Happy Easter

Our trio of Easter baskets!

I love Skip to my Lou, and found these CUTE bunny Easter toppers for a treat bag.

I made green for Takeshi...

Blue for Ernest...
& pink for Hannah.

They loved it!

Ugly Fabric Challenge

Ugly Fabric

Our local quilt store hosted an "Ugly Fabric Contest". They had 6 different bags of "ugly" fabric sets (1 yard of the "ugly" fabric and 4 coordinating fat quarters). My ugly fabric was the brown and teal paisley. I didn't think it was ugly at all, but the some of the matching fat quarters I didn't like. I didn't know what to make and asked several people for their opinions. Kira referred me to Freda's Hive, where I found this umbrella pattern. I thought it was perfect for my fabrics I had, so this is the finished project! Finished size is 31 x 33

"Welcome Spring"

It's hard to tell from the picture, but in the teal it says "Welcome Spring". Here's a closeup of the word spring.

Here's a closeup of the quilting. I didn't quilt it myself, but I'm taking a class to learn how. I love the pattern she quilted!

Here's a closeup of the umbrella part and the quilting.

And finally, the back of the quilt. I think it turned out pretty nice for my first "real" quilt :)

The finished projects will be on display at Quiltique from April 1st to April 29th. The project that gets the most votes from customers during this time will be the winner. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I win!! Make sure you go to Quiltique and vote for me!!!

More Personalized Bags

Max's Church Bag

I made a few more bags to be used as quiet bags for Church. The one above is for my 4 year old nephew Max. The 2 bottom ones are for his friends. Their names were too long to put on the bag, so I decided to stick with their initials. I just love this fabric!

For the C & D I used the font "Shangrila" in 900 pt. For Max's name I used the font "Maiandra GD" in 450 point for the letter "M" and 300 point for the "ax". I used "Heat n Bond lite" and edge stitched to secure the fabric even more.
While I was using the iron to seal the fabric with the "Heat n Bond", I didn't realize how close I was to the nylon webbed handle. As you can see it melted part of the handle. The handle is still strong, but I was so upset by what I had done! I didn't even notice it until after I had melted the 2nd bag's handles too!

I still think the bags turned out cute, even if I'm still upset about the handles :)

Valentines Fabric!

Too cute!

I found this fabric at Joann's today for 1/2 price! It's perfect for Valentine's Day, but I know I won't finish it for this Valentine's Day! I bought the last of the bolt and it measured 2 1/4 yards. Maybe I can use it for the back of a small quilt? Any suggestions?

Fabric Notebook Cover

Fabric Notebook Cover

Here is a super easy Fabric Notebook Cover from Skip to My Lou. The pattern is only $1.99 and is worth every penny. Hannah loves to write and I thought this would be a cute way to keep her busy in the car.

I love this fabric! (Woodland Bloom by Lila Tueller)

I bought a 3 pack of steno books from Walmart. I think they were $2.98 for the pack. I bought extras so I could make some for Christmas next year. Next time, I need to remember to wash the fabric first. I washed the fabric cover AFTER I made it (Hannah drew on the fabric cover) and it shrunk slightly. I had to trim the cover of the notepad down just so it could fit again! Oops!

Summertime on Harth Farm

My Photo Collage

This summer we spent a week at my Aunt's farm in Minnesota. I was enthralled with farm life and took tons of pictures of everything around me. I decided to make her a picture collage of my favorite photos from her farm. Brooke gave the pictures a vintage look and feel and Bridget gave me the idea for the small plaque on the bottom. I love how it turned out. I hope my Aunt loves it just as much as I do.

Recycled Crayons

Recycled Crayons!

Crafty Dasies has a great tutorial on making recycled crayons. I already had a box of crayons that had an unfortunate accident,

and even more crayons that are the the larger (aka baby) size that my daughter won't use anymore. Perfect for making recycled crayons!

1. Using an exacto knife (or a 3 year old), take the wrapping off all of your crayons and break them into 1/2" to 1" pieces.

2. Option 1: Put "like color" crayon pieces into a mini muffin tin and bake at 275 for 6-8 minutes.

3. Option 2: Put "like color" crayon pieces into a microwave safe cup/mug and heat for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on how many crayon pieces you have in the mug. When it's melted, pour into a cute shaped ice cube tray or candy mold. I found my snowman and santa ones at Deseret Industries for .50 each. Don't use ones that you love or paid a lot of money for, because mine broke when I pulled it out of the freezer.

4. After the crayons come out of the oven, let them sit on the counter for a while, and then put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. They should just pop out of the molds and you've got some great recycled crayons for little artists!

Put them in a gift tin with some tissue paper and you're ready to go!

Aren't these snowmen so cute!!! I love them!!

For the snowmen, I found a tin that fit the 8 colors perfectly and had some room to spare for a few sheets of blank paper (rolled up and tied) for coloring. This one is for my nephew :)

Here's just a couple of "crazy" santas we did with the extra melted crayons.

Cleanup was pretty easy too. We just soaked our mugs that we melted the crayons in, for about 30 minutes, in hot soapy water. The crayons cleaned right off the mugs!