Monsters, Piranhas, Dinosaurs, and Rock Stars!!!

Yes, Grandma has been very, very busy! As I mentioned in a previous post, we are happily expecting a new grandson. He and his parents live in New York and I have flown up there (I wrote this blog before I left for New York) for a visit. This is my "show off" post. I hope it inspires some ideas in addition to stroking my ego....

The denim shirt you see above is one of my favorites - I bought the shirt and embellished it with designs I purchased from my favorite machine embroidery website, Emblibrary. Isn't it just darling?

Here is the quilt that I made for Jackson. I have to admit that currently this quilt is classified as my "Most Fun Quilt Ever." I drew the biggest piranha by hand and then copied it, making it smaller by maybe 20% and then smaller again by another 20%. I say "maybe" because honestly I don't remember exactly what the percentage was but in my mind (and that's a crazy place to be sometimes) 20% seems to be about right... Then I designed and built it as I went along, literally with no real plan, until I ended up with what you see in the photos. The best part (I think) was when I decided that the quilt needed more "teeth." Finally, I was able to put Prairie Points on a quilt. Aren't they the perfect piranha "teeth"? I had never done Prairie Points before... and for the record, I can almost guarantee I won't do them again... but that is another post.

Then I found these plain white bibs (below) at Babies R Us.... so I embroidered them with a design or three that I got from my fav machine embroidery website, Emblibrary. When I finished embroidering them I thought they were still too white, so I sewed a coordinating row of stitching around the outside of each bib. Then they were finished...

Then I found this newborn onsie (below) at, yes, you guessed it, Babies R Us. There were actually three in the package but I was still learning to properly embroider on fine knits and well, two of the onsies didn't make the cut. Also, I decided that the embroidery design couldn't touch Jackson's skin because it would be too rough, so I embroidered it onto the butt of the onsie (over the diaper). And FYI, there is great iron on interfacing called "fusi-knit" that my friend, Alison, of SewBeeItClothier on Etsy turned me on to. When you are done with your machine embroidery design, you can iron this wonderful product onto the back of the design to make it silky smooth next to baby's skin. And that's a good thing...

And then the fun really began and I got to make some of my Quilted Toddler Bibs for the little peanut. Since my red-headed step child said I couldn't embroider a bib that said, "I probably will not like Country Music," I compromised and embroidered the bib below. Yes, you guessed it, I am not a fan of country music (that blog link sums my feelings up nicely, and is hysterical!). I have asked my Grandbaby Momma to lay pillows over her belly to muffle the sound while she and my son are listening to country music.... Sadly, I doubt she complied.

Then I found the FABULOUS fabric below and made another bib.

And then I found this fabulous turtle fabric and, yes, I made another bib....

And then I started digging in my stash and I made this one....

and then this one...

Yes, Grandma has been very, very busy!

Creative Summer Vists!

Right now we have a visitor. Being that it's summer here in Tampa Bay, it's mighty hot out. Today we have a heat index of 110 degrees and that makes it difficult for many outdoor activities. We even ride our bikes early to try and avoid the heat. Since outdoors is a bit much we have been hanging out by the sewing machine where it's nice and cool. Above you see the tote bag we made - the machine embroidery design came from Urban Threads - boy do I love that site! They are trendy, tend not to create embroidery designs that look and feel like body armor and are cool, cool, cool.... just like me!

Above and below you see some photos of Heather, my red-headed step child, working on one of our creative summer projects. Heather lives in Muncie, Indiana and is a full time student at Ball State, majoring in Geology. Very soon we hope (she will come to her senses and) decide to attend one of the fabulous central Florida colleges for her masters, or maybe even just to finish up her Bachelors Degree... but that's another post. I digress....

Heather has a friend who apparently likes bacon a whole lot and she wanted to make some bacon magnets for her new apartment. Heather is making them from felt, using pipe cleaners to make them bendy and then she paints a face on each silly strip of bacon. I think they are quite funny. We were even thrifty and used old magnets from the covers of phone books, etc, to recycle.

Here they are being tortured in a frying pan...

WAIT!! Heather! How did we NOT photograph the Roll Up Travel Jewelry Case we made? That soooooo rocked our week of creativity. Send me a few GOOD photos, ASAP. Hugs!

Covering The Sewing Chair

As promised here is the newly created washable and reversible chair cover. I made a muslin pattern by draping the fabric over the chair cushion and continuously snipping and clipping until I had what I thought would be a pretty good fit. I used the muslin as the pattern, stipple quilted two pieces of fabric with batting, washed the piece, dried it, cut out the pattern and then bound it.

I then decided I wanted it to be reversible so I sewed double buttons on (a button over top of each other). Then I decided it needed darts in the front so I sewed them in to reduce the flair, tacking them down on both sides to maintain the ability to reverse it down the road. I must admit, the chair really does look better in person than these photos show. Oh well - I have said it before - I am a pretty good quilter, but a lousy photographer. We all have our specialties....

Either way, I just increased the lifespan of my most comfortable sewing chair. I am thinking i need to make a pillow that hangs over the top. What do you think? Oh, and I don't want to cover the chair back with the same fabric - I tested that out and it was just too much for the small room ... maybe that hanging pillow will pull it all together. I do have to remember, however, that old saying, "Sometimes more is just more."