Last Two Shoulder Bags: DONE!

Another thing from my list: the last two bags for Kristin.

Side A:

Side B:

 

These are essentially the same as the reversible purses I’ve been making as little girl birthday gifts. In fact, they were made as a result of one of those purses. Last August, I made this little purse, and matching  notebook cover, for one of my daughters’ friends for her birthday.

Soon after, the girl’s mom was thinking about what she and her co-leader could give to her group of girls from church. Ah yes! Make the purse a little larger and it would be perfect for carrying a Bible and the spiral notebook each teenage girls would be using in their study.

The prototype I made seemed too long to me. (Happily, my work wasn’t wasted; a teenage friend of mine didn’t think it was too long and now totes her stuff around in it.) So we decided to make them wide instead of tall, more like a shoulder bag.

The three of us spent way too much time in the fabric store and eventually picked out four prints and two solids that all coordinated.

Then we had a couple fun assembly line sessions where we put together the purses, each having a different combination of one solid and two prints. So, like the girls for which they were intended, they would all belong together yet each one would be unique.

Like the purses, each bag got a monogram. But there were only 10 girls. So we only finished 10 bags. The last two have been stuffed in my “current projects” cubby, waiting for monograms/owners. Since September 2008.

I finally finished them up without personalizing them. But since I had an extra “j” and an uncut square leftover (in the correctly matching fabrics no less!) I laid those in place before snapping the photo below, to kinda show what the monograms looked like.

Hmm, this reminds me – I never did make that purse tutorial way back when, did I? But that will have to wait til the ballet skirt (#1 on Sophie’s Mommy-To-Do list) is finally finished too.

Tooth Pillows

A tooth pillow, mentioned in this post at the end of March, was finally made, in honor of Heidi’s third lost tooth.

Also, a pillow for Sophie. Who is (assumedly) still years away from losing a tooth.

But she was so excited by all the tooth fairy talk that I had to make her one too.

That, plus the fact that it was her white fabric I wanted to use, a fat quarter she bought when we were at the fabric store last week.

I started to take pictures along the way, but forgot to continue after I sat down on the couch next to Kenny to embroider the names. So I’ve made a one-page pattern with notes. (Thanks for the format idea, LiEr.) Let me know if it’s helpful – it’s my first attempt at something like this. I’ll also include thumbnail photos at the end illustrating the steps I did capture…

By the way: Reason behind NOT cutting tooth shape out before sewing in step 8 is that, this way, you don’t have to worry about the two layers shifting a little as you sew the curves. I didn’t even bother pinning – just held the fabric and guided it through, lifting my presser foot (with the needle in the down position) as needed to help get around the tight curves. Also, if you’re using a hoop to embroider, it’s a lot easier to place if it the tooth isn’t cut out yet. (See last photo below.)

I’m hoping Heidi can make use the pillow again soon! Her other front tooth is s000o loose and she, of course, enjoys doing crazy things with it like making it look like Nanny McPhee’s uni-bucktooth. Lovely!

(Click to see larger size)
Steps 1 & 2:

Steps 3 & 4:

Steps 5 & 6: 
 
Getting ready for Step 7:
 
The end…

Merry belated Christmas, Al!

Mom has just a little more to do:  hand-stitching the brown border down. And then clipping lots of extra thread. And then finding a washer big enough so it can gets its first washing. And then she’ll be bringing it along when she goes to visit you next week!

Every quilt needs a name. This one’s is Double Love. Borrowing from the tradition of using red squares at the center of “log cabin” quilts, symbolic of the “heart” of the cabin, we used red squares for all the centers on the ragged squares side. Al, we hope that Love is always at the center of your home! Then Double because it was made by two of us, therefore holds double the love. Plus, it’s a double-sided quilt.

Since putting a label on the “back” side of the quilt wasn’t possible, we decided to embroider the info on one of the tan border pieces on the structured/diamonds side. Fittingly for a Christmas gift, the piece had some holly leaves on it. Plus a guy with a dog. Except you’re so much manlier than that guy with the tree, Al.

And there would need to be two dogs of course. Both MUCH LARGER than the one pictured. (Ken shown below with Tucker and Sierra, missing being a dog owner!)

And see? You will get it before your birthday after all!

I love you, Little Brother!

(P.S. Above photo taken by my totally talented sis-in-law, Jen.)

Fast Felt Board

Needed something to entertain Sophie while I worked on Al’s quilt this week during the quiet afternoon hours when Heidi’s at school and Lucy’s napping. (Something other than my easily over-used usual go-to solution: TV.)
Perfect timing: earlier this week, Suzanne gifted me with a felt board they weren’t using anymore. No pieces, just the board. And Sophie was willing to let me cut up the bear she made a few months ago. (It was the only felt I could find in the whole house!)

Just started cutting random pieces as fast as possible – I had a quilt I wanted to get to before the calm was gone. Amazing what a kid can do with a pile of felt that looks, frankly, quite ugly to a certain adult. 


I did finally remember the stuff that had made me want to make a felt board in the first place; a few months ago while I made purses, Heidi artfully arranged the scraps leftover from various monograms and embellishments. So I pulled out that bag o’ bits and was able to add a little more color variety to Sophie’s pile of orange, red and green.


Once her “town” was “done,” she needed a new setting idea. “Zoo,” I suggested. Can you identify all her animals? Bottom left triplets hint: think midwest, burrows… Oxbow exhibit, for those who are local. : )

Just like Flylady says “Housework done incorrectly still blesses your family,” I now say “Felt board done haphazardly still blesses your kid.”
But I still do want to make one along these lines someday.
When Al’s quilt – and everything else on the list – is done. So, maybe someday.

Hamburger Cookies

They look like little bite-sized burgers, but they taste like chocolate-y, coconut-y deliciousness!
I first saw these at a bake sale when I was in elementary school and still remember my glee at seeing such cute little cookies. And they are so easy to make…

Ingredients:

vanilla wafers, chocolate frosting,

sweetened shredded coconut, green & yellow food coloring

Steps:

1) Pour out a pile of wafers and dust the crumbs off of them; otherwise the frosting doesn’t stick so well and is harder to spread.

2) Spread frosting on flat side of wafers, lots of frosting on half of them and just a dab on the rest.

3) Color coconut with food coloring until it looks like lettuce; using green is the obvious choice, but adding a touch of yellow makes it less day-glo, more realistic.

4) Sprinkle some coconut on the lots-of-frosting wafers. Make sure to get it around the edges; if it’s only in the middle, you won’t see it!

5) Put a dab-of-frosting wafer on top and press down slightly. 

6) Let sit for a while so frosting can crust over a little and won’t squish out the sides when someone bites into the burgers. Finished!

Additional Comments:

* Instead of chocolate frosting, you can substitute Nutella. Yum!

* Especially if you’re making this with small children, I suggest having a damp cloth nearby so people can wipe off the inevitable frosting that will end up on their fingers instead of licking it off. And then having to go wash their hands. Again.

 

* These look even cuter when they have sesame seeds stuck on their top wafer. I'd always heard of that being done by brushing on some egg whites first as “glue.” So I don’t usually do that because I figure some people don’t want raw egg on their desserts… Possible other options would be honey (maybe water down a bit) or corn syrup. Any other ideas?

* Added from the comments below: After being stored overnight in a ziploc bag, the moisture from the frosting has softened the wafers just a touch, so now they're wonderfully bite-able. (When they're freshly made, biting into the crunchy wafers causes the burger-frosting to squish out the sides, especially if you're using Nutella.)