Happy Home Craftalong!

I am honored to take part in the Happy Home Craftalong, hosted by Jenny of Sew Pretty Dresses.  This should be great! I ordered the lovely new Jennifer Paganelli Book from Amazon.  It arrived a few days ago and my girls and I have been ogling it ever since. We cannot decide what to do first!  But, we will, in time to post next week, June 21st. 

Here is the blogroll:

June 11 Jenny Fish www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 12 Cathy Caprio Peckiconis http://sewingstoryproject.blogspot.com/

June 13 Judy Buchanan  www.hickity-pickity.blogspot.com/

 June 14 Guest on Sew Pretty Dresses: Shannon Branscom Winters www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

June 15 Leah Kinghorn  http://makinglifewonderful.blogspot.com
June 16 Monique Reynolds  sewfunbymonique.blogspot.com/

June 17 Melissa Peda  100billionstars.com/

June 18 Jamie Harned http://theinsecurequilter.blogspot.com/

June 19 Stephanie Messer Danko www.tabbodesign.blogspot.com/

June 20 Kristi Pernell Elston  burlapbutton.blogspot.com

June 21 Kathy Hennessey  http://handmadedresshaven.blogspot.com/

June 22 Courtney Watford Davis www.sweeterthancupcakes.blogspot.com/

June 23  Guest on Sew Pretty Dresses: Jade Nocella Jenny Fish   www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com


June 24 Sally Keller http://sallysangelworks.typepad.com

June 25 Tour Wrap Up www.sewprettydresses.blogspot.com

First up, however, my baby turns 5 tomorrow and we have been having a lot of mommyandme fun since she finished up preschool two weeks ago.  *SOB*  My baby is growing up!

 Here she is at 30 minutes old

 Six months old

 Two years old, mama's first attempt at sewing an Ottobre pattern!

Five years old, mama's own pattern!

Happy Five Years, Eliza!!

 

Portrait of an artist

I grew an artist in my womb and now that she is out in the world, I still try to foster her creativity and help her thrive.  She loves to draw and was recently inspired by Project Runway Allstars to start designing her own clothing. Here is a recent design that she drew, something she wanted very much to have me sew for her.

Those are raspberries on the dress.  We spent a long time looking for fabric to match that, went to all three quilt shops in town, Joann Fabrics, looked on Etsy.  Finally, I found Moda Redwork Renaissance Cherries Porcelain at Sisters and Quilters on Etsy.   We were thrilled! Even though she envisioned raspberries, this cherry print fit the bill. Then, I remembed I had a copy of Portabellopixie Gracie pattern and I knew how to make her vision a reality! 

So, here it is!  Voila!  One tween vision come true.  She just turned nine and doesn't like little girl clothing anymore, so I am very happy to find something I could make for her that makes her happy.

Mod Podge in the kitchen fun

Thanks to my friend, Hope, I recently discovered the fun of Mod Podge.  I have long been a fan of all sorts of glue, but this one was new to me.  It is basically no different than watered down Elmer's but it has a fun name!  What Hope introduced to me to is the idea of using Mod Podge to make a collage on a small canvas.  You can use paper or, in my case, fabric. In the last few months, I have won several small fabric sets and have not been sure what to do with them.  This was a perfect craft for these smaller pieces of fabric.  

This was also a great activity for an dreary day when both kids were home early from school.  

 

 So, here we have the scene: my kitchen, laminated fabric to protect table, books of paper from craft store, Mod Podge, stack of small canvases, small bin of fabric, scissors.

 There are different kinds of Mod Podge. I bought Matte.

 Do I use the Anna Griffin or the Anna Maria Horner?

 Set of 10 small canvases.

 Oldest daughter just wanted to paint on hers.

 She decided to switch to acrylic paint at some point.

Youngest daughter started off with Dot to dot paints. 

 Then, she switched to watercolors.

 

 So, here is what I did. I cut up small pieces of fabric and arranged them on the canvas to look like a flower.  I painted glue over and under each piece as I went.

 Work in progress.  The glue is white but dries clear.

 Here I am,  hard at work.

 My second picture, halfway done.  Here's how to do it:  Cut curvy pieces of fabric or paper and layer them.  Cut smaller pieces as you go along.  Layer them in a circular manner.  Who cares if raw edges show? Contrary to popular opinion, flowers are not perfect. They have rough edges and flubs and slubs, so there is no way to get this wrong!

 The finished products, hanging above my kitchen window.  

I think I need to do two more to fill out that whiteness!

 Closeup #1

Closeup #2

This project took an hour from start to finish!

A pretty mermae

I am hobbled, a bit, from too much sewing due to a herniated disc in my neck, which is causing some mild nerve pain in my left arm. Luckily, I am left handed, so I am able to do a bit of sewing. It is just not good for my neck to do too much.  But this little project was perfect.  This is the mermae doll pattern from Bit of Whimsy Dolls.   My 8 year old daughter is an accomplished artist for her age and she decided to design how she wanted her mermaid doll to look.  We took the design to Joann's and found all the appropriate fabrics and thread colors.  This little pattern comes as a pdf and is very easy to follow.  The pattern even has a link to a video showing you how to embroider the face.  As I am not an accomplished embroiderer, this was very helpful.  So, here she is!   We made a few slight adjustments to her hair and her tail width, so she fit the picture my daughter drew.

Kids can be crafty!

My 6 year old daughter is quite an artist, in my opinion. She loves to draw and color. This weekend, she made this absolutely beautiful flower picture with regular crayola markers. I love the details. I loved it so much, I scanned it and uploaded it to Shutterfly where we turned it into mugs for the grandparent's Christmas gifts.