A Productive Day

So! Apparently I need it to be hot more often!  Yesterday got warm enough, seeing as our AC is busted right now, that as soon as Little Badger woke from his first nap (around 10am) I whisked him away to the basement play room to help keep us both on the cooler side. 

I keep a playpen down there so when nap time came around again I decided to try and get him to nap downstairs as well since his room seems to get the hottest in this house.  Last time I tried to get him to nap downstairs is didn't go so well.  But this time he went down easy and stayed down for a good hour.

In that time I was able to make this. . .

With plans to make a second one. But that clip ended up elsewhere as you'll see later.

And I cut out the fabrics to make these. . .

Then after nap, instead of his usual "I'm gonna scream and cry if you leave my line of site" he plopped down on the floor and engrossed himself in a pile of random rattles and rings and didn't seem to care where I was. I took the opportunity to sew up the flax seed filled pillows I'd just finished cutting. If you've never had one, these things are great for putting in the freezer and then on warm heads and backs and anywhere else you want cooled off. Maybe I'll call them Chilly Pillies?  Too weird?

Anywhoo. . .

I have and eye pillow sized one that I use on my eyes when they are tired and itchy. Really helps me get to sleep. So I decided to make a bunch of bigger ones for bigger parts of the body or maybe for Little Badger to hug when it's really hot in his room at night.

I managed to finish two of them before dinner and was just filling the third one right before he woke up post bedtime. (He's a frequent night waker.)

In between the first two pillows and the third one I ended up making something I was pretty excited about.  After sharing the Nuk Keeper I made on Facebook, a bunch of friends started throwing suggestions at me about needing something that holds bigger things.  So the gears started turning and soon as hubby got home I ran back to the art room and. . .

Ta-Da!!!  The Multi Keeper!

Hold many different kinds of things. . .

and tethers in 3 different ways!

Loop It!

Clip It!

Wear It!

Now, I fear I made it too long, but a quick knot in it shortens it up in a pinch. Might have to play around with length if I make another.

But I was productive and it felt good to get so much time at the machine.

So there,  3 projects done!  

. . . . another 30 still backlogged waiting to be worked on. 

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Fabulous Publishing Presents: Folklore Crafts Garden Gnomes

First off let me just say...

GNOMES!!!

Seriously, how cute are these?  

By Christine of Muse of the Morning.

And these?  

Designed by Redd of Dame Named Redd

And how about this?!                               

      

By Tara of Sew Tara.

And what's even better, the tutorials and patterns for all these and more are available in one of two book freshly published by Fabulous Publishing! 

"Fabulous Publishing is a new ebook publisher for crafters by crafters. FabPub was founded in 2012 by Shayne Rioux of noveltykitten. Redd Hynes of Geekopolis joined shortly thereafter."

"Made by crafters, for crafters".  Sold! Because who knows us better than ourselves!  The projects are cute enough to draw in the crafting veteran yet simple enough that a beginner need not fear.  

In fact the project I chose to make for the review turned out to be super simple. So easy that when the first one was a bit too small to fit Little Badger, I whipped up a second one in less than 15 minutes!

Want to see?

An extra bonus is that the beard detaches from the hat. Just in case you want to wear the hat solo.

As you can see it was the red one that was a bit on the small side.

If you want to learn how to make your own bearded gnome hat or any of the other cute projects in this or their other book, Folklore Craft Matryoshka,  head over to fabpub.com or folklorecrafts.com to buy your own copy.  Fabulous Publishing believes that craft books should be fun and accessible to everyone, which is why they are offering the books as a PDF download as well as a Print- on-Demand option.

I'm really looking forward to their next books! Coming soon they will be releasing books in The Crafty Hipster series, Monsters! series and Inspired series, including Zombies!, The Crafter Hipster: Owls and Inspired: Artists.

In the mean time, head on over to craftgossip.com tomorrow (May 30th) for the next review in the ebook tour!

And if you're following the whole ebook tour here is the list:

5/28    Margot Potter    www.margotpotter.com
5/29    Joanna Montrichard    thatthingimade.blogspot.com
5/30    Vikram Goyal    craftgossip.com
5/31    Kathleen Dames    kathleendames.blogspot.com
6/1      Samantha Townsend    geekysweetheart.blogspot.co.uk
6/2      Redd Hynes    damenamedredd.com
6/3      Renee Lavinsky    myuglykitty.com
6/4      Val Hebert    valsartstudio.blogspot.com
6/5      Jessica Blaszczak    ballstonarts-craftsmarket.blogspot.com
6/6      Shayne Rioux    transcraftinental.com
6/7      Jean Yates    prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com
6/8      Leesandra Diaz    sweetspotcards.blogspot.com
6/9      Jo Stafferton    feelingstitchy.com
6/10    Lori Anderson    prettythingsblog.com
6/11    Paul Hynes    g33kopolis.com
6/12    Alexis Lebrow-Wolf    whatthecraft.com
6/13    Anna Gailey    weeklyenthusiast.wordpress.com
6/14    Chrissy Leiberan-Titus    museofthemorning.com
6/15    Susan Beal    westcoastcrafty.com
6/16    Tonya Simmons    thetroublewithcrafting.blogspot.com
6/17    Sherezada Windham-Kent    handeyemouth.blogspot.com
6/18    Shayne Rioux    geekcrafts.com



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My Treasury Monday #3

'Quilted' by LifeinaLens

As a follow up to Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day(week), I decided to do a quilted treasury. I haven't yet tried quilting myself but I know a lot of the crafters and bloggers who take part in the giveaway are. Here's to you crazy quilters! :)

WEEKEND ONLY Price. Drawstri... TickleandHide $5.00	Garden Fence Quilt - Lime, T... materialgirlki... $160.00	Horse Pillow quilted silk Ha... maxinefashion $36.99	Quilt - queen size - spring ... btaylorquilts $580.00
Gray Skies PDF Quilt Pattern TheVintageClot... $9.50	MarveLes COSMO SPRING Collag... marveles $150.00	Peak Hour Boy Quilt and Pill... SunnysideDesig... $165.00	Modern Baby Quilt - Pixelate... PippaPatchwork $235.00
Upcycled Tote, Vintage Quilt... betsyandbess $90.00	Quilter's Palette Quilt ... redpepperquilt... $8.50	Art Quilt, Sunshine Garden W... TahoeQuilts $138.00	Family Tree Quilt (Custom Or... EQuiltShop $400.00
Mega Man and Mega Lady Pillo... PracticalEnric... $100.00	Spiral Burst Bargello Quilt... lilbeckscorner $5.99	Sewing keepsake jewelry box ... dickdocker $5.00	Memory T-Shirt Quilt (Made t... TheHappyFarmer $250.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

And The Winners Are *drum roll*

Here we have it! The end of Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day (week).  It was fun while it lasted. Did you enter as many as you'd hoped? I didn't. Life got away on me this week. But there is always next time!

In the mean time, I best you're wondering who won the two giveaways I offered up! So without further ado...

The winner of the baby cardi is...

                   Lisa   25 May 2012 00:39

                   Your sweater and the baby are beautiful. I would love to win it my daughters best   

                   friend another child I have adopted while they where in high school just had a baby  

                   girl. Her and her husband are Military and live in Germany. So, if I might win it is 

                   going to Germany to be worshiped and yes I would make sure they knew who made
                   it!  Lovely!

And the winner of the white and lace is...

Jodi!

                       Jodi  22 May 2012 20:21

                       Oh beautiful! Thanks for the chance to win!

I'll be emailing both of you later today. ^_^  

Thank you to everyone who entered. And thank you for all the kind words about my little boy!  

I was fun reading all the comments and if any of your sticking around here for a while then welcome aboard.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the future will bring for That Thing I Made. 

Thank you all again! Till next time, keep on craftin'!

My Secret Sister's Crochet Cozie!

Yay!  My Secret Sister, Mutant Supermodel, got her package!!! That means I can finally talk about what I made for her. ^_^

Let's start back here. . .
For the last few years I've been on a quest to make the perfect crochet cozy. Finding the perfect balance between pockets, folds, places for big hooks, places for small hooks, closures and flaps.

My first one was great for a start,

But see that top flap to keep the hooks from falling out? Yeah, that was sewed on AFTER the whole thing was sewn together. . . cause I forgot that I'd need it.  And eventually my supplies out grew it and so I passed it on to my mom when I taught her how to crochet.

Back to the drawing for a new idea. . .

Turns out even if it fold in half the long way, you still need something to keep the hooks from falling out when you open it. Also, I should have used some interfacing inside for a little more structure.  The pockets were fine but it was too flimsy.   So once again, back to the drawing board.

Then came the secret sister swap. After spending a day poking around my Sister's blog, trying to find out what she liked, did, and needed, I had figured out she liked to crochet. Ok, that's a start, but then I got to thinking, hey!  Crochet cozie! Making packs and cozies of that sort or one thing I'm decent at. But did she already have one like that?  More searching showed m as best I could tell, she only had a pencil case she was using.  And so I got right to work.

But my last design had too many issues. So this time, for my Secret Sister, I went with more of a book fold again, this time in quarters.

I think picking the fabric was the hardest part!  I hummed and hawed over purples and yellows, and oranges, and pinks, and finally settled on a lovely purple paisley with lots of extra little colors in it and a fun tan with coffee beans.

Next came the planning. . .

and marking, and stitching. . .

And I'm a bit silly. Instead of using a like thread to hide the stitches,  I like using a contrasting or complimenting thread for top stitching for a little pop.

This time I also added some strong interfacing in the middle fold to give it a more structured book like binding. (Missed getting pictures of it though)

But put it all together and ta-da!

I threw in a few extras for a little something something and to show it's potential. AND I hid one of my photo pendants inside the little pocket!

Then I just attached this really cute bright red key chain tape measure, put it in a box with a light floral scarf, a blue necklace that screamed buy me as I was leaving Value Village a couple weeks ago, a wound ball of my favorite Vanna's Choice purple yarn, and my favorite flavor of tea from cup of tea. (You can't go wrong with A Raspberry in Paris from Cup of Tea!  It's so yummy smelling and tasting and being a rooibos it's naturally sweet and (or at least not at all bitter) and even my step dad liked it so I figure it's a winner (Because he's not even a tea drinker!). All this piled on top of a magazine of Crochet Afghan patterns. Full of lots of really funky designs.

And there you have it.  All boxed up. And word is she liked! I'm really happy too.  I had started to worry I hadn't sent enough or good enough gifts. This being my first secret sister swap and all. But all is well.

Funny thing though, just as I was finishing up the cozy and getting ready to pack everything up, I popped on her blog to see what she was up to and found a window shopping list. At least I knew from that I did well in my choice of items as the last two items on her list included things like scarves, necklaces, and crochet stuff.  ;)

 

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