Back to the Lottery!

Now that I have completed the projects I wanted to for the baby-or at least to the point of sending them off to be quilted-I am back to the lottery projects! You can see them all here, here and here.

WooHoo!

For those who are wondering, there is a tab on the website labeled, "The List." Very creative, I know. But it's the list I use to keep track of what's in the lottery. When I am ready to pick a new project, I use a random number generator found on the internet and that picks my next project from the lottery.

Anyway, the next project is.....

Another quilt!

I can't believe it; it's not that I don't like making them but it feels like I have made quite a few since the beginning of the year.

 I just went and looked through my posts since January and I really haven't made that many. I guess I was kind of hoping for something that didn't require me to stand at my cutting table for long stretches of time. I suppose that's the dark side of my lottery system-I don't always get what I want. 

Luckily, it is another jelly roll quilt-I love them so much-but it is my last one....until I buy another one!

It is for one of my sweet nieces and it should go pretty fast. Nothing super complicated-all straight seams and easy cuts. 

Here's the material I will be working with this time:

Happy fabrics for the happiest two-year-old I know!

I'll keep you posted and let's hope for smooth sailing!

Penant Wall Hanging

I'm not sure what exactly has gotten into me with this pregnancy--I have just been feeling really creative and have had lots of energy during the end of the second trimester and beginning of the third. Maybe she will be super creative, I don't know.

I first saw this quilt in Poulsbo, WA at Heirloom Quilts and loved it. I originally was going to do it for my son and make all the pennants in a nautical theme since that was his nursery theme. But......that never happened. Plus I found an awesome wall hanging for his room at a quilt store that went out of business, so that really worked out for me!

Instead, I made it for this baby. The theme for my oldest daughter's nursery was Peter Rabbit and my mom made some beautiful-absolutely gorgeous-curtains for her room. She also made a bumper and skirt for the crib which the new baby will use as well. Once I get those up, I will definitely post them because everybody should see just how talented my mom is and how gorgeous they are. For the new baby, I'm kind of going with a rainbow/Noah's ark/weather theme. I don't know. It all seems to go together and it makes me happy and that's all that matters, right?


The pattern for this quilt can be found in the book "Everyday Handmade." You can find it here on Amazon. The two women who wrote it have some really cute ideas.

That's a Jackalope stuffed animal, in case you were wondering

The pennants and clouds all cut out

I just love these fabrics!

Attaching the fusible interfacing I really like my shadow!

All the clouds and pennants cut out

Laying it out to make sure it hangs right

I can't get over just how cute the fabric is!

This is another quilt that has been sent to my husband's cousin to quilt for me as well. I thought about doing it myself but she will do such a great job and save me a lot of aggravation! I should get this and the baby quilt back from her by  the beginning of next month and I'll post updates.

That's it for the things I wanted to make for the baby. I'll go back to the lottery and see if I can squeeze in at least one more project before she makes her grand arrival!

Apologies and a Baby Mobile

My goal last week was to post four new items to the blog. If you weren't paying attention, that didn't happen. I was so proud of myself to have four new items to show all of you. But Tuesday of last week dawned and I realized that while I had been sewing and crafting to my heart's content, I had kind of let my house go. Now, this normally wouldn't be a problem but we were having guests come into town to stay with us that weekend and we were going to a wedding Friday night. All of a sudden getting my house in semi-working order became priority #1 over sewing, photography and blogging. Plus, it is getting harder to move as quickly as I want to as this sweet baby gets closer and closer to being born.

So, my apologies. 

But I do have a great craft to show you. And let me tell you, I am SO PROUD of this little gem for many, many reasons. 

First, there was no pattern for me to follow. I was inspired by a picture I saw -probably somewhere on Pinterest-and just started started playing around with ideas. 

Second, I was able to use supplies that I had laying around the house. The only thing I bought was a $1.49 spool of ribbon. I was also able to re-purpose something that usually we would throw out. 

Third, it turned out SO. DARN. CUTE.

I present to you: the baby's mobile!

Isn't it cute????

Here's what I started with

My workstation: the kitchen table

 I used some leftover felt from a project that I abandoned earlier this ear, plastic to make templates, scissors, a chalk pencil, scrap paper, and (not pictured) my iPad to trace a raindrop to make a template.

The templates

 You will notice when I originally started I was going to have raindrops hanging from the clouds but when I was sewing them together they didn't look all that awesome. They also kind of looked like teardrops which I wasn't really going for, so I switched it out for hearts.

Cloud

 I have another project to show you that uses clouds in it as well and used that template to make the clouds for the mobile.

Triangles for the sun. I used a bowl for the sun

Making the tent on top

 I was all done with this bad boy but it looked a little naked up top. I had taken apart the boats that had hung from my son's mobile and using that to hang the clouds and such. So, I looked at the tent topper (I have no idea what it is called) and kind of used that as a template to make the top for this mobile.

Hemming

 I kept on playing with the top to make it work. I hemmed it first and put it on the mobile; realized I needed to baste down the edges of the hem and then sewed a little diagonal hem about 1/2" from all four corners so the prongs of the mobile would fit inside.

Isn't it lovely?

I'm so stinking proud of that top. Plus, I think it really finishes it. 

Now, all I have to do is find the mechanism that attaches to the mobile that makes it turn and plays music. I know it's around here somewhere but if I can't find it, I think the baby will like it anyway. My son and daughter do; they keep on asking to get in the crib to play with it.

Yay! One more project done!