"Blankets wrap you in warmth, quilts wrap you in love." ~ Anon.

I, creator of the let's-think-of-the-most-complicated-new-project-that-I-know-nothing-about-but-I'm-going-to-start-and-finish-in-less-than-a-month plans, have finally created a project that was actually simplistic, something I know a teensy bit about, and finished it in about a month! My dear friends are expecting their first baby in March and I really wanted to make them a quilt. However, unlike my first quilt that took me over a year to complete and give to friends, I wanted to design one that was simple but cute and give it to them BEFORE they have their baby. Mission accomplished!

Originally, I wanted to make two baby quilts: one representing the father's home state/university (Ohio State U) and one representing the mom's Irish heritage. I decided this about two weeks before the shower (that was an old Miranda plan). But when I went to look for fabric, surprise surprise but in Pittsburgh it was hard to find OSU material. But while browsing the fabrics in Joann's, I stumbled upon the sailor bear print, which is just adorable.

Image from Joann.com

I belatedly remembered that their nursery would have a nautical theme and thought, "New plan!" How about I only make one quilt? And instead of a MILLION tiny squares, I choose a design with bigger blocks. I roamed the store to pick fabrics that went with the theme and I found the octopus one next. I wanted to pop out the bits of red on the sailor bear print and I finally found the red fabric that looks like tiny bubbles. I was happy with just these three prints and I pored over a number of my quilting pattern books to find a design that was small enough for a baby quilt but balanced equally with only three prints. And ta da! Here is the final product.

I will also admit that with my first quilt, I didn't necessarily follow ALL the instructions for how to make one, start to finish. And frankly, I think those details matter. If you look at the pics of my first one, you can tell it's a little puckered (on the back mostly) and luckily, the larger design and tiny square variations hide much of the other imperfections (at least I'd like to think so). I'm sure my friend's toddler doesn't care!

But for this second one, I wanted to learn correctly and do it right. In about two weeks. That's a rough timeline for me! I ended up taking a month, but I have to admit that all those details (like ironing your fabrics, changing your needle...) helped make the project turn out well AND made it easier to sew along the way. It certainly created less problems towards the end of the quilt's completion. I'm so pleased with how it turned out and I hope the little one loves it!

I have a bit of the quilting bug now and I'm torn between wanting to create one for me and hubby's king-size bed (we desperately need a new cover) or making my daughter an adorable little quilt. So addicting!

Roses are red, Violets are purple, Isn't it a shame, Nothing rhymes with purple?

I haven't been able to craft and sew as much as I'd like lately (with work, baby, and classes). But when Rory's daycare sent home a note about a Valentine's Day exchange if parents wanted to participate, my first thought was A New Project!

I like practical things, even if they are sentimental. I also love holidays and traditions, just for the sake of celebrating the holiday. We have to make life interesting, right? Valentine's Day is one that I know I will enjoy more and more each year with my kid and hubby to celebrate it with. And who am I kidding, I love hearts. So I didn't want to just buy a pack of Valentine's cards, write the babies' names on them, and that be it. I know they'll get tossed or just take up space somewhere. Then I thought about making personalized Valentine's cards. Hm, a step in the right direction but not quite it. What would babies love? And what can I make that I'm good at?

Aha! A personalized Valentine's book. And even better, it can have a hard cover, but have the inside be like a soft cloth book. There will be a little poem, different textures to touch, and commemorate baby's first Valentine's Day (or second for some). Of course, this took up a good bit of my time. But when I have an idea in my head, it's just not going away until I do it!

Ta-da! Here is one of the book's I made for Rory's classmates. Her book has a different poem in it but it's the same construction. It helped that there are only 4 other babies in her classroom. There were many details I wanted to add (I wanted to have felt letters throughout instead of using non-toxic markers); but I was running out of time and had to reassess as I kept going. I wanted them done for the party and I wanted a book for each kid. So some details had to be sacrificed. There is a layer of batting inside each cloth page, just for added thickness. I then sewed each page to ribbons that are attached to the covers. That way it's all secure! I hope the kids enjoyed them (I know the daycare workers did) and if they stay in Rory's group, they can expect more crafts to head their way...for good or bad! Check out the pictures below and hopefully soon I'll be posting my and Rory's St. Patrick's Day craft. We recently had a mommy and me day (daycare closed for professional development day) and we took advantage for some fun. Hopefully I won't post it as late as summer!

Baby Gonzo Halloween Costume, all finished!

It is much delayed (though not forgotten during that whole time...just not a priority) but here is the finished costume! Rory's first Halloween, dressed as baby Gonzo, and she slept through the whole parade.

I dressed up as Nanny, though pretty much no one knew who I was. Hubby (below) put together his costume that week as animal. This photo is right before the parade, but she fell asleep right before it started. We walked through the whole thing with her passed out! Poor gal.

In the photo below, you can get a better view of Gonzo's face (some people in the parade knew her costume right away, but some little kids called her Elmo. *sigh*) I know I took photos of just the costume, but I'm not sure where those are at the moment. And you've waited long enough!

Constructing the head took by far the longest amount of time. There was a lot of hand-sewing, hot-gluing, stuffing (for the cheeks), and generally just patience that was required. The eyes were tricky but not as much as the nose. For the mouth and the bottom half of Gonzo's face, I added snaps. That way, it would be easy to put on her and just open up the mouth if needed. I also made the entire hood snapped to the body. That way if she got hot, I didn't have to take the whole costume off, just the hood! In the picture below at her daycare party, you can see how the mouth is unsnapped.

We included Camilla, a toy wind-up chick we have for the cats to play with. Sadly, we didn't win any prizes this year. But she looked so cute! And I've kept the costume because I think I can even turn it into a puppet of sorts. So, a very belated Happy Halloween! We've already though of ideas for next year's costume, though some of them she may  be too small for. And eventually, she'll want to choose her own costume. But I'm not ready to think of that yet!

Baby Gonzo Halloween Costume: Overalls

 I finally finished the first part of the Baby Gonzo costume after some weeks of working on it here and there. Originally the plan was to find a free overalls pattern but there weren't any online that matched up with what I was looking for. And I didn't want to try it on my own just yet. So I found a pdf download on Etsy. It did the job, although parts of it could have been written or drawn a little clearer. I figured it out but it would have saved me a little bit of time. The pattern does have many sizes, so as Rory grows, I can make her lots of overalls!

The pieces were, mostly, straightforward but there were a couple of tricky areas. One was sewing the snaps in the bottom so that I can change her diaper easier! The other was sewing the buttonholes. I've always done them by hand (poorly) but I used my sewing machine this time. Oh my goodness! How wonderful! I will never sew buttonholes by hand again! The snaps were another story...I've tried them in the past with the little hammer tool with no success. I decided to give it another shot and I failed again. Perhaps the fabric layers were too thick for the teeth on the snaps? No matter. I had to find sew-on snaps and I had a lovely 'duh' moment in Joann's. I was confused why the package had only the plug part and not the sockets. I spent WAY too much time staring at all the snaps packages, trying to fit them in other snaps, until I finally asked the woman working with the sewing machines. And she showed me that the pieces are already snapped together in the package. I would've figured it out eventually when I got them home! But they were much easier to put in.


Finally, Camila the chicken! Well, baby chick. Gonzo has a little chicken applique on the front of his overalls. I sketched it up and made my own pieces out of felt and fleece. The butt feathers are a little skinny but oh well. So what do you all think? Close to the original? It will probably still be a little long and wide on her but once she has the rest of the costume on, that will fill some of the bulk. I've started on the next part (blue furry body) so stay tuned!

Baby Gonzo Halloween Costume: Materials

Many times during a project, I often forget to take pictures until I'm halfway through or I've already completed certain steps. It's not like I'm writing tutorials so that's usually fine. And I'm just blogging for my own amusement. But since I'm really focused on sharing the Baby Gonzo costume's progress, I thought I'd share what materials I'm planning to use before I even get started.

I originally purchased a pattern for the overalls but decided to return it, confident I could find something online for free. Well, that hasn't really been the case but I've found numerous tutorials where sewers have managed to construct their own. So I'll just attempt my own pattern and see how it goes! I'm hoping that the overalls can be wearable separate from the costume (because they're so cute!), so they'll need to fit well. The red corduroy fabric will be the main overall fabric and I still need to raid my stash for a lining fabric. The scraps of yellow fleece will make the chicken applique and I found cute yellow buttons to fasten the overall straps. Little snaps will complete the legs so it's still easy to change her. :)

Now for the tricky part: Gonzo's face and fur! It took me a bit to find a fabric that could work as furry muppet skin. At first, I was envisioning something a bit more...furry? Like the thick fake fur stuff. But they didn't have blue of course and I only briefly considered buying white and dying it. Then I stumbled on this blue fleecey fabric (technical terms of course!) and it felt perfect! It has just enough of a pill/nap to it that it can be interpreted as fur and it's the perfect color (cheap too!). I decided to just buy a hoodie in her size (well, the size she'll be around Halloween) and sew the blue fur to the outside of it instead of trying to make a hoodie out of it and line it, add a zipper, etc. I need to think efficient! Thus, the grey hoodie.

Now, for Gonzo's head, I'm going to use the hood as a base and then construct a 3D effect of his nose and mouth with cardboard tubes and paperboard. It need to be light enough that it's not wearing heavily on Rory's head so those materials should be perfect while retaining shape and stiffness. I'll cover the nose, face, and mouth interior with the felt pieces I have displayed (light blue, black, red, pink). As for his eyes, I found the perfect size styrofoam balls. I'll paint the dark iris part and then for his eyelids, I have the felt bits I can use. I want it to really seem like a muppet, not just looking like one. I may even cover the ball with white felt first, use black felt for the eye, and felt for the eyelid. Then it will seem even more like a muppet. Also (and it might be hard to see up there next to the light blue felt and hoodie), I needed to find something to make the little feathers that stick up from Gonzo's head. Luckily, there was a little feathery accent piece on clearance at Joann's that I can snip some from and hot glue on. Hooray!

Last but not least, Gonzo's shoes. Rory may or may not be wearing shoes yet (she has narrow, long feet which are hard to find baby shoes for), but she'll need them to match the costume appropriately. The white and yellow felts in the upper left corner will be used to construct a shoe coverup to match Gonzo's costume.

And so far that's the plan! I need to double-check old episodes of Muppet Babies to see if there are any details on the back of Gonzo's overalls. And now I'm eager to get started with the actual sewing!