Emergency Crafting

We've had a bit of drama over here that made it necessary to make these:

Tooth Fairy Pillows!

You see, Owen and Bailey were playing with Daddy (a made-up game called Toro Toro where Daddy is the bullfighter and Owen and Bailey are the bulls, running through a small blanket Daddy holds up). Both kiddos ran full force at each other and before anyone could stop them Bailey's head made hard and painful contact with Owen's mouth. Lots of tears. Lots of red stuff. And two loose teeth.

We went to the doctor who set us up with an emergency visit to the dentist the next day. With a possible tooth extraction on the horizon I figured I'd better whip up a tooth fairy pillow (or two), just in case.

The front has a pocket for holding the tooth until the Tooth Fairy can come and leave a little surprise in it's place. And there's a loop for hanging the pillow off the bedpost or the doorknob.

I'm happy to say that we have NOT had to use it yet! The dentist wants to wait a few more days to let my poor little guy heal up a bit. But it's likely that the tooth will come out early next week.

These little pillows are very simple to make and would be easy to customize with a name or some embroidery. Any interest in a tutorial?

New Potholders

Whipped up some fun little potholders for my kitchen. My old ones were getting kind of ratty and I have a sort of insane amount of cute kitchen fabrics so I figured I'd better start using some of them!

The backs. The little hanging loop is just a small bit of grosgrain ribbon.

Of course, I had to test them out to see if they worked. What better than pulling out a big pan of homemade cinnamon rolls?

Knowing me, I'll probably make about 27,000 more potholders so don't be surprised if you see more of them in the coming weeks.

Snow Day!

Pretty spectacular sight to wake up and see this in the woods behind our house!

We don't get snow very often and the kids were thrilled to get out and play.

Owen is wondering what to do first - build a snowman or pelt me with snowballs.

Bailey decides that making snow angels is more her style.

And they both ran around and had a fantastic time! The promise of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows was the only way to lure them back inside.

Children and snow are a magical combination.

All Done

Finished up this pillow for the Urban Home Goods swap on Flickr. I went ahead with the blue linen background because I think that's what my partner will like.

It's big - 20x20. Good for an accent on a bed or as a nice comfy couch pillow. The back is a simple envelope closure.

Here you can see some of the hand stitching detail. I really wanted a clean look to the dresden itself so I used a ladder stitch to attach it to the background. I love how the stitches completely disappear!

Soon this will be off to live in a new home. I hope my partner likes it!

Another Dresden

Remember this stack of gray goodness? Now it's a dresden!

I love it.

I don't love it paired with the blue linen I had originally chosen. I'm thinking lime green but this is destined to be a pillow in someone else's home and I'm not sure if lime green is really their thing. Swaps can be tricky.

Perhaps a trip to the fabric store is in order?

February Bee Block

I suppose it was only a matter of time...

My very first dresden. It's a little bit of a fussy block but not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Heather asked for blocks made using this tutorial from Elizabeth at Oh, Frannson. It's a nice large block (16.5") so the pieces don't get too fiddly.

And I really do like how it shows off the various bits of vintage goodness. Because the block is so large I'm contemplating making one to finish into a pillow, maybe with some sweet little Japanese prints. Hmmm????

PMQG swap

This is my contribution for tomorrow night's Portland Modern Quilt Guild snack mat swap! The super cute cup and saucer is a screenprint on linen from Christina. Isn't it cute? I think she has some block print owls in her etsy shop right now. Go grab one before they're all gone!

The back is a Henry Glass print from my stash.

I really like how this turned out and I hope whoever gets it in the swap likes it too!