It's Christmas in July - Quilting

It's Time to Get into Gear for Christmas

It's Christmas in July and time to start crafting, making and baking, if you want to be ready when the holidays roll around. So, here's a little homemade holiday inspiration to help get you going. 

Homemade Halloween Quilt

Can you see my Halloween Quilt behind my dog? She is tired of me sewing and wants me to go outside and play. So, we did go outside, but only for a little while because it was hot today in Portland, Oregon. 

But, I threw her ball for her. 

Now, it's on to my next project for Halloween because I have a lot of them I want to get done over the  next two months. Still, I was  really pleased  with this super simple quilt. I love  the pops of orange on the back of the couch.

How about you - do you make your own homemade holiday decorations and does any of your projects include sewing? 

Now, I'm planning on making some holiday pillows to toss around the house. Those little pillows are simple and they sure add some more color to the fall months.

If you decorate, let me know  what you're making. I'd love to hear from y'all.  And, let me know what you think of my quilt. I think Freya likes  it because she's guarding it ;D

Christmas Quilt for VLOGMAS Day V

 Maybe I should call this a Thanksgiving Quilt because I'm like a kid. I couldn't wait for Christmas to gift this to my sister. I could barely wait to tell her I was making it for her. And, if you take a  peek down in the right-hand corner you can see a cross-stitched Christmas stocking that I gifted to my girls. I have the worst time keeping secrets or holding back on gifts. I just love to see the expressions on peoples' faces when they open their presents - and right now, I think we could all use a little more early Christmas joy. Anyway, I had  to get a little help from my friends on picking out the pattern to use. So THANKS  to everyone who voted on my poll post. This turned out better because of  all the input I received from everyone. I'm a  novice quilter and as you can see, this is a super simple quilt but I'm hoping it will brighten up a spot in my sister's house over the holidays. 

And, if you would like to see my quilting process, check out my YouTube video here on how  I  made this  quilt for my sister. And, while you're over there,  check out some of my other Christmas  projects on my VLOGMAS list. 

If you've been quilting, please share some of your projects with me in the  comment section below. 

https://youtu.be/lu06g3Kbj3Q

Quilting and Homemade Stuffed Animals

Those of you who know me, know I love to make, bake and create. I just can't seem to help it. "Sew" when I saw this little elephant fabric, I thought, "I'd love to make a little stuffed elephant for a friend's baby shower." Of course, I'd never made a stuffed animal before but again I thought, "How hard can it be?" 

Lucky for me, I was thinking in 2D not 3D. If I'd had to make four legs, that would have thrown my making into another dimension entirely...thus, 3D not 2D.

But, if you're like me and have never made a stuffed animal (without a pattern) and you're curious how I did it, just keep reading.

First, I was inspired by this fabric, which I used to make the backside of a baby blanket for my friend's shower.

But like everything I do, inspiration comes from many sources. Do you see the yellow and gray polka dot ear on the front side of the baby blanket? Well, immediately I thought an all gray elephant just wouldn't do. Imagine that. But I was also inspired by Mike Curato's Little Elliot - Big City books.

 I just heard Mike Curato give a presentation in L.A. at the SCBWI Summer Conference. I thought, "I want my little elephant to be all polka dotted--like little Eliott." So I went in search of some more fabric - this time polka dotted. And I figured I only needed about one-fourth a yard for a stuffed animal. 

Then I thought, "I really like the shape of the little gray elephant above." So I drew the shape on a piece of paper (and I'm not an illustrator or an artist) so I drew it lightly, in case I made mistakes (which is super silly because it was paper and I was using a pencil--duh, I could have erased a mistake-but whatever, that's what I did). 

When I got that done, I drew the shape right on the fabric.

Cut it out and laid the front sides together and sewed around the edges. I left a little section open so I could stuff it (I made a mistake here--I left the trunk open to stuff, I should have left a foot open to stuff so it wouldn't be noticed as much--but that's the way I did it.)

After I had him stuffed, I sewed a couple of yellow ears on (because I had some leftover yellow fabric from when I made my Candy Corn Cushions for my benches out in my yard). Then I took some leftover material and braided a tail and sewed those on. But I still needed an eye. I didn't want to sew something on that the baby might pull off and eat so I embroidered a little eyelash around one of the polka dots (on both sides). And Voila...or, as I would say,  Wah-lah!

I had a fun little gift for the baby shower (a baby blanket and a stuffed elephant). 

Let me know if you have made a stuffed animal for a child. I'd love to visit your blog to check it out.