Crafty Lately?

Since the new addition to our family, I can honestly say that I haven't done too much with my crafts/quilting. But, now that the little one is sleeping better, I can sometimes eek out alittle craft time. These are the things I have been working on.

I bought this ornament tree at IKEA after Christmas for 1TL. I wasn't sure what I could do with it but I decided to put it on my buffet and add seasonal items that I made. For Valentine's Day, I had hearts hanging with pictures of my kids on them. I made these silly birds for Spring. They didn't take long and I think they turned out cute.

Here's a close up of the silly birds. I found the tutorial and pattern here. This is a great scrap project.

This has been on my project list for awhile now, thanks to my mom. J received two Barbies for Christmas and the clothes are soo expensive here. My mom brought 2 Barbie patterns and we went on an adventure looking for fabric for Barbie clothes. This is the second piece of clothing I have made for Barbie. I am spacing them out because they are time consuming and often a pain to sew. I found some tutorials online for Barbie clothes as well but then, I keep thinking it would be soo much easier to wait until we go to 'Merica (J's word) and buy them at a yard sale. You could technically sew these by hand which I do not have the patience for. J loved her dress and is already asking for a wedding dress. I am not sure who Barbie is going to marry, since we do not have Ken, ha ha. My older daughter said the dress was all most store quality. Thanks for the encouragement, honey. Here are some tutorials for Barbie clothes if you want to try them out yourself. You could scraps or cut up old clothes.

theadventuresofroryandjess She has several tutorials and she makes it look easy.

missbcouture I am awed at her creativity and jealous of the time she has to do this.

fromanigloo She made a dress for her daughter and a matching dress for Barbie.

mamaslittlecoffeebreak If you are looking for furniture to make....

embendesigns. More furniture and bed linens! Barbie definitely needs a decked out bed.

midcraftcrisis Barbie chairs because Barbie cannot sleep all day.

mypaperpony My ultimate favorite, a Barbie Museum of Art, she needs culture too. And you can change the paintings!

While my mom was here, I finished a mini quilt. All of the fabrics were found here in the country. The pattern was found here. I usually try to use free quilt patterns but I have subscribed to the digital version of Quilter's World and have loved it. I miss all of the craft magazines you can get while in the states but this way, I don't have to miss a quilt magazine. An awesome thing about subscribing to this magazine, you get the back issues as well! So you are not only getting the new year of magazines, you are getting a couple of years back issues. The digital version also has the patterns to print out. It may not be the same as pouring over a magazine in your hands but it still can be nice to see what's out there in the quilting world.

I bought these panels online and quilted them for the kids' room. I am going with an Eric Carle theme since we received this great quilt from my mom. She made a Hungry Caterpillar quilt for J's bed. These panels have characters from Eric Carle's books and they were quick to quilt. I found the panels at fat quarter shop .

I made a valance for the kids' room going with the Eric Carle theme and using fabric from his Brown Bear Fabric line. This was also purchased at the fat quarter shop. It is alittle more than I usually spend per yard but I really liked the colors and it went with J's quilt.

I can only show you part of this table runner as it is pretty long. This is a table runner that I am hand appliqueing for my buffet. The pattern came from Quilter's World in their archives. I wanted something bright and I added our family name at the top. I am sorry to say that all of the fabrics except the base piece are from America. This is going to take me awhile as I am sewing each piece individually and I seem to find other projects that just have to be done first. I love the colors and I will be happy when it is done, so it can cover the top of my buffet.

Now, this may look like alot but it isn't. These projects have been on going as well as slow going since the birth of my baby boy. He is now five months old and I am still working on some of the projects I started before he was born. Right now, though, my little birdies make me smile and being able to create something helps my sanity. I thought I had to give this part up when I moved here but I didn't. (It took a meeting with a wise lady at a Woman's Conference that I attended to show me that.) I am finally finding things I need and if I can't find them, I add them to my 'Merica list. I just recently found ready made bias quilt binding in all sorts of colors and patterns! I didn't even know they had that here. Most of the time, I make my own binding but it is nice to know that I can find it if I need it.

My hope is that this encourages you to create something whether for you, your kids, or family. Choose something that you enjoy and just do it. Have a great day!