Creative Process

I don't know about you but for me my creative process usually includes a mess! This morning I decided to throw together a bag for a boy in Nature Girl's preschool class. It's meant to be a nature bag to hold binoculars and treasures from a nature hike. Nature Girl got one from Miniswap 3. Christie from Mama Said Sew made the cutest nature bag for her. I can't find it at the moment to take a picture but that was my inspiration for this bag. I cut the legs off a pair of men's corduroys and used that to create the bag. This is the mess on the floor while I was sewing. I'd like to say this mess is unusual for me but it's not, it's part of how I sew and create! I did get it all cleaned up before heading off to a BBQ this afternoon.

I hope that the bag doesn't look too girly. The lining is the blue fish material, so hopefully it's appropriate as a birthday gift for a 4 year old boy. We have a pair of binoculars and a bird watching book to put in the bag. If he does think it's too girly he has a sister who can use it and we're including a gift card to ToysRUs so he won't be left empty handed.
Enter Val's Give away. . . .
Remember Nature Girl's recycled jean apron? I was inspired to make that recycled jean apron after seeing Val's apron. Well guess what, Val is having a give away over at her blog Yarni Gras. She's giving away the apron or an ami book, so go enter now. I entered, I just love that strawberry apron!

ABC meme

Susan tagged me for an ABC meme, so here goes.

accent: no

breakfast or no breakfast: yes, toast with butter and a Coke to drink

chore I don't care for: washing dishes, putting away groceries and laundry

dog or cat: For me cats, but I love dogs if they belong to someone else.

essential electronics: computer & phone

favorite cologne: none too stinky!

gold or silver: both

handbag I carry most often: bags big enough to carry rocks for Nature Girl. I'm currently using the cherry bag I made for myself.

insomnia: Yes especially if I drink caffeine in the evening

job title: mom, wife

kids: one 4 year old daughter

living arrangements: just the three of us(my husband, daughter and I)

most admirable trait: I love to help and volunteer

naughtiest childhood trait: talking too much – yes, I'm still chatty!

overnite hospital stays: at 4years old I had tubes in my ears and when I had my daughter

phobias: snakes, things that cut flesh freak me out too

quote: Progress not perfection.

reasons to smile: Because I have a good life. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter and wonderful family and friends.

siblings: One older brother and two younger sisters.

time i wake up: Not until my child wakes up. Preferably after 8 or 9.

unusual talent or skill: I can't think of any right now.

vegetable I refuse to eat: radishes & I've never tried okra

worst habit: I can be obsessive about things(unfortunately that doesn't include cleaning!) I'm a perfectionist about my own work(not about the work of others, just me.)

x-rays: a few growing up

yummy stuff: caramel, chocolate, caramel brownie cheese cake, cookies, coke, chips, swiss cheese, extra sharp cheddar, bread, pasta,

zoo animal I like most: Giraffes -Have you ever seen a giraffe run? It's very graceful & elegant. And those long legs quickly cover the distance.

I haven't tagged anyone but if you'd like to play along consider yourself tagged!

Sorry no photo tonight. I worked on painting the milk cans today. By the time I was done painting, my arms, feet and hair all had red spray paint on them. I probably should have taken a picture of myself but I didn't. I hope to share pictures of the milk cans in a few days after the paint has dried and I put the finishing touches on them.

A Recycled Apron For Nature Girl

Today I was folding a mountain of clean laundry when I came across a pair of Nature Girl's jeans that are a size to small and have a hole in the knee. Nature Girl loved my swap apron so I decided to cut up her old jeans and create a recycled apron. Yesterday I saw Val's apron made with Lucy's apron tutorial so I was inspired to give it a try. I adjusted the tutorial a bit since I was working with a pair of 3T pants. I used both legs and sewed them together to create a bigger apron. I gathered it at the waist, lined the back and added a band of fabric for the waist and ties. To cover the hole in the knee I sewed three circles cut from the jeans. I think they will fray in the wash and look more like flowers in time - you can see the circles at the top on the right and left sides since I feel the need to make things symmetrical. I also cut the pockets off the back of the jeans and sewed them on the front of the apron. Nature Girl immediately stuffed a plastic inch worm(a treasure we found in the parking lot at the park) in one pocket. The jeans already had some nice embroidered trim and a flower with butterfly on the side so it didn't need any extra embellishment. Nature Girl is pleased with it. She wore it for about 10 minutes before she came to me and said " You made something with my old pants!"


We headed out to the craft store to pick up scrapbooking supplies for an end of the year gift for Nature Girl's teacher. While we were there we came across the flamingo fabric Barb used for the tissue cover and card wallet I won in her blog give away. Since Nature Girl was a little sad about sharing our goodies from Barb, I had promised her that we would look for Flamingo fabric for her. So today we stumbled across two flamingo fabrics. In the end Nature Girl picked out this fun one. Now we just have to decide what to do with it. Nature Girl has had a few ideas but hasn't decided yet. So far her ideas are a new napkin set for her school snack box or a pouch for her treasures. She's leaning toward the pouch idea.

Swap Updates and Swap Mail

Today I finished taking pictures of my swap creations then sent them off to their new owners. The cherry apron is headed south, the red bird quiltie is headed to the west coast and the Mother's Heart mini quilt is headed to Kristie in Kentucky.
Three swap packages went out today and one arrived. Thank you Kim! Kim sent me this orange & pink apron for the Sassy Apron Swap. Nature Girl was a little sad that it wasn't a swap for her. Orange and pink are her favorite colors so she said "Mommy, when I get bigger I can have a turn with your dress." That will take quite a few years but in the meantime she was thrilled with the flower stickers Kim included in the package. She took them to bed with her then woke up crying at 4:30 am because she dropped them and couldn't find them. I stumbled into her room with one eye half open and managed to find them so we could all get some more sleep.
I've had a great time with the Sassy Apron Swap and am looking forward to making and wearing many more aprons in the future!
Lucy over at the Sassy Apron Swap is coordinating Apron Angels which is an effort to create 100 aprons to give to the victims of tornados in her community. If you'd like to help by sewing an apron contact Lucy at byrdhouse1(at)windstream(dot)net I'm excited to get sewing and create an apron for Apron Angels.

Fruit Eater

We headed out to dinner tonight before doing our grocery shopping. A family meal out is always fun but Nature Girl has a different idea of what constitutes a good restaurant. Her favorite is McDonald's while her dad and I pretty much detest eating there. It's obviously not the food but the toy that brings her to request McDonald's as her first choice. We ended up at Applebee's which she was happy with. They serve a lemon on a little plastic sword in her dad's ice tea. She gets to keep the sword and eat the lemon. Yes she's a fruit eater and eats lemons like they were oranges!

Here she is eating lemons and making lemon faces.

Miniature Booty Swap Quilt Done

I finally finished the Quilt for the Miniature Booty Swap. This quilt is going to Kristie. So Kristie stop reading now if you don't want to spoil the surprise! I've been very nervous about this one since my partner is a lovely person who has been quilting for 10 years. I didn't want my first mini quilt to be a big disappointment. I certainly lack quilting experience so I tried to make up for that by trying to personalize the mini quilt for her. She is a mom who lives for her family so I immediately thought of the poem a Mother's Heart.
I decided to make a quilt that included a heart pocket where she could tuck the poem and pull it out to read it. For the background I tried paper bag piecing, so you'll notice that there isn't a pattern to the pieces. I have a hard time being random in crafting so this was great for me to try. My husband is an engineer and it drove him crazy every time he walked by it. He wanted to try to make a pattern out of it. Honestly I'm usually like this too but the fact that it's random doesn't bother me. I like it.
The finished quilt is approx. 18" by 19". Both the heart and the quilt have been machine quilted by me. The poem was printed on muslin and sewn into a tag that tucks into the pocket. I'm fairly certain the ink on the tag will run if it gets wet but it looked so nice printed that I couldn't bring myself to use my handwriting on the tag. Now without further rambling, here is my very first mini quilt called A Mother's Heart.

Quiltie Swap

I took a little break from my Miniature Booty Swap quilt and worked on my quiltie for the mini quilt trading swap. I don't think my partner Katie reads my blog but Katie if you're reading and you want this to be a surprise stop reading and hit your back button!
I took my first crack at hand quilting and think I'm happy with the front but here's my question for all of you talented quilters. Is this what the back should look like?
First let me say I had no idea how to hand quilt. So I went with what would work for my design. I used embroidery floss for the quilting, when you see the design on the front you'll understand why. I used 3 strands of floss doubled up & tried to do a knot-less method so the back would be neat. It worked most of the time but the brown and green stitching looks a little messy on the back. What are you really supposed to use for hand quilting? I know I've bought hand quilting thread by mistake before and my machine doesn't like it! Do you do just a single strand? The finished quiltie is 11' by 8". I've found binding the edges to be a challenge. Despite Susan's help and a very detailed Flickr tutorial I still can get perfectly mitered corners. So I decided to do a thin border then add the batting and sew a back on before quilting it. I think it worked. For my quiltie, I knew I wanted to go with my favorite red bird. I like to draw and paint these little red birds on things(Nature Girl can draw these birds too.) Anyway, I cut out the bird and sewed pieces to get the bird, branch and background together. Then I quilted on leaves, clouds, the branch and around the bird's body. I added a button eye and a wing that sticks out. Overall I think I'm happy with it but I feel like the leaves should be all green. I probably should have tried appliquéing on leaves(something else I've not tried to do with a quilt yet.) I'm tempted to dry brush it with green paint but after all of the work I hate to ruin it, so I will probably just leave it and mail it out like this. I'm still waiting for my partner's address before I can send it out. Now it's back to work on my Miniature Booty Swap quilt. That quilt is almost done and will be mailed out by the end of the week I hope.