This year my Dexter’s Christmas gift was a beautiful play kitchen. So I went crazy making accessories for myself him.
It was so much fun coming up with ideas for mildly 3-dimensional foods. I also found a lot of great inspiration online. I didn’t want to have to put a lot of thought into it or sculpt something magnificent. I just wanted to throw together a lot of fun little pieces to spark some imaginative play.
Dollies Travelling Abroad!
I was excited to get a notification from Dolly Donations announcing that if we hurry and send in our dolls, they can leave the US for Haiti on December 18th!! If you have time to throw some together, there is still a little time to get them there!
I wish I had more completed, but I’m very glad I got to participate. I have more cut out, so I’ll try to slowly make them and just send out what I have when drives are announced.
These were great practice dolls. I’m hoping we’ll eventually have a little girl in our family (It’s looking like my brother’s baby is going to be a boy as well!). I’m really glad I’ve found an outlet for my girly creative energy! Some of these babies are kind of funny looking, but it was a nice opportunity to figure out the best techniques. For example, take it easy with the eyebrows or your doll will look like a Marx brother!
They have faux fur for hair (faux fur for, say that 3 times fast!), acrylic painted faces, very simple scrap dresses, and coordinating diapers.
Dolly Donations
I stumbled across a cool opportunity to touch young lives through crafting! Dolly Donations collects handmade dolls for children who have nearly nothing. Here’s a brief mission statement from Sarah, the founder:
“My mission is to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate, especially orphaned children around the world ……. to provide them with a source of comfort …… to send them love, one dolly at a time!”
I love this idea. There are so many ways that children need help, and I have dolls who need homes! I can’t wait to participate (I just missed a drive that closed 3 days ago, but they hope to do another before Christmas) and I’m hoping to encourage others to join in! You don’t have to be great at sewing and Sarah provides free patterns and tutorials. (Make sure to read the FAQ section and the Mission Statement. They definitely accept dolls that are different from the provided pattern, but they request that you send multiples so that doll doesn’t seem like the “special” doll. Also, the request dolls and not animals or monsters etc because studies have shown that children respond better to dolls, providing comfort to the child.)
The free pattern is designed to use up scrap fabric, so that’s perfect for you stash busters out there!!
Progress Report: Pink/Blue Owl Quilt
I’m both excited and frustrated… I’m extremely happy because I completed all 12 of my squares!!! But I ran across lots of problems. Namely that I apparently cut my sashing strips too short, boo, and I can’t find my scrap material to add to the strips, extra boo. And by the end, I was having a lot of sewing trouble and I’m going to have to rip some seams. A break was called for.
I am LOVING the way it’s looking with the sashing. I can’t wait til I work out the kinks. I added a little plain chocolate brown to the length , hopefully it won’t be too distracting. I’ll have to do this on every wide strip and at the end of all the border pieces.
It’s really coming together! The tree on the back will be the next challenge 🙂
Sneak Peek: Hair Bands
I am SO excited about our new hair bands! Deborah and I are both starting to wish we had a little girl to put them on. Our husbands were NOT happy when we tried them on our boys to see how they fit lol.
Here’s a sneak peek at what we have so far:
I love them all so far, but here are close ups on a few of my favorites: 
These will be sewn onto head bands (and maybe clips if we can find some that are CPSIA certified). Next week we’ll be photographing what we have and hopefully we will have our shop up and running by this coming Friday. We’re both so excited!!! Our accessories will make perfect gifts for Christmas!
If you haven’t seen the ties Deborah is making (which are awesome), then head over to her blog!
Mapping Out My Quilting Plan
It occurred to me last night that I have 5 months to finish my 3 Christmas quilts. I can be a bit of a procrastinator. 5 months sounds like forever, right??
But when I divide that by 3 quilts, that’s roughly 1.67 months per quilt! Um… time to panic!
So, I have to make myself start putting some quality time into those quilts. Not only have I taken on a gargantuan task, but I also chose to venture into unknown and potentially complicated pattern territory.
It’s so hard for me to focus on just one project. I get bored, or I get super excited about something else! But I have to harness my energy, because I don’t want to give my sisters IOU’s for Christmas. That would be jerky.
So, here’s the plan:
Quilt #1- Deborah’s Owl Quilt
The front of the quilt will have 12 pink and blue blocks, shashed with dark brown. At least one block will have an owl. My sister wanted to think about how many owls she wanted 🙂
The back will have a pink and brown striped fabric, with a strip of pieces from the front along the bottom. Then I’m going to attempt to do a tree in brown, via ohfrannson!. I probably will not do patchwork on this tree, because I really don’t think it’s necessary. And then I’ll have 3 little owls peeking out of holes in the tree.
I have 6 blocks completed. So if I could do 1 block per day I’d be done in a week.
Week 1: Complete blocks.
Week 2: Cut sashing and piece blocks together.
Week 3: Work on the back. (I’m going to call this one week’s worth of work, but I don’t actually know how long this will take.
Week 4: Sandwich quilt and start quilting!
Week 5: Quilt.
Week 6: Bind the edges and clip threads.
Quilt #2- Alisha’s Bird Quilt
I have all the fabric for this quilt, and a general idea, but it’s still mostly in my head. It will consist of some combination of the following fabrics:
And it will have a design similar to this:
I sketched this out without really paying attention to the quantities of fabric I have on hand. Most likely I will have to play around with color combinations. So, Alisha, don’t get attached to it 🙂 Also, I’m not sure about how to put this together, so I sure hope ohfrannson! has a pattern!!
Week 1: Work on planning. Which color do I have enough of for the background, trees, etc?
Week 2: Cut fabric.
Week 3: Piece back ground.
Week 4: Piece tree 1.
Week 5: Piece tree 2.
Week 6: Piece tree 3.
Week 7: Cut back pieces.
Week 8: Piece back. Appliqué birds on front and back.
Week 9: Sandwich and quilt.
Week 10: Bind the edges and clip threads.
(Uh-oh. This plan is 4 weeks over time-budget.)
Quilt #3- Michelle’s Bird Quilt
Sigh. Now that I’ve mapped out Alisha’s quilt, I know Michelle’s is essentially the same except in different colors. So, it, too, is slated for 4 extra weeks. I can’t let this happen! I just need to remember this is just an estimate and kick it into high gear!
Michelle’s fabrics:
This batch is a little messy because I’m currently using some of the fabrics for another project 🙂
And for some reason, I thought it would be faster to revamp the same picture in Paint. It was *not* faster, but it was fun 🙂
Week 1: Work on planning. Which color do I have enough of for the background, trees, etc?
Week 2: Cut fabric.
Week 3: Piece back ground.
Week 4: Piece tree 1.
Week 5: Piece tree 2.
Week 6: Piece tree 3.
Week 7: Cut back pieces.
Week 8: Piece back. Appliqué birds on front and back.
Week 9: Sandwich and quilt.
Week 10: Bind the edges and clip threads.
Wish me luck! And the ability to focus. I’ll need it.