finger thumb

archer

Do you ever have that thing where your kid turns to you over breakfast and says "oh, you know I need a medieval archer costume for school tomorrow right?" 

sigh. 

I did NOT know that.

"It's a good thing I remembered today, hey Mom?"

Yes, yes its a very good thing that I have 24 hours notice on your need for a home-made costume. Whew. What a relief!

So with a quick bit of brainstorming before he got on the bus, he found the green sweatshirt lining from his spring coat and said "its easy mom, all you need to do is make an old fashioned-y looking hood and then snap it on to here or something. And Dad can make me a bow. You tell him before he goes to work, ok?"

So I made a quick stop at the fabric store between swimming lessons and a doctors appointment and then with the hour I had in the afternoon, I whipped up a hood and attached some snaps and voila, we have a costume!

Of course, what really sells the whole thing in the bow. Which Hubs did not make. He just happens to already have it. He's a bit of a bow and arrow enthusiast, so he had a couple lying around, and this is a little junior sized compound bow. His packrat ways certainly do come in handy sometimes. 

It should go without saying that we did not send any arrows along with him. Obviously. 

Here's a shot of his hood from the back. Its just made from good ole' cheap craft felt, and I tacked the point down so that it would not look too comically elf-y. I didn't use a pattern or anything. Just folded the felt in half and laid a hoodie on it and cut out a more exagerated shape with a bit of a point on it, and a longer, rounded collar. Since it was felt, I didn't really have to do any hemming, though I did fold it over and hem in along the face edge, just because it looked nice. And then I attached it with four snaps along the collar of the sweatshirt, so that we can take it on and off for playing. 

"See Mom, this way its a crossbow."

There is nothing more satisfying than making something for your kid that they really, really like. He was so happy with this costume. The camo pants were his idea, and of course, the bow really made it, but I'm glad he was happy with this little hood. When he came out of his bedroom this morning and saw it lying on his chair, he said "Yeah, that's perfect! That's just the way I wanted it!"Medieval Archers - now with new and improved camouflage and sunglasses! Not so historically accurate, but he sure is Mommy's Little Badass.

button sudoku game

I've been a little lax in posting the stuff I've been making lately, (which I think may have been the original intension of this blog. ahem.) so I wanted to take a moment to share some pictures of this cute quilted game I made. This is a little quilted, button sudoku game! There are nine sections, and each is divided into nine squares. It could not be easier to make. I got the pattern from the lovely book "A Month of Sundays" by Cheryl Arkinson. This is a great "new quilter" project. The hardest part is finding 9 buttons in 9 different colours in your button box! And I have to say, it has been very well received by my 4 and 6 year olds. The play value is pretty high, because when it is not being used as a sudoku game, it becomes a sleeping bag for their stuffies, an Island to stand on, a picnic blanket for pretend-food picnics, and the bag of buttons is very popular as "a bag of fake money".

Here's how you play it: You need to reach into the bag of buttons and pull one out. And preferably, you should close your eyes and make a squinchy, hopeful face while you do. 

When you pull out a button, you should be surprised and delighted by the colour. (Unless it is white or black. Apparently those are boring, disappointing non-colours).

You then place your button on one of the nine squares' little segments. But be careful, each different square can only have ONE button of EACH colour in it. Like real number sudoku, but with colours. 

If your kids are really little, just make it a matching game and designate one square for each colour (this is the "green square", this is the "red square") which makes it a little simpler.  

They are so fun and easy to make that I made three of them, to have on hand for gifts. The tops are mostly made from "new" fabrics, as I don't have very many neutrals in my stash, but the backs and bindings are all made from vintage sheet fabrics. So if you happen to be the parent of a small child who is related to me, try to act surprised when you open up the package that came in the mail….

In the meantime, I need to go and replenish my button collection. I've got a whole box full of the darn things and did not realize how few orange ones I have!

 

and the winner is...

So I've got a new set of charm packs in the shop. I'm super excited about this one. I think it really is my favourite.  I call this set Pottery Blues because the patterns and the colours remind me so much of the Delft Blauw (did I spell that right?) china and pottery that is so much a part of my Dutch heritage. I LOVE blue and white. There are so many different traditions of blue and white pottery.

From Ming Dynasty China to India to the Willoware of England. And of course, the Delft blue of my childhood. 

Aren't they gorgeous! I made four sets of these and I am totally stealing one of them for myself. I don't know what I'll make, but I know it will be pretty!

And now to the fun part. Wanna know which one of you won a set of these? Drum roll please:

The winner is: Rachel Hofing!

Congratulations Rachel. Leave a comment letting me know which of the colour sets you want and I will contact you regarding how to get it to you.

vintage sheet fabric charm packs, plus a giveaway!

Ok, I'm excited about this.  My etsy shop has been kiiiind of empty as of late. But you know, the holidays will be soon upon us, and this is the time of year that people start to get shopping, so I figured I should do something about that. I'm always trying to think of something new for the shop, and item that I myself would like to buy. Something this is not insanely expensive to ship. And then I though of the perfect thing. 

Charm packs of fabric lovingly assembled from my extensive collection of vintage sheet fabric! (Please note that I was tempted to use the verb "curated", but realise that it is a much overused term, which people tend to latch onto when they want a "value added" buzzword. I've been around both the art block and the marketing block, and so I will not use that word, lovely though it is. This is not art. It is fabric. You could use it to make art, and then maybe someday someone will curate it into a show. But that will not be me.)

Anyhow, I digress (are you surprised?). Let me just say that I had SO MUCH FUN choosing these fabrics. I really dug deep into my stash and finally cut into some of the more precious of my sheets and pillowcases. I've been hoarding these things forever, and am feeling the need to let some of my treasures go out into the world to be treasured by others. I put together a pink and green colourway, that has just the tiniest bit of orange in it to warm it up. I've called it "Under the Pink". I wanted to call it "Maybelline" for obvious reasons (like the pink and green mascara, in case that does not seem obvious to you) but I thought maybe there might be copyright issues? 

And I love this yellow pallette. Soooo 70's. I call it "Daisy, Daisy".

But my favourite is this one. I adore the olive-y greens with bits of turqoise and robin's egg blue. This one is called "Earth Girl".

So each package has 14 different fabrics in them. There are three 5" x 5" inch squares of each of those 14 fabrics for a grand total of 42 pieces of fabric. This all adds up to 3/4 of a yard of fabric. In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of Charm Packs, this is a way that fabric is sometimes sold in the quilting world. It allows you to get a little bit of a whole bunch of different fabrics from a complete fabric line, without having to buy it is awkward small amounts. You get an affordable little "taste" of everything that way. And since they are precut you can go right ahead and get to work with them. (for more information about pre-cuts and charm packs, here is an excellent little infographic) For example, if you put one of these packs together you'd make yourself a sweet little baby blanket. Or if you added 42 more 5" squares, in a solid colour for example, you could make yourself a very sweet little nine-patch crib quilt. If you bought four of these packs you could make a quilt big enough for a twin sized bed. Or you could make sew them into half-square triangels and make a lovley little pinwheel quilt or something like that. Really, the possibilites are endless. After all, that's why I (and so many other people) like buying fabric. You are not buying just a thing, you are buying potential. So, if you like the looks of these, pop on over to my etsy shop and check it out. Oh, and I almost forgot, I want to give away one of these pretty little packs to one of you to get the ball rolling. In order to be counted in the draw, just do me a favour and share a link to this post on your facebook or blog or whatever. Or share the link to my etsy shop. I'll enter you in the draw if you do either, and you can enter more than once. And if you win, you get to pick whatever colour you want. Good luck!

sew your own pillowcases

Or don't. I don't intend that title as an order. What I mean to say is that you CAN sew your own pillowcases. You know, if you want to. Its one of those things that you don't often think of. Pillowcases come from the store, right? But then, one day you find some really fabulous fabric and think "I wish I had pillowcases like this." And then because the internet exists, you find an awesome little tutorial and sew yourself up some pillowcases.  Here is a very, very bad picture of what I'm talking about. And no, I actually don't love this fabric. But I'm willing to bet that my soon-to-be four year old niece will love it. 

And this horse fabric will be right up my 7 year old niece's alley. Though for me, this fabric is walking the fine line between "yikes" and "awesome". I didn't love it at first, but it has really grown on my now.

I had the chance to hang out with my nieces during the summer. They live on the other side of the country so we don't see them as often as we'd like. But I came away from the visit knowing all four of my lovely little nieces better, and having a much better understanding of their interests. And these particular two sisters love kitties and horses. So, SO much. So when I saw this fabric I thought of them immediately (I'm still looking for unicorn fabric for niece number three. Anybody know where I can find Princess Celestia fabric?) Anyhow, bought a yard of each, not knowing what I'd be doing with it, until I came across this awesome pillowcase tutorial. When I first read it, it made NO SENSE whatsoever. I read it through a couple of times and just threw up my hands cognitively, but I know this about myself: written procedural instructions make almost no sense to me unless I'm actually doing the thing that is being described. So I got out the fabric, started cutting and sewing, and it totally worked. And was really, really easy, and turned out SO WELL! There are all these nice little tricks in it so that there are no exposed seams on the inside; they are all enclosed french seams. Its so neat and tidy and will stand up so well to laundering. I'm really happy about it. And it was also really, really fast. Like, 15 minutes to make one. You know, if you don't have a three year old walking around and asking you to get him a snack/take him to the bathroom/help him make a lego snowmobile every 5 minutes. It might take you a little longer then. 

Anyhow, here they are, all folded up and ready to be put into an envelope and sent off in the mail. 

Now I just have to find some fabric that I really love, and make a set of these for myself. Oh, and also, the Little Guy was very sad that the kitty one was not staying here for his use and enjoyment. Now I'm going to have to go out and find some MORE kitty cat fabric. Hmmm, I wonder if they make Unikitty fabric, because that would go over very well. 

alphabet blocks

Look what I'm working on:Aren't they pretty?

I got the embroidery pattern for this alphabet from Sublime Stitching. I love their patterns, and I could not resist this quirky little alphabet. 

This is the perfect "in front of the TV during the evenings" project. It lets me do all of my favourite parts of a project. I get to go through all of my lovely vintage fabrics, choose my favourite ones, and then do a teeny tiny little embroidery project on it. Its so quick, and I get this nice little feeling of accomplishment without having to put in too much time. 

And I just do one or two blocks every day. When the whole alphabet is done, I'll put them together with some white sashing and it'll be a little wall hanging or a baby quilt or something. And in the mean time, it keeps my hands busy, but not too busy. Perfect. 

 

birthday countdown

It is only a matter of some days until the arrival of the Little Dude's birthday. He often asks me when exactly it will be, as he has a five year old's hazy grasp of the passage of time, so I decided to make him something to help him keep it all straight. A birthday countdown calendar! (Sorry that this picture is so 'soft'. I didn't realize it was not very good until it was too late to take another, as now it is dark) 

Along the bottom are two rows of little pockets, numbered from highest to lowest.

And the top part has a cake and a birthday banner. 

So you take a little candle out of a pocket at the bottom...

...and then you stick it onto one of the little velcro dots along the edge of the cake.

And that way the number on the pockets tells you how many more days there are till your birthday. Easy peasy! And every morning we add another candle to the cake. Its all very exciting. 

This was a fun project to make. I got the pattern from the book Countdown Calendars. I don't often sew things from patterns in books, but it was pretty easy to do. I wished the instructions were a little more picture heavy and a little less wordy, but still. Choosing the fabrics was the best part, and I was very pleased with how the stamping onto fabric worked out. That's a technique I'll use again. My only criticisms of the pattern are that if I made it again I would make a hanging sleeve across the back, instead of that loop at the top. Or maybe two loops in the corners instead, as the central one does not work very well. It holds it up well enough, but the corners flop down. I had to put a couple of tape loops on the back to hold them up. Also, it tells you to use adhesive backed velcro dots on the little candles and along the edge of the cake, so I did. But I find that with repeated handling by eager little fingers (the Little Guy loves it too) they are prone to come off. I thought about reinforcing them a bit with the sewing machine, but after a quick google search about stitching through adhesive, I decided against it. I did one small test and it gummed the crap out of my needle, and didn't even work. So if I were to make this again, I would use velcro dots with no adhesive and just sew them on there. 

Anyhow, I would recommend the book to anyone. It has lot of patterns for advent calendars, which I love so much. I surprises me that I have not made one yet. Perhaps this will finally be the year. 

making the cut

I have this problem. You know how I love vintage fabric. Especially vintage bedsheets. I'm always on the lookout for a good, bright, graphic-impact vintage bedsheet. I love high contrast, I love clean geometrics. And I have just a bit of a stash. Just a usual quilter I-have-a-fabric-problem stash. 

Anyhow, I have some favourites. And this is one of them.  Isn't that lovely? And its a nice big piece too, like a queen sized top sheet. No annoying elastic edges like on a fitted, and no holes or wear patches. Just a gorgeous huge expanse of fabric. 

So let me tell you what my problem is. I just can't cut into it! I've had this sheet for at least a year I'm sure. And its one of my favourites. So I've officially been hoarding it. And I've finally got a project that I want to use it for and I still am having such a hard time cutting it. Its been sitting waiting to be used for over a month. I've done all the other cutting and sewing that I can do before I have to cut into this. And now I've got everything else done and It's been two days and I can't do anything until I CUT. THIS. FABRIC. Hubs has been teasing me about it and told me that if I didn't cut it today he'd cut it right down the middle himself and then take it out to the garage and use it for a rag. Which is a total lie of course, but still, he makes a good point. I'm not sure why I get stuck like this either. Its not like I'm ever going to use it as a bedsheet. Maybe that's what's in the back of my head, like this is an awesome bedsheet and, you know, if the zombie apocalypse ever hits I might need some extra sheets. And once I cut it it will stop being a bedsheet. Though on the bright side it can start being a lot of other things. 

It took me all day, right until fifteen minutes before the Little Dude was going to get off the bus (and then my quilting time is over) to finally slice into it.  Whew. And now its been started. 

And here it is in use. This is just one component of a bigger item, but it gives you an idea of what I'm doing. These letters have been paper pieced, from patterns that I drafted myself, and that "Q" was a real pain in the butt. But now it is done and I can move on with the project. Which is a good thing too, because I have a deadline and so many other things I'd like to get to! 

So it is just me or do any of you other quilters/sewists have this "I can't cut my precious fabric" problem too? 

A purse for L.D.

So as I said yesterday, the Little Dude was disappointed that all the purses I'd made were going to his cousins, and none to stay here at our house for him. So today, with his assistance, I made him a purse. A satchel. A man-bag. Call it what you will, we just call it handy. Oh, and by assistance, I mean he picked out the fabrics and motifs. So basically he was the designer this and I was just his humble crafts-person. I worked on it all morning, by telling him that if he wanted me to make this, he'd have to play nicely with his brother with no fighting and no crying, because if he wanted me to finish it today I could not be getting up every five minutes to  mediate a toy dispute. And I'm happy to say L.D. saw the reason of this and had a very pleasant morning with his brother with almost no fights (or at least none started by him) and I was able to finish his bag.

And here is the happy recipient now: He's not usually keen to stand and smile for a picture, but he was very co-operative in this instance. 

For behold the glory of his fabric choices. On this side, a Teeneage Mutant Ninja Turtle. (from 1980's bed sheets of course)

And on the other side, Skeletor! Again from 1980's bedsheets, this time staring He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He's quite taken with Skeletor. And funnily enough has no interest in He-Man at all. In fact, he even helped me frame the way I would cut the fabric, saying "From here to here Mom, with JUST Skeletor in it, and his sword. But not He-Man. I don't want any part of He-Man to show at all."

He even chose the lining, (he loves these rainbow stripes, as do I) and the strap colour. He wanted orange, so I had him choose between three different shades of orange, and he declared this one the best, as he felt it looked good with the green that he'd chosen for the TMNT background. Also, he requested a very loooong strap like this, though we have since knotted it a little higher, for practical reasons. 

And the final touch, and possibly his favourite part, the mushroom applique. We spent some time this afternoon drawning and colouring and cutting out paper mushrooms to decorate the Christmas tree with. Because you know, they are so festive. 

It is such fun to sew something for my little boy. And so sweet to be hugged and thanked for it repeatedly today. We even crammed in a quick trip to the library to use his new "book bag" and also so he could show it off to the librarians. Ach, it fills a crafty mother's heart with joy to hear him tell people "I picked out all the fabrics and my mom made this for me herself!". A good parenting moment to sock away and remember for when the bad parenting moments threaten to overwhelm me.

Christmas sewing

Whew. Aaaaand we're back. Its still the Christmas vacation, but its nice to have all the official holiday celebrations done. Don't get me wrong, it was great. We had a really lovely Christmas. And the boys are at such a good age for it. It felt sort of, I don't know, formative for them. You know how you remember how great Christmases were when you were little? And how you remember specific Christmases, and even the toys you received some years? I think this was one of those Christmases for the Little Dude. He skated on the pond for the first time. We had some really good tobogganing. His cousin got a new dog, and he got to spend two days playing with a puppy. He ate more good food than he could imagine (and I did not have to cook ANY of it, thank you Mom for hosting Christmas yet again!) I think its going to be a year that he remembers. Our Little Guy had a great time too, though its hard to say how much he'll really remember, only being a little more than two-and-a-half. But despite the fact that it was awesome, I'm kind of happy for it to go back to our regular day-to-day life. It'll be nice to get up tomorrow and not have to pack everyone into the car and drive somewhere. We can just stay home and play with our new toys and read our new books. Also, boy do I need to do laundry. 

Anyhow, I just wanted to show you a few little things I made to give as gifts. I did not do much gift making this year, just a little bit here and there. Most notably I made these adorable little bags for my neices.  aren't they fun? 

I got the pattern from We Love to Sew, by Annabel Wrigley. They were ridiculously fun to make, and very easy, as well they should be since, We Love to Sew is, after all, a sewing book aimed at little girls. So really, my biggest challenge was choosing the fabrics, which took me foreeeeever.

There were three fabrics to choose for each bag (outside, lining and handles) and I have roughly a kajillion fabrics in my stash to choose from, so you know, it took a bit of time. But I went mostly with vintage sheet fabric, as is my style. 

The little appliques were really fun to do too. I used my good felt, which I buy from the Child's Dream Come True site, which is a lovely dense, real wool felt, and is so nice to work with. I got the pattern for the apple and the mushroom from the book, but just used a cookie cutter to make the star one.

It was funny, the Little Dude had not seen these at all, since I was working on them mostly in the evenings, so when I showed them to him this morning he said "Which one is for me?" I told him they were all for his cousins, and we'd be giving one of them away today, and sending two of them on the airplane to BC. Crestfallen he said, "but I really want that one with the mushroom!" So I took a picture and promised to duplicate it for him when we got home from our visiting today. (He has since amended his request with some different material choices, come back tomorrow to see his version. Spoiler: it will involve both Ninjas and mushrooms) 

I regret now that I did not have the presence of mind to take a picture today of the lovely recipient of one of the bags, modeling it, so you'll just have to make do with this: We had such a fun visit, so full of talking and laughing and chasing and playing and tobogganing that I barely had time to take pictures. But here's the Little Dude and his from-far-away cousin, sharing a laugh today. One of many. Oh, and she chose the pink bag with the magenta stars. Because magenta is he favourite colour. Naturally. I feel honoured to have something I made become a part of her amazing wardrobe.