Nathan's class helped make this quilt for their teacher who is having a baby this month. I went into class one day when she was absent and helped them make their hand prints.  It is the first quilt that I have completely hand quilted (the piecing was still done by machine).  I really love the way the hand quilting around the hand prints looks!  His teacher loved the quilt and the kids were so excited to point out their own hand prints to her!

Deo Galaxy

Here is the quilt I made for my brother and my new sister-in-law for their wedding gift.

Halloween Costumes

Halloween costumes!

Pay It Forward Homemade

A friend offered a facebook challenge for the new year.  Her status said that she would send something homemade to the first 5 people to comment if they promised to do the same for 5 other people.  So far I have sent things to the first 2 people - a pair of music themed pillow cases and this very fun felt pizza play set.  I bought the pizza pattern from one of my favorite shops on etsy.com and stitched it out on my embroidery machine.

How I spent my snow days

We have a lot of Legos at our house.  It was getting to be impossible to build anything at all and I was all out of storage and sorting ideas.  So when we had a few snow days last month, I decided to sort the Legos by color into Ziploc bags.  Since then we have been recreating the kits using the list of pieces in the back of the instruction books.  A certain someone has a renewed interest in building with Legos now that the frustration of sifting and searching is gone.  So I think it was worth the time it took to sort them all.  To be honest, it was worth it just to hear the excited, "Thank you!" when my Lego master realized what I was doing.

Valentines

 Origmai hearts made by Zachary and me for his classmates

 Heart puzzles and the card that went with it for Nathan's class.  based on an idea I saw here.

One of the churches I play for has a sewing group called Lydia's Piecemakers.  They make quilts and layettes for Lutheran World Relief.  Last weekend, a year's worth of sewing and quilting was dedicated and will be sent off to be delivered around the world.  You can see where the quilts were sent in 2009 here.
The quilts and layettes were spread out in the nave on the pews.  It was a beautiful sight!

 

Here are the three that I worked on.  I pieced the tops and the other ladies layered, tied and bound them.

School Backpack

N wanted a Thomas backpack for preschool but I didn't want to pay more for one with Thomas on it.  I remembered that I had bought a book of Thomas cross stitch designs a few years ago and that we had a 3,500 mile road trip ahead of us.  I had all the supplies needed in my stash.  So I thought of a way to entertain myself over the miles and for N to have an less expensive Thomas backpack for school.  Here is the patch I made for the backpack (which is bigger than he is!), and it only took about 1,000 miles.

Nathan with the new quilt and pillowcase he got for his 3rd birthday today. I was still stitching on the binding an hour before his party!

This is the gift that was inside the handprint bag. Mom went shopping with me for all the fabric, but she was surprised that I had finished it in just 2 weeks. The pattern is from a great book that I got for Christmas. I also made a matching pillowcase from a pattern in the same book.

When my parents were visiting we went to the French Market in Western Springs.  The local bank was handing out free shopping bags at the market.  The problem is, my dad won't use a bag with a bank logo on it.  So, I had Nathan paint some hand prints and sewed them over the logo.  I used the bag as a gift bag for mom's birthday present.  I'll post a picture of the gift that was inside as soon as I find one.

My friends Michele and Jeff.  They loved the onsie!

Chritsmas Onsie Skirt

A few years ago I embellished a bunch of onesies with Christmas trees and have kept them in a box under my craft table.  I was trying to think of a gift for a friend who is having a girl later in the summer and for some reason thought of putting a skirt on one of them.  The skirt part is made from an old T-shirt.  I love the way it turned out!

Denim and Roses Skirt

   
I just love how this skirt turned out.  I made it from an old pair of Z's jeans that had holes in the knees.  I love the roses and hearts print of the fabric and the way the ruffle turned out at the bottom.

Zach's Class Gift

I had fun working on this project for Z's teacher.  I wasn't sure what the end product was going to be when I started, but I'm very happy with the way it turned out!  The kids in his class signed a piece of canvas, morning Kindergarten on one side and afternoon on the other.  I stitched over their names and used the panels as the sides of a tote bag.  The bag is lined with very cute ABC fabric and it is a good size to hold tons of books!

My first post

It's hard to know what to write in the first post of a new blog.  I've been wanting to start a blog about the things I enjoy making for a while now.  I love reading many different craft blogs and trying the ideas I find out there.  I don't know if anyone will find inspiration from what I post here, but you never know!

The name of my blog comes from my youngest, who is now 2 1/2 years old.  His favorite food is macaroni and cheese but he calls it "mac-and-roni and cheese."