Z everyday things: August 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Two heads are better than one...finally finished and hung

A while back, I made the "two heads are better than one" wall hanging quilt from Whip up! Mini quilts. Having issues with my machine led it to sit gathering dust, until I got my new machine and quilted it. After finishing the art quilt for the swap, I realized binding wasn't that hard (ha!) and proceeded to finish this quilt. The binding did not go so well this time! First, I used my bias tape foot for 1/2" binding. That ended up being too small, so I made 3/4" binding by hand (just pressing it with my iron). It ended up being a bit wonky, but I stitched it on anyway. It ended up being way small on the front (I didn't adjust my seam allowance for the larger binding) and so then is huge on the back. Oh well, you don't see that! A solid color binding may have been a better choice as well.
I sewed on a sleeve, and my handy husband cut a dowel rod to fit and nailed it to the wall (the rod, not the quilt)
Another bummer, I realized the 2 different whites I used in the skull are actually 2 different shades. Good thing my son is only 2 and doesn't care =)

Currently, I'm working on compiling resources to start a very loose type of play based homeschooling with my 2 year old (soon to be 3). Pinterest is so amazing for this. I have found so many good resources.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

First art quilt

I belong to a wonderful swap group, where we swap items for nature tables, made from natural materials (ie no acrylic felt or yarn, instead cotton or wool is used). Recently, they deviated and had a 1 on 1 swap (usually it's a group thing) for wall hangings. I was paired with a mama who does felted wool things, so I'm really excited to see what I get.
I've been working (for a lot longer than I expected, actually) on this quilt and it's finally done, with the exception of adding a hanging sleeve. I didn't know you were supposed to add them before the binding. Whoops!
It was my first attempt at free motion quilting, which is a lot, lot harder than I thought it would be. Since my skills were not so great, I used matching thread in the needle and bobbin, instead of using thread in the bobbin that matched the backing fabric. This way, mistakes on the front would be less noticeable. As it's intended to be a wall hanging, I think it's ok that all my stitches are obvious on the back.

I really hope she likes it-and if she doesn't, I'm asking her to return it to me, because I LOVE it.

What do you think? Too plain? Not sewn well enough? AMAZING? (Please pick the last! LOL)

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Get a Swiffer duster!

I signed up for mine today! Get a free Swiffer 360 duster at Vocalpoint today!

I always love to get free things that I might actually use. I could really use a decent duster that doesn't just knock dust in your face. I'll let you know how it works once I get it.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Fiesta!

completely inspired by Prudent Baby's fiesta

We were working with a tight budget, and made most of the things for Zgirl's first birthday fiesta.

For food, we had all the ingredients to make your own burrito, bean dip, Spanish yellow rice, fruit salsa with cinnamon sugar tortilla chips, and guacamole. The cake was tres leches with a dulce de leche "frosting".

I made some quickie papel picados from construction paper.

Coffee filter flowers-we used the leftover dye from the cascarones to dye most of these. There are a lot of tutorials online, but we just kind of winged it. Dyed the filters, folded them into quarters and cut random shapes from the edges, and twisted them around pipe cleaners.

Birthday and name bunting, along with a pic from each month.

My mom made a quickie papel picado banner from sheets of tissue paper.

After cascarones. I didn't get any pics of them before we busted them, but they're just dyed eggs filled with confetti, and the hole is sealed with matching tissue paper. We made our own confetti using magazine pages, and the pieces we cut from the dyed coffee filters.

An after shot of the cascarone insides.

She didn't care for the cake, but she loved the ice cream!

Zboy loved the cake and ice cream.

I didn't get any great pics of Zgirl in her party dress, but it was based off this mini boden dress tutorial. The sugar skull fabric was perfect for the theme. I sized it down, added a few more rows of shirring than the tutorial asked for and some hot pink rick rack. Not my best work, but it was very fast.

We played pin the tail on the donkey, which went surprisingly well, considering it was mostly 2 and 3 year olds. Zgirl got some Gymboree bubbles (have you tried these? SO worth the $$, I found them hours later!) and everyone had fun with that.