Quilted Baby Shoes

A new quilt shop has opened in town called My Girl Friend's Quilt Shoppe. It is as darling as any quilt shop I've been too. On my first visit there I saw quilted baby shoes. The instructions were listed on a poster board for all to see so I took a quick picture on my phone and headed home to experiment.

The little girl ones are a lot of fun and always turn out cute. (Little girl things are like that, maybe it has something to do with pink and flowers...) I'm still in the process of tweaking my pattern for the little boy ones, but I'm making progress!

I can't wait to shop for more embellishments! Brown velvet ribbon really completed this pair.

Maybe if I take a picture of these little boy ones IN the flowers it will boost their cuteness!

No one in our family will fit into these darling little shoes, but that's okay. I'm in charge of the compassionate service for new babies and their mom's in our ward at church. I've already given two pairs away and am in the process of sewing more!
(Watch for purple ones soon!)

Baby Chickadee!

We just returned from a Hochstrasser family reunion in St. Louis, MO. We went and did just about everything there was to do in that fabulous town. The highlight of the trip however, was seeing family. My youngest and newest Sister-in-law is due with a baby boy this October. She is super cute and going to be a great mom. I was so excited to put together a quilt for her new little one.

I went on line and literally searched for "cute baby quilt pattern". I found this "Precious Peeps Baby Quilt" from Joann's for free! Not only was it a free pattern, it wasn't too hard and it was DARLING!! (and oh so fuzzy!)

I kept myself busy on the 20 hour car ride to St. Louis sewing on the binding. (When I wasn't entertaining 3 little boys...)
I was "sew" happy with how it turned out and happy to brush up on my applique skills. (You never know when you will need them!) Now my mind is swimming with other variations I could do with this pattern. Just imagine penguins, owls, piggies....
Some one stop me!

Quilted Piano Bench Cover

My mom made a beautiful little quilt a few years ago. On my last visit to MN I was the recipient of the scraps that were left. We decided they would be perfect for a piano bench cover for her piano. It worked out that most of the scraps were in strips. Perfect for Roman Squares. I cut the fabric into 2 1/2 " strips and got to work.

I sewed three strips to each other and then went back and cut the strips every 5" giving me these squares. The squares were then arranged and sew together making a Roman Square.

After I had three Roman Squares I pieced the rest of the quilt together.

Time for the fun part; quilting! Using my darning foot I machine quilted it with a few different designs. Now it's all ready to be a new cover for Mom's piano bench. Woot! Woot!

Baby Bibs!

Total props to my dear friend Melissa Archer for the pattern for these bibs. Before we moved away from Wisconsin she gave me a copy of her pattern and I was so delighted when I unpacked it and had something to do in this new town! She always makes some for the new babies in the ward back home. The tradition lives on now here in Utah.

With a little thought I was able to divide the pattern up and use two or four different fabrics for one bib.

The bib in the middle is made out of scraps from Joshy's baby quilt. He was pretty excited to see it.

A set of green bibs all ready to be given away.

I learned how to put on snaps with this project and have gone a little snap happy. The back of the bibs in "black-out" fabric and works great for stopping stains from leaking through. Sometimes I just put the bibs on backwards so that I can simply wipe the stains off.

Lunch Bag Brag Book

Last Christmas my side of the family enjoyed a fabulous family reunion complete with a trip to Wisconsin Dells. We made sure to make a day to take family pictures. My mom found a great studio we could rent by the hour and provide our own photographer... me and Ryan. For Mother's Day I decided to put together this paper bag brag book for her of the occasion.

Using Adobe Photoshop and a Christmas Digital Scrapbooking kit I purchased on line I was able to spend a couple of afternoons and put this book together.

Each family has their own page. Grand-kids got extra tabbed pages that pull out from the inside of several of the bag pages.

It turned out nice and was easy to put together. The pictures were small enough that I could even print them at home on my own printer. Love making gifts that I don't have to leave the house for!
Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Bunny Hutches

HAPPY EASTER!!

Inspired by my friend Chris' Haunted Gingerbread houses. Now introducing Bunny Hutches! So fun and so delicious!
Step 1: Collect all the Easter Candy you want

Step 2: Forming the houses. I felt quite clever when I decided to use the $1.00 bird houses from Michael's. Using icing and Graham Crackers I spent an afternoon constructing these bad boys. Each of them is different. As circumstances would have it I had every kind of Easter candy in the house and yet no aluminum foil. Tissue Paper to the rescue! Each house is resting on a cardboard foundation wrapped in tissue paper. FUN!

Step 3: Decorate! Try not to have too much fun.

Step 4: Bask in the glory of your beautiful work... or whatever.

This was a great activity after our Easter Dinner on Sunday. Certainly this will be a fabulous tradition for years to come!

Wendy

I have three beautiful sisters and I was lucky enough to get to see two of them last week, Wendy and Lynda. (Sorry Melissa, missed you!) At Wendy's apartment I saw that she had her portrait up that I drew for her as a wedding present. I just had to take a picture and share it with you. I think this was the first time I drew a picture of someone and not only did it actually look realistic, but it looked like the person I was studying!

Me and and Wendy.

I dug up some photos I took of the drawing before I framed it and gave it to her. I had to crop out some of the dress in order to frame it.

This is a close up... obviously. Happy 5th Anniversary Wendy! (this spring)