Shape Soft Book

My kids didn't let me sleep and I was super frustrated so I needed a little craft break this weekend.
I didn't really have the energy (or patience) to stand at the sewing machine and work on the Mario quilt and I was looking to try out my new hot glue gun anyway (nothing fancy, just not the old one).
So I settled on a quick and easy, no sew soft book about shapes.

I had a plan drawn out a while ago (when I first got into the idea of soft books) and so the first step was already done. As for the rest, I pulled out my felt, ribbons, and stickers and just kind of threw it all together as I went.

Here's the pictures:
(My plan was to be quick, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the cover, I contemplated using more stickers, or hot gluing ribbon or twine on to make the cover, but settled on just writing it.. because quick and easy, and the twins were waking up as I was working on the cover.)

 (The little circle on the triangle is a candy corn sticker.)

Quick run-down:
*I planned on the diamond being last, but I wasn't thinking and since it was blank on back I made it the first so the blank side could be the cover page.
*I finished it off with a simple tie binding, since there weren't a lot of pages (and again, trying for quick craft therapy).
*I spent a total of maybe 3 hours over the course of 2 days on this. (Seriously, just nap time plus a little finish up/clean up past nap time).
*I thought about having rectangle too, but the examples are really similar to square, so I went with just square.
*I got KK involved by making her look through the stickers to see if she could find anything to fit the shapes. I saw it as taking advantage of her, but she had fun getting to help out.
*Looking at these picture reminded me that I was going to use the star sticker (the silver to the left) as a shooting star and will add silver streaks with a Sharpie after I finish typing this up.


That's all for now,
Jo!

New Quilt

I've not really had a whole lot of time for crafting lately. KO has earned the nickname Baby G (short for Baby Godzilla) because she has a tendency to investigate, through destruction, everything she finds. So to keep her safe, I have to keep my needle points tucked away, or anything that would require scissors or hot glue or anything else that she could manage to hurt herself with. (And with all the work to get it all out and set up and then remembering to put it back up, it's become easier just to grab a puzzle book than to craft recently.)

There have been a few minor projects that I didn't get pictures of, most recently a book cover for KK because the school got new math books so they're required to keep a cover on them. They made covers out of paper sacks at the beginning of the year but it ripped and so I had to make one before it went back to school the next day. I even gave her a pocket to keep some things in. Maybe I can catch it at home soon and grab a picture of it.

Otherwise, the sewing machine is in a whole different room that Baby G doesn't get much access to, so I have been working on a project for my brother. A few weeks ago he sent me a picture saw online of a Super Mario themed quilt and said "I need you to make this for me". Ha! Apparently he's forgotten that I've made 1 quilt in my entire life and I spent about a year doing it. Also, made up nearly entirely of appliqued pictures. I told him to give me some time to do some research and see what I could find. I was honestly hoping to be able to find a whole collection of pre-made iron-on patches, or a fabric that incorporated the same quilt block look that I could make a simple blanket from, but instead I found (what I'm assuming is) the inspiration picture for the user posted picture. (PS- it wasn't even like a blog post picture- it was just a single picture of the finished project, laying on a bed draped partially over pillows, posted to a "list" site.)

Anyway, I couldn't find my easy way out. So I took the source picture, enlarged it, and started tracing my shapes, marking coloring along the way. I took the chance to use up some of my scraps by seeing what I had there first (which honestly was a pretty good portion of the appliques). After a few days of tracing (and realizing I forgot to flip the images and flipping) and tracing and cutting and ironing and cutting, I was here:

FYI: This is missing a shape, that I didn't realize I was missing until I went to apply them to the squares.

So this is all the applique pieces just laid out, I honestly had a bit of fun with it all. I've never done big appliques; I think the most has been adding little shapes to clothing (hearts on gloves, birds to a shirt to make it match a skirt). There were a few pieces that gave me a hard time, you can see the light green liked to curl, but getting it on the square and off the paper took care of that, and there were a few pieces I had to add more bond to because it didn't take, or maybe I over heated it- I don't know, just know that it needed redone.  But overall, it was fun.

Here's the pieces all laid out:

I've actually got them all sewn together, but apparently that picture didn't load. Anyway, right now it's about 56"x37" so it is throw/lap sized. To finished it off, I'm just going to use a Mario branded fleece for the back (brother's request) and do a simple (probably blue or green) binding. I contemplated self binding, but I didn't want to loose any length, seeing as my brother is over 6 foot tall.

I'm also contemplating a star shaped pillow to throw in for the fun of it... we'll have to see.

PS- the dark teal for the squares (behind the star) is GORGEOUS in person.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Blackwork Fun

I've been toying with the idea of a blackwork project for a while now. They appear so elegant, but understated, and as much as I hate that final step when working on a cross stitch, it really does just make the whole project beautiful. 

Yesterday I was scrolling through Pinterest and found a site that had over 250 blackwork patterns!! I was in awe just staring at how they all looked, even though there was no "picture " to it, just the fill patterns. So I decided to start small and just go for it. 

I looked through a few of the kids' coloring books and found a picture without too much detail but enough to showcase a couple designs. Then I traced it on to a piece of graph paper and got to work making it into a pattern. (Please note this is only the second time I've made my own pattern so I am by no means an expert- honestly, I'm no expert in anything really, just a dabbler in all things.) 

After I had the pattern made, I decided that since the coloring book I choose the picture from was a color by number I would do a colored blackwork piece. So I just filled in the background of my pattern sheet to know what color to use when stitching. Then I used a regular pencil to find a few designs I liked and felt "fit" the picture and drew them in also. 

I'm sure that reads completely confusing- sorry. It all makes sense in my head. 

Here's how it all turned out: 

There is a yellow patter in the body of the fish (it's diamond shaped, but with some filling) I know it's hard to see, I thought about pulling it and using a darker color and then remembered that this was all for fun and just to test the waters. (Haha, get it- because it's a fish!)
I looked for designs that were scale-like in look for the main sections- the others I just looked for designs small enough the fit the small spaces. 

I think it's kind of cute! KL loves it for some odd reason that I don't understand. 

That's all for now, 

Jo!

Parrot Costume

It's Homecoming week, which means theme days!
This year they're pretty easy, pull from closet or drawer most days. There was tie dye, twin day (where you plan ahead to match someone else), PJ, and school colors day. But, right in the middle of the week, there is jungle safari; JUNGLE SAFARI!?!?! What? Who's prepared for a safari on an any-given-day basis?

When it comes to a jungle I think parrot, when I asked the kids they came up with the hat/vest combo you oft see on safari but we weren't sure if hats were okay. So we decided parrot it was. We have a stuffed parrot and KK decided that was her outfit- we quickly added an elastic band to it so she wouldn't have to hold it all day and she was done.

As for KL, she wanted to *BE* a parrot... ok. I did a quick Google search for inspiration and found this tutorial from Make It-Love It, for a parrot Halloween costume. I really just took a quick glance at it and then did my own thing, but it gave me a good general idea of what I was doing. I opted to hot glue everything so that I didn't have to pull out my sewing machine.

A few hours later (most spent cutting out almost 200 feathers), here's what I had:

It's all felt, I used a grosgrain ribbon so she could tie it around her waist. This was taking before she was home, so after I got her home from school, we measured around her wrists, around her shoulders, and across her back, and then I added elastic straps, and a felt connector between the two wings (as done in the tutorial).

Here it is on:

She was so excited! (Which makes it all worth it.) Before school even started she got a few compliments, which made it even better. She's beyond happy with how it turned out!

That's all for now,
Jo!

Let's Get Real

Alright guys, so I'm just going to be honest here for a moment. I'm in a bit of a rough spot- more specifically, the three youngest aren't sleeping well.
I've tried everything I can think of and it's just not working!
The twin Ks have been day time potty trained for over a year, but are still wetting at night. I recently got rid of pull ups over night because it's taking so long I figured they're using them just because they are there (and judging by how they've been doing I was mostly right). So they're enjoying the fact that they've been given a little freedom to get up through the night, although meant solely for potty breaks, it usually comes with a little play and a lot of loud noise.
And then, the baby is getting her molars, and they seem to be terrible! She never really had a lot of issues with teething before, but these molars, which are coming in one at time, one right after the other, leaving no breaks for a good night's rest. Aaahhhh!! It's horrible, she's waking up and spending a good 2-3 hour chunk of the night awake.

So, now that you know that I'm a zombie- I will tell you, I'm only surviving on coffee and snark! That's it- I got nothing else keeping me going. Remember that when I show you the newest cross stitch I've completed (I put the packaging in so you can see how it's supposed to look).

To be fair, it's the same sentiment, kind of. I mean you make a wish on a dandelion by blowing it- right?

Side note, this is part of what I like about cross stitch. Even from a kit you can personalize it, mix it up a bit if you want; or, if you're not feeling creative, just crafty, you can stick to the plan given to you. I know that I don't often show when I've changed things (because they're usually because I've made a mistake) but today I felt it necessary.

That's all for now,
Jo!