Handmade Holidays: Project 1: Baby Quilt

My first project for Christmas ended up being a complete by chance sort of thing. I have a problem. A problem that I have heard many crafters have, and that there may be support groups for. I collect craft things, tons of craft things. Even before I was working in a craft store, I had tons of bits and bobbles. Then I worked in a fabric chain store for a year and goodness did the collection grow and spawn. It was/is a problem. Hubby gives me the "look" when he glances towards my corner/closet/room/pile of things that will become other things one day. With that look in mind, I am making in a serious focus this month to make as many presents as I can manage, thus eliminating a fair amount out of my stash and saving us money on shopping (kind of, considering I have already spent the money). 

I was in the middle of sewing super hero themed curtains for my nephew (there will be no photos because they were a ton of fabric and by the time I was done sewing, I was soooo done looking at them. Plus, they are wrapped already), and I found a pile of handkerchiefs that I had bought from evil WalMart, probably five years ago. They are the white fabric with gray owls and little stars on them. I imagine, when I bought them that I had a plan. What it was? I have no clue. But they were adorable, I have a thing for owls and considering Baby had a loosely Potter themed nursery, the print was actually kind of perfect. I had matching gray fabric left over from RenFaire costumes, yellow scraps from a box of my mother's fabric, white flannel that I had bought for burpcloths (before realizing that I never use them) and a package of crib sized batting that had been on clearance for 3.97. So I had everything except for binding. Hubby suggested an orange colour to match the little owl beaks, and I agreed.

When I made the two older children blankets last year, I just used sating ribbon folded over as binding so I figured that I would do that again for this blanket. Foolishly, I thought when I couldn't find sating ribbon, that acetate ribbon would work just as well. I was wrong. Very wrong. Don't ever do that! I washed it and it fell apart so horribly that I was very tempted to toss the entire blanket in the garbage. But I had already stitched in Steven's name and the date. So out came the seam ripper and two evenings wasted, then out to buy actual blanket binding and a night to sew that on correctly. Note to self: do it correct the first time, you cheapskate! We also went to the secondhand bookstore to pick up a copy of Harry Potter to go with the blanket for his first reading book. I can't wait to start reading my favorite series to him. I am secretly hoping that the older two kids cuddle up and listen too. So, after using four or five yards of fabric that I had laying about and a slightly stressful binding experience, Steven's first Momma-made blanket is all finished, folded and waiting to be wrapped. 

Piecing together the squares

Finished top

Hand stitched little message for Steven's first baby quilt. Hopefully, we will have many, many nights snuggled underneath, reading together

I also finished a handful of burpcloths, mostly I just use these when feeding Steven to wipe his face and hands. The fabric was a flannel flat sheet from the thrift store for $2 and it made 9 burpcloths. 

Thrifting: Books and School Clothes

     I absolutely love thrift shopping. Up until I was pregnant, thrift shopping was a hobby, a place for me to go on dates with friends and grab a couple cute finds, then it was the only logical option with how much I was growing and how picky I am with how things fit. Although in the end, maternity pants (from Salvation Army: Motherhood Maternity brand) and long cut tank tops from Old Navy and Target were the only things that were comfortable. With now three kids, clothes shopping could be an epic expenditure if I bought everything of theirs for retail price. 

My most recent trip to Salvation Army was with my older brother and my niece and Steven so the two or three hours that I used to spend shopping through every item was not an option. With fall coming up, warmer clothes in Eve and Griffin's new sizes is a must. Griffin is in a size 10, but there wasn't much in that size on this trip, but I did find three great Old Navy brand 12s that totaled $6. They will be stored away until a few months (possibly weeks, kids are like that I've learned) and be perfect for Griffin. Eve is a tough little cookie to shop for, she is 8 years old and has a couple older friends, so fashion is starting to become a more important factor in her clothing choices. Gone are the days were green leggings under a Snow White dress with pink cowgirl boots passed as an option. With that in mind, I have been trying to buy a little more generic girl clothes and when she is with me, she can pick out the more radical options. I found two great Children's Place pants, size 8 for length and with the brilliant elastic/button waist cinches to fit her size 6 waist. One hot pink that can button up to capris and the other an emerald green corduroy flare leg. They both fit her nicely and can be paired with almost any of her tops or shoe choices. Overall, that trip was successful. While I didn't get anything for Steven, Hubby or my awkward postpartum body, these five finds made me feel accomplished.

I know that I have posted before about how much I love our library's thrift store, but seriously, I love it so much. I have only been once since Steven has arrived and I was still hurting too much to pay too much attention to the brilliance around me. This will explain the second stack of books from that trip where the only book that I picked up was Crocheting for Dummies, the rest are the Hubby's choices, although I may read the Magic the Gathering books, fantasy books are my favorite genre.
     The trip before that I was much more involved thus my choices: The Good Housekeeping Needlecraft Encyclopedia, Making Dolls and Doll Clothes, Hogwarts Yearbook, two baby books, three Supernatural books (Hubby and I are huge fans), two vintage hardcovers and three young adult novels for my nieces birthday present. Hubbs picked out the two Dilbert books (after five years together, I didn't know that he was such a big fan), a home improvement book for when we finally move into our own first house, and a book on Irish fairy tales.  These two trips cost us around $20, and while I do not have the voracious appetite for reading that I had as a child, I still read too much to warrant always running to Barnes and Nobles when I finish up a book. As much as I would love to, do not get me wrong, I love the bookstore, but I can not justify spending $100 on books like I used to when my grocery budget every week is that much. Twenty dollars once a month or so is plenty to entertain our whole family in the literary department. Do not ask how much we spend on movies every month though, then my frugality ends and Hubby's love of the movie theater takes over. It's fair after I look at my stockpile of fabric, ribbon, patterns and books. Mostly.
     And here is my obligatory baby photo for today. Steven has grown so much already in the three weeks since he was born. He spends much more time awake, laughs in his sleep and fusses when he hears my voice. We co-sleep every night, when I am up to it, we try to put him in his swing to sleep for a couple hours but when he wakes up to nurse he usually stays in bed with me. Last night was the first night that Hubby "forced" me to let Steven cry it out. Every night since he was born, Steven has about an hour of freaking out crying that a diaper change, nursing, swaddling or holding will soothe. So last night, he had to sit in his swing until he relaxed. We both watched him the whole time, for the most part, there was a good chunk of it that I was in full blown tears with my head under a pillow because I couldn't pick him up. But after only five minutes or so, he stopped and Hubby held him for a bit then I nursed him and we all went to bed relatively happy. Hubby thinks that I was ridiculous but I am terrified (completely unfounded terror btw) that if we let him cry that he will have severe trust issues as an adult and will not want us to be a part of his life. James assures me that it will not be the case but I still worry. I keep telling him that Steven is only three weeks old, that he shouldn't have to cry because I am right there all the time. But it would be nice to be able to go to the bathroom without the door open or a baby in my arms, so I see his argument. As I am writing this, he is peacefully laying and practice nursing in his sleep. I can't wait to see his first true smile and hear him laugh but I am already sad that he is starting to lose his baby smell and that he has grown so much, solidifying the fact that he will continue to grow and will one day be too big to hug me in public. *Big sigh* For now, Steven and I have the blessed option of staying snuggled all day together doing anything we want or absolutely nothing.

Countdown: Due Date and Harry Potter Nursery Update!

     While we have had absolutely no signs that Baby Rogers is ready to head out into the big, bright world, according to the doctors, he or she is due today! So in the spirit of a new baby, I'll share a couple pictures of the things that I made to decorate the nursery (aka the part of our bedroom that is roped off for baby's use). While I was going to try for an overbearing Harry Potter theme, time and space (and Hubby's complete lack of enthusiasm for Harry Potter, he had voted for superheroes) did not allow anything too over the top. It is nothing too elaborate like this gorgeous one here, which I had found on Pinterest and may have slightly inspired the idea from the start as you can see in my Harry Potter Pinterest board. But there are some cute, if tiny bits of Harry now in my bedroom to entertain me and keep me company until Baby arrives.

Hogwarts Crest Painting:

      I started with a couple paintings, easy enough to do in an afternoon while taking multiple bathroom breaks and naps. I have a couple canvases that I had picked up from Michael's for .01 from their clearance section so this seemed as good a reason to use them as any. I researched a bunch of different Hogwarts's crests to use, found a few that I liked and freehand drew a conglomeration of the ones I had found through Google. After taking way too long to perfect all of my lines (looking back, I should have just printed out a picture and traced it onto the canvas, it would have been less stressful to my inner perfectionist). Then I traced all of the pencil lines with black acrylic paint and filled in the parts that would become the all black silhouettes of the school mascots. In this aspect as well, I should have done the color first since I did all of the black and then went back to redo the lines so that they were more clean and distinct. The process after the freehand drawing was simple, color inside the lines! So I filled in the school colors, painted the background my favorite neutral grey, used puffy paint to outline the lines of the crest and stapled a slightly Gryffindor-esque fabric around the painting to frame it. While I was entirely too pleased with the outcome, DH needed me to explain what it even was, I know, horrible, right? But it was cute, easy and actually made it seem like I had a theme!

Whomping Willow Painting:
      This one, I was not as pleased with. I wanted to go with the darker colors that are more prevalent in the Harry Potter movies, but by the time all my paint dried, they all kind of seemed the same color, blending the sky with the branches too much. Again here, I just searched for Whomping

 Willow silhouettes, and found a few that seemed relatively easy. Initially, I wanted to do the entire tree in buttons, similar to the projects found on this lovely blog, which, staring at the painting now, I still might do. After spending almost an hour sorting through hundreds of my buttons, I didn't think that I could pull off the look that I was aiming for, it just didn't seem to be clicking for me. So to the trusty acrylics I went. Unfortunately, the results were not as inspiring as I had wished, so this project may be redone shortly, depending on how many burp cloths I can sew up before Baby gets here.

Flying Key and Owl Cage Mobile:

      Do you remember the flying keys used to get through the Chamber of Secrets? Exactly right! That's what these keys were inspired by (and a picture on Pinterest with a defunct link or else I would send you there) and I think they came out very cute. It had taken me while to collect the right kind of keys in the correct size, I had the large silver one from Michael's just sitting around, I had probably bought it almost two years ago at this point. I found one of the smaller rust colored ones in a manufactured shadowbox from the dollar store but I couldn't find anymore that fit what I was looking for, until I walked into Michael's recently to purchase some of my favorite Martha Stewart acrylics and my niece pointed them out. We bought one of each of the styles (costing around $6), although I wish I had bought a couple extra because it seemed thin when I was done. I also found the white birdcage (candle holder) there in their value section for around $2, which was good because the tiny silver one that I had purchased for the project would have been much too small for the size of the keys that I used. So far the mobile cost me $10. After cutting out white felt wings, using hot glue to adhere them to the keys and sewing thread to tie them to the birdcage, it was 90% finished. I am trying to figure out what kind of owl I want inside the cage. I had a wooden cutout of an owl that I started painting but looking at it now, I feel unconvinced that it will look right and I think a felt one might look cheesy, so that part of it is in slight limbo as of right now.

Bassinet Refinish:

      My dad had given this bassinet to us for the baby, but I am not a fan of white or pastel nursery items so I had to do something to it to spruce it up and make it special for our baby. My youngest brother slept in it when he was born, so I definitely wanted to keep it relatively the same, just a tiny update. I also did not want to go out and have to purchase a lot of stuff to redo it, but I already had yellow spray paint on hand, Hufflepuff represent!

     The top picture is the before (kind of, I forgot to take one and figure a partial was better than nothing) picture, the one the the right is the after. While Hufflepuff's colors are yellow and black, so are the Steeler's, so while I set out to pay homage to my favorite book series, I also ended up celebrating the football team that the majority of my family is deeply devoted to, a slight miscalculation that turned out okay. They silver and black ribbon I had purchased on clearance from Joann's for $1 a piece so in total, the bassinet remodel cost me around $8.

Chest of Drawers:
     This project actually took the most time and the least planning, thus the most time. I had an old set of drawers that was used for the kids clothing but was getting too small for all their things so I planned on repainting it and using it for the baby. I knew that it was difficult to paint laminate furniture but I had read all over the internet that it was possible and not nearly as daunting as previously indicated. So I took the drawers out and lightly sanded the entire thing, which was my first mistake, I should have heavily sanded the entire things repetitively. I had bought lovely Martha Stewart indoor paint from Home Depot for $20 for both colors, but they were perfect. Then I went to town painting it, the drawers took almost three coats by the time I was done, just to get an even red throughout the grey only took two coats (see little E in the third picture, helping me out!). After it was all painted, I swapped out the boring wooden knobs for white ceramic ones with skeleton keys on them, also from Michael's. After it all dried, i ran my hand over it a bit and took my nail to it and the paint came right off. So after staring at it angrily for a couple minutes, thinking that I would have to sand the whole thing over again to repaint it (or burn it, which did cross my mind) I figured that I would try a clear sealant. So back to Michael's I went. I sprayed the whole thing with sealant and had great results, no peeling or scratching anywhere. When I went to put it into our room though, the humidity made it so that the paint sticks to everything. My plan would have worked perfectly outside of that. So for $25, as far as this project is concerned, I would have done better to just go purchase a new dresser, or left it as is. But it does match my theme!

 

Gryffindor Felt Number Block:
     While Hubby and I were watching Doctor Who while in bed, I cut out and sewed together this precious morsel. I had sewn a few other felt cubes for a friend's baby shower, a giraffe and an elephant, so I wanted to make a couple for our baby, too. This was the first one that I made, I later made a hippo, zebra, and pig but those might go to the same home as the first two eventually. I used a simple square pattern that I had for quilting, cut out the felt from Gryffindor colored sheets that I had bought at Hobby Lobby for .25 a sheet and sewed it together with embroidery floss. Other than a slight miscalculation where I cut out a 7 and was thoroughly confused why it wouldn't go anywhere, it came out adorably. I will probably make three more to match the houses but with letters on them instead. I even put a little bell on the inside so the baby can make some noise and I stuffed it with poly-fil left over from cleaning out my mother's storage unit last year. So for around $3 I made a cute Harry Potter felt block for soon to be here Baby Rogers.
       So far those are the most exciting projects that I have made. I have twenty or so burp cloths on the docket, another painting and my little owl for the mobile. I also want to made a cover for our stroller but I am not sure that will get done before baby gets here, we are supposed to have a huge thunderstorm in the next couple days and there is hearsay that many women go into labor during storms!