I have been FEATURED...

On At Home with K for my towels!!! I'm excited! Thanks K!

A Spring Fling come join the fun...

April from Wildflowers & Whimsy is hosting a Spring Fling Giveaway beginning March 20th and lasting 14 days!!! Everyday for 14 days there will be give aways going on !!! She still has a few spots open if you would like to participate.
Mark your calendar and join the fun!

Easy, Inexpensive, and Cute Present for the Teenage Girl!

Oh did I have fun with this project!!! I was determined to make something for the Terrific Under Ten Tuesday over at At Home With K so I went by Walmart and wandered around shopping and came across these kind of retro style towels. When I saw them I immediately thought of my daughter who is a senior in high school. I knew she would like these. This gave me the idea of a present I could do for all her girlfriends and her that are going off to college this fall and living in the dorms. No one wants their towels to get mixed up with everybody else's towels. Robin loves the colors pink and black, in fact her bed spread, etc. is pink and black in her room. These colors are very popular with teenage girls now.  The towels are very nice quality for the price, not too thin or too thick. I bought two bath towels and a spool of ribbon for $9.84 total.

I came home and got started right away monogramming her initial in pink and black, alternating colors on the two towels. I also embroidered her name on the front right lower corner in alternating colors. I then folded them up and tied a 2" thick pink and black ribbon around them. She loves them! 

She has so many girlfriends graduating with her this year this way I can give them something special and affordable!

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The Joy of Service!!

Last Wednesday I had my girls Sunday school class over for the evening. They wanted to make a fleece baby blanket for a woman in our church. She was very special to them and at 47 years old just had a baby girl. They wanted to participate so I thought doing a fleece tie blanket would be just perfect for them. I found the fleece and I embroidered a signature square for them on the solid side as well as a sweet bear with the baby's name on it. That is all I did. They did the rest, the measuring, cutting and tying. They even made sure they tied the strips so they would contrast. They all participated and were so happy when it was done. We will be presenting this to baby Sophia and her mom in a couple of weeks! They can't wait. I had so much fun just chatting with my girls, taking pictures and eating chocolate chip cookies!!!

This project has been shared at Debbiedoos

Make a Darling Baby Shower Gift on Your Lunch Break!

I love to create cute simple gifts for all kinds of occasions. I am having lunch with a friend tomorrow that recently had a baby. I have already made her a baby blanket but I wanted a burp cloth to go with it. I don't have a lot of time before lunch tomorrow so I decided to get this done on my lunch bread today and see if it was possible. I am happy to tell you it is absolutely possible to drive home, create your burp cloth, eat lunch and drive back to work all within an hr.

I realize some of you do not work outside of the home and are very busy moms. This something you can do when kids are napping or during quite time without making a huge mess or spending too much time.

This is a great gift idea for a baby shower or just baby gift. Very expensive, less than $5. It's the kind of gift you can make 3-4 of for $15 and they look darling bunched up and tied with a ribbon like a bouquet. I will be featuring that in a different post.

To begin with... You will need a package of Gerber burp cloths. Find at Walmart or Target! You get four cloths in different designs. They have girl and boy designs. These are great because they are already flame re-tardent. I picked out the below and set it on my craft mat which is so worth the investment. I waited until I got a 50% coupon at Jo-Anns and got a steal of deal on it.  I then picked out my fat quarter which measures 18" X 21". You can make at least two burp cloths with one fat quarter. $1.29 at Jo-Anns and they always have a huge selection.

I then press out both pieces.

I lay out the fat quarter over the burp cloth. I make sure I am only going up 4" from the bottom.

I then trim and fold over all edges 1" around and press with steam.

Here is a great secret for the speedy seamstress looking for shortcuts. I avoid using pins whenever possible. I love this Dritz Spray Adhesive also found at Jo-Anns. It's sort of pricey but will last a long, long time. I spray just little squirts all along the folded edges and then turn it over and position it in place and  press good with steam. It's not going to go anywhere.

 After pressing and positioning I go ahead and top stitch all around with a coordinating color of thread. In this case it was medium pink. I then press. When using a craft map you can just press your project right on it. No need for setting up the ironing board.

 

Now comes the embellishment part. Rick rack is so fun and colorful. I used 1/2" for this project. It's perfect.

I cut and position the rick rack on top and bottom of the fat quarter material. I leave about 3/4" extended so I can sew under on the back.

 Here I use my Dritz again and lightly, spray the rick rack, position how I want it and press it firmly down.

No pins to bunch up, much better than just eyeballing it. I then sew trim onto the burp cloth. When finished I press the whole thing really well. Here is the cloth fold in half.

Here it is finished and already to wrap or roll up with a ribbon around it. Whatever suits your fancy, so many ideas. Be careful with your embellishments. Don't get too carried away with bows and buttons, remember this is for a baby and babies CHEW on everything.

From start to finish it took me 25 minutes!

I love to machine embroider and this is the perfect gift to embellish with a darling design and to make it personal. If you have an embroidery machine you will have more fun creating these. I have a Brother HE-240 combination embroidery and sewing machine. I love it!!! Very easy to use and not expensive. Got mine on HSN flex pay.

I hope you all enjoyed this little tutorial. I had a blast putting it together. I will soon be showing different gift ideas using embellished burp cloths.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Is she or isn't she? Real that is...

Meet Miss Audrey. I created her from Adrie Stoete's toddler Boelle vinyl kit. All you get in the kit is plain vinyl head, arms and legs. I have done all the painting, eyes, eyelashes and micro rooted her hair. Doing her hair took forever! It is a combination of human and angora goat hair. It came out beautiful. All her vinyl parts are attached to a doe suede fully jointed body. She finished in at 11lbs and 28". She wears toddler size clothing. Audrey actually also has a magnetic pacifier. One of the best parts is shopping for the doll! I love Gymboree!

  She now lives with her new mommy in South Australia.

Magnetic pacifier. The magnet is on the inside of her head and another in place of the nipple.

She is wearing a cloth diaper that I created on my embroidery machine.

Her eyes are hand blown glass from Germany.
I hope Audrey wows everyone!

Join the fun at
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

A Beach Cottage Good Life Wednesday

Free Pretty Things For You Whatever You Want Wednesday

It's a Very Cherry World Rednesday

Here is my latest Puddle Jumper Creation!

I just finished this little girl. She started out as a plain vinyl unpainted doll kit. I have painted her, inserted her eyes, hand rooted her hair, weighted and stuffed her doe suede jointed body and put her all together and dress her. She is now ready to go to her new mommy who custom ordered her. She finished in at 21" 5lbs 10 oz.