Creature Report, Creature Report

Okay, I admit it, the title of this post comes from the cartoon Octonauts and as I typed it I heard the tune in my head. Sorry....what can I say - I have kiddos.

But I thought it was appropriate since I am posting about some creatures I made for Christmas gifts. The snake and slug are from my patterns my friend Shelley designed and the elephant is from a Valori Wells sewing card design called Elsa the Elephant.

Kind of funny to make a slug, right? Except that I grew up in the PNW where slugs are a daily occurance. And I just happen to have a sister who, in fact, ate one when she was 2. Yeah, really. Gross! I'm not sure if I actually remember that or just the story of it. Anyway, Em has been gone a few years, but my brother named his daughter after her, so I when I first saw this pattern I thought how appropriate for Emily's namesake - Emilee Pearl - to have a slug to remember her by. This way the story of Emily eating the slug will never be forgotten. And the slug is awfully cute, for a slug. I really like how the flower with the bling in the center dresses her up a bit.

What new baby doesn't need a snuggly snake? My brand new nephew Baby Colby definitely needed a snake. It turned out a lot longer than I anticipated, but I think it turned out cute. The photo isn't great and I wish I'd gotten a better shot.

My niece Dorothy loves elephants. She has since she was little. So when I was in WA last summer and I saw this pattern and fabric, I knew just I had to make one for her. I think she's a sweet little elephant. And Dorothy seemed to love her, too.

In the bag....

Trying to get caught up on some projects I've finished the last few months. Here are three bags I made for gifts. The pattern is my friend Shelley's Infinity Tote design and I love how they all turned out.
This is the largest one I made. I made it as a diaper bag for my sister Maggie. It is huge, but she says it is perfect for all the stuff she needs for her little guy. I added a bunch of additional pockets inside for bottles and sippys and stuff like that. Maggie recently visited and brought her bag along with her. I love seeing things I make being used. It makes the time and effort worth it.

This one was made for my dear cousin Jenny for Christmas. every year we draw names for a gift exchange with the cousins on my dad's side. This year I got Jenny. I gave her some options and she chose a bag. All she asked was that it be bright and happy. Pretty sure I accomplished that. This is a medium sized tote, but still has plenty of room inside.

This beauty was made for my dear friend Erin back in Hawaii. She loves blues and oranges together and when I saw this bird fabric I knew exactly who it was made for. The photo doesn't do the fabric justice. It is really beautiful. I have enough to make one for myself, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a.....

Caped Super Hero!

I recently completed 4 capes for Leif's best buddies - two for superheros and two for princesses.

My original attempt looked an awful lot like a Dracula cape so, the night before the party, I scrapped it and started over using a combination of these two tutorials. I was so pleased with the results that I made the two princess ones a week later. And shhh....Leif will be getting one (superhero, not princess) for Christmas this year. Let's just hope it goes over better than the Kermit costume!

One for Ray.

And one for Ronan. Both were lined with blue.

Super Ray! Ro wasn't interested in wearing his at the party, but that's ok - there was a lot going on!

And for the two Princesses, I did flower wands with sparkly button centers and ribbons hanging down. Azure had to have purple, of course, with butterflies inside and I did a pretty pink with sweet peas inside for Julia.

For Princess Azure.

For Princess Julia.

Two pretty, pretty princesses.

Ahhhh, the Craft Fair!

Let it be known to one and all that I will never be a professional crafter! I recently participated in a Honolulu Mommies Craft Fair (in conjunction with our annual Halloween Party.) It was a lot of work and I learned that once you take something that you enjoy and do it for work, that's what it becomes: work. I learned a lot and am happy with what I was able to sell (I made enough money to be able to make Baby Boo a few quilts), but it is not something I will repeat. It was fun to work with my friends when we would get together to work on our goods and it was so fun to see what everyone created, but the fair itself was a bit of a let down. I won't go into details of why, but in the end it wasn't what any of us wanted it to be. That's ok.

I made I Spy Bags, Trick or Treat Bags and Crayon Pouches. Here are a few photos of my table.

I Spy Bags (and no, I won't make one for you!
They were a pain in the booty to make.
If you really want one, Etsy has lots to choose from, lol!)

Trick or Treat Bags

Crayon Pouches - some with elastic and some with ribbon.

A Gift for Erin

In keeping with my plan to make all gifts, I decided to make my dear friend Erin something for her birthday. The only problem was I had no idea what to make that she would use or appreciate. She recently started a Stroller Strides program and our friend Bethany suggested I make a water bottle holder. I found a great little tutorial and whipped one up for her. The bottle and caribiner were supplied by our other friend Lauren, and wallah!: a perfect gift.

The inside is green felt and it has a thin layer of batting in between
the outside fabric and the lining. Per the tutorial, I quickly quilted some
lines in a variety of thread colors to spruce it up a bit.

It is a snug fit, but I think it turned out really good.
The tutorial was very simple and easy to follow.

Let's Go Racin', Boys!

Several months ago my friend Sharon shared a link to a tutorial for a lap-sized race track. I knew I wanted to make at least one. It took me a while to get around to it, but thanks to some super cute race car fabric that was part of an amazing stash of fabric I inherited, I finally made not one, not two, but three race tracks recently. One was for Leif's buddy Max's birthday, another was for his friend Rayan's birthday and the third one was for Leif -finally. Sharon had given me a head's up that the tutorial was junk, so I didn't follow it at all and just went for it on my own after looking at the photos. I was very pleased with the results. Not sure if Max and Rayan love theirs, but Leif plays with his at home, on his lap in the car, at the doctor's office....

Here are a few shots:With the cars in the pockets. Leif's has 4 pockets large enough for 2 cars each.
The other 2 I did, had 5 pockets, but only room for 1 car each.

Here's a shot of the big race!

Close-up of the track and the handles.

A Kermit that Never was....

Leif was supposed to be a super hero for Halloween. Or a pirate. But 2 weeks ago he announced that he would be Kermit the Frog. No idea where that idea came from, but it stuck. For days he would ask me where his green frog suit was. He was so excited about it. He and daddy would look at pictures and videos of Kermit and the Muppets on the computer. We taught him to say, "It's not easy being green." And then I finally came up with a plan and a vision of how to create a homemade toddler Kermit costume. It took me a couple of days to finish, but it turned out great. I was so proud of myself.

And he wouldn't wear it. It was "too scary" he said. The closest we got was the hat for a little while on a couple of occasions.

So, here is the Kermit suit that wasn't meant to be. Oh and what did he end up wearing to the big party and Trick or Treating? His ghost suit from last year!

One of very few shots of him actually wearing the hat.

At our neighbor's costume party.
Mom was Miss Piggy, Dad was Animal and Leif was Kermit - sort of.

Bag of Jelly Beans

Our little friend Lilea just had her first birthday and since I am attempting to make all gifts right now, I decided to make her a bag of Jelly Beans. I got the idea from the Purl Bee and used their tutorial for the beans and the super cute, gussetted drawstring bag.

I thought they turned out great. I also made a second set and instead of a drawstring bag made a little backpack. This set is for our other friend Makaela who is having her 2nd birthday in a few weeks. I have a set to make for Leif as well.

So, I am doing pretty good with all the gift making, for now at least. We have about a million birthdays the next several months, so I am up to my ears in crayon pouches and I Spy Bags. Not to mention the fact that I am preparing a modest inventory for a holiday craft fair next month. Quilting, is that what I do? Oh I forgot. I've been so sidetracked by all the other projects...

Birthday Gifts

With the state of things at the moment, I have decided to make gifts as much as possible. We had three birthdays this weekend, so I had a lot of work to do. I made a monster and these cute little gifts for two of our neighborhood friends.

An I Spy Bag for Cailynn's first birthday:
My mom made one for Leif's first Christmas and although he wasn't really into it at the time, he really enjoys playing with it now and it makes it into the chruch bag of quiet toys every week. So, using the one we had as a guide, I made this one for Cailynn. I was able to find enough little things just around the house and had some leftover ladybug flannel and red felt for the front and back. For the plastic windows, I cut the back off a view binder and used that.


A Colored Pencil Pouch for Carissa:
I was able to use fabric and ribbon from my stash and just had to get a pack of pencils. I was going to include a coloring book, but wasn't happy with the selection at the store, so I skipped that. The pockets for the pencils are large enough to accommodate one or two pencils. I also embroidered her name on a piece of yellow felt and attached that to the ribbon, but forgot to take a picture of that before we gave her the gift last night. Oops. But trust me, it looked really cute.

Might Be A Monster....

"Might be a monster..." This is what Leif says whenever I ask if he knows who did something. For example:
Mom: "Leif, do you know who dumped out all these blocks and didn't pick them up?"
Leif: "Might be a monster, mama."

So anyway, this little creature I just made for our friend Belle's first birthday might be a monster. I used a pattern from Revoluzza, which a fellow Honolulu Mommy, Sharon, had shared with me several months ago. I think she turned out pretty cute, but the next ones I make will be a bit bigger I think. And I think she looks a little owl-ish. But that has inspired me to try to make one that is, in fact, an owl.

A little monster tooth.

Brown satin bow and polka dot pants.

And a little heart heart on her bum.

For big sister Sofia

Since baby Charlie was getting all kinds of fun stuff in the mail (see previous post) I couldn't forget about his big sister Sofia. So I made her a little ladybug crayon pouch.

For Charlie

My friend Tish is about to have her second baby - like next Monday I believe. His name is Charlie and I'm sure he is going to be just the cutest, sweetest little thing in the world (taking after his sister Sofia, of course.) Anyway, Tish lives in San Diego and she is decorating Chrlie's room in retro cowboy style. I, of course, wanted to contribute to the decor, so she sent me some fabric and I whipped up a couple of things for him. They are in the mail and hopefully will arrive before Charlie does.

I made a "bunting." So I had no idea that is what these pennant banner things were called. But after much perusing of the world wide web, I found myself very well educated on the various types and construction methods of buntings. Who knew there were so many possibilities or that they were so popular these days? I had seen them in a few magazines and blogs, but it wasn't until my friend Shelley blogged about the one she made for her niece's wedding that I felt truly inspired. Then, my friend Lauren sent me a link for one she found and thought it was a project I might like to try. She was right! When I found out Tish was doing the cowboy theme, I thought this would be perfect. And now that I have a machine does does applique - bingo!

This was a super fun project to put together and I now have mounds of ideas floating in my head for more to do in the future. For this one I used red, denim and cow print for the background and yellow felt letters (which I printed from my computer and cut out and traced on the felt) which I appliqued with yellow thread and finished it with yellow double fold bias tape. I didn't use any interfacing or batting and they seemed to be heavy enough without it. There are definitley a few things I will do different the next time - like appliqueing the letters before sewing the front and backs of the trianlges together. Here are a couple of close-ups:

Since I had some leftover fabric I couldn't resist making one more thing. I asked Tish if she wanted a wall hanging or a decorative pillow. She chose a pillow, so I did this one with denim and red on the front and cow print on the back. It was supposed to be a bit larger, but I had a hard time with my measurements for some reason and kept screwing up until this was the size I was left with. Oh well, still cute. My favorite part is the sheriff's badge with "Deputy Charlie" on it

Now every baby needs a special sofite, right? Leif loved the ones I made for him when he was a baby, so I couldn't resist making one for Charlie. While not in his cowboy theme, I still had a bunch of this cute zoo animal fabric. I put buttery yellow satin on the back and loops of colorful ribbons around the perimeter for him to play with.

A Koi Little Bag

This is a Monk's Bag I finished last night as a sample for the next mommies sewing project at the end of May. I have posted before about these "classes." They are free and at my house - which gives me an excuse to mop the entire house once a month! It's just a few (6-8) of my mommy friends from Honolulu Mommies who want to learn to sew. We pick a simple project and spend about 4 hours working on it. This will be the most ambitious project our group has tackled and may take two gatherings to complete.
I found this project at The Purl Bee. They have a great tutorial and it was pretty simple to put together. The fabric came from my stash - the Koi is leftover from a table runner I made a few years ago and the blue is leftover from Leif's baby quilt. I did make the straps a bit narrower than the pattern indicated to accomodate my smaller size and used just two fabrics instead of three. I am very pleased with how it turned out and have already started a second one.


A close-up of the blue Koi.

Here you can see the inside lining of the handles.

Here is the interior pocket.