Sweet Citrus

Voila! Mommie-made felt fruit slices for a certain little boy's Easter basket. I can't wait to be served all kinds of fruity drinks and things from the play kitchen this summer!

Here's my how-to:
I started by cutting out 3" circles from felt sheets. Then I cut slightly smaller circles of quilt batting, and cut them in half. They fit perfectly inside the felt when you fold the circles in half to make the slices! I pinned and machine stitched the edges aka rinds. Then I marked and stitched the segment details with a slightly larger stitch than the one used around the edge.

After last week's basket liner project, these were a breath of easy fresh air! I plan to make more and may stitch some of the segment details prior to stuffing and sealing next time. A plump, juicy wedge of fruit is always a delicious treat! YUM!

A-tisket A-tasket, A fabric lined basket

This idea has been on my to-do list for over a year now. I fell in love with PBK's fabric basket liners and thought it would be fun and easy to make my own. I had all the supplies needed, current catalog pictures to reference and even a handy how-to to get me started - how difficult could it be, right?!


Maybe I've been watching too much Project Runway and was carried away with the idea of pattern making and crafting under pressure. I thought for sure I was on my way to post a how-to on this little number - ha! Little did I know that rough times were ahead for my "easy" holiday project. The liner base is not nearly as attractive as I had envisioned, I had numerous thread issues on both my sewing and embroidery machines, and the overhang did not end up quite even from basket front-to-back. Don't get me wrong, I think it turned out just fine in the end, but there are a few flaws hiding in this sweet basket. It was a-TASKet indeed, but luckily my sweet Easter boy is worth it!

PS - Should anyone happen upon a fabric liner for handled baskets tutorial, please leave the link in the comments as I may add a liner re-do to my to-do list!

Misc Monday

The beautiful Spring weather is keeping me outdoors, therefore leaving many incomplete projects on my never-ending to-do list. Here are some past projects that make me smile - hope they do the same for you!

Owls are so sweet. This one lives at my friend Traci's house!
Find the embroidery file (and other fun ones) here.

A wedding gift for the matchmaker who introduced me and my husband.
I used Monogram Wizard's Miami font.

A Gap bag gets the personalized treatment.
Monogram Wizard's Monogram Script.

Here's to a great week!

Sweet little Sunday surprise - Part 2!

Just checked today's Project Round-Up over at Prudent Baby and happened to find myself some link love! The discovery was the perfect dose of sunshine on this gray Sunday afternoon - thanks again girls! Big smiles for this new blogger! If you're in need of organizing recipes or a great gift idea, check out the details here. Now I'm off to Michaels to buy some supplies for our living room art project. More details soon!

Hippity Hoppity

The verge of spring has me fondly reviewing the romper I made my son for his 1st birthday - we had a frog party! The bad news is that he woke up with his 1st fever that morning and never made it into the outfit. The good news is that it turned into quite a fetching Easter ensemble! I kept it as a longall thru Spring, but as the summer progressed I hemmed the legs into shorts. Here's to warmer weather and sights of sweet seersucker!

Materials and Construction notes: I used Easy McCall's pattern #2033 and omitted the pockets. I added coordinating piping and lined the seersucker due to it's thinness. The vintage frog applique is from Embroidery Library. I also added a layer of batting under the applique to give Mr. Froggie a bit more dimension.

Easter's on it's way

Felt food is a new passion of mine. Not only are there SO many cute foods to make and play with, they're softer and safer than all of the yucky plastic stuff. With hopes of holding off my son's sweet tooth for candy (at least this year anyways!), here is a mommie-made Peep ready to hop into his Easter basket. I admit, I made this a little more for me than for him, but hopefully he'll have fun serving it to me from the play kitchen!

To make one or more of your own, find an easy tutorial here. And may I recommend not hand stitching while suffering from allergies. Stitch consistency on this little rabbit is lacking due to a few sneezes and tissue breaks. At least the weather is beginning to warm and I was able to make it child-free during naptime!

Sweet little Sunday surprise!

I am so tickled - one of my embroidered bibs is featured on today's Prudent Baby Project Round-Up! How exciting and what an honor. I just love Prudent Baby's style. Be sure to check them out and thanks girls!!

One down and too-many-more-to-list to go!

One of my MANY cousins had a baby girl a few weeks back. Now my baby is no longer the youngest great-grandbaby...but isn't it great that my son has 3 great-grandparents?! Today I completed a bib and burp cloth gift set for little Columbia. I can't wait to wrap it up and send it on it's way!

I just love the turquoise paired with the brown - so chic! Here are two outfit sets I made last year for a couple of other baby girls with the same fabric stash:

sweet Chloe

sweet Sophia

Happy weekend everyone!

Monkeying Around

Monkeying around is kind of how I feel lately! My son's 2nd birthday party was pretty much the sole focus of my crafty free time since the holidays, so with it's passing I now feel all over the place without a target. Have no fear tho - I've got several new projects in motion. Can anyone say Easter?!?! I'll likely feel better once one or two tasks hit completion. How I hate deadlines, but what else can get my hands really moving?! For now, enjoy these sweet personalized PBK monkey backpacks. I hope the twins are enjoying them as much as my son enjoys his!

Bibs

Another fantastic gift to give (and make!) is a personalized baby bib. I could never have enough clean dry bibs during my son's infancy! The top two photos show bibs I've given that also served as great practice on my embroidery machine. Blank terrycloth bibs are definately easy on time when you need a quick gift. Recently I've started taking it to a new level - making my own blanks by tracing some of my son's favorite bibs onto leftover fabric. Fancy while frugal!

Check out a few more adorable quick-stitch bib projects here, here and here over at Prudent Baby. Let the fabric speak for itself or add embroidery. The fun and gift possibilities are endless!

Diaper Covers

Embroidered diaper covers are such a fun and sweet personalized gift for baby girls. They can even be used as big girl panties once potty training is a success! I remember being oh so proud of my fabric painted ones back-in-the-day. Journey down memory lane with me and check out a few of my gift creations!

Pretty Cookbooks

The girls at Prudent Baby recently inspired me to jazz up a couple of my recipe binders. Aren't they great?! My mother is handing down some of her recipes/cookbooks, and she just so happened to have transferred them into binders. Creating covers for these jems had fallen to the bottom of my project pile until I saw the fantastic printable templates! My binders are on the smaller side, so I just cut and folded accordingly. Voila! I really found Jacinda's organizational tips insightful as well. Bon Appetit!

Fun with Potholders

My 2 year old adores the kitchen, both the real and play ones. Ever since he started "cooking" I've been wanting to make him a child-sized potholder. I finally whipped one up!

Before I got to work I did some brief internet searching for inspiration and came across LindaMade's tutorial. I followed suit by using scraps from previous and future projects to make a quilted side and decked the other with matching brown corduroy. I added a corduroy hanging loop, and a few more stitches to really give it that quilted feel. I had so much fun piecing this together and it took no time to make! Now time to anxiously await and watch him use it when he makes something HOT! Mommie's felt pancakes perhaps?!

Creativity Emerges

2010 has brought about surge of creativity for me. So much so that I finally bought a blank journal to log the never-ending ideas I seem to keep coming up with and stumbling upon. My mommie-brain just couldn't keep up! While eating dinner tonight, I picked up a section of the weekend paper I had yet to read, and stumbled across my horoscope: "Your creativity emerges. Observe an unusual abundance of feelings that exists between you and others. Enjoy the moment." How fantastically fitting AND it gave the day 5 stars! I love finding these kinds of things. Just like I enjoy déjà vu because it makes me feel like I'm somehow on the right path...but I digress. This particular horoscope corresponded with my son's 2nd birthday which was a GREAT day. Full of fun, family, friends, and my creative efforts outfitting an adorable (if-i-do-say-so-myself!) train party. I enjoyed so many moments, both in preparing for the big day and during. More to come on the train party soon!