Baby Shoes - How To

My new friend Kiley just had a baby girl. This presented me with the perfect excuse to make MORE baby shoes! These shoes are so cute and not too hard or time consuming to make. Hopefully this blog will help. If not, I know that "My Girl Friend's Quilt Shop" has a real pattern, with real instructions...

I cut out two long rectangular pieces of coordination fabric and ironed them. (Remember, a good seamstress always irons and trims her threads!) The fabric only need be as tall as one shoe pattern and wide enough to fit the four pieces of the pattern.

This next part is a very fancy skill...or not. Using spray adhesive (I like the 3M Super 77 brand) you glue those suckers together with a thin piece of batting in between. This time I used a left over scrap of 100 % cotton batting from a quilt I just finished. A lot of the time though, I just use thin scraps of left over fleece!( You can find great pieces in the remnant baskets at JoAnn's.)

Allow the glue to dry some before diving into your machine quilting. I use a darning foot and just stick it on my regular Maytag sewing machine.

Time to quilt! If you are new at this you can Google images of panto-grams to get you started. Then you can trace or transfer the patterns onto your fabric with disappearing ink. I just like to wing it though. Sometimes it is just fun to let loose and just go for it! This is a simple stipple pattern.

A view of the reverse after quilting.

This is my little homemade pattern. This will yield one shoe. (You will probably want two *wink*) It is inspired from Martha Stewart's felt baby shoes pattern on her website. You can print a copy there if you would like and make it larger or smaller depending on what size you need. I'm sure however you could just make one by yourself that would work just fine.

Next, CUT. This time I used my new pinking sheers. So very fun! The little strip cut out from the pattern on the left will be your strap. You will now want to sew a top stitch around the border of your strap AND the inside rectangular shape of the shoe. Use about 1/8 seam allowance. This will keep the layers together and edges from fraying.

Oh, look how darling!

With the right-sides together, sew a line down the back. (Since I want the shoes to be red, I'm doing the sewing on the white side so my seams will be on the inside when I am done).

Carefully place the sole of the shoe together with the base. Now would be a good time to pin to keep everything aligned. Carefully sew the two pieces together around the outside edge of the sole using a 1/8" seam allowance again. (You are now using your regular sewing foot, not the darning foot.) Remember, we are still working on the "wrong" side of our fabric. Since I want the white fabric to be visible when the shoe is worn, I'm sewing with the red side of the sole out. Don't worry if you have to un-pick, you are working with a widdle-tiny, adorable baby shoe! ;)

Turn it right-side out. Top stitch one side of your strap on with an "X". On the opposite side attach a snap. You can buy the snaps and this handy tool all in one simple kit for less than $10.00 at JoAnn's and then just buy more snaps as you need them. Have your hammer ready, read the instructions, and get your snap on.

And the final step is to add your embellishment. Sometimes I do bows, this time I'm using a simple cloth flower and a brad. What ever you choose, be sure to attach it securely, remember this is for a baby. You can also buy brads and a little brad tool very inexpensively at JoAnn's all together in a kit.

I hope this is helpful and not too confusing. Happy sewing my friends!

Christmas Projects

It was a busy month, but as I looked around my house I found a few projects I had done that I could share with you.

Mostly there are lots of paper trees all over the place.

I just love all the things you can do with paper!

Really, the possibilities are endless.

And they are just so fun!

I also decorated an "H" for Christmas. On the back I have a winter one, so after the new year all I have to do is turn it around.

We added a second tree this year and needed more ornaments. Time to get baking! We had to have a donkey.

And a Camel.

And a pig!?!
Oh well, anything goes around here.

Lori Holt Apron Pattern

Today was a quiet day on Christmas break so I decided to pull out a pattern and fabric I have had on hand for a while just waiting to be sewn. This is a pattern by Lori Holt (from Bee in My Bonnet) called the One Yard Apron. It takes a fat quarter and 2 other fabrics totaling a yard, plus trim. The pattern is available on-line and locally at My Girl Friend's Quilt Shoppe in Logan.

I started by cutting out the pieces. Very easy.

Next I prepared the pockets and added trim. I decided to go with fabulous ric-rac.

I then sewed on the waist band.

Then I sewed up the ties and put them in place in the waist band.

Time for more trim, this time on the bottom edge. I went with a pistachio green ruffle.

I added more trim to the bottom of the apron and ... Ta-Dah! All Done.

Heavenly Popcorn

First of all, a BIG shout-out to all of my neighbors! Thanks for all the Christmas goodies! You might live in Utah if on a Monday night, before Christmas, your doorbell rings 5 or 6 times with families bringing you holiday goodies! Not kidding! Our first year in our home in Sun Prairie I took treats and cards to my neighbors. I got some funny looks. Apparently this was not a common custom back on Kelly St. Having said that, I was not planning on delivering treats this year, but... then I just couldn't resist. *smile* I hope this box is full enough!

Our Family loves this stuff, so Merry Christmas to you, here is the recipe!

Heavenly Popcorn

2 Bags Microwave Popcorn

1 12oz. bag White chocolate Chips

Pop corn, making sure to remove all un-popped kernels.

Melt Chocolate chips in microwave. Cook on high for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat 2 more times. (Be sure to use a dry metal or plastic spoon!)

Pour chocolate over popcorn and stir.

Lay out mixture on wax paper to set.

(Optional toppings: drizzle melted milk chocolate chips or crushed candy canes onto popcorn before it dries).

Paper Projects

Just a few minutes down the road from me is a wonderland of fun... well a paper outlet any way. Or more specifically the S.E.I scrapbook outlet. (1717 South 450 West Logan, UT 84321). So FUN! I just can't say "no" to darling paper for 10cents a piece. Every time my sister Wendy is in town we seem to make a trip there. Here are a few projects we have been working on together.

Paper Flowers and Matching Cards

I used a template from Stampin' Up for the cards.
I found instructions for the flowers at
http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/09/todays-guest-lil-luna.html
They made Halloween ones, but I though fall ones would be fun, and I could have them out on display for longer. I'm thinking Christmas ones would be darling too, or Spring ones for Easter... oh the possibilities.

They were so fun to make I decided to make more flowers to add to my collection.

Paper Monograms
I love this idea! I'm decorating "H's" for the different holidays and seasons to hang in our entry way. Fortunately H is reversible. This one is for fall, on the back I have made a Halloween one. More picts will be posted later when I've finished.

They are easy to make. I buy the letters at Hobby Lobby. The paper is obviously from. S.E.I. I simply use spray adhesive on the back of a piece of paper. I then carefully place it on the letter H. Next I take the metal file from Ryan's tool box to get all of the extra paper off. I can get a nice clean cut this way. To finish it up I add embellishments, hot-glue on a ribbon, and call it good.

Paper Pumpkins
So fun, So inexpensive, and So CUTE!
Wendy and I saw these at S.E.I and simply had to make some. Using a variety of papers we trimmed them down into thin strips of varying sizes. We then hot-glued them to the top and bottom of fake pumpkins. BUT THEN... with the help of Wendy's hubby Chris we figured out how to make them without a fake pumpkin underneath!

We simply cut out two, 2" circles and placed a bamboo skewer through them, leaving 3 or 4 inches between the two circles. We also left some skewer on top to use for the stem. Once the circles were secured with hot-glue, we were able to glue the papers to them to form the pumpkin.

This one has a pumpkin underneath.

This one does not.
To cover the skewer on top we just wrapped paper around it and added curling strips of paper for vines.

You can have a lot of inexpensive fun with paper! I can't wait to get going on my Christmas projects!

Postage Stamp Quilt

Every year my Grandparents send a little money to buy books for the boys for Christmas. I LOVE shopping for their books, and it is something I look forward to each December. She also sends a little gift money for me, but without instructions on how to use it. Last Christmas I had a GREAT idea. I went on line and bought myself this jelly roll of moda fabric and had it sent to my parent's house for Christmas. On the order their was a place to leave a message for the receiver. I had myself a little fun and wrote myself a note something like this:
"Dear Karin, You are such a great grand-daughter. We love you so much! Keep Sewing! Merry Christmas. Love, Grandma and Grandpa Andersen. " Hee Hee!
When my mom got the package and saw the note and what I had done she transferred the message to a real card and wrapped up the gift and set it under the tree. Christmas morning I got to open my gift and ooohh, aaaww at all the pretty fabric. I had already found the pattern I wanted to do: the Postage Stamp Quilt on modabakeshop.blogspot.com, and it made for one fun Christmas morning.

Sooo, I finally started my quilt in October. (It's been a busy year!)

It was fun to unroll the fabric and start pairing colors together.

I had the top pieced in a couple of days. It took me a few weeks to get back to quilting it. Once I did it didn't take too long from there. It then took one day to machine quilt, and two days for the hand binding.

And the end result: AWESOME if I say so myself!

I decided to use a "double bubble" pattern for the quilting. It was pretty easy to maneuver the fabric with my darning foot to get the effect.

Undecided on if I like the front or back the best.

Such happy colors! The fabric collection is called "Fresh Cotton" by Moda.

It's perfect for snuggling too!