Gettin' Organized

I've been trying to get my sewing room organized and back to its original glory. What used to look like this:



Now looks like this:



I'm such a slob! If you notice in the above picture, the cat bed for the window I made for my sweet little kitty is empty but the basket of fabric on top of the shelf is not:



What an ingrate!

While cleaning, I discovered (or should I say "re-discovered"?) many, many unfinished projects so my goal is to finish them all up before I start any new projects. So this little project I started, oh, about a year and a half ago. I had been wanting some sort of cover for my back seat so when I travel with the dog I can put stuff on the floor of the back seat without her getting into it and keep her in the backseat at the same time. I came across this pattern and thought I'd give it a try:



And I started it. Then got completely irritated because it was so large and awkward to work with. So I put it in the closet. And there it sat. And sat. Oh yeah, and sat. But this past week I decided to tackle it again and actually, it was pretty easy to finish :)



Love me some leopard print! I used a turquoise fleece for the other side:



One small downside...it doesn't quite work like I had planned:



Ahem.....much better:



(By the way, I took about 50 pictures before I got one of her cooperating)

I'm slowly plugging away on more projects...some old ones, and some new ones...I know, I know but I can't help myself.

Walking With Dinosaurs

One more nephew has a birthday coming up...this time, it's my great-nephew and he will be all of one year old! I made a rag quilt for his sister (who will be here soon!) and thought I'd make one for him as well. But a little more "boy-ish", of course:


Aaaaah...it's a friendly dinosaur......And now a close-up on the face:


Um, can I just say how much I lovelovelove these rag quilts? They're a bit time consuming but sooooo worth it...at least I think so....This one went a bit easier than the last one as I sorta/kinda knew what I was doing. Sorta/kinda. At least I didn't get completely stressed out and have to look up words like "baste" and "chain stitch".

Let's look at some more pictures, shall we? The top half:


And the booty half:


And this is the back of the quilt:



My nephew's birthday party is tomorrow and hopefully he'll like it. Well, as much as a one year old can like a blanket. I've got lots of birthdays and gifts to make in April. Time to get busy!

Cherries and Dingleberries

I have been soooooo excited to show you all Keeley's gifts for her first birthday. I loveitloveitloveit! First, I found these cute little chairs at Goodwill for 99 cents a piece! I couldn't pass up a deal like that for such small little chairs:


Kind of cute, right? They reminded me of being in a first grade class room. Then I found this cute little table at a different Goodwill for only $9.99:


I got it home and it was the perfect size!

So then I went to work with some spray paint (and when I say "I", I mean "Big Daddy"); pulled out the trusty Modge Podge and went to work. And now the table looks like this:


Here's the top:


The alphabet is cut out from some scrapbook paper, glued on with Modge Podge, a couple extra coats of Modge Podge for good measure, and a couple coasts of polyurethane.
And the chairs now look like this:


Wait...something's missing:


There...that's better. Cushions with cute little pink dingleberries (I think they're more commonly known as "pom-poms"):


And how cute is that cherry fabric? Here's one more look at it just because I love it so much:


But wait...there's more! I had started on a quilt for Keeley before she was born but it was just a hot mess. The fabric was all wrong and it kept falling apart so I started all over from scratch and finally finished it:


I love that cherry fabric! I also added some detailing...some cute ribbon and buttons:


And one last thing. I decided to try my hand at clothes. I have never, ever even attempted to make a piece of clothing but I think it turned out pretty OK:


More dingleberries!


And finally, here's a picture of the whole shebang:


Whew....that was exhausting. It was a lot of work but I love how everything turned out. Now a day's rest before starting on the next project!

My Very First Handmade Gift of the Year!

OK, here it is....my very first handmade gift of the year! I made this rag quilt for my nephew and niece-in-law's (is that a word?) new baby. Well, for the baby shower:



Cute, right? And here's a close-up of the face:




It's actually quite large. Of course, I forgot to measure exactly how big it is but I'd say it's probably 3 feet wide and maybe close to 5 feet long. Yeah, it's a big sucker. Now, before you go thinking, "Oh, Darci probably has lots of sewing experience under her belt to make something this awesome", (that is what you were thinking, right? Right?) the answer would be a resounding NO! I can sew a straight line and sometimes not even that. But I fell in love with this pattern so I decided to give it a try.

I'm not gonna lie to you.....it kind of stressed me out. I had never actually used a pattern before but I thought the instructions would be pretty self explanatory. When I read the instructions, I immediately thought, "Oh crap" and ran out to buy a "Everything you need to know about sewing" book. And a seam ripper. I also had a little difficulty with the embroidery for the mouth....if you look closely, it sort of looks like an old lady putting on lipstick.

But I think it turned out pretty good and I see a few more these rag quilts in my future. I'm working on my next gift and I can't wait to show it to you!