Another New Timeline

I do not know what I was thinking.  There is no way I will be able to have a table at a craft show.  It is 8:45 and I am thinking of going to bed.

So...a new list...

• Finish nephew's quilt
• Finish baby quilt and gift
• Stocking for nephew
• Backson for Chcikenbutt*
• Stocking toy for Wren
• Pocket reindeer for Chickenbutt, Wren and Muffin
• Christmas dresses for Chickenbutt and Wren

*The other day when Muffin was going home I was talking to her mom (if she is a muffin does that make her mom a loaf??? haha) about Christmas.  Chickenbutt was literally running around and chattering to herself.  I said that I wanted to make a Backson (from the Winnie the Pooh Movie) for Chickenbutt for Christmas as she loves both that movie and monsters right now.  The next thing out of Chickenbutt's mouth is, "I getting a Backson for Christmas!"  Grr.... 
I definitely need to STOP dropping the f bomb!

Boo!

I decided to make puppets for Halloween for all the children in my home daycare*. We are going to learn a ghost rhyme and play puppets tomorrow.  Halloween is my favourite holiday.  Totally random and tons of fun.  No pressure to please anyone, free candy to all!

*You may have noticed that there are only three puppets.  Yep, two of the kids in my home daycare are my own.  When I say 'home daycare' I mean it in the Revenue Canada sort of way.  I babysit one child, she is the only one I want right now.  And she is lovely.  

My Little Pumpkin

I came home from a week at my sister's to discover that my Chickenbutt needed a costume for her Tuesday night music class and she no longer wants to be a ladybug for Halloween.  It doesn't seem to matter that I already have all of the ladybug supplies.  Don't get me wrong, she still wants her ladybug costume for day to day use, she just wants to be a jack'o'lantern for Halloween.  So tonight I got busy and make her a jack'o'lantern costume.  A big THANK YOU to my friend Monique who picked up the fleece for me. 

I used the no sew pattern from Joann's Craft Store.  Ironically I came across it when searching for a ladybug costume tutorial.  It was pretty easy and even though I did sew the face on it was done in under an hour - including numerous fittings with Chickenbutt who had to check the mirror each time.  The face did go on a little crooked but by the time she slips it on and we cinch up the neckline it should look fine.
On a highly productive note I also finished the tutu for my Wren's bumblebee costume.  I just need to find her a yellow top and then that is done.  

Back at it!

I borrowed back the machine I lent to my cousin.  She had not taken it out of the box.  Neither had the woman who gave it to me.  I did and back it went.  It is quite old and has a musty smell so I won't be using it.

On the upside one of my teenage cousins wants my broken machine.   Apparently he likes to tinker.  I was really torn about what to do with the machine.  It doesn't seem like something that should be tossed in a dumpster but at the same time it is useless. 

Back to making my sister's baby quilt.  It is slightly out of square but the baby won't notice.  Although at the rate I have been going the baby will be fourteen by the time it is done.


PS I LOVE it when I hit spellcheck and NOTHING comes up!

Sigh

My Necchi has died.  The someting-or-other is broken and parts are unavailable. 

I am moving on to another machine given to me by a friend (that I then passed on then asked for back - she wasn't using it!!!!) until I can save up for a Janome or Pfaff.

So many big plans shot!

F Bomb! 

Emergency!

My sewing machine has broken!

Send help!

New Unfinished Projects LIst

OK, time for a new goal.  I keep starting new and unnecessary projects instead of finishing the ones I have started.

By the end of the month I will have completed:
(Note: anything with a star is at some level of completion.)

• My sister's baby quilt*
• My sister's baby gift
• My friend's baby quilt*
• My friend's baby gift
• My mom's yoga bag
• My daughter's quilt*
• Ladybug for my buddy Erin in my mommy group
• Chickenbutt's pillowcase
• Five sets of panties for my Chickenbutt (either altered or more likely from scratch)

Today is the 13th!
Good luck to me!

Meow, meow, meow, meow

I am not sure if I am sold on sock animals or not.  I tried two different cat patterns.  The purple kitty is from Brenna Maloney's book Socks Appeal.  The main lesson I learned here was not to ask a toddler for input.  I used the purple argyle sock she wanted and had a hard time seeing the thread and so had to fix a few holes.  Overall, the cat came out nicely but the face needs to be centred a bit better (again, having a toddler hanging on you while embroidering is not ideal).
The hot pink kitty came out better and is the Cheshire cat pattern from Daniel's book (he does not have a last name, the Cher of sock creatures) Stray Sock Sewing.   Since I was making this for the baby I chose to modify the face into a simple cat rather then the creepy Cheshire grin.   Overall this pattern was easier and I like the final product better.  It looks more polished.   (I KNOW that the point of sock creatures is not to be perfect mass produced toys but I still want it to look like I know what I am doing.)  I had some trouble attaching the head and am not sure exactly how secure it is.  I hope it doesn't come off, that would be a catastrophe!


****A note on the cat: poor Charlie is blind and his eyes always show up demonic in photos.  The red eye function is not able to fix it.

Because I am not busy enough...

I have been teaching myself to crochet over the past little while.  So far nothing has turned out but I am still at it.  My mom thoughtfully got me all three of Ana Paula Rimoli's books.  So cute - she has an etsy store!!  I am having trouble with a few things, counting stitches and for some reason the heads are a bit off.  Photos will follow when something turns out!  I am currently using the tiger pattern in Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too  to make a hot pink cat for the baby.

Also I have decided (for some crazy reason) that I should make a few sock animals.   The poor baby doesn't have her own sock animal and her sister was so fond of Lennie the Sock Monkey.  I am going to make her a cat, I have several patterns but am not sure which one I like best.  I think the infant appeal is the long arms, legs and tail but the little sitting kitties are so cute.

I have also been working on a few quilts (one for the poor baby) and a few as gifts.  I need to focus and finish one project at a time but I get bored easily, hense the huge rubbermaid of unfinished projects!

Finishing Projects Update:

A month ago I finally completed my first ever quilting class project, it is over 2 years ago that I started and only needed to complete the binding. (Then the digital camera broke, then the computer was hooped, blogging and crafting is HARD.)  It took two episodes of Sesame Street. I am not sure why I waited this long.

It Bit the Dust

I have had to finally give up on my  my mother's old Kenmore sewing machine.  Apparently my mom and grandma split the cost when I was a baby.  It definitely needs a tune up before I return it to my mom and I think it will go back to working fine but for now I need to use a better machine.  It has stopped zigzagging and now it will not even straight stitch.  There is probably an easy explanation for this but I can't figure it out.  I am now using a Necchi.  It is OK but change sucks!  It is still faster to figure stuff out on this machine than screw around with the Kenmore every 20 minutes.  I really want a Pfaff,  cash donations are welcome!

Friday Night Fun

Since my husband spent his Friday golfing and is now watching the hockey game I am going to spend the night in my sewing room!  I can't decide if that is sad or not!

Thank Goodness for the Practice Cake

In honour of my inlaws' 40th wedding anniversary (and the arrival of my Kitchenaid) I decided to bake a lemon chiffon cake.  They are my mother-in-law's favourite and it never hurts to suck up.  The good people at Kitchenaid even have a recipe for such a cake so I knew it would work out.  The day before I decided to make a practice cherry chiffon cake (substitute cherry juice for lemon flavouring and add some almond extract).  To complicate matters the practice cake had to be gluten free, sometimes gluten free things turn out funny.  Too dry, too heavy, rarely too wet.  All went well until I decided to use a bundt pan in lieu of an angel food pan.  I filled that pan right to the top without thinking that the cake would rise.

It tasted fine but the oven needed a good scraping out (and will be cleaned eventually) before I could bake the real cake.  Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

The actual lemon chiffon looked and tasted great thanks to the correct pan size and my husband who scraped the oven out!  I forgot to take a photo though.

A reasonable approximation of my cake, I did add some food colouring to the glaze.



A Good Day!

Happy Mother's Day
My husband REALLY loves me!

Today I got to use my Mother's Day Gift for the first time!  I made a cake with my toddler for my mother-in-law's birthday.  There were still a few lumps in the batter so I don't think I let the Kitchenaid do its' thing long enough.  The icing was SUPER light and fluffly though! This weekend I am going to try two chiffon cakes, one gluten free and one regular.  I have a recipe from the good people at Kitchenaid so hopefully they will both work out.

The finished product.  Note how the smarties are either pushed deep into the cake or held on with toddler spit!

I also completed Chickenbutt's Sir Topham Hatt doll.  I have to say that it looked a lot better before I sewed the applique down.  I used the (cheap) Heat N' Bond and am not very happy with the end result.  I did not find that it stuck very well and it is quite crunchy to the touch.  If I were to redo Sir Topham Hatt I would use felt.  I think it is more toddler friendly.  I also should have cut him out right side out, he is not quite even.  I would have liked more green background.   However since Chickenbutt is currently playing with a paper print out of Sir Topham Hatt I think this will be OK. 



Oh!  My little puffin has turned into a Wren, a happy little songbird!

A House Full of Chicks



In preparation for spring and Easter I mistakenly decided to make a chick craft with the Chickenbutt.  She had a great time and suddenly we needed to make at least one chick a day for at least a week.  I was pretty impressed as she was able to decide where the face parts and feet should go without my help. 

One of the first chicks and a bunny.  This is the lone bunny as chicks are way more popular around here.



 I did learn that one should be willing to spend a bit more for glue both in quality and quantity. Dollar store glue is not going to cut it for toddler crafts!







A free form chick with pink feathers.  The danger of leaving all the pompoms available for use!

 



A chick with pompom feathers and the painted plate chick.



She Hatched!!!!

Well the egg hatched and out came the Puffin.  A heavy bird with a lot of crazy hair.  She is happy and healthy and always smiling.  She hatched three days after her cousin so that was super exciting.

Here are a few of the things I managed to get done for the girls.  BAH!  Apparently I did not take any photos of the bears, dolls and elephants!

I also did not manage to get The Saggy, Baggy Elephant quilt started/done for my Puffin.  Now that she is here I am not sure if I want to make that for her or find some other puffinish fabric for her.

Here is a dinosaur I made for antoher neice.  It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!  It was from my One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Projects book by Patricia Hoskins and Rebecca Yaker.  I know that the point of the book is to use up the fabric you already have but...