Camp craft: JOURNALS

I really had fun helping the girls up at camp make some paper bag journals

Our them was a Doctor Seuss inspired one.

"Oh the Places You'll Go"

We wanted to incorporate the theme this year to Ask God and so my brain storming came up with the phrase,

Oh the places you'll stand when you ASK for God's hand.

A sister in our ward donated paper and I searched online for free fonts that looked like Seuss.
I also used free clip arts with Seuss type art and made tags to go on the front of each journal.

I printed multiples on a page of card stock and let the girls pick the one they liked and cut it out to fit on the cover of their journal.

I'm sharing not because I am a designer (I'm not) I just thought they turned out well and you can use them too if you want.

Fabric Ring Stacking Toy

 I noticed my daughter really enjoyed playing with some stacking rings when we were out visiting.  With her approaching birthday I decided to make her some.

Stacking rings are sort of fundamental toy and a classic one at that and I love classic toys.

I dug through my fabric stash and pulled out a bunch of scraps and pieces.  I knew this project would be great for using remnant smaller pieces.

I thought it would be fun to approach it like a mini quilt and sew together fabrics to create the look I wanted.

Some of my rings have one fabric on one side and another fabric on the other side.  Which I think is lots of fun.

I noticed when I was stuffing the rings that the natural tendency is for the ring to square up.  I think this is due to the fact that four edges have a straight grain and the other four are on the bias and move out of their rounded shape and let it look squarish.  I am not sure how to overcome that.  Perhaps with a fusible interfacing?  One that isn't too stiff but stabilizes the the bias so it doesn't stretch out of place and the rings maintain their roundness.

I  pulled out the quilt top I had finished and a couple other fabric toys I have made for color comparison and included those for reference.

I wanted them to look cohesive and also didn't want them to have too much of the same fabrics.  I am sure my baby girl won't care one way or another but it will make me happy when I look at it.  Which equals lots of happy!

I did a web search for patterns and amazingly didn't find much.  So used circle templates.  Later I searched and found lots more but by then I had already made mine.

This link is like the ones I made
http://www.detectivehoundstooth.com/stacking-ring-toy/
I really loved the  pattern I found today by Heather Bailey and wished I'd found it couple months ago.
here is a link so you can have it!
http://www.heatherbaileystore.com/product-p/sp003-hs.htm&Click=25

If you notice my base is very flat I did not stuff it but used a firm interfacing that is often used in purse or handbag construction.  I love it!  I also used it in making the cone shape and it has lots of support. So that meant less batting in the cone.

I am pleased with how it turned out and I am glad she likes he birthday gift that I made for her.
In the end that's all that matters!

Yellow floral dress

baby E  # five above in 2011

I sewed this dress years ago for baby E (#five) and now my # 7 girlie is wearing it.

I was inspired by a dress I remember from my babyhood.  I remember it because of pictures.

I wish I could remember my baby self.  Here it is as a sort of flash back and an update on my baby.

Boy is she growing.

cupcake carnivore

My girls love the show Cupcake Wars.

So they gave themselves a version of the competition at home.

What you see are bacon topped cupcakes... yep thats the challenge they whose to use.

I gave them points for the pretty presentation.

cute in blue

No, I didn't make this but definitely  could have.

She is a cutie and an inspiration.

Happy sewing!

picking buttons

I sewed a couple of bishop dresses over the summer to learn this wonderful sewing pattern.

Then I promptly left them laying in my sewing room waiting for hems and buttons.

I recently went and got buttons for this one.

It is late enough it can no longer be a Christmas dress so we can go for Spring!

I'll post one of my girlie wearing it later but for now you can have this little peak.

playing with my new mini charms

looking to make a quilt for my baby and thought these colors were cute....

still not set on what the quilt will be.....

need to figure out the pattern, but at least I have these to dictate the colors  :)

sewing for my babies and their babies

I made nightgowns for my girls and their dollies.
Do you have a stash of fabric that you think "hmm I will use this for this purpose..."

Well, I looked through my collation and realized my saving fabric for children wasn't
going to last forever because children grow up.  So I pulled out these children's knits
and began cutting.

They turned out pretty cute!  The girls like matching their babies too.

creating for my class

I serve in my church the young women aged 12-13 and help the leaders of the other older girls with joint activities.  We are excited to have the completion of the Fort Collins Colorado Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

To give the girls a momento to remember this time and to use at the dedication
I decided to embroider handkerchiefs.  It ended up being quite the job.

As we know anything worth doing has some opposition.  I had my first machine just stop working and I spent too much time probably figuring out how to get the temple embroidery I liked.

I finally nailed down the perspective I liked and using my software for my machine and my husbands loving patience and help with the computer, I got a working design and embroidered and embroidered and embroidered some more.  Sewing in mass is an adventure.  

I am going to count all my hours of work toward my Young Women's Personal Progress Faith Project.

amazing how a new hat makes one's day

My sweetheart gifted this hat to me on our anniversary.


Hats always make me feel pretty.

early morning walks

Time together is the best time.

lets make halloween

It's always fun to dress up for the best costume holiday ever!

This year I have  TRON's Gem, a Pokemon Anime girl, a candy corn, and a 1940's Nurse.

wished blessings of sweet felicity

One of my favorite activities is to make and create for a new baby!
Also blessing a baby and presenting her to be raised as a daughter of God is a reason to celebrate.
This dress was a joy to sew and dream up.

I was inspired by shadow smocking that I saw here!

I also had not ever made a bishop dress.  So I made a couple to prepare myself
for this experience and then took the plunge and made this gown.

At the top of bodice you will notice I made a soft scallop to the edge of the aqua batiste.

Then I pin stitched around it.

My darling girl was angelic in it for her special day.

Here you can see the the pretty Monogram

The hem I did a shadow scallop repeating the style at the bode and a couple of different laces.


With grandma holding her you can see the godets of voile with their pretty
burn out design.  I loved that fabric very sweet.

Kisses from Mama.
Did I say I love this girl?


I set her down and took a picture to show off her hair.  Of all my babies she has the most.
Only Girlie 5 could rival her.
Also I was really proud of the the button loops I crafted with a cast on technique.

following footsteps

Budding artists over here at my house!
My tres girlie brought this to me and announced her design needed to be sewn up for her!

Chocolate Strawberry and Vanilla

These little girls are my joy!
And right now they have a Neapolitan of hair color.
With a blonde, read head and a dark baby fuzzy brunette, I have one of each today.
I know tithe growing up the baby hair color fades and other colors show up as they
grow so we will see what in store for them in the future.

sneak peak of my work

I am having a delightful time hand stitching for my darling girl.

Blessing dress #6!

Check out what I made This Summer