Crafty January

Between the house remodel and a super busy work schedule, I haven’t been very crafty over the past few years.  After finishing my Christmas craft, I decided that this year I’ll complete at least one crafty project a month.  To start January off right, I decided to finish up a baby quilt I had started a few years ago, and luckily got it finished just in time to give to a co-worked the week before she had her first baby.  I figured I probably shouldn’t start on 12 new projects without finishing the ones I had in limbo!

To make this quilt, I bought a set of flannel receiving blankets from Target or Fred Meyer (like I said, it was a few years ago that I started this!).  I then just found a pattern that seemed like it would be fun to make and cut up the receiving blankets into the right right sizes. 

For the backing I found some flannel at JoAnn’s that matched the rest of blanket and cut it down to size. I used the same fabric for the binding as I used on the back. This is only the second quilt I’ve finished (besides a bunch of little patchwork quilts as a kid ), and I’ve used this tutorial from Heather Bailey for the binding of both of them. 

Here’s the top:

And a close-up of one of the blocks:

All finished!

One project down, 11 to go!

A Fun Christmas Craft

During November I stumbled across a tutorial for an adorable little Christmas ornament of a Matryoshko Doll.  I decided right then that I just HAD TO make some as gifts for family and friends.

Here is the Matryoshka Doll Ornament from the tutorial.

I’ll be the first to admit that my embroidery skills are seriously lacking, but Danielle’s instructions were SO easy to follow.  I made a few tiny modifications…I didn’t do quite as much embroidering, I used some different stitches, and I just put all my pieces on my top background instead of embroidering onto the white pieces and then onto the back…but I think they turned out so cute!!  (oh yeah – and I picked out a bunch of different colors too!)

I cut out the pattern (I think I printed out the pattern at about 25%), and traced it onto a manila folder.  I then cut that out and used it as a guide for all the dolls I made.

Now I just need to make one more to keep for myself!

 

A HUGE thank you to Danielle of MySparkle for putting together this awesome tutorial.  Everyone I gifted these to just loved them!