A Few Updates

Here's a few updates on the long term projects I've been working on.

First off, I just finished a cross stitch that I started last August.

At first I was little upset with just how long it took me and then I realized just how much else I did while working on it. (I went back through my Facebook pictures and realized that I finished the downstairs bathroom, including the refinishing projects, made a TON of bows, along with several other Christmas crafts, skirts, etc, etc, etc.- It was a busy 6 months.)

Next is an update on my quiet book. Here's what it looks like (mostly) right now.

Since this picture was taken, I did push the corners out make them nice and neat and then ironed the pages to help them lay flatter. It's finally starting to look like a book!! All I have left is a few activity pieces to attach.
You've seen the patch work pages, here a picture of the unfinished color sorting page.

I took the picture at this stage to show you just how I did it. I printed a font that I liked (and thought wouldn't be too hard to hand stitch) to the paper side of freezer paper and then ironed it onto my felt pieces where needed. I will admit that removing the paper proved harder than I thought it would, but I still managed to do all this stitching (even what's not done in this picture) in one night (that included a school art show and cooking fried chicken for supper too). The little pieces were attached to the crayon shaped pieces of felt to look like a crayon label and help with color word identifying (I believe there are pictures of those on my last update).


Last I have made progress on my first quilt, although it's not much.
I received all the shirts from my brother and took measurements for the designs on them all (minimum size and preferred max, to not have too much empty background). I decided due to the placement of some of the decals (several over one side of the chest up the shoulder), it would be easier to just cut the decals out. Since I'm not a quilter, and therefore don't have the tools that go with, here's what I did. (I know there are computer programs to help with placement of odd shaped squares, that is the tool I don't have.)
I went into Microsoft Paint and turned on the grid lines (through the "View" menu).
Then I used a thick black line to mark the minimum size (one square/inch). Then I went over it with a thinner red line to mark the maximum size. Last I labeled them with what shirt it came from. (I tagged each with a number when I initially measured.) When I was done with all of them, I printed it off, cut it out, and after much trial and error was able to find a way to fit them all together.

I started by sorting them out by similar sizes, but that really didn't help. Eventually, I just started with the bigger ones and fit the others around.

This is the finished placement of the pieces, and to make sure I can keep track of what went where, I made a new Paint picture with the full size and sections. Labeled with what number and final size they would be cut to.
I know it doesn't look like much but to me it feels like progress.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Valentine's Day

I am slightly opposed to Valentines's Day. I don't mind the simple "take time to think on the one's you love" aspect, but the candy filled backpacks drives me crazy!! So, I try every year to do non-candy (and mostly non-edible) valentines for my children to hand out. This year we chose Kool-Aid Play Doh kits.

KK received a similar kit a few years ago at the end of the school year (with a tag that said something along the lines of "Have a Kool summer"). We had a blast making it and it lasted for about 6 months before it dried out (that's much longer than a little piece of candy lasts).

The girls had fun helping me measure the ingredients and tape off the top of the bag (just to be safe). And then they sat and chose which color would go to which person. KL went easy and gave all the boys in her class pink (strawberry Kool-Aid) and all the girls purple (grape Kool-Aid), KK on the other hand chose to get a variety of scents and took the time to specifically choose each color for each person, including rearranging a few to make sure it was just right.

The neat thing about this play doh, the Kool-Aid not only gives it color, but a scent too.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Update

Here's the progress on my color themed quiet book:
These are the patchwork pages, including side by side pages stitched together:

 After I took this I realized I forgot my rainbow page, which will be attached to the brown page.
I haven't decided whether to do it diagonal or straight line but I have decided to do it rag style to add a little more texture to the page. I will only use the rainbow colors though, none of the extras.

After the individual color pages are just a few activity pages.
The first is a two page colored crayon sorting set:

For some reason, only 1 photo would load.... :/
Any way, the other looks just like this except it's mirrored (and the other colors) so I can put a "crayon box" to hold them in the middle. I plan on hand stitching the color names on the gray patches on the crayons to match against hand stitched labels on the background. I plan on attaching the crayons to ribbon so they can't be lost.

The final page is an artist's paint pallet. I plan on putting a paintbrush with it, if I can find one that fits the 6x6 page, if not I may make a felt one.

On this page the pieces are all stationary, so I used Heat n' Bond to attach the pallet to the background and to attach the odd shapes to the pallet (this was a great way to use up small scraps of felt).
If I can find a short enough paint brush, I'll attach a tiny pocket to hold it.

I didn't use any templates for these pages, but the ideas came from several different places online. I've seen several different versions of both these ideas. There are a TON of ideas out there, and once you start getting the general idea, if you're like me, you will realize you can adapt them to whatever your children are into or learning. I really am having a blast and have come up with more ideas than I could ever possibly accomplish making.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Start of the Quiet Book

I decided to start easy when it comes to a quiet book, so my first will definitely be more for younger children who don't mind feeling the different types of fabrics with minimal activities to do.

Here's the sneak peek at what I've got planned. I figured simple pages, each of a different color.
I will admit, I am not a quilter, so sewing these together is taking a little longer than others would, but it's a great place to start and practice, because little kids don't notice (or care about) all the imperfections.

I have done a little rearranging of these pieces, but nothing major.
-On the brown square, I switched the owl and camel so the two blue backgrounds were opposite each other

-On the orange, I switched the dinosaur and he blue fish so the two fish are opposite

-On the pink page, I rotates the middle square so the black corner isn't touching the only other design wit black on it. 

I figure that as they grow up and the different "feels" isn't quite enough, it may even turn into an I-Spy kind of book. (I.E. "where's the Christmas tree?" or "find the fox") 

For these pages I really just looked through all my scrap fabrics and found as many of each color as possible. Where I needed a little help, I had an I-Spy fabric piece my grandmother gave me that I used for fussy cuts of the cute little images (she had already cut a few images out so I really couldn't have used it for much else anyway). 

This was so much fun to put together. I'm having a blast working on this project and I can't wait to finish it!! (At this point, I have all but the yellow and orange blocks actually sewn, but no pictures of them. The reason for those two being last was the fact that I had no orange thread and although I had yellow, there was no bobbin to match yet, but they will probably be finished later today and I may update again tomorrow or the next day.) 

That's all for now, 

Jo!

Coming Soon (Hopefully, At Least)

So now that Christmas crafting is done and I've had a little chill time after the busy holiday, it's time to look ahead and see what's next. Right now I've been working on a counted cross stitch that was neglected over the holiday, and I'm about half way finished with it, but I'm making plans for the next projects.

First, I want to make my first quiet book. It seems simple enough, but that's not always the case. But it also looks like a lot of fun for both me and the K girls.

Also, I have my very first quilt in the line up. My uncle passed away last year and I'm going to be making a t-shirt quilt for my brother, who somehow managed to get quite a few of them (I think they may be what was left at my aunt's house after he moved out of there because I can't find another reason why they wouldn't have gone to his son).

I also think I may surprise my big Ks by turning some of their fashion doodles into some Barbie clothes. KK chose a book from the school book fair this year that was models to design on, along with stencils and stickers to aide in the process. I think it will be fun, and it may even be a way to get them to sit and learn a little on the sewing machine.

And last, but not least of course, Valentine's Day is coming up and I'm one of the mother's that HATES giving away candy, because we still have Halloween candy in our house at that time. So be looking for what the girls decide to hand out this year. (I usually come up with a few ideas and let them decide which to do.) Last year we did personalized book marks for each student. We bought a kit that came with 24 bookmarks (for each girl) and then I spelled out the names of their classmates first and then the Big Ks decorated, knowing who each one was for so they were sure to put designs they knew that student would like.


That's all for now, or at least what's to come,
Jo!