Project List Update

I have been crafting and finishing some projects this past week or so but nothing on my "official" project list has made much progress so I won't post the whole list.

I covered a bulletin board in fabric for our kitchen, made B some alphabet and numbers wooden flash cards, tried out several knit booties patterns (and found one I like finally) and got several more blocks of my Christmas quilt sewn together.

I have been working on this Christmas quilt for 5 years off and on and have 9 more blocks to sew and then I can start sewing the rows together!  Each year I work on the quilt for a little bit, saying that I will get it done this year for Christmas but then other projects come up and it gets pushed back again. This year I might actually get it done.  I have 54 of the 60 blocks sewn together and the other 9 are cut out and organized and ready to be sewn.  Then I need to lay out the design and decide if I want to do 6x10 block design or maybe 9x6 or 7x8 or should I use leftover fabric and try to make 3 more blocks and go with a 9x7 block design.  The original pattern called for 42 blocks but I wanted to make the quilt larger so I aimed for 60.  The original intent was to take it from a full size quilt to a queen size quilt but since then we have switched from a queen size bed to a king size bed.  I know I don't have enough fabric to make it king sized and since I bought the fabric as part of a kit from the 2005 Houston Quilt show, I doubt I can really find the fabric anymore.  Now I will put everything together and have a nice large lap quilt for our couch during Christmas time.

The timeline for this quilt is below:
July - Finish all blocks
Aug/Sept - Piece top together
Oct/Nov - Baste, Quilt and Bind

The quilt will be machine quilted by me on my Mom's professional Long Arm Quilting machine.

Food Fabric Bin

We have a cubicle storage shelf from Ikea in my son's playroom and as the collection of toys grows so does the need for better organization.  Most of the shelves are open and two to three toys are placed in each cubicle but I saw a need for some bins to help contain smaller items.  I thought to myself, why buy some when you can make them and make them cuter.  I searched high and low online for just the right type of fabric bin that would work well for a 12 inch square bin. 

I finally found this simple tutorial and changed the measurements to fit our cubicle size better.  For each side, I made the square top part and the bottom into a triangle as one long piece.  The top part is 12 inches square and the triangle is 6 inches long and a 90 degree angle at the tip.  You need 4 pieces, one for each side and the triangles will join together at the bottom.  I used a lightweight interfacing on the outer fabric and heavyweight Pellon 91 (I believe) on the lining fabric.  For the interfacing I cut it an inch shorter all the way around to allow room for seams.  I also added some simple handles in case B wants to carry his toys to a different room.  

I keep all of B's kitchen, cooking, fake food, etc in this bin and we are working on putting the kitchen toys back in the kitchen bin.  I plan to do a cars, music and possibly trains one if I can find train fabric that I like.

The bin has been in use for almost 2 weeks and seems to be holding up strong so far.  Time to drive to Joann's to buy more interfacing to make bin #2.

Project List Update

I am updating my project list 2 weeks in a row!  This past weekend I went on vacation and didn't get much crafting done but did crochet a few more granny squares during the car ride and went to visit this cute little quilt store in Port Aransas, TX.  The owner is super sweet and she has a nice selection of beach fabric and cowboy and little boy fabric.  I got 3 yards of car/road fabric which I will use to make B's Car Fabric Bin and they also use to whip up a few car rolls.  Her shop is also where I got the kit to make B's car mat quilt that I am hoping to do in the next month or so. All I have to do is connect two panels, a few borders and quilt.

The only other thing I am working on right now is whipping up some baby booties and matching hats.  I got my size 7 circular needles in the mail today that are only 16 inch long and should be the right size to make a few baby hats.  I am using some medium weight yarn that I have leftover from previous projects.  I will try and sell some but will also have sets on hand when I need baby gifts.

Here is the project list:

Rank	Project	Status	How Many
1	Swiffer Wet Jet Reusable Pads	3 Complete	6
2	Christmas Quilt	25% Complete	1
3	White Crochet Baby Blanket	25% Complete	1
4	Pink Eyelash Knit Scarf	Started	1
5	White Newborn Knit Hat and Booties	50% Complete	2
6	Car Roll		2
7	Numbers Bean Bags		1
8	Small Rice Therapy Hot/Cold Bags		3
9	Crayon Roll for Boys		2
10	Riley Blake Jelly Roll Quilt		1
11	Car Mat Quilt		1
12	Animal Cloth Blocks		2
13	T-shirt Yoga Pants		2
14	Floor Cushions		2
15	Hooty Hoot Owl Quilt		1
16	Medium Rice Therapy Hot/Cold Bags		3
17	Alphabet Bean Bags		1
18	Red Knit Prayer Shawl		1
19	Crayon Roll for Girls		2
20	Pink Knit Baby Blanket		1
21	Girl Animal Print Rag Quilt		1
22	Baseball Knit Hat and Booties		2
23	Football Knit Hat and Booties		2
24	Food Fabric Bin	COMPLETED	1
25	Cars Fabric Bin		1
26	Trains Fabric Bin		1
27	T-Shirt Bag		1
28	Kitchen Aid Cover		1
29	Sewing Machine Cover		1
30	Lovey Tag Blankets		2
31	Mini Apron and Oven Mitts Set		1
32	Off White Baby Booties	25% Complete	1
33	Music Fabric Bin		1

Booster Seat Cushion

We just returned from a short vacation at the beach and now it is time to finish unpacking and get back to reality which also means back to sewing!

Last week before we left for the coast I made B a booster seat cushion to help him eat at the table without his high chair and not have to go buy a separate, bulky booster seat.  It turns out that we didn't really need the cushion on vacation as the condo had a lower table and he could sit on their seats just fine.  The cushion is coming in handy at home though and we are rotating sitting on that and his hair chair.  He also loves to come sit on his cushion to read a book.  I have this floor cushion on my to-do list but I might move it up higher so B will have a cushion to read his books on and he reads all the time.



I came up with the idea to make a booster cushion myself but figured that someone else had figured out all the sizing and dimensions already so I googled and found a great tutorial on Prudent Baby, one of my favorite blogs.   The seat cushion size is perfect, the only thing I would change it to make the straps on the back about 2 inches longer so that it would be a little easier to tie.  The cushion whipped up fairly quickly and it was my first time using piping and I think pretty well with it.  I will probably make another cushion cover so if he gets this one dirty I can recover the cushion without having to wash the cover right away.  I was looking at Joanns at their PUL and oil cloth fabric to make one with but didn't like any of the prints available so will probably do cloth again.

 

 








The fabric, piping, and foam cushions are from Hobby Lobby.

Fourth of July Goodies

I was looking forward to this July 4th because we were planning on doing fireworks for the first time.  We live outside the city limits and are normally allowed to do fireworks in our neighborhood.  However, Texas is in an extreme drought so there was no buying or setting off fireworks at all and for good reason.  Almost all of the towns in the area cancelled their fireworks shows too because of the extreme wildfire conditions.  Instead we had a pool party with our neighborhoods with kiddie pools, water balloons, water guns and yummy goodies.

For our party I made some Red, White and Blue cupcakes and a delicious white wine sangria to help me cool down in this 100 degree heat.

For the Red, White and Blue cupcakes, I used the Rainbow Cupcakes method but instead of doing rainbow colors I dyed the cake batter red and blue (and left some white batter alone).  I layered the White Almond Sour Cream cake batter into cupcake wrappers, baked them and topped with buttercream and some patriotic sprinkles I found at the grocery store.  The result is super cute and yummy cupcakes.

They were a huge hit at the party and with my son who kept trying to pull them down from the counter.  I eventually threw a towel over the container so he wouldn't see them and keep asking to have cupcakes all day long.


The other item I made for our July 4th get together was a White Wine Sangria.  The weekend before July 4th I searched the internet for recipes but eventually came up with my own mixed based on what I had on hand.  I didn't measure anything and tasted as I went so if you try to make this you probably will need to taste test at least a few times to get the drink how you like it.

 
White Wine Sangria
1 large bottle white wine (I used Ste. Genevieve White)
1 bottle Club Soda
~1/4 cup Peach Schnapps
~1/2 cup sugar
~1 pint strawberries sliced in half
~1 cup frozen blueberries

Mix everything together in a pitcher and let set at least 4 fours or longer to allow the berries to penetrate the mix.  Taste and adjust ingredients as necessary.



This is great over ice and a perfect adult beverage for a hot day.  When you finish the pitcher of Sangria, throw the leftover blueberries and strawberries in the blender, add some ice and some more Peach Schnapps and have an adult smoothie.

Project List Update

It's time for another project list update.  I am not going to call it "weekly" or "wednesday" update because I can't seem to post it every Wednesday and even then I don't always really have updates for a weekly update.  However, my goal is to try and post it every Wednesday as posting it gives me motivation to try and finish projects or at least make progress on them so I have something to post.

A few things to note about the list...
I finished the custom curtains and will post about them once I get a picture of them hanging up.  I tried to take a picture myself but if you don't hang them (and I wasn't going to take down all of mine to try and hang) then it really doesn't show the curtains well.
I took off the Green Knit Prayer Shawl.  I was about 15% down with it but really didn't like the look of it.  I think the Lion Brand Homespun yarn I was using for it was too thick and heavy for it.  I have some Joann's Sensations Yarn that would be better for a prayer shawl and I will use the Homespun yarn for a small baby afghan.
I started on the food fabric bin and hope to finish today or tomorrow after I go buy some heavy interfacing.
Lastly, I made a booster seat cushion for my son (20 months) using a tutorial from Prudent Baby.  I will post about that as soon as I charge the batteries to turn my camera back on and I can get the pictures off.

Maybe next week I can add a few more things to the finish column without adding a ton more to my to-do list...or maybe just get a few things done.  I doubt the to-do list will ever get smaller.

Rank	Project	Status	How Many
1	Custom Order Curtains	COMPLETE	4
2	Green Knit Prayer Shawl	REMOVED	1
3	Swiffer Wet Jet Reusable Pads	3 Complete	6
4	Christmas Quilt	25% Complete	1
5	White Crochet Baby Blanket	10% Complete	1
6	Pink Eyelash Knit Scarf	Started	1
7	White Newborn Knit Hat and Booties	50% Complete	2
8	Car Roll		2
9	Numbers Bean Bags		1
10	Small Rice Therapy Hot/Cold Bags		3
11	Crayon Roll for Boys		2
12	Riley Blake Jelly Roll Quilt		1
13	Car Mat Quilt		1
14	Animal Cloth Blocks		2
15	T-shirt Yoga Pants		2
16	Floor Cushions		2
17	Hooty Hoot Owl Quilt		1
18	Medium Rice Therapy Hot/Cold Bags		3
19	Alphabet Bean Bags		1
20	Red Knit Prayer Shawl		1
21	Crayon Roll for Girls		2
22	Pink Knit Baby Blanket		1
23	Girl Animal Print Rag Quilt		1
24	Baseball Knit Hat and Booties		2
25	Football Knit Hat and Booties		2
26	Food Fabric Bin	25% Complete	1
27	Cars Fabric Bin		1
28	Trains Fabric Bin		1
29	T-Shirt Bag		1
30	Kitchen Aid Cover		1
31	Sewing Machine Cover		1
32	Lovey Tag Blankets		2
33	Booster Seat Cushion	COMPLETE	1