Catch up from February and March 2015

This year has been a busy one and a rough one. Personal issues, a really bad school year for my kindergartner, family life in general, and lots of extra curricular responsibilities have overwhelmed my ability to write and post anything significant. Perhaps the coming months will be different. I am going to make an effort to make them so.

As I have said in recent posts, Instagram, Facebook and a little bit of Twitter and Flickr have been where my sharing has happened.

So once again the next few posts will be summary posts of the last few months as far as my crafting goes.

Papercrafts:
I have thoroughly enjoyed having access to my rather large rubber stamp collection and have made a handful of cards for various occasions and people. Almost all of them are "cased" cards, meaning I copied a layout or color combo or both to create them.

I also made these for the ladies I visit teach for St. Patrick's Day



Sewing
This first one was a test bag for Schlosser Designs. You can find the pattern for purchase here: Chopsticks Tote (link no longer valid.)

I made this and then filled it with crochet hooks, yarn and instruction books for our Young Women's Camp fundraiser silent auction.

 

 I spent a day playing with my Hex n More ruler from Jaybird Quilts and this beautiful fabric I won a while back. I only got as far as cutting a few blocks worth.

 I also made some more Personal Progress book folders for the incoming 12-year-olds.

I worked on quilting the robot quilt, trying to get it finished up before the baby turned 2.  I quilted the pink and yellow using some of the decorative stitches on my Brother machine.

 

A couple of projects

My son came home after school on Monday with the request that we get his teacher a birthday gift. Her birthday was that day so he was feeling urgency to get it done.

He wanted initially to go purchase something and I didn't really feel like wandering around the store looking for an appropriate gift. So since I knew she liked tea, (as in really really likes tea and makes it during class all the time) I thought I could whip together a mug rug and send that. I let my son pick out some charms to use. Then he left for scouts and I sewed it up. I didn't bind it, just quilted one side to the batting, sewed the 2 sides right sides together and turned them right side out. I quilted the other side in a couple of places to secure it. It is a little cockeyed because while I sewed the seams straight, I had cut the fabric crooked. :) Oh well.

 We ended up at the store anyway, to supplement the mug rug with some tea and a stirring spoon and my son bought her a chocolate bar with his allowance.
He picked a card from my stash and wrote her a note and I packaged it up in a cello bag with a topper that matched the card.
He was very pleased with it, although he nearly left without it the next morning, which would have been slightly annoying after the rush rush rush to get it done.
And she seemed to like it.


I have also been itching to get a case made for my tablet. It is hard to find cases for the Nexus 7, which is what I have. I perused tutorials for a few days and decided to just create my own using bits and parts of other people's tutes. It fit the tablet perfectly, just needs a couple of tweaks to make it just right. is I meant to make a long strap to close it that wold also hold it open and upright. But I totally forgot and just attached Velcro to the overlap. There is not enough Velcro and the overlap needs to be about an  inch bigger so it won't pop up. Also, there's pocket where I inserted cardboard to make it stiff for standing up and also for holding it like a book. Well that pocket is just about 1/8 inch too big and too close to the other pocket. It gets folded up when it is closed. You can kind of see where it gets pinched in the photo. Also, 2 of the elastics need to be a smidge shorter. They cover the power button and if it is turned the other way, it covers part of the screen that I need to be able to touch.

That said, for a project with no real pattern, the fact that I got that close to what I intended amazes me. I'm not so hot with math. :)

Mother's Day Cards

Mother's Day is right around the corner and I wanted to make the cards for my moms this year. I think we have purchased cute or funny cards the last couple of years.

I had all the supplies except stamps and ink out already, since my son had to do a family history project board. He used a bunch of my scrapbook supplies to decorate it.

Seeing all those lovely colors and embellishments gave me the itch to get stamping so I pulled some stamp sets out last night and got busy.
 I often forget how fun stamping is! Here are the 2 cards I made.

 I might just do some more today.
Have a good one!

 

Another hobby

A couple of weeks ago, I was on the phone with my BFF and she asked me if I had any hand made cards in my stash that I could send her. I did not, as I had, a couple of months ago, donated them to a card drive at church for veterans and nursing home residents. The conversation moved on to other things but the cards lingered in the back of my mind until yesterday when I just had to make some. It was a task that was going to be more than just sitting down and stamping merrily away. 95% of my stamping gear is packed in boxes that are stacked about 8 high and 2 deep in our garage. So I spent about 20 minutes moving boxes around trying to find enough supplies to make a bunch of cards. I had some success, although I had to use my scraps since I could not find the box with the whole sheets of paper. This restricted my color combos since I could only use colors that had a piece large enough to make a whole card. But I was still able to get some good mixes.

I also let Littlest Miss stamp with me. She loved it and even though the table now has some ink stains, it was worth it.



Also, late last night my oldest asked me if I could make a cover for her required school planner. They have to have it on their person at all times. It acts as a hall pass among other things. She was tired of having it in a binder adding to her already heavy backpack (they don't have lockers here). I made her one with some yardage I was hoarding but unfortunately it ended up about 1/2 inch too small. So frustrating! So now I need to find something that will fit in it. :)






I have not worked on my Quilt Along blocks at all this last week and I don't know if I will make the Wednesday deadline. We shall see. Maybe I can work on them today during naptime.

Misc. stuff I made.

 I made this card and gave it to my Brother in Law for his birthday. It is one of my favorites.

Another key fob made in school colors for my niece who just passed her drivers ed courses. I should probably mail that. :)