Crafty! Yardsale Patchwork Crazyquilt!

Here's that quilt I mentioned a few posts back. I am in the process of stitching everyone's name onto a square. I plan to add our town and the month and year, too. I really like this quilt. The size of it is sort of the length of a twin bed, but not the whole width of it. Like a long, sort of narrow rectangle. It's pretty fun and very satisfying to work on it a bit at a time. I ought to bind it up though, then I can call it finished whenever I want. It's not finished until it's bound, as any quilter will tell you.

Crafty! Baby quilt!

I whipped this up yesterday and gave it as a gift to some friends of ours who just had a baby. (Hello out there!) I like the use of orange and purple and blue here.

and this is also, clearly, the best way to photograph a quilt so you can see the whole dang thing in decent light.

Crafty! My first quilt!

Here it is, ain't it purty? made of the softest flannel ever. What a treat to work with, that flannel was. Here it is on the guest bed in the cozy/play/tv/sewing room (in order of order of room makeover), and here it is in outside at the farm. THANKS MOM for all your help!

Crafty! Fused Plastic Shopping Tote

How about this now! I read about fusing plastic bags online and thought I'd give it a try. Apparently, if you place 6-8 layers of plastic shopping bags between two pieces of waxed paper, (trimming the bottom and the handles off and opening it wide, giving you two layers of plastic per bag), then iron it for 15 seconds or so, you can create plastic sheets that you can sew on your sewing machine!

Market Basket is my much loved local grocery, so I was happy to see it's logo figuring prominently. And that's duct tape binding the seams, lining the bottom and making the handles. Sure did use up a lot of plastic bags! A pretty fun project. And the bag is very sturdy, I assure you! Will be perfect for food shopping.

Here's a great looking bag that inspired me and gave me many good tips... from a really terrific website, by the way. I have been going to craftster.org many many times a day lately... Craftster.org, "Extreme Plastic Bag Makeover"

Crafty! Headband

This is a little headband I whipped up. It looks so cute on Maggie, but you should know that she disposed of it immediately after I put the camera down. :-(

Crafty! Harry Potter Shirts

While at the Cape, the older kids were crazy for Harry Potter. Here are the two shirts I helped fashion for Henry and Cassidy for the different Book Release Night plans they had. Quidditch is apparently a sports game played on a broomstick, and that's Professor Dumbledore on Cassidy's shirt. Beloved Headmaster of Hogwarts, is what I'm told.

Crafty! Emroidered Apron

This is going to be a Christmas gift for someone (luckily she never reads this blog). I asked Maggie to draw a picture of her cousin Brooke, and so she did. It was so lifelike that I had to do something with it. So I traced it onto a dark blue apron I picked up at Ocean State Job Lot (gotta love the joblot) and then stitched the design in using the same color thread as the crayon Maggie'd chosen for her drawing. Then I asked Henry to write the receipents name on the apron, and stitched that in with yellow.

I realize it's not going to be the most practical apron for a kid to wear, but fooey to that. The bug was biting and I had to scratch!

Crafty! Powerbook Sleeve

I picked up a sewing machine a few weeks ago at a yard sale and have been cranking away ever since!

This is a sleeve I made for my Jeff's powerbook. I found the Krusty the Clown T Shirt at a thrift shop and fused it to some fleece interfacing. The outside is made with vinyl tablecloth and the inside is just some extra fabric I had laying around. In between the two, two layers of batting!

I'm pretty thrilled with the result, although I may add handles or a strap of some kind. It'd be nice to be able to secure it to your body in some fashion, and would also be a good heads up as two which end is up, so the computer doesn't come sliding to the floor!

The T shirt was going to be for maggie, but it was so big, it woulda taken forever for her to grow into. When she saw that I had repurposed it into something for dad, she was crushed...