Thursday, January 31, 2013

Valentina's doll blanket

Good evening-  I hope this finds you safe and well!  I ended up having to go out in the yuck last night and then early again this morning to watch the grand kids.  I LOVE watching it snow....from inside.  Normally I will hibernate in the winter for 4 or 5 days at a time...till I get a little cabin fever....then I will finally go out!  But not so this winter, with having the grand babies here.  It is rare to have a whole day at home.  I am either there or off on some adventure!  I got tuckered out today so I am just waking up from about a three hour nap!  Sure do love my recliner for napping!!! ; - )

Today's showcase is the keepsake doll quilt I made for Valentina's new baby doll.  She received a cabbage patch baby from her Mama and Papa for Christmas and boy does she love it.  She is always kissing the baby on those chubby cheeks, just as we are always kissing hers!

The quilt is made up of 52 two inch squares that after sew together are 1 1/2" square.  I have this sitting on the seat of the recliner at Jenna's house so you can see how miniature this quilt is.  After piecing together the quilt.  I traced the animals on the fabric with my light box, after I had sewn the panel on the quilt, then embroidered them through the fabric and flannel lining.  I purchased the embroidery/quilt pattern from Nana's Company.  A little row of lace, edges the top of the quilt and then all off the squares were machine quilted.

All that was left to do was to sew on the binding which is done by machine, and finished by hand.
So Valentina has her very own miniature quilt.  It would also be great for doll and bear collectors as it is a miniature size.  I have in storage an old doll buggy and a old doll crib.  It would look really cool in there with some dolls or bears.  One last picture of the quilt with Valentina's dolly.
When Jenna was little, she had a cabbage patch knock off doll.  I couldn't afford $25.00 for a real one and I found a doll that looked very much like them.  She named it Peggy Sue, after Peggy Sue Ramsey, the first real live baby she played with and she loved that doll so much!  Isn't it nice that she wanted her little girl to have one too only Valentina's is smaller.  They now make baby one's.  Her doll doesn't have removable clothes.  It is in a flannel attached sleeper.
Have a wonderful day!  Elaine

PS.  Corinne, you asked if I subscribe to Michelle Wooderson's blog and yes, I do.  Mishy is the one who has given me the inspiration to get going on Project Life books for the grand kids!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Project Life

Greetings from the winter wonderland!  We are in the middle of a snowstorm here.  I don't know what the final count of inches is, but I do know that several hours ago we had 6 inches already.  I haven't been out yet and I don't plan to go out if I don't have too.  Our sidewalks have not been shoveled yet but one of the neighbor guys came and got my keys and moved my van so that they could plow in front.  It is so nice that he does that for me.
You probably have been wondering why I haven't been posting much this month.  It has been crazy busy with babysitting the grand kids, getting all the year end book keeping done for the church, etc.  But I do have some projects done that I would like to share.
I started thinking about doing this for the grand kids about 6 months ago, but with the flea market, learning the church treasurer job, getting ready for and doing some craft shows, I just didn't find any extra time.  I decided that the New Year would be a good time to start.  Mason and Valentine will each have their own scrapbook, and I am using Project Life by Becky Higgins plastic inserts.  It is an easier (they say :-D) form of scrap booking.  You can do as much or as little as you would like to the inserts and journaling cards.  The theory is that you do a two page spread of the 52 weeks in your life.  I decided that was probably too much for me to commit to, being as I had two books to do, so I decided that I am going to scrap what ever pictures we have of the kids that month and make the book a monthly book.  So far, I have 3 pages done for each of the kids books for the month of January.  Sometimes the kids pages will be identical except for embellishments, and sometimes I will make a page different for each of them.  I decided not to purchase coordinating Project Life kits.  There are tons of free journaling cards out there.  I have a whole board full on Pinterest if you are interested in starting your own book.  And Two Peas in a Bucket and Jessica Sprauge have digital journal cards for sale too.  I picked some up today at Jessica Sprauge.  On Wednesday's they send me an email about One Buck Wednesday and what items are on sale for a dollar.  I got a pack of journal cards, and a huge bundle with tons of digital papers, journal cards, arrows, tickets, etc.  Adorable stuff.  In between working on some church work this afternoon, I printed a bunch of the journaling cards and tickets.  Soo so cute.  I love them!  And I printed out more January pictures to scrap.  I will probably work on that tomorrow.  I think I am ready to relax in the recliner right now!!

Enough jabber....I bet you can't wait to see the pages.  Here goes!!!
You can click on the picture if you would like to see it larger.
Mason learns how to cut up his own carrots and is so proud!

The top left picture is my very favorite picture of Valentina.  Our little beauty!

This is our story right here.  at this very moment.  currently today and it starts right now!

I personalized the cover pages with there names.  It say Hello 2013 (so happy to meet you!)

A nice family picture in the upper left corner.  The middle journal card say Twenty Thirteen on the top, then points to the month of January.  I printed cards like this for each month.

Oh how they love bath time.  It is their favorite time of the day!
 I wrote little story to the kids on these pages about things they said or did.  Things that they will forget.....It is a labor of my love for the kids to have these keep sake books.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my FIRST Project Life pages!  Stay safe!  Love, Elaine

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

A pillow I made for Susie Smith for Tammy Renner

Sorry I haven't been posting too much.  I have been busy with church book work, babysitting, and I have been in a flare up.  This cold snap doesn't help the fibro too much!  Today's post is about a pillow that Susie Smith asked me to make with some new fabric that Stampin UP! has for sale in the Spring mini catalog and some new dies.  She gives her hostess a gift each month at stamping and this month Tammy Renner was the hostess so she received the pillow tonight at Stamp Camp.

I adore these fabrics, they are so pretty!!!  The first thing I did was to fuse fusible web to the back of the fabric, and then I ran the dress dies through the big shot.  After that, I cut my center fabric to size (thank you Sandy Wellumson, this was in one of the scrap bags you gave me), then I cut my border strips out and sewed them onto the center panel.  I then took embroidery thread and stitched around the outer edge to mimic the stitching on the fabric. Next, I sewed the front panel and a liner to the backing, right sides together leaving an opening to turn it inside out.  I pressed it, then took the paper backing off of the dresses and fused them into place.  I stuffed the pillow, sewed the opening closed, then worked on embellishments.  I made 3 yo-yo's and attached them to the pillow with some cute buttons.  The necklaces were stitched on, along with the heart button choker.  The pearl belt was stitched on along with the blue buttons on top of the ribbons I glued on.  The rhinestones had adhesive on them and I carefully placed them on with a paper piercer as they are pretty tiny to handle.
Here are a few more pictures to show the details on the pillow.

I hope that Tammy likes it.
Have a great Tuesday!  Love, Elaine

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Jenna and the hobo gloves

I finished these fingerless gloves last night for Jenna.  She already has one pair that I made and she loves them so much that she wanted another pair, and she picked up this yarn to match her coat.  She loves to wear them driving.  She told me that she wears them over her fingers when she starts out and after the vehicle warms up, she rolls them back as you can see  in the picture below.

She called them hobo gloves when I was taking her picture.  I said "Hobo gloves?" and she said because they don't have fingers in them...like a hobo's, and she started laughing.  What a nut!  Enjoy your hobo gloves Jenna Lee!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Crazy for Cowls!

Here is a picture of a cowl that I recently finished.  I have another one in progress very similar in color to this one, only the one that I am making right now has more teal in it.   So I will have two available.  If you are interested in it.....message me.  They are nice and warm to wear, and are very "IN".   I gave Sarah one for Christmas and it looks adorable on her.  She stretched hers some and doubles it around her neck.  Sooo...cute!  $35.00 and it is all yours (plus shipping)!  They are light so it shouldn't cost too much to ship it if you live far away.  Have a wonderful day!  Elaine