UFOs

One of my resolutions this year was to finish some of the un-finished objects in my basement craft stash. Last week I finished these 2 quilts.

The first one was from a class I took that used Marti Michell templates to make stars. I made one scrappy star in the class, and the instructor took my idea and made a whole quilt out of similar squares. So I bought her pattern and made the quilt. Somehow, I think there was a missed opportunity for me to make some money there.

The red and white quilt is my "garage sale" quilt. I bought all of the red and white fabrics at a garage sale at the home of a woman who obviously had a lot of fabrics in her stash. I used a pattern from one of the quilt magazines that Kathy had on her coffee table. It's a pretty big quilt, and I'd like to put it in one of the kids' rooms (guest rooms), but need to do some painting and floor refinishing first.

Baby Booties

After a short hiatus from baby stuff, I came back to make these really cute and easy kimono booties from homespun threads. They're made in 2 pieces each and they fold over one another like a kimono. I accidentally made the sole upside down on the one on the far left and I think it's even cuter that way, though one on the right is a better example of how they're put together. I'll give these pairs to Danny and Sarah for their little one due in July and if they use them (do babies ever wear shoes?), I'll add these to my repertoire.

New Dress

This dress is one of the many projects I fell in love with in Midwest Modern. And of course I had to get Amy Butler fabric to make it. I bought the fabric ages ago and thought I could get it done by Easter, but didn't start cutting out pieces until last Monday! Luckily it was an easy dress to sew and I got to test out my sewing machine's zipper foot and hem foot. If it warms up a little bit, I'll wear it to church tomorrow morning. Happy Easter!

Easter Treats

I adapted a Christmas cookie recipe for Easter, and though I would include the recipe here. The original recipe is for Christmas wreath cookies, which are green, and have red hots on them to represent holly berries. I had the idea that, without the green food coloring, they might look like bird nests, and jelly beans would look like eggs. I think they came out cute, and they taste good, and are somewhat healthy, too.

Here's the recipe:

30 large marshmallows

1 stick margarine

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. food coloring (for Christmas wreaths)

4 1/2 cups corn flakes

Melt marshmallows and butter over low heat. Add vanilla and food coloring (if desired.) Stir in corn flakes until coated. Shape into wreaths (or bird nests) and add red hots (or jelly beans.) (It helps if you butter your hands before trying to shape the cookies, because they are sticky.) Let cool on waxed paper for 24 hours.

Lauren's New Old Chair

Lauren took an old couch and chair with her when she moved to Cincinnati. They originally belonged to John's great uncle Bob, and I think are made of mahogany. The cushions were all ripped and stained, and Lauren chose some fabric and had them recovered. The upholsterer also refinished all of the wood. She just got the chair back while we were visiting last weekend, and it is beautiful! Now I want it back!

More Stuffed Animal Attempts

Found a very cute pattern for this chicken on Whipup.net here and had to try it. I like that most of these are purposely-funky animals. I felt no pressure to try to make this look like a real chicken. Hence, the teal legs! Plus, babies won't know the difference. Izzy has already given all of the stuffed animals her seal of approval. She's tried to play with all of them and seems to like the donkeys the best.

Another Donkey

My second donkey is blonde and somewhat less Eyeore-like than the first. Do blonde donkeys even exist?