Fall- Winter Catch Up

Well, I've totally neglected this blog and have a lot to catch up on.  I considered ditching the whole thing, but I really like having a place where I can look back and remember trips, events, etc.  So this post is just a photo dump from fall and winter '14-15.

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend

Our department "Chemistree"

Titus helping with a t-shirt rag quilt that I made for a friend's son.

Quilt pieces laid out

Completed!

Festive Titus

Festive Titus

Festive Titus

Nail art gift

Titus at Mom's house

Christmas with Brokaws

Christmas at Mom's house

New washer and dryer- happy 13th anniversary to us!  Our 32 year old washer finally bit the dust.

Target practice- Adam

Target practice- Josh and Adam

Target practice-Brady and Jesse

Target practice-all the guys

Target practice-Jesse

Target practice-Josh

More to come...

Fall Happenings

This is just a random post about little things we've been doing this fall.

Rag quilt for our newest nephew, Caedmon.

For Caedmon- born 10-30-14

Josh got to be a guest coach for a volleyball game.

ACU won!  11-8-14

Groundbreaking for the new science facilities- science department chairs pictured.

A few other members of our department got to play in the dirt too.  11-10-14

Josh's maternal side of the family has a reunion every fall.  Here's the group that gathered at Belton Lake- 11-22-14

Josh, Ben, and Jon out in the canoe.

Fun mural at Belton Lake

More Rag Quilts and a Tie Onesie

My sewing machine has been getting a workout lately.  Here are 2 more rag quilts I made for babies of very dear friends. 
This first blanket was for Cassia who lives in Malibu.  I get to meet her this Saturday and spend a week in CA with her lovely family!

Smooth side

Rag side

This blanket is for Baby Silas who should arrive in early February.  We go to church with his parents and they also work at ACU.  This may be my favorite blanket I've ever made, but I say that often :)  I decided to try a brick pattern for the first time, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. 

Smooth side

Rag side

Silas also got a tie onesie.  I love making these for little boys!  I use Rit dye and the stove top method  to color the onesies.  The stitching stays white and adds a little interest in my opinion.

I have more crafts to share, but I can't reveal them until they've been given :)

Sweater to Purse

My second autumn craft this year involved taking a sweater and turning it into a purse.  I've got several sweaters stashed away for repurposing, but you could always go to a thrift store and find some cheap ones too.  Of course I saw this project on Pinterest and I've been wanting to make one for a long time.  I basically used this tutorial, but I changed my dimensions a bit and used strapping for the handles.  I also added pockets to my lining for my iPad, cell phone, chapstick, etc.  I considered this a trial run because I have another sweater that I really want to make into a purse.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  You can see my one big mistake- part of my lining is showing the wrong side of the fabric.  Oh well- at least you can't see it from the outside.  This is why I do practice runs :)  Next time I'll make the purse a little bit bigger so my stuff isn't so crowded and make the lining a bit smaller so it isn't so baggy inside.  I did break 2 sewing machine needles on this project due to the thickness of the layers, so if you make this be prepared with extra needles!
I am linking this up to a Pinterest challenge on one of my favorite blogs: Young House Love. 

Summer Crafts

Unfortunately, my craft room was used very little this summer.  I did manage to put together 2 extremely easy projects, but that's about it.
Toward the end of June, I made this crib quilt for Josh's sister.  I was supposed to do the sewing and someone else was going to do the actually quilting.  Here's what it looked like last I saw it.

This is a wall decoration made by Josh's sister for their nursery.  I love all these fabrics!  I haven't seen the whole nursery put together, but I'm sure it's super cute. 

Just last week, I made my first pillowcase dress and matching fancy pants for my cousin's daughter who just turned 1 year old.  This was such a fun project!  I used fat quarters from Walmart, so this entire project cost $5.  Plus I have leftover fabric!

 

Posting these pictures makes me realize how unhappy I am with my camera.  I may have to start using Josh's fancy camera :)
So what craft projects have you been tackling this summer? 

Crafts- The Monk and Eliana's Rag Quilt

Do you have a mom that saves everything you've ever made for her?  Well, I do.  When we were packing up Mom's house, we found a few treasures that I made back in middle school.  I thought you might need a good laugh on this Monday, so I'm going to share my childhood craftiness with you.  I have to say that I really enjoyed art classes growing up.  I was absolutely horrible at everything, but I enjoyed the process.
This first project is from 6th grade.  I noticed my mom had a need.  She would often take off her rings when baking and didn't have a dedicated place to put them.  When pottery days rolled around at school, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for Mom- a ring holder!  Now, I have no idea what caused me to think a FACE would make a good ring holder, but I did.  Mom was supposed to place her ring over the nose of this masterpiece.

Problem #1- I made the nose too wide for Mom's rings.
Problem #2- I painted the face pink which made Mom think it was a mouth with a tongue sticking out.
Problem #3- It was hideous!  Why did I ever think Mom would want to display this in her kitchen?  And what is this supposed to be anyway?  A face with 2 legs with 3-toed feet.  What!?!  

Moving on to 8th grade.  Same teacher, same pottery technique.  Let's see if I improved at all.  This time around, I thought Mom needed a cookie jar.  My vision was to make a chef jar where the head with big chef hat lifted off of the body and the body was where the cookies would go.  Well, I ran out of time and didn't get to make the chef's hat.  So I gave Mom this bald man cookie jar that we affectionately call "The Monk."  Doesn't it look like one? 

Seriously, what was I thinking?  I gave my Mom a monk cookie jar!  As we were packing up her house, we found the wrapped pieces labeled "Monk head" and "Monk body."  Haha!  I convinced her that she could throw these treasures away.  Of course we had to take pictures first, but then they went in the trash.

Now let's jump ahead almost 20 years and see what I made last week.  I promise, I'll stay away from pottery!
Josh's sister, Christina, is pregnant with our 2nd niece.  She is due on my birthday!  Christina is married to Brady, who is a talented musician that runs a business making custom cases of all sorts.  (http://www.bradycases.com/)  I knew I would be making a rag quilt for little Eliana (Ellie), but I wasn't happy with any of the fabric I saw in Abilene.  So, when we were in NM, we made a quick stop at Joann's.  I was trying to match the nursery colors (brown, pink, and green) but was having a hard time.  Then Josh sees this fabric and says, "How about guitars?"  I said, "For a baby?  I don't think so.  Wait!  Yes!  Absolutely for this baby!"  It was perfect!  The colors, the theme- seriously perfect!  So we picked out some coordinating fabrics and went to check out.  Mom stopped off to check out the remnant stash and found a cute flannel cupcake piece.  It ended up being a better match to the guitar fabric than the one I already had, so I bought it too.  I couldn't wait to get started on the quilt.
Here's the finished product:

Rag side

Smooth side

Close-up of fabrics

I would love to give pottery another try someday, but for now I'll stick to sewing :)  I wonder if this is why my mom taught me how to sew?  Maybe trying to refocus my creativity?  Hmm...

Bless all of you moms out there who truly treasure your kids' "art."

More craft projects

I have been getting really good use out of my craft room recently!  Here are some more projects I've been working on.
First up, a fabric scrap skirt for an adorable little girl who just turned 5.  It's just for play.  The strips are just cut from fat quarters that I found at Walmart.  They have some really cute prints!

I also made some dress up crowns for this little girl.  She has 2 brothers and a sister, so I made enough for all of them to play together if they want.  As soon as this gift was opened, the little girl put on the pink crown and wore it for the rest of the party.  I guess she liked it :)

Front

Back

Front

Back

This next project is going to make some of you laugh.  Have I mentioned that I am the nursery coordinator for our church?  Yes, me!  I know, I know- you probably think it's the worst role for me.  I mean, why have someone in charge of the nursery who doesn't even want kids?  I laughed at first too.  Then I was told this was more of an organizing role than a childcare role.  Organizing?  That's something I can do!  Basically I just schedule all of the nursery volunteers and make sure someone shows up on Sunday morning.  We only have 1 child in our church nursery on a regular basis, so it's not a huge commitment to work in there.  I have a huge list of volunteers (including several men) and they are all wonderful.  I think I started back in August last year, and so far things have been great.  So this next project is the bulletin board for the nursery.  I have decided I am NOT a bulletin board gal.  I tried to come up with some cute theme, but I am not creative in that way.  I ended up just doing some coordinated stuff that I thought looked ok together.  I think I'll stick with sewing :)

(Minter Lane is the name of our church)

Finally last night, I decided to make something for me!  I have a ton of projects I've been trying to get to, but baby showers and birthday parties have been priorities lately.  This project only took about 30 minutes.  It's a purse organizer.  (See, I love organization!)  I have lots of purses with 1 big pocket and little organization potential.  I have thought about buying purse organizers in the past, but I knew I could make one super cheap.  I used leftover fabric from the scrap skirt above and probably spent about $1.50 total on this project (all you need is fabric, thread and interfacing).

It's basically a line of pockets

I measured all my items to make custom-sized pockets.

Fill your pockets, roll up the organizer, and stuff it in your purse.  You can roll it so your pockets face in or out- it works either way.

I put my wallet and camera in the middle.  Everything has a place!

I definitely think I'll be making more of these.  This one is specifically sized for this purse, but I could overlap the end pockets and use it in smaller purses if I wanted to.  I followed this tutorial, but started with 9"x26" rectangles.  I might even go 10" next time to get the final height a little taller.  Just measure your bag and your items and adjust the measurements as needed.  It's so easy, cute, and cheap!
Next up... a garden update!