Jelly Roll Race Quilt!

I broke in my sewing machine!

I've been obsessed with this pin for a few weeks. It seemed easy enough- buy a Jelly Roll (precut quilting pieces measuring 2.5" by 44"), sew ends together to make a long strip, fold strip in half & sew down the long edge, repeat fold/sew a few times & voila! Quilt top!

I headed to Fabric.com in search of a Jelly Roll that would make a good quilt for the soldier. I'm headed up north to visit him in a couple weeks and needed a housewarming present. He's very encouraging of me & my crafty ways. Plus, his mom is a seamstress, so a quick quilt seems like a great idea. I searched and fell in love with Bali Pops Blueberry.

I got it a couple days ago and in the few hours I wasn't at the hospital visiting my aunt, I made this:

Not too shabby! Now I just need to get some batting & backing fabric from Joann's tomorrow. I thought about doing a "frame" kinda thing around it to make it bigger, but it's a pretty decent size so I think it's fine. Not like Queen size, but a good wrap-around-yourself-on-the-couch size. 

Yay! What have you been making lately? Any quilt finishing tips for me?

Matryoshka Baby Shower Details

So now that I've had a few days to recover, I thought I'd share a little about the big baby shower!

Choosing a non-traditional theme was a challenge. While matryoshkas are popping up all over in jewelry, stationary and such it still wasn't like I could pop into a party supply store and pick up lots of matryoshka paper goods. We also wanted to keep things classy with a simple blue & white pallet. We used several shades of blue, which made things look less matchy-match.

The tables:

The flowers were simple tissue paper with pipe cleaner stems. Jen wrapped the inside of the vases with light blue tissue to conceal the pipe cleaner. We picked up some rubbery doilies at the 99 Cent Store. I have to admit, I was leery of them when we made the purchase, but Jen has a much better eye for those sorts of things. I think having them made a big difference in the look of the table. The confetti is also paper. We got a couple bags at $4 a pop from Party City- a big party supply store in town.

The favor boxes were these printables I purchased from Fantastic Toys on etsy. The pdf came quickly and was beautiful. They were kind of a pain to make, but that's not a design problem... I just don't think they're meant to make 30+ at a time. If I never see these things again it might be too soon. They were a hit though. We used the 3 biggest sizes (the pdf comes with 5 sizes) and filled them with butter mints bought at WinCo in the bulk section.


Other decor:

Jen bought these cardboard 3D letters (and exclamation point!) from Paper Source and covered them in tissue paper. I loved this little addition to to food table. People also grabbed these to use in the photo booth.

We had only a few traditional matryoshkas to scatter about, but they were nice little accents. We had planned to hang blue, aqua, white & a few green paper lanterns from the ceiling but it didn't work out. The white ones looked cute on the food table though.

I used the images from the invitations to spruce up some basic Avery name tags. We asked people to write their name & how they were related to one or both mommies. I chose the classic "friend of mommies". My sister decided to go with a more obscure reference coupled with a really old nickname. :)

Those same invitation dolls came up again as cupcake toppers. (Look, if you pretty much completely redesigned & totally recolored images using just MS Paint, you would reuse the heck out of them too!) The cupcakes were ordered sight-unseen from Bakalicious. I had NO time to make 3 dozen carrot cake cupcakes and no desire to try to figure out how to transport them anyway. I jumped on yelp, saw that this lady had fabulous reviews & that she delivered and just decided to try it. She was a joy! The cupcakes were light and moist, the frosting was just sweet enough but still fluffy and they looked beautiful. At $2 a cupcake she was by far the best buy in the North LA area. I highly, HIGHLY recommend ordering from her if you're in the area. I plan to use her again for an upcoming party.

The activities:
Along with two classic games (Baby Tray Memory- try to remember all the baby items shown to you- and Pregnancy Trivia- answer questions about the mommy-to-be's pregnancy) we tried two newer ideas.

Ice Ice Baby: This was, honestly, a little creepy looking... but everyone had fun. I purchased a matryoshka shaped ice cube tray and froze tiny plastic babies inside. We handed these ice babies out along with plastic bowls to catch the water. Without breaking the ice (it must be melted) and without leaving the room, the first person to get the baby out of the ice wins. My sister & Dr. Steven (an Ob/Gyn) ran to the sink and fought over the hot water while a coworker ran to the iron! Dr. Steven got the baby out first, which made everyone laugh. The whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds. I would suggest not letting people use anything but natural heat.

Onesie Decorating: This is an increasingly popular activity that takes a lot of prep work & a lot of time at the party, but I think it's worth it. We purchased a bunch of onesies in different sizes on sale. Then we collected fabric paint (flat, not puffy paint), some stencils, fabric markers, iron on letters & some decals. We brought a small table-top ironing board & iron and set up a little table. Throughout the shower people went up and made their onesies. I was really afraid the mommies would end up with 30 hideous things no one would want their baby to wear, but there were actually some cute products! The less-adventurous people used the iron-on decals while the more artistically inclined used the other supplies. We strung up some jute and let people hang their creations up with clothespins to dry/show off.

Handmade Gifts:
I am a firm believer that children need handmade presents. I can't tell you how disappointed I am that I'm almost always the only one bringing something made especially for the baby to most showers now. Come on grandmas! If you can't pull out your needles, hooks & sewing machines for your grandbaby, when will you?

Ok... end rant... here are the special handmade items made or purchased for Jack

I bought this adorable personalized hanger from Floating Owl Designs on etsy. It was really well made, came on time & she was a pleasure to work with. I can totally see buying the grown up versions for future brides. (The little suitcases were purchased from Land of Nod. They were packed with clothes, books, shoes and....)

"Ella Funt" made with KnitPicks Comfy Sport in Planetarium. Colorwork done in Comfy & Shine scraps from a blanket I'll be gifting at the family shower. (Details on Ravelry.) This was a really fun, remarkably fast knit- especially considering I'm a new knitter & this was my first fair isle project.

"Owlet" made with KnitPicks Comfy Bulky in Arbor (now discontinued). As I've said before- I LOVE this pattern. I plan to make a bunch of them for the babies in my family this Christmas. (details on Ravelry)

I totally missed getting a picture of the "car snuggy" that a friend I don't know made. It was a crochet square- maybe 24x24 inches. So a small blanket- meant for the baby to snuggle with in the car. Totally cute, quick present idea.

And finally.... I saved the pregnant mommy's brother's girlfriend's gift for last because it is INCREDIBLE:

This was a needle felted elephant, done entirely free hand. It was just over 12 inches tall! If you've never needled felted you might not understand the incredibleness of this. It's HUGE for this type of project and she didn't use any sort of form underneath. It's just polyfil covered in wool fiber & felted by hand with a needle tool. The girl who made this is an incredible artist. She's made beautiful sculptures for each of the family members but even knowing that, this still blew me away. I think she was glad someone knew what kind of work had to be put into it. :)

Overall, I think the baby shower was a huge success and totally worth all the work & stress that went into pulling it off. Of course, when my other best friend said it looks like he & his partner will be adopting before the end of the year & was I ready for another baby shower I almost socked him. :) But I am... or I will be... just let me take a nap for like a week.


What is YOUR favorite baby shower game/theme. Any suggestions that will make the next party totally awesome?

Gettin Cozy

Since I've taken up crocheting again with a vengeance, my friends have taken up joking about it with equal vigor. My best friend and I will be moving in together in a couple months and she has repeatedly expressed a fear that everything in our house will be covered in a cozy. I have thus offered her boyfriend a handmade gun cozy because my best friend hates that he owns a gun. So there! Revenge crocheting for the win!

In other cozy-news, my sister came home from her job at Starbucks the other day and said a customer had a crocheted cup sleeve and I should make them. I realize these are all the rage right now, but I kind of have to ask why? I mean, sure, I could save the earth by not using the throw away sleeves... but how many people are going to carry a cozy around with them??

But then, of course, it was on my mind. And, much like fingerless mittens, the more I thought about them the more I had to make them. I busted out my huge-ass cone o' cotton (which has become my go-to yarn for things I'm trying to figure out) and got to work.

Chain 31 & join in a ring. Single crochet around in a spiral for a few rows. Add an extra stitch every 6 stitches for a couple rows. Few more even rows. A row with a few decreases to make sure it stays tight at the top. Done.

The basic sleeve took maybe 10 distracted minutes. (Hello? Did you SEE Glee last night? Amazeballs!) But, you know, a plain white cotton ring of crochet is pretty dull. I made a couple tiny little flat circles and an oval-shaped mini-cup, sewed 'em on, did a little quick embroidery and tah dah!!!



That's a polar bear coffee cup cozy right there, boi.

It's shown on a venti iced cup, which has quite a bit more girth than a hot cup (counter intuitive, though it may be). This should fit nicely about the middle of a hot cup.

I'm totally making more of these. I only have this white and some pink cotton at the moment, but eventually I'd like to make some other animals and maybe some random designs. These are so quick & easy I may have finally found the project I can sell!

iPod Cozy

Last year I spent more than my fair share of days sitting next to hospital beds. One day I decided I needed to use this time more wisely, so I grabbed some felt, my sewing box and some left over material and made my little sister an iPod cozy.

I saw a coin purse on etsy with a cassette tape design and thought it would make an awesome little case of an iPod. There are a LOT of things wrong with this design, but it was pretty decent for a first try.





It closes with a little velcro. I think if I added another layer of felt to the piece that goes over the iPod face it would hold it's shape better. I dunno... I may play with this again.

LIES!

Right after yesterday's cowl post I realized I HAVE made H something! Granted, it was only a couple little washclothes I crocheted when I woke up early for our spa appointment & couldn't go back to sleep... but I DID make them and give them to her! I even took a picture of them!



Right. So there.

These are really easy and fun and I love them. Use a 100% cotton yarn, chain a washcloth-width bit, half-double crochet (or, you know, whatever) until it's washcloth-lengthed and you done, homie. Love it. These are fantastic for your face and body, giving some gentle exfoliation action. They are also pretty good dish-washing clothes. I think they'd be an awesome way to add a personal touch to a little bath & body gift. Right? Of course right.

Cowl

So my bestfriend, H, has been complaining lately that I've never made her anything. This doesn't seem like it could possibly be true, but then I think about it and I can't remember anything I may have made for her after all. We met in 1994 or 5... so 15 years of friendship seems like it deserves a scarf or something.

I'd been eyeing this very simple pattern on Hooks and Needles since I discovered the blog a week ago. After showing H the soldier scarf & hearing, once again, how I've failed her as a crafty friend- I decided to head straight over to Joann's and find some yarn to make her the cowl. She'll be interviewing for interships in several cold places starting next week, so I needed something quick and fun to send her on her way.



I used a "G" needle (since I'm totally disorganised I couldn't find anything smaller), so my pattern is a good deal larger than the example. This isn't great for the very cold Chicago & Denver interviews. Oh well. It's lovely for California weather and that's where I'm hoping she'll stay anyway! Can't have her too warm and cozy far away. She needs to long for home.



It's been a nice little break from the soldier scarf. Crochet and I go back over 20 years... so zipping through this baby has been very relaxing and satisfying after the tedious struggle of knitting. I started it about 9pm last night, worked on it between calls at work and I'm about halfway through. The problem? I thought "oh... a short little scarf with a really open weave CAN'T POSSIBLY take more than a skine". Yeah, I'm a little over halfway done with the cowl, but WAY over halfway through the skine.



Bigger problem: I bought this skine at the Joann's near where we ate dinner-- about 25 minutes away. I'm going to TRY to find it at my local store... but I'm not too optimistic about it. I may have to take a drive. *sigh*

Knitting 101

I first decided to learn to knit about a year ago after seeing a review on Lunch.com that linked to a pretty good instructional video. Later, my cousin happened to pick up some needles for me at a sale and it seemed like it was really time to learn. After a few practice runs and some spying on experienced knitters from afar, I figured out a kind of corduroy, knit two purl two, super easy pattern.

In my mini-research for Soldier's future care packages I realized Afghanistan is mountainous and pretty darn cold in the winter. This is probably very naive of me, but I thought it was a hot desert- like Palm Springs, not an all seasons desert- like our "high desert" area. Doh. Anyway, I picked up a couple balls of manly looking yarn and started knitting right around Christmas. Here's the progress so far:


a little less than a third of the finished length I think


not the best picture, but it shows the pattern a bit better



I really love the yarn. It's primarily black but naturally strips; alternating between a little silver/grey and a little purple. Manly but not drab. The Soldier is, well, a soldier... so he's pretty darn manly, but he's not adverse to wearing a pastel tie when the occassion calls for it- so I think the little bit of color is good.

It's slow-going since I'm still a newbie. Good thing he won't need it until next winter... that should be about when it's done!

Two-Oh-One-Oh

I like to say I don't believe in resolutions.

"If you want to change- change. You don't have to wait until January first."

Well, in truth I only say that because I don't like the pressure of everyone picking new goals all at once and waiting for each other to fail.

Still, I do have goals for the new year. I generally feel good when I'm doing happy things for others and being creative. Thus, I have made three goals for the year:

1) Organize my craft supplies. This includes getting rid of stuff I'm not using as I tend to be kind of a packrat.

2) Do something creative/crafty every. single. day. This doesn't mean I have to finish something every day.. I just have to work on something. Considering my love for very long scarves and my desire to crochet myself a blanket, this shouldn't be too hard.

3) Send one care package a month during Soldier's deployment. I have a friend being deployed to Afghanistan in the summer. During his tour in Iraq I basically only sent letters because I didn't know what he would need or want. I've decided to just do a little research on "general" things soldiers need, couple it with what I know about him already and go for it. I figure after a couple packages he might start making requests.

So, relatively simply goals. As the year goes on I always add more, but that's the beauty of "not believing in resolutions". The plan is to blog about these things- primarily as a way to get a "portfolio" of my creations, since it'd be nice to know remember what I've made.

Happy 2010 all. I look forward to spending it with you.