Fear and Peanuts

I pushed myself to go outside of my comfort zone today.  Some people fear public speaking.  Some people fear heights.  I, on the other hand, get a bit (ok, a LOT) anxious meeting new people, especially in places where there are NO familiar faces.  So today I decided to meet that fear head-on and go to a quilt shop open house "sew-in".  It was an informal "meet, greet, sit and sew" event here in town.  I have to admit I had a semi-serious argument with myself on the way over as to whether or not I was going to actually go or not.  In the end I decided that it was important to bust through the fear, and so I did.  I took my most favorite project, my Pocket Peanuts, to sew while I was there.  And lest you think I had forgotten that this is a blog where I share my creative things, here they are!

These are my original Pocket Peanuts.  They are a smash hit with my kids.  They're all shaped like peanuts (similar to Russian stacking dolls), and though they are called peanuts, they are completely peanut free (no allergens here!).  They are approximately 3" tall (1.5" wide) and are stuffed with non-allergenic polyfil stuffing, so they are fun little pocket-sized dolls.  [And in my best announcer voice: "but wait...there's more!"]

These little Pocket Peanuts are finger puppets, too!  They are made with a strip of elastic securely sewn into the seams, so little fingers (and big fingers, too) can wear them.

I have oodles of other things to share with you, but I have to close out this post for now.  I'll be back later with details on my shop opening (!!!!!) and more fun stuff!

Have an amazingly blessed Monday!

:) Caren

Alien Landscape 2012

Today I am entering my “Alien Landscape 2012” mini-quilt into the Modern Mini Challenge going on over at Ellison Lane Quilts.  I have spent the past 5 weeks working on this mini-quilt, and it is finally finished (and my kiddos are super excited that they can finally play with it!)

Alien Landscape 2012 was an idea I had after working on a quiet book for my children.  After watching Spunky (my 5 year old boy) play (at full-volume) with the book I realized that I would either need to rename it, or make something different for him.  Then I read about this challenge on Ellison Lane’s blog and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try something new (and challenge myself!)

My goal for the mini was to have a functional playscape that would be fun to play with but also be bold and interesting as a wall hanging.  So flat aliens that fit into pockets was the way to go!

This space car has a license plate - Google Translate didn't have any alien dialects, so I used Russian instead.  It says “Hebrews 11:3”, which says “By faith we understand that the universe was created by God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”  That includes aliens, right?!!

Here you can see the house.  It is also a pocket, ready for aliens to come and go as they wish.  I wanted to make all of the lines in the mini a bit wonky, thinking that their gravity probably wouldn't be the same as ours.  (Side note: I had a bunch of fun playing with new embroidery stitches – I especially like that trellis!)

 This is “Salien” (short for Sunburst Alien). Spunky thought that this one was too fat to fit in the space ship, so he said we should make a "skinnier" one.  Funny thing is that now that I've made that change, he still wants to use this one.  What can I say – he’s 5!

Here is the back of the quilt – can you see the quilting?  It’s what Spunky asked me for – a spirally dotted line through the universe.  This is the ONLY stitching that I did through the entire quilt.  All of the other stitching was done after it was quilted – I added all of the appliques, pockets and other elements by hand on the front side.

Oh, by the way, I guess I didn't mention yet that the space ship actually unbuttons from the front so you can send the little aliens on adventures throughout the galaxies on the back!  And yet another moment of truth – this is the first spaceship I made.  I wasn't completely happy with it, so I made another one.  But when I showed it to Spunky, he had already made his mind up that he liked this one – something about the colors, trims, french knots… I don’t know, but again my first draft is now the “final” – kids just don’t care about perfection. They want “real”!

Here’s a closeup of the binding.  Its my first time doing mitered corners, and I was going to put in a slick rod pocket , but again, on the “get real” meter, that was a dud .  This is for a young child.  He needs to be able to hang it – preferably by himself!  So big loops fit the bill.  I’m actually quite impressed with the binding – the mitered corners look excellent, and all of the stitching is invisible (I did it all by hand – if I did it by machine it’d look terrible – I don’t do straight lines very well!).

Here’s the trio: Cyclopalien, Peanut Alien, and Salien the Skinny.  These guys look pretty inviting, right? "Come play with us!!!" (More pictures of this project are at my Flickr photostream.)

Here’s a closeup of the wonky water tower-satelite dish-house. This project took five weeks for a reason.  All of my embroidery and other details were done by hand.  I’m not saying that to toot my own horn, folks, I like to do hand stitching, I just wanted to show you the details.  It’s such a great thing to have something to give to a child.  My children are going to know that mommy made this, by hand, with tons of love and it is totally unique.  Maybe I should sign it.  Hmmm.  That’s probably not a bad idea…

The aliens were all made with wool felt, so they’re super soft, but they have a layer of Peltex inside, so they are stiff-ish (like spongy cardboard).  The alien designs, above, were made on a recycled t-shirt with fabric pen.  I like that they’re all unique, and all of them have some simple embroidery stitches.  (I’m teaching Spunky some basic embroidery, so I guess I could call this an “educational” mini-quilt – think that’s a stretch?  *ha!*).

Ta- Da!  All ready for play!  

:) Caren

PS – want more details?  They’re below.  If you get bored with such info, you can stop reading right here - have a great day!

DETAILS

Name:  Alien Landscape 2012 by cadamsCREATIONS

Finished Size: approximately 24”x 24”

Quilting: Spiral pattern done by hand with DMC embroidery floss (3 strands).

Batting: Warm & Natural Quilt Batting

Background Piecing: Crazy quilt style, done by machine.

Appliques: Big house (pocket), space car (pocket), two wonky houses.

Extras: Space ship made from quilting cottons and Peltex with ric rac and embroidered details.  Aliens made of wool felt, recycled t-shirt, and Peltex – hand drawn and embroidered.

Quilt Back: quilting cotton, one continuous piece (galaxies theme).

Binding: 7/8” pre-made double-fold quilt binding, sewn by hand.  Hanging loops made from tiny double fold bias tape in orange.

Wanted to share my top five "NEW" things I did during this project:

1. I researched color theories.  I am not a quilter, and choosing the colors was actually the hardest part of my design process.  Learned a BUNCH, though!

Sprout (12 months old) was intrigued by the fabric.

2. I researched "crazy quilting".  I knew I wanted the background fabric to be "haphazard", so I heard about crazy quilting and decided that I could give it a shot.  My kids loved the background fabric!

3. I researched binding and mitered corners.  When I began this project, I was clueless as to how folks got those pretty, sharp corners.  But now that I've done 8 of them I feel like I have a good handle on them!

4. I used Peltex for the first time!  It's really fun stuff, and easy to sew through.

5. I scoured my embroidery books for new stitches to learn.  I ended up doing too many to describe here, but it was a great learning experience.

A Note to Jennifer:

I appreciate your work on putting this challenge together, and for answering my many questions about it!  I feel like I learned so much during this past 5 weeks - it's been like an online class experience, but since I don't like school, I'll add that it was FUN FUN FUN!!!  So from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!!!  

:) Caren

Learning New Things

I am working on my project for the "Modern Mini Challenge" over at Ellison Lane Quilts.  Jennifer has been doing a blog series on Mini's so we can find our inspiration - there are some wonderfully talented folks out there in blog-land!

This is my first "quilt".  However, as you may be aware, I am a free spirit when it comes to design, so I have to admit that my mini will be functional.  Not as in "it hangs on the wall and looks pretty" kind of functional, but as in a "hey, that's way cool - what do you mean it hangs on the wall?!!" kind of functional.  Confused yet?

OK, I'll reveal a little bit about my project on this post, but I want to wait until it's done to reveal the whole shebang (mainly because it's not finished yet!).  Prior to being sidetracked into this challenge, I was working on a "Quiet Book" for my children.  So every page had "something to do".  That bled over into this quilt a little bit.  

These adorable aliens can go INTO the house and space ship.  Yep, those bits are not just for looks, they are actually pockets!  Yay for keeping kids busy!!!  

(Speaking of keeping kids busy, has anyone seen my third alien?  I think someone toddled off with it....)

I admit I am no professional.  I am probably going to be crazy enough to try to make another one of the space ships.  I learned a bunch while doing this one.  First off, I learned how to make buttonholes with my new (to me) sewing machine!

Not excellent, but it'll do for the kiddos.  (Thread snapped in the middle of sewing.  grrrr.)

I had some fun trying to figure out exactly how to make the space ship.  I added the ric rac with itty bitty French knots to add a bit of color.  I like how it turned out!

I also got to "play" with Peltex.  It's really neat stuff (of course - it's made by Pellon!).  It is a thick stabilizer with heat-activated adhesive on both sides.  It makes the aliens (and space ship) sort of stiff but flexible - like spongy cardboard!

Typically, after I put something together I look at it and think of all the embroidered bits I can add.  I was not sure about the Peltex, because it is so thick.  However, it was surprisingly simple to sew through - even by hand!  

Here are some of my house windows.  My original design has a porch, too, but I'm working on that.  I love that I can sit and do a bunch of hand-embroidered details on this project.  Makes it relaxing, fun, and doesn't feel alien to me (ha!).

I only have until March 5th to finish it up, but I'd better get cracking - especially if I want to re-do the space ship with all of my new found knowledge!

Meet Dazzle! (my new elephant)

Have you ever made something from scratch and it ended up WAY better than you thought it would?

That's what happened with this elephant. I got the pattern drafted, pieces cut out, and started sewing.

It turned out much better than I thought it would!

I like the ears.







And that cute little tail!

The fabric was one of a bunch that I got in the mail last week. It's a fabric line called "Dazzle" (hence the elephant's name) by Melissa Averinos for Andover. So beautiful.

In fact, I was so excited about the fabric that I forgot to wash it. That creates a bit of a problem in the stitching quality of the final product (I had to do more hand-stitching than I usually do to cover some of the issues), but Dazzle is definitely one I plan to make more of.

So squeezable!

I have linked up this post to the Sundae Scoop Link Party from http://www.iheartnaptime.net/ . I, being not so technically savvy, have not figured out how to a link, but please, there are some REALLY cool crafty sites in the link party so go check 'em out!!!

Flowerpot People

I love craft blogs. Seriously, I could look at stuff other people make for hours. And Etsy - if it were a magazine I'd subscribe. That being said, I have subscribed to waaaaaay too many crafty blogs this year. I took a break from the craftiness for a weekend. Four days, actually. And what did I come back to? 362 blog posts unread (thank you, Google Reader, for counting them for me). After taking the past few days to go through all of those, I've found some really cool crafty projects to put on my "want to try" list and I thought this one would be great (not that this looks ANYTHING like the post I saw, I just "borrowed" the hairstyle/face style - 'cause I need lots of help with all things PAINT). So I went to Hobby Lobby (see my previous post for "why I don't go shopping"). I hope you all have heard of Hobby Lobby. I love it.

One of my bloggy friends had a post on how she made some bowls and people for her kids to play matching games with. I have no idea which blog it was, though, since I looked at so many blogs in the past few days. Bummer. But I know it's out there - this isn't my idea, but it was so great I just couldn't pass it up (especially since Sunshine hasn't learned her colors yet).

This little set of 8 "Flowerpot People" was a hit, not only for Sunshine, but for Spunky as well. He SHARED! He gave his sister HALF of the people. Thats 4, by the way - he's learning his math skills.

Sunshine figured out you can stack the flowerpots. That's a "YAY!" on her face (notice the clapping hands?!)

Hey, those pots not only stack, but they make good hats, too!

The flowerpots and people are both found in the unfinished wood section. No, they are NOT terra cotta.

One day with flowerpot people and now Sunshine says most of the colors - she doesn't know which is which yet, but I've heard her say green, pink, red, yellow, blue and black. She'll be saying purple and orange soon, too! And maybe this will help with the sibling rivalry, as I did tell Spunky that these were made specifically for Sunshine to learn her colors. He's even helping her by telling her what colors he's giving her. What a good big brother :)

Fun with Dick and Jane

Like I said in my previous post, my sister is an amazing photographer. So for her birthday I got the crazy idea to make her some old-timey looking blocks for photo props. So with a little help from Mod Podge, Dick and Jane, and some 5x5 (ish) cardboard boxes, I made these cute little blocks. The biggest problem I had was figuring out how to do the project without getting toddler handprints on them (since I was working on the kitchen table).

Here's the "before" picture.

...and after...

So adorable! Wish I could get pics with my little ones and these. Maybe some day we will (we're several states away).

Target Practice

Boys are boys. No matter how hard we try to teach them to be gentle there is something in them that wants to conquer - to shoot, to make war, to blow things up, etc. My Spunky, now almost 5 years old, got a 4-pack of water guns. He loves them. So my artsy friend and I made these targets (mainly so he'd squirt THEM instead of his little sister)! We play with "make believe points" - or I'd be out some serious cash (see how the "points" are totally random? That'd be Spunky's idea).

Maybe instead of punching the holes through the cardboard (yes, these are recycled cereal boxes), I should put the holes through the lamination plastic only? (They're looking a little soggy).