I need more cowbell!

I was inspired by the cowbell SNL skit, as well as my husbands usage of his cowbell app during the Winter Olympics to create this T-shirt for him. Jessica, from Running with Scissors, has done many projects using the freezer paper method, and has a great tutorial on how to do it. It might be a little confusing your first time, but after that, it's a cinch. I've used freezer paper only once for another project, so I had some on hand, but you can find it at fabric or quilt shops.
I chose a font on Word, enlarged it, then printed it out. I made the cowbell myself drawing it freehand. Then I traced my pattern onto the paper side of the freezer paper and cut it out using an exacto knife.
Once cut, I positioned it on the T-shirt and ironed it on. Freezer paper is awesome.
Then I painted. I used two coats, letting it dry a couple hours in between. The freezer paper creates the perfect seal to keep the paint just where you want it, then peels off easily once you're finished.
Here it is finished. When my husband saw it, he asked me where I bought it from (ha!). He was surprised I had made it myself. Freezer paper and fabric paint are inexpensive and the possibilities really are endless, you can create any design you want and then paint it onto any fabric surface you like - tees, onesies, backpacks, hand towels, etc. Use the link above to see Jessica's full tutorial to make your own.

Off-Season Crafting

I am quite the fan of off-season crafting. Not familiar with the term? That's ok, I just made it up. You know how you start a craft, and it takes forever to finish, and before you know it, you sort of start to loathe your project and can't quite make yourself work on it anymore and finish it? This problem can be compounded if your project happens to be seasonal and the season floats on by with your craft sitting there all lonely and unfinished. I know you know what I'm talking about, you all have unfinished projects. It's ok.

Back to off-season crafting. A few Januarys ago I started a small decorative wall hanging quilt with gingerbread men on it that required hand quilting. Gingerbread in January? Yes, I know I was out of season, I'm daring that way. I worked all of January on it and probably into Febuary, but I hand-quilted the heck out of that thing and boy was I tired of it. It was so nice to stuff the thing away in the closet and forget about it until the next Christmas season. Nicer still, to pull it out FINISHED and finished in time for the season.

This past summer I started a wool applique wall hanging for Halloween called Gourdy's Gang.


Halloween in summer? It hardly seems right, though it felt so good (sorry that was lame). But seriously, consider it folks. Go out there and check out the Halloween crafts that are on clearance right now. If it's too soon for you, wait until January to work on it. Why don't you try this:


If you can cut and glue, you can make this. It was really fun and simple and I had all the necessary items in my stash to make it (if you scrapbook, you probably will too). I had this idea last year, but never got around to making it. This year I stumbled on these directions and knew I had to do it. The directions from the Polka Dot Chair are great though I would suggest you make a triangle template for each triangle size and then trace them onto the black cardstock and patterned paper. This way, you will get more triangles out of your paper (3 per 12x12 paper with the larger triangle, and 4 per 12x12 with the smaller triangle). If this sounds confusing at all, read The Polka Dot Chair's directions and you'll get what I'm saying.

If you're doing this for a fireplace mantle, the saying "got candy?" would be better since it is shorter and a better fit for a mantle. I have no fireplace so length was not an issue and I went for the full "happy halloween." Sorry the pictures are bad. Daytime light behind the banner made it hard to photograph during the day, so I was left with artificial light at night (not my favorite lighting for taking pictures).


Or, if you're looking for a craft for the coming seasons you can always just change the wording to "Give Thanks" or even "Merry & Bright." Either way, it is a fun (and easy) craft that can be finished in a day.

Coming up next? Advent Calender!

Doll Quilts/Buddy Blankies

Let me first say that my experience with quilting is very limited, and I am not a very good seamstress. Even with my skills lacking this was still a project I could tackle. I first saw this tutorial for doll quilts over at Girls Gone Craf-T. Katherine discovered the tutorial and had whipped up a few little quilts in one weekend. If you'd like to see her results, go here (http://girlsgonecraf-t.blogspot.com/2009/01/doll-quilts.html) she made some pretty cute doll quilts for her girls, as well as one for a friend's little boy.

Katherine's boy quilt inspired me to make some for my boys. While they don't have any dolls they do have a multitude of buddies (what they call stuffed animals) that join them each night when they go to bed. I followed the tutorial and here is how mine turned out:

Don't they look all cozy in their little blankies? My boys like wrapping up their buddies in bed with them at night. I went the easy route with the binding and quilting parts and just used my sewing machine since I knew my boys would not care.


Tired of Thomas fabric, I decided to make one for my niece Lucy. The original tutorial calls for these tiny little squares that took forever to sew together and became hard to keep straight, so for Lucy's I increased my square size and quilt size and added the pillow. The quilt top went together much quicker with larger squares.


For the quilting, I used a scrapbooking chipboard flower and traced it on my squares with a diappearing ink pen, then used my sewing machine to quilt it.


Hopefully this little quilt will be keeping Lucy's dolls and buddies warm this Christmas.


You can check out the fun tutorial on Crazy Mom Quilts if you'd like to make one or two yourself. If you know what you're doing (or not really, like me) it's pretty easy to change up the quilt size to suit your needs. This is a great gift idea for any little one in your life that enjoys playing with dolls or even just pretend play like my boys. Just don't call them DOLL quilts. They're BUDDY blankets.