blanket bag - babyroom4

ok so this is the 4th camping themed craft that we've got for that lucky baby (lol!) it's a blanket bag to hold a couple of rolled up extra blankets for those colder nights in the nursery.

It just ties on to the cot bars in the same way as the cot bumpers and hangs nicely blocking the gap between the head and foot bumpers.

I used the same appliques and free-motion quilted the background as before (believe me, this is getting old now...i'm getting fed up with sewing these shapes!) It's hanging a little wrinkled here, because i still have to get some matching blankets to go inside.

The front panel was split after quilting and bias binding finished the open edges. See the blanket inside? Easy-peasy!

Although working out the geometry of the pattern was less easy because i didn't want any rough edges showing inside and i wanted to reinforce the base with interfacing which would be invisible....but i got there in the end!

camping frieze - babyroom3

so this is the 3rd camping-themed craft we've got in the baby's room - a frieze of happy campers! (Again, apologies for the horrendous photo quality, i really waited as long as i could for a bright day and to no avail...the winter days are so dull here that photos are always a disaster!!)

I scanned and enlarged the applique templates on the computer and cut out templates from acetate sheets.

These were then masking-taped to the walls and i got all the family round to help fill in the stencils by sponging on paint from little tester sized pots.

The little hippy vans, washing lines and the tents were bringing out the creativity in us!

We layered up the stencils so that we got nice clean lines.

Then when everything was dry, i outlined each piece with black permanent marker.

We were all choosing which camper we would choose to go on holiday in...

i think this one might be mine...it's heading straight to the beach after all!

I thought a frieze would be good because when i want to change the theme, it won't be hard to paint out just this bit.

That particularly shadowy van is actually a beautiful shade of cherry red! Stupid dim winter days!!

This one has got to be for mamma - it's her camper and it's also headed to the beach (before hitting the supermarket no doubt!)

It's seems they're all meeting at the same place...but really, where else is there to go on holiday??

Well that's the full circuit of the room i think...anyone dizzy?

camping baby cot bumpers - babyroom2

So this is the 2nd camping themed item i've made for the baby's room - cot bumpers!

These are just to stop the bambino getting a draft, because i bought a very simple open-barred cot. They're also going to stop him getting his hand stuck between the bars or sliding his little chubby legs out through the bottom.

I apologise (as usual) for the appalling photo quality but the light these winter days is so poor that it's really hard to get detailed shots of anything in daylight.

I used the same applique pieces as i did for the camping quilt and free-motion quilted the background in the same way too.

This is at the base of the cot...

...which appears to show the washing on fire...oh dear, all the towels will smell smoky, not true campers these people, they should've known that!!

The bumpers are just tied on with little gingham ties in red and green, so they can be whipped off and stuck in the washing machine in the event of any baby-bodily-fluid explosions!!

...i shudder at the thought. Hopefully the baby will have a healthy respect for craft-effort and will keep such explosions inside his nappy (i can but dream...)

gerome the gnome

Well, lil'pill might not be powering through the books i gave her, but for good reason...she's been working on the craft project! I gave her a plaster gnome to paint - isn't he fantastic??!!

This is the same gnome shape that i painted up myself in this post - although i made mine a hot lady gnome-ette....wouldn't they make a great couple? lol!

i'm loving the texturing of the flowing beard and the little snowflakes on his hat.

Good one pill! I'm proud of you!....can i adopt him? He'd look amazing at houseofspoon!!

get well book bag

so poor lil'pill had to go to hospital for a big scary operation and is going to be sitting round the house for about 8 weeks after (!!!) so i pulled together a first aid kit of two good books (if it was me we were talking about, i'd be needing 15+ books for that length of time - but this is pill (not-particularly-fond-of-reading-when-she-could-just-watch-the-film-in-a-couple-of-hours, and i'd be astounded if she manages to finish one of them!!) and a craft project, and a bunch of sugary snacks.

I was going to bring them to the hospital for her so needed a bag. I rustled up a quick tote bag made from curtain lining (at £1.60 per metre it's usually my fabric of choice!!!) and cut a freezer paper stencil with the motif i wanted. Stamp on the red fabric paint, cure with an iron and fill with the goodies!! Done!

...after all that effort she's bound to give reading the books a go, right?....right??

easy earring tidy

so apparently the way i store my long dangly earrings (in a big knotted ball in the back of my drawer) was irritating SuperD's tidy sensibilities. So he jumped to the rescue with a cool invention that displays and protects the more delicate ones from being tangled and snapped in the drawer-runners...isn't he fabulous??

I love living with a crafty "neat-person" they are so useful!!

baby reindeer

So i wanted to make poog's baby a little handmade toy for his first Christmas and i just thought that the crochet reindeer would be a good bet, since his little chubby hands can grab onto the antlers.

The pattern is the same as the one in this post. I just added a little felt scarf with the baby's name on it for a bit of personalisation - which will have to be removed before giving it to him in case it gets sucked!!

camping quilt - babyroom 1

So i've decided on a theme for the baby's room that reflects what he'll just have to get used to when he's finally born - CAMPING!!!

I've an enormous list of camping themed crafts that i'm working away on for his bedroom, but the first thing was a single-bed sized quilt (for when he's a little older...or when i get overcome with exhaustion while walking the floors with him late at night when he won't sleep and so there's somewhere i can crash!)I'm pretty rubbish at photographing quilts so i've just taken loads of little parts of it which hopefully gives the general idea!
All the little motifs were hand-drawn and then cut out of fabric and fused onto the plain material (it's cheap-skate curtain lining...but shh...don't tell!!) And then i free-motion quilted the pieces on and added all the details.
My free motion quilting really is awful but i'm going to brazenly blame my sewing machine, as it is not supposed to be used to do free-motion, and therefore sortof loses the plot every now and again and starts snapping the thread or looping massive quantities of thread in big knots.....yeah that's a lot of fun to deal with, believe me.
I then just ran more free-motion all over the whole quilt just to add a bit of texture.
It is a great project to get rid of some of those random scraps of bright fabrics that i just couldn't bear to throw away!!
Cutting out the little pieces like the bunting and the bikinis was a bit of a challenge!!
It is inspired by the campsite that we used to go to as kids in France which was just like a big gypsy camp with campers, motorhomes, caravans and tents just pitched anywhere that you found a patch of sunshine and a short-cut to the beach.
I'm going to use the same little motifs for lots of stuff in his bedroom just to give a real explosion of colour. Nothing worse than a bland baby-room!!
Hopefully you can look past the dodgy photos and dodgy stitching to see the fun that i'm going to have with this theme!!! Roll on the other projects!!

You can download the pattern and motifs for free here

magic card box

So the box itself isn't magic...but the cards that Joster plays are called Magic the Gathering. He has 1000s of the cards and little boxes and cases for them all, but in the latest "expansion", as i believe it is called, there were some special edition large cards that didn't fit his little boxes. So i sensed a project and volunteered to come up with something to store them in.
I made the case all in one piece and then slipped in reinforcing bits of cardboard to fit each little section. Seams kept the pieces from moving around and then the whole box is folded up into shape and hand-stitched into place. Makes it sturday and means there are no rough edges to be seen anywhere.
I put flat magnets under the fabric so that it snaps closed...you can't see them in this picture...you'll just have to trust me that they're there!! And look, the cards fit perfectly...job done!

brrr it's chilli!!

Well it's well through November by now and I'm behind on blogging - so what's new?! I'm neck-deep in very time-consuming crafts for the baby's room so i'll have to post a few quick and easysies this month to balance out.

I don't usually post stuff like this, since i just painted it and didn't form it or bake it or anything but like i said - i'm busy this month!!
SuperD collects the chillis that i grow in the greenhouse and stores them in the sun to dry out, so i thought i'd make him a little chilli storage bowl...everyone needs one of those right??