Baptism and Baby Gifts!

I've been busy sewing this week.  My niece is getting baptized this Saturday and I wanted to make something special for her.  Her mom is my twin sister and I'm sad I won't be able to make it because they live in Canada.  Anyways I saw  a pillow similar to this on Pinterest awhile ago and decided it would make the perfect gift.

Of course I'm still using my favorite fabric, Ruby.  And I'm still loving cross-hatch quilting.  Really, I love hand quilting best, but I didn't have time.. 

I stitched her name using all 6 strands of DMC floss because I really wanted it to stand out.

And of course I really wanted to use one of my new fabric labels (tutorial here) for a little extra touch.  The best thing about this project, (my husband will agree) is I actually had everything and didn't have to go to the craft store once.  Although I was super close to running out of thread.

My little 5 year old sons preschool teacher is having her first baby girl so I wanted to make some special for her.  She has three boys and is so excited to be having a girl.  I remember when they didn't think they would be able to have any children.  They adopted their first and have been able to have three since then.  Anyways she is such a sweetheart and awesome teacher. 

Last time I made burp cloths I used ric rac down the sides, it was kinda a pain so this time I just used it on the little decorative strip of fabric on the front.  It was tons easier and I like it a lot better.  On the blue one I used some lace from Riley Blake that I think turned out pretty cute.

And another label!

So that's what I've been up to.  My kids have one week of school left and I'm super sad.  Not because they will be home more, I'm just always sad to say goodbye to their wonderful teachers - and it means my kids are growing up faster than I'd like.   My oldest will be in 6th grade - the thought makes me a little sick to my stomach, why does it have to go by so fast???

I'm back ............... I think!

Lets just say a 16 hour plane ride takes a while to to recuperate from.   We are back though and we really did have a  wonderful time.   We survived, our children survived, my parents survived and life if slowly getting back to normal...........just in time for school to get out and then find a new normal :).


I thought I would share a few pictures from the trip..................we took hundreds, but I don't want to overwhelm anyone so here are just a few.

This is me and my husband at the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel.

Here is a group from our tour floating in the Dead Sea.

I surprised myself and actually put on a swim suit.  It was
 pretty cool, I don't think you could drown in the Dead Sea
 if you wanted too.

Here I am deep in thought on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.  

 My husband and I at a temple in Egypt.

This is me sitting with my in law's working on a little sewing

in the Holy Lands - am I dedicated or what!

Left to Right.  My brother and sister and law, me and my
husband, my mother n' law and father n' law.  In the
background you can see the Mediterranean Sea.

Here we are at the Spinx with a pyramid in the background.
 We thought the security guard that was in Egypt with us was
being nice by offering to take our picture all the time.
 Turns out he wanted money when it was all said and done. 

The Temple at Petra in Jordan

Luxor Temple in Egypt.

We went on a four day cruise down the Nile River.

Every day when we got back they had our towels folded

into something interesting.

This is my cute sister n' law Jenny showing some children how

to fold a boat out of paper.

A cute little boy in Egypt that melted my heart.

 

My husband and I standing in front of one of 

138 huge columns in a temple in Egypt.

There are a ton more pictures.............maybe I'll post them another time.  Thank you all for your well wishes for me and my husband on our big adventure.  I was pretty nervous about leaving 4 little ones for so long.  I missed them a ton, but it was a great experience.   I'll post some pictures of some projects I worked on in a couple of days!

One more post before I take off on that plane!   I've been sick to my stomach the last few day at the thought of leaving my four children for so long.   I've only ever been away from them for 4 days - how on earth am I going to handle 16 days.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited - I'm blessed to have this opportunity, it's the chance of a life time.

I read this article today from the Utah Deseret News.  It's better than any crafty post would have been I promise you.  So often, I loose perspective trying to keep up.  If your like me - this article will be a breath of fresh air to you.

http://motherhoodmatters.blogs.deseretnews.com/2012/04/10/your-children-want-you/

Project Pain in the Neck!

I'm not sure there is a single part of this project that I haven't unpicked at least once.  I so wish I was kidding about that, but I'm not.  I don't know this project was such a challenge for me, and honestly...................I'm still not all that happy with it, but I just don't have the time to make another one. 

I should make it clear that I did not follow the pattern for this little sewing kit that can be found here.  I don't know why on earth I just didn't follow the pattern, instead I figured I would just figure it out on my own.  (Not the smartest idea).    I still need to sew some velcro onto the bottom of the strap in the middle.  The little strap is what holds on a couple spools of thread.

This little sewing kit was also supposed to be  a little bigger then mine turned out.  Every time I would fold it into three like the original, it pulled the fabric all weird with drove me crazy so I ended up cutting off about a third of it.  Oh well!  It's  done!  I do love the fabrics - They are so vintage and colorful.  I bought them over here in a bundle.  I don't think she sells them in a bundle anymore, but you can buy some of the pieces separately.

I have some exciting news.  I've been making this sewing kit because in a few days me and my husband will be here.......................

My husbands parents are taking us on a tour of Jordan, Jerusalem and Egypt.    I'm super excited and scared and nervous, you name it, I'm probably feeling it.  I'm super lucky that my parents are going to come and watch my kids while we are gone, or I don't think I could leave for for the two and a half weeks that we will be gone.

I may try and get a post done before we leave this Saturday, but if not I guess I will see you all in a couple of weeks with I'm sure a lot of stories and pictures to share!

Tutorial - Making your own Fabric Labels

I've wanted some fabric labels forever to sew onto things I make.  I just think they are cute and make things more personal.  Ok, and Nana Company always sews cute labels onto everything.  I'm to cheap to order any so I though I'd try and make some by myself.  I was pleasantly surprised when my little idea worked.  I thought maybe some of you would like a tutorial so you can make some of your own.  I think you'll be surprised at how easy it is.

Items Needed
- 9x12" piece of fabric
- 9x12" piece of light Heat and Bond
- Iron
- Ink Jet Printer


Step One - Iron your fabric onto the Heat and Bond.   Do not take of the paper backing.

Step Two - After you've ironed the fabric onto the Heat and Bond, cut it down so that's it measures 8 1/2" x 11".  I ironed mine again after this just to make sure it adhered well.

Using Photo shop or whatever program your comfortable with, type up some labels.  Load your fabric sheet into your printer and it should print just like it would on a normal piece of fabric.   At the bottom of this post I've typed up some labels if you would like to download and print them. 

I have heard that this does not work with Laser prints.  I think the ink may bleed or something.  I ran one of my labels under water just to make sure it didn't bleed.  You may want to do the same before sewing onto your project.

Here are my gray patches sewn onto the burp cloths I recently made.   I could use a little practice with my zig zag stitch.

Here are some labels I made up if you would like them.  I'm by no means a graphic designer so they are nothing special, but if you would like to download them  just click on them!

Loving Sweetwater

I've told you how everyone around me is having a baby. Most of them are having baby boys so I went hunting for some cute baby boy fabric.  Even though this Hometown fabric by Sweetwater for Moda is from a couple seasons ago,  it is still fairly easy to find and I love it. 

I'm guess I'm not really one for pastel babyish fabrics for boys.  (I think that drives my mom crazy.)  I really loved making this bib.  Very rarely do I buy a charm pack that I love all the fabric in it.  This one, I loved them all.  I quilted the top with flannel so it would be a little absorbent.  I also used this dotted minky on the back.

I added a little strip of gray ric rac for a little something extra.

Also wanted to make a couple of burp cloths like I did when I made these.   I bought some gerber diapers at Walmart and really disliked them.  I ended up finding these diapers and they worked a lot better.  I still had to iron them to make them look nice after I washed them, but the fabric was so much nicer than Gerber's.

I'm really happy with the way everything turned out.  Hopefully my neighbor will like them.

 

I ended up making two of everything so I'm going to be putting a bib and a set of burp cloths in my etsy shop as soon as I can get it up and running again.  It's been too long since I've sold anything on etsy so it's taking me a while to get it all figured out.

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

Sweet Memories!

We've had some pretty special events happening over here lately!  My son who just turned eight made the decision to get baptized.  It was such a special day.  My friend Sherri took these pictures of him in his brand new suit, he looks so handsome!

His baptism went great.  It was so nice to have all our family here for the special occasion.

One more cute picture!

 

Also, my little sister and her sweet family were sealed together in the Salt Lake Temple.  It was so special to be able to be there and see her and her husband and sweet children sealed together for eternity.  (Hope she doesn't kill me for putting a picture of her on my blog.)  It was too sweet not to share.

This is a picture of the Salt Lake Temple that I took from the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

So as you can see, there have been some pretty important events around here and sewing has been on the back burner.  About all I've done is wash and iron these soon to be burp cloths!

And I bought some of this pretty fabric that I've had my eye on forever.  I bought it over at sew deerly loved, probably my favorite online shop to buy fabric.

Hopefully soon I will get some time to work with this pretty fabric.  I've got about a zillion things I want to make out of it.   Including this, and this!