Redskins tickets for my husband, who is a fan. I also added some things that made me laugh, like the squirrel with the dead, dead eyes and the tap-dancing crab.

I decoupaged entries from the white pages for the background. I did my best to find pages with the names and phone numbers of friends and family. It makes it like a game to try and find them all. Plus, now I know which of my friends choose to be unlisted. I am also unlisted, so my number does not appear on the collage. So sad. But so worth the reduction in phone solicitations.

The frame is made from several layers of the cereal box glued together and then decoupaged over with the yellow pages. I tried again to find entries that were meaningful, like goodwill/thrift stores and animal shelters.

I'm happy with the results, but never again will I try to decoupage something as thin as the yellow pages. Such thin paper makes for many bubbles. Maybe next time I'll move up a notch to used wrapping paper. If there is a next time. I think I'm going to stick to fabric for a while.


Since there is nothing very unusual about phone books or cereal boxes, I am entering my "art" into this month's competition as "Creative use of normal/household waste." There are some wonderful and very creative entries this month. Be sure to check them out!

Gifts For Family

My recent trip to New York was mainly in celebration of my Dad's birthday. For his birthday, I decided to go all homemade. I made him a loaf of cranberry nut bread, since he loves it when his mom makes it. Unfortunately, the store was all out of cranberries and my grandmother (mom's mom) suggested that I use some chopped up jellied cranberry sauce instead. It was passable, but not ideal, as you might guess.

Much better than the cranberry bread, though, was the stenciled long-sleeve T-shirt:



Yes, there is a story behind the shirt. When I was in elementary school, my mother used to substitute teach in my school. During one of her many substitutions , she came across and basic reader book called, "Jim Wins". It had some riveting text that went something like this:

See Jim
See Jim Win
Win Jim Win
Jim Wins!

My dad, whose name is Jim, thought this was brilliant and has adopted it as a sort of personal theme ever since. Now I guess I have to buy the book next.


Since I would be visiting family in New York, I decided to make my sister a "just because" gift. I had recently told her that I wanted to try felting some wool sweaters and she, being an excellent thrifter, decided to find me some sweaters to felt. Well, she wasn't very successful and only succeeded in finding me a 30% wool sweater. I felted up a little bit and I used it to make Annie this little hip purse and stuffed spider. All other materials used in this project were already in my stash. I love projects that come from my stash. They are so satisfying!

Sunbonnet Sue

Simon and I spent the last week in New York with my parents. They have the slowest internet connection in the world - even slower than those people who don't even have the internet - and that is why I haven't updated this blog in so long.

I brought my sewing machine with me to New York and while I wasn't able to do much sewing, I was able to finish this quilt:


It's a quilt my mother asked me to make as a gift for a baby shower she is going to for an old family friend. My mom told me that the baby's room was predominantly "mauve" (which can mean any number of pink shades to me) and that she really, really liked the last Sunbonnet Sue quilt that I made and maybe I could do something like that. Only she insists on calling my good friend Sue, "Holly Hobbie" no matter how many times I correct her.

I told her at first that I just couldn't commit to making her a Sunbonnet Sue quilt because the handwork took so much time and I had many other projects to work on. But then I started thinking about it and getting excited about fabric choices and quilt layouts until I finally just gave in and started on my little Sues.

I got the patterns for the girls from 501 Quilt Blocks, a book I'm not super fond of although it does have many variations on Sunbonnet Sue. I altered the patterns slightly, because I thought they could be improved, but they're still very close to the originals. All of the appliqué and embroidery of each Sue is done by hand. It really does look so much better that way.

The layout of the quilt was inspired by Design Your Own Quilts, a fabulous book that I took out of the library. Unfortunately, it appears to be out of print. It's all about creating the quilt as-you-go and not worrying too much about pre-planning. Of course, I still did some pre-planning, because I still need practice in letting go. I'm very happy with the result and plan on using this technique some more in future quilts. Stay tuned!