Sunday, January 29, 2012

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 Smile), and I’ve used this tutorial from Heather Bailey for the binding of both of them. 

Here’s the top:

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And a close-up of one of the blocks:

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All finished!

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One project down, 11 to go!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

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.

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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!)

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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.

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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!