Omaha Quilt finished

Last weekend while we were in Nebraska I gave my nephew Josh his Omaha inspired quilt.

His 25th birthday is this week.  And unfortunately for him he graduated from high school a little before the time that we were into quilts.  So this'll make up for that.



At his parents' house for the big reveal.
"This feels soft and squishy."



Big smiles are always a good sign.



Lynn's quilting handiwork.






I'm now on somewhat of the lookout for another inspirational site to copy and make a quilt representation.  I actually saw a cool paved brick design at one of the local libraries. I might have to go take pics and see what I can come up with.

Details:

• Mix of Kona and thrifted solids.
• Previous post on this quilt.
• Quilted by Lynn Peterson.

Weekend Mini Quilt

Sometimes, not often, knowing how to sew can be a pain.  When your children figure out, or imagine, that you can do anything with a machine, fabric, and thread it can get tricky.  There's always the dilemma of time vs. money.  Which do you have more of?  In this case, I figured I'd have more time--not really, but I'm game to get rid of more scraps in my sewing room.

B. has a birthday party tomorrow and after receiving this little quilt for Christmas made for her stuffed animals to use,

she requested that I make another one for her little friend's animals.  Along with a pillow to match.  And they needed to be blue.  No surprise there--I don't know if the friend's favorite color is blue, but it is currently B's.

I'm always kind of amazed how good scrap quilts come out when it doesn't seem like anything you have actually matches.  I'm pleased with this little quilt.  A's stuffed animals should stay nice and warm.

Back View

Satin stitch used for finishing the binding

Details:

Cut 3" x 6" rectangles

Assembled 9 rows across, 4 down

Shift 1 block to the right each row to get stairstep effect

Finished dimensions:
Quilt 23" x 22" 
Pillowcase 9" x 5 1/2"
____________________
Orange and Purple quilt finished dimensions: 21" square. 

Used 16 - 6" cut square blocks

Birthday Necklace

Today my M. turned 10 years old. Hard to believe, but it happens to the best of us, I suppose--we get older.

Part of what we did today was to make a necklace together. She loves the color orange and anything somewhat funky. So we decided on this style of necklace where the beads appear to "float" on the wire. She picked out the beads and put them in the order that she wanted and then I attached them for her and crimped them in place. It turned out really cute and she was very happy with it.



We had the book, Jewelry Just for YOU!, from the library and got the idea for this necklace on pgs. 46-49.

Gardening Party Birthday

This year for the 6 year old we had a little gardening themed party. Below are a few of the things that we did with 7 little kindergarten girls.

I made gardening aprons for all the little girls--mostly because I wanted to try out a pattern out of my A is for Apron book. But also, anytime I can reduce the stash of my fabric for a good cause I'm willing. I'll post in a day or two more of a detailed tutorial on how to make the little aprons. They were fun to do and all the little girls were happy to take one home. Total Cost for Aprons: $10.00

One of the things that we did to go along with our theme was each girl got to plant a couple petunias in a pot to take home. I scored big on the pots--the night before the party I found these cute ceramic containers at Menards for 33 cents apiece!! Oh yeah!!

I was so happy as I'd been trying to get clay pots for cheaper than a $1 apiece at any of the garden or craft stores but no one was having any sales on them. I had originally bought plastic cups to use for their flowers--but now I'll just save them for the 4th of July party.

For $1 I found these wallpaper stickers at the Dollar Tree and used those to decorate the pots. Each girl got about 4 different butterflies to put on their pot. A couple of the finished ones are shown below. Flower Project:

7 Pots at 33 cents apiece = $2.33
3 - 6 pk. of any kind annual flowers at $1.85 each = $5.55
Butterfly wallpaper stickers at $1.00 each
Total Cost: $8.88 Favor bags included:

• Floral pencils
• Flower pinwheels (shown above in the houseplant)
• Starbursts
• Balloons

All at about $1 per package

Miss B. was very specific this year on what her cake should look like. She kept telling me that she wanted a wedding cake. You always have to find out what that means when they say stuff like that. For her "wedding" meant differing sized layers and different flavors per layer, along with some flowers. Below is what I came up with: One 9 x 9 chocolate layer and one round vanilla layer. Frost it, add a little decorative border and throw (loose term) on some fake flowers. I probably could've done a little better job with the placement of the flowers, but all in all I was pleased with it.

Cake Mix for $1.00

Butterfly find at Michael's for $1.99. (We found it near the floral decorating items)

2 bunches of flowers at the Dollar Tree for $2.

Homemade frosting

Total cake cost: $7-8

Here is our table setting:

Pack of paper plates $1

Pack of paper napkins $1

Pack of pink plastic cups $1

Pack of plastic silverware $1

Total Cost papergoods: $4 (with a bunch of items still left over)

Lunch---probably around $10-15 for chicken nuggets, grapes, chips, and lemonade.

Grand Total: around $50

Basketball B-day Party

Although it is easier in my opinion to sew for girls, I think that throwing b-day parties is easier when you have boys. At least my boy doesn't seem to need much.

Yesterday was my 8 year old's birthday party and his request was a basketball party--which meant walking down to our park, only 5 houses away, and playing basketball with some of his friends, a pizza lunch, and cake. What could be easier than that?

However, I did have to "embellish" a little. After all, we only throw "friends invited" birthday parties at our house every other year. (To save the sanity of the mother.) Here are a couple things that I did for him and his 6 friends:

First, check out your local dollar stores. Sometimes you can score big on party favor items. To go along with our theme we bought orange plates/napkins, soda, and some basketball water balls, and other little candies, along with the little sports theme treat bags.

Cost: About $6 for the treat bags/items

I made water bottle holders for the boys out of some fun basketball ribbon I found on sale at Michaels. These just snap down over the lip of the water bottle and don't easily come off.

This is so you can see what you are looking for when you head to the hardware store.

Click here for the tutorial on how to make these from the Family Fun magazine. This shows a no-sew project, however, I just sew the ends closed on the ribbon--easier and cheaper for me personally. Our families have made these a number of times over the years--so easy and so helpful to keep track of your own water bottle. I let the boys just write their name on the ribbon portion with a fabric marker so they knew which one belonged to them. Otherwise at our house I usually let my kids pick their own ribbon and that is how they distinguish theirs from anyone else's bottle.

Cost: about$1.12 per water bottle and holder combined

*2 - spools ribbon at $1.99 each for 5 yds.

*7 - O rings at $.49 each

*24 ct. water bottles at $2.98--that's $.13 per bottle

Also at Michaels I bought a t-shirt for each boy (when they were on sale for $1.99/ea) and then ironed on numbers on the back and a basketball logo on the front of each one. I had the fabric markers ready for them if they wanted to sign each other's shirts, but we didn't get around to it or they forgot. I probably should've had them at least signed the birthday boy's shirt. Oh well...

Birthday boy on the right!
The crew on the court.

Cost: per shirt about $2.50

Pizza: $22

Total cost for party: around $50

He was happy and I think all the boys he invited had a fun time too. That's ONE down and 4 more to go this year!! Stay tuned for our Garden Party for the 6 year old here in a couple weeks.

Birthday Surprise

Happy belated Birthday to Leslie!!

Her Birthday was on Saturday.

I knew that she'd be spending her birthday with her family, but they were all coming to my house for Sunday dinner. We had agreed a few weeks back that instead of her making L a quilt, we'd rather just do a trade and I would make the quilt and she'd make some clothes for my girls. (I still think I got the better end of that deal...)

So on Sunday when I gave her her present, I also included the quilt--finished and ready to go! She was super excited, and I was happy to give her that little surprise!

I've been doing well, so far, on keeping gifts a surprise, though it's been hard. I wanted to pick up the phone numerous times this week and tell her how cute the quilt was turning out! I resisted...and I'm so glad I did! I just love surprises!

The other part of the surprise was that I made L a doll quilt to go along with her baby quilt. I have gone a bit doll quilt crazy since making the one for the giveaway and have now decided that I should make some sort of doll version of all the quilts I make. How cute would that be?! I can use them for the quilt wall! We'll see if I actually do it, but in my head it is a great idea!

I've got to give credit to Leslie, though, she picked out some beautiful fabrics and wasn't too picky with what she wanted. That's a combination that's pretty easy to please!

Lastly, I am happy to report that I have now figured out how to properly hand sew on a binding and have it look good! I might even venture to say that I don't hate hand sewing anymore...well, I almost don't hate it!

So, again, Happy Birthday Leslie! We all love you and are glad you are our sister! (And I'm glad you loved your gifts! It was well worth the biting of the tongue this week!)

Cheerleader Costume

I've taken a self-imposed quilting break this week so that I could get this costume done for my daughter's 7th birthday today.

I've been telling her for a couple years now that I'd make it for her, probably starting on Halloween 2 years ago...! Now that it's finished, I am now no longer the worst mother on the planet!

The biggest obstacle on this project for me, has been keeping quiet about it! I am one who gets really excited about the things I'm working on and thus might drop some hints to the recipient--I know, so lame!

But, I've tried really hard to keep my mouth shut (my goal for this year) about my surprise projects. The 7 year old has no idea! I hope she freaks when she sees it!

For some reason the green on the trim and megaphone looks really off in these pictures, but in person they are really close to the same color. Not sure why they are photographing that way...

For the top I used Simplicity 4040 and the skirt McCalls 2849

party people

I finally made some hanging pom-poms. Hubby's bday is this weekend so I've been getting things ready. On the easy scale this has got to be the easiest. And cheap too. A couple of years ago I bought a ton of white tissue paper during the after Christmas clearance. I got these huge packs for like 10 cents or something.

Stay tuned for more....I made some other party decor with mini pom-poms.