To the Rescue

My son just entered the super hero phase and he has been stealing the kitchen towel one too many times for my liking. So I borrowed my nephews cape and made a pattern from it to make my son one for Christmas. They are super easy to make. I used my Cricut to print templates for cutting out the circle, star and letters. I wasn't about to attempt to free hand them and I didn't want to put the felt on the Cricut mat due to laziness.

I started out just planning on making one but I over bought on fabric forgetting to take into account that the fabric is 44 wide. So I made a second one for my nephew to send with all the things the new baby is getting. (That way he didn't feel left out of all the fun. My only concern was if he was into super heroes, hope he is or will be!)

Here is my sons. Thank goodness for his age because this is for Christmas and he doesn't even know it or will remember it once I hide it for a while! Here is my nephews cape.

Brooklynn Blanket

I am completely in love with the Moda Bake Shop Blog. I have bookmarked several blankets they display. I finally decided to try one. After I found out my sister was having a girl this pattern was perfect and it was something that would challenge my skills and teach me some new things.

I ordered this fabric and some for the binding and backing. I wanted something in the pinks and greens and they turned out to be amazing.

Following the pattern I cut all my pieces and then put the top together. I then learned what my sister was naming her baby and it wasn't quite as simple as the pattern. So I had to rework the middle part. I decided just to put the name and a few embellishments. I learned to cut fabric on the Cricut and cut the name and flowers out with it. I used the Mickey Mouse font. I used Steam and Seam to stiffen the fabric and to cut them out on the Cricut. From there I ironed the letters on and did a blanket stitch around all the flowers and letters in matching thread.I had someone locally machine quilt it for me. I ran into a problem when we went to quilt it, my back was too short top to bottom and so we cut off the top two rows to make it work. (I was on a deadline and didn't have time to order more fabric and fix it.) It still turned out amazing. The end blanket was 48" x 50". Detail of the quilting. Back of the quilt

I'm linking this up to Fabric Tuesday on Quilt Story and some other parties too, check out the links on my links page.

Teddy Bear

I saw this teddy bear made out of minky fabric at our local Ben Franklin Crafts. I asked them for the pattern and they didn't have one and they told me that the pattern was no longer sold by the company they got it from. I was a little upset that they would show a project and not have a pattern for it. They have patterns for everything else they show. Well I was bound and determined to make this bear. So I googled everything I could think of to find this pattern, with no luck.

This teddy bear was just so cute and it kept bothering me that I couldn't duplicate it. I then got the bright idea to take a picture and then measure the bears dimensions. So the next time I went in I went to go and get it only to find they had taken it down. I was bummed.

I was telling my mom about it and she needed to get something from that store so we ran over. Guess what I saw was back?! I showed my mom and she fell in love with it too. So she whipped out her measuring tape and a piece of paper and said trace it and measure it. So she wandered the store with my son while I sat in the isle and traced it. I was so giddy about being able to do it.

So from the outline and measurements that I made of the body I created a template. First bear I did out of scraps didn't go so good. So I went back to the store to look at it again. I revamped my pattern and tested it again. The head was a little big so I quickly solved that and created this beauty:

I am so excited that I got the pattern to work. This one I sent in a package to my sister for her baby she is having this month. My mom is begging for one and so is my son. They both have tried to walk off with this one before I got it sent. I finally had to hide it so they wouldn't take it. Guess I have some work to do. Maybe for Christmas?

I'm linking this up to Fabric Tuesday on Quilt Story and some other parties too, check out the links on my sidebar

Toddler Dress

I made this dress a few months ago. It was supposed to be for my niece who turned 4 this year but as I got closer to finishing the dress it looked like my sons size. Sure enough I found out the hard way that some patterns run small. Now I am trying to figure out what I am going to do with it. I really like it but don't know if I will have more children. What to do.....?
Here is the evidence that it fits my son. My mom and I put it on him to check the size and my dad didn't find it so funny. Hopefully my son won't hold it against me that I tried it on him and took a picture!

Thankful Tree

Every year that my side of the family gets together my mom does a Thankful Tree. She starts several months in advance and traces every one's hand prints. I have a sister across country and they send theirs to her as well. She then copies the hand print onto fall colored paper and sends them back to us, 2 hands for adults and 3 for the kids (I think).

The adults have to write several things they are grateful for on their two hands and the children do one thing per hand. The children can also draw what they are grateful for. Then we get them all back to her by November. She then takes them and saves them for Thanksgiving. (Sometimes she will send them through her paper crimper but it depends on how much time she has)

As we get together on Thanksgiving, we call my sister and put her on speaker phone so she can join and then we each take turns saying what we are grateful for and then we put our hands on the tree. It has really been a fun tradition and we love hearing what each other is grateful for.

Table Centerpiece

One of the first deer hunts my husband went on after we were first married all the girls in his family got together to craft. It was so much fun. Someone brought all the supplies and then we just sat around and talked. We ended up making these centerpieces.

I had forgotten all about it until this year as I went through things to put out for fall. Being in my house for almost 2 years I have found I have to decorate so much more space than our old tiny apartment. This will be coming out every year now.

Leaves

I have leaves on my mind. Probably because I had to rake them the other day and then felt my yard was naked with out them. Didn't seem like fall without my lawn being covered. Raking the leaves made me want to pull out my leaf decorations. It is one of the easiest ways to decorate and they bring such warmth to my home and really make it feel like fall. So let me share my leaf decorations.

Shortly after I moved into my home I realized that I had the stair rails that I had always wanted as a teenager for garlands. You know we all dream about the house we will own and the features you want or don't want. Maybe it was just me! Anyway I bought a fall garland to run down my stairs and I have one for Christmas as well. I just love the warmth that it brings to my stairs and home.

I loved the warmth of the leaves so much that I bought a wreath and the bushels of leaves and then sniped each stem off and pushed it into the garland. The easiest wreath I have done yet! I love it.

Pumpkin Pie

About the middle of October I started craving autumn spiced foods, basically anything pumpkin. (I am still craving pumpkin for some reason.) So I decided to attempt to make my mom's pumpkin pie. My mom saw/tasted them that night and said they looked just like hers and they tasted just like hers. Score one for pie making! First you make the shells with this recipe:

1 1/2 C. Flour

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 Tbsp. Sugar

2/3 C. Shortening

5 Tbsp. Ice Water

Blend the first four until the pieces are the size of a pea then slowly add the water until it pulls from the sides of the bowl. It makes one shell. (If not doing a pie like this bake at 425 for 8-10 min. or until light brown)

Next comes the pumpkin filling:

(1 pie filling)

1 C. Sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/4 tsp. Cloves

1/2 tsp. All Spice

1/2 tsp. Nutmeg

1/2 tsp. Ginger

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 1/2 C. Canned Pumpkin

2 Eggs

1 2/3 C. Undiluted Canned Milk

Blend sugar, spices and salt together. Add pumpkin. Mix well. Beat eggs with milk and combine with pumpkin mixture until smooth. Pour filling into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 and cover pie edges with a shield and continue baking for 25-30 minutes until entire pie moves together and a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.

This is your end result. I made two and gave one to my brother and his family. I absolutely love pumpkin pie at this time of the year.

Also to curb some of the pumpkin craving I made these cookies from this website. I left out the nuts (not a fan) and chocolate (I am allergic to it). They still tasted great even without those two ingredients.

Love pumpkin right now!