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.

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.

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.

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

EllaFun Party

Meet Ella, Bella, and Boo the elephant sisters. 

I sewed these darlings for my little girls birthday.

For her birthday I want to have fun with a girly Elephant theme.

I collected fun treats like Circus Peanuts, cotton candy and Taffy as well as Fruit Loops. 

Parties should be geared for the kids and not too grown up, right?

I got some fun milk bottles from Hobby Lobby that I put chocolate milk in.

My mom contributed the paper straws. I love those. These glass bottles are
not kid friendly and I discovered that quite quickly, but they were fun.

My sister in law is a cake genius.  She helped me decorating the cupcakes.  I
had a loose idea of making an elephant with fondant.  She took that and made these
darling "ellie" heads and embellished with juju flowers.  We stuck them in the middle
of super yummy strawberry frosting loaded with yummy strawberries and cream cheese.

My precious little one loved it. "My tate" she said of her cupcake.

"My mook."  (milk)

Pooh bear party

My baby turned 1! I can't believe it! When you are little a big party really isn't very important to the child.
It is more for the parents. We had a small party with cupcakes and crackers.
Yet a cute party for pictures to go in her memory book.

First I gathered up all the pooh bear toys we have collected over the almost eleven years I have been a mother. 

Some are vintage and some are classic but all are loved at our house.

My older daughters were in charge of making the cupcakes and they did a great job mixing and

pouring into cupcake papers.  I did the easy swirl of frosting on top then added a golden or orange 

gummy bear right on top.  

The next step was the most "work" for this simple party. Making crackers from scratch! 

I made graham crackers and cheese crackers!

For the graham crackers I used the recipe I found here!

The recipe says to cut them up in squares and you can, but I used a honey hive cookie cutter

that I thought matched my theme. This recipe is super yummy and we could hardly wait for 

them to cool and it was hard to save some for the party.  Remember if you want it more crisp

bake a bit longer. (unlike a cookie you bake less to have a softer cookie)

Here is the recipe for the cheese crackers it is really simple and we all love it!

I had fun making cheese crackers from two types of cheesesWhite Cheddar was my favorite

but the Dubliner cheese was the kids favorite.  Both make a more cream color cracker so the second 

batch we added some food coloring (I know silly) the kids really wanted them orange.

Then I cut out the crackers with carrot shaped or heart shaped cutters to go with the Pooh theme.

The cutting out is the most time spent. Suggest double batching because we ate ours so fast!

Or even keeping some dough in the fridge to make the next day.  YUMMMM.

My little one was celebrated and I got to have fun making a few new things.

She got to eat home made versions of her favorite crackers and feel love

from her family.  It was a good day!

Craft and Neon baby shower

Everyone loves "brown paper packages tied up with string"

A while a go I went to see my sister Lorajean and her new baby. 

These are pictures of the fun baby shower we threw her.

She has pictures on her blog here. (which look much better) and

I just couldn't leave this fun party off my blog.

We had so much fun putting it together for her.

Here is the mommy and her cute babe.

a Whale of a baby shower

I was delighted to help host a shower for a friend of mine this weekend

I was inspired by the baby shower eVite

working with that I made a banner with bright pink, orange, light pink and lighter orange

I drew free hand a whale and cut out a few.   I also made some picks to put in the treat jars.

Then of course I had to make something cute for this new baby girl!

A whale is a unique baby motif which I adored immediately.

I decided this baby needed a a "lovey" mini quilt with ribbons.
I appliqued the whales and waves with machine satin stitching
then I hand embroidered the spouting drops and hearts as well
as the faces of the little whales.

I used a cotton velveteen for the whales, so soft.  I also used some 

pink chenille and some dotty orange minky. 

This girly with have endless delight touching this mini quilt with 

all the different fuzzy textures and ribbon loops.

The baby shower was a success!

It was a fun group effort.  I made decorations and cupcakes and others did the food and shared the

use of their home.  That's the way to do it if you can and no one shouldered it all.

It turned out so cute! And of course the mama to be was so happy!

Maybe you are inspired and want to have a whale of a shower too.

 go ahead and use this whale shape for a template and have fun!

What's needling you... blue

Knitting needles and embroidery needle.

This little baby shrug just came off my needles!

My first attempt at a garment in a lace stitch.  (I need to block it)

This cute baby ensemble has been on my needles.

First on a search for vintage I purchased this pretty blue broad cloth and cotton print.
The pattern has a yoke neck and I embroidered some lazy daisies.
I wanted to bring some of the pink up and tie into the floral at the hem.
I loved the idea of a shrug with this little sleeveless dress.

So much fun to make.

So what's needling you?