Five Foot Two

Sock monkey update....

Here she is!!

She is on her way, to a lucky little girl.

I hope she gets her share of hugs and kisses!

Here is her back side.

The whole process was fun. 

I made a very big mistake on my first attempt. 

I did not sew up to the heel of the sock and therefore the monkey has no "seat"!

I quickly realized I better pay closer attention to the directions. 

These are the set of socks I picked up at target for $6.

I ended up making her tail out of the brown polka dots,

 and it did not really turn out how I would have liked. 

I needed to add some more brown, so I made her hat out of the toe of the brown sock.

I am always happy to contribute my crafting to a good cause. 

So thank you craft hope, for inspiring me to try a new craft while helping a preschool burn camp.

the finished baby quilt.....

So, this quilt has been finished for awhile.

 I have just been a lazy pants about showing it to you.

  Because i took awful photos of it, and i have been meaning to redo the photo shoot...

but i haven't after all this time....

So here it goes, anyway.

 i like it....

i don't love it...

i didn't get to pick the colors, so i feel like it isn't all mine, but boy did i learn how to quilt.

 yahoooo!!!

thank you bobbins nest, and maria my instructor....

my favorite part.... my signature in stitches.

ta-da!

Too bad the baby i was making it for is a boy!!

shucks. 

I had a 50/50 shot.

and lost.

i've caught a sewing bug...

i signed up for a baby quilt class at my local yarn/sewing store the bobbin's nest. i made a picnic quilt 

last summer and i thought i might give a real quilt a try.... if someone decides to have a girl, this may just be a perfect gift.....

i like it so far.

I have almost completed the whole quilt top. which i thought was most of the work, but seeing as though i have 3 classes left, i think there is a lot more to do. YIKES.

the first thing we made in class was a cute pin cushion.

 now i want to make more of these!!! it was really easy....

I set off to make a couple of birthday presents from an online tutorial from erin. it is hard to tell from the picture, but you wrap these around a hot cup of coffee from starbuck's and you keep your hand protected from the heat.

they helped hone my sewing machine skills. so as you can see things have been sewing up nicely around here!!!

Picnic Quilt completed...

i am in {heart} love with my finished quilt.

 We used in on the sand at Lake Tahoe last weekend. I have trouble calling the lake shore a beach, any body else have that problem?  I think it has to do with growing up near the real beach in Southern California. Sorry, back to the topic....

It was perfect. I don't have great photo's of it, but I promise to post better ones. 

Friends like it, my sister in law wants one for Christmas, so on the whole it was a huge hit with me. I am going to take some quilting classes with a sewing refresher. That way i won't need to put the sewing machine in time out as much. hee-hee.

So thank you House on Hill Road for the great online tutorial!! I loved it!!!!

Picnic Quilt update....

I have truly enjoyed making this easy quilt. I have it almost finished except for something a little extra that I found for the finishing touch! 

 

(Here I have the blocks stitched together into strips before I sew the strips together)

This is where my temperamental sewing machine enters in again. I am giving it a rest, or more like I sent it to the corner for a time out. darn thing..... It looks like I might be making my way to the sewing machine doctor again. It could not be me, could it? of course not.

(this is after I stitched the edges together and I am about to turn it right side out)

Coming up soon the final product.....

Just in time for a fall picnic, or a drive in movie!

If I can get my sewing machine to work!!!

Picnic Quilt with rock pockets.....

Okay, here it goes. My very first quilt attempt. I have been flirting with the idea for awhile, hunting for the perfect one. But every quilt I have liked, seems so overwhelming to start. What if I don't like sewing all of those tiny strips of fabric together? 

Then I saw this free tutorial on sew mama sew from Erin's blog. She made it seem pretty easy and it looks like I could do it in a short amount of time. Who doesn't need a blanket to keep in the car for picnic's, soccer games, cold evenings at the drive-in,and as a beach blanket.  You never know.

So I began my search for fabric and here is a sneak peak at my progress so far.....

Someone else (with fur) found the fabric as soft as I did. Notice he is on the couch, laying on all the uncut fabric.

This is what I have laid out so far. I am going to think about it for a day. I want to see if I really like this combination together. What do you think?

To be continued.....