Tag Toys

Lately, my boys seemed to be obsessed with the tags on all of their toys.  We have a little giraffe that a dear friend made me with ribbon tags all over it.  I decided we needed more toys like that.
So I did a little pinning, and saw THESE cute alphabet tag toys.  I had to give it a try.

I put together a rainbow of fabric scraps, since I don't have a lot of super cute boy fabrics that are big enough...

I didn't notice that stray yellow ribbon until after I took this picture.  Oops!  I love the multicolored tags, though!

I backed them with a soft blue flannel. 

I copied THIS tutorial by stuffing the toys with shredded shopping bags so they would be crinkly.  Jaxson loves things that crinkle (like papers or M&M packages).  It sort of worked.

I just sewed the two pieces together with the tags in the middle.  I didn't want to worry about turning them inside out, so I left the edges raw.  I will keep an eye on them to see if they fray too much.  Just to be safe, I stitched the edges down with a tight zig-zag stitch using some rainbow thread (note to self: Mom's machine is AMAZING for this stitch.  Mine - disaster.  This was done on Mom's machine). 

J for Jaxson, B for Bronx.  I hope they like them!

Improvising

A couple of weeks ago, we set up a second crib for the boys.  They were starting to bump into each other in the one crib they were sharing.  I really like the new crib, but I felt like it was missing something.  I decided it at least needed a bumper.  The bumper I made for the first crib was an old hand-me-down that I covered with cute Ann Kelle fabric.  Unfortunately, I didn't think it would be economical to buy a brand new bumper for the new crib, just to cover it up with more fabric.  But I wanted it to kind of match.
SO.  I improvised.  I had a little bit of fabric left over from the first bumper, but not enough.  So I cut about 6 inches off the crib skirt I made for the first crib (it was a little too long anyway), and paired it with a solid fabric that I bought once to bring my fabric total just high enough to get free shipping. :)  It turned out that I had JUST enough fabric for a new bumper - with almost no leftovers!

I just made the bumper the same way I would make a quilt - using some extra batting I had on hand.  I quilted it with a meandering stitch, hoping to keep it stiff enough to stand up, and I even outlined some of the cars and planes, but you can't really see it in any of the pictures.
The ties were leftover from the cute diaper bears my friend made for one of my baby showers.
All in all, the whole thing cost NOTHING to make!  Wahoo!

Then I decided to remake the crib skirt I had on the first crib.  See - I was originally too cheap (or perhaps, lazy) to make the crib skirt with a center panel the way most bed skirts are made.  I just sort of taped it down and hoped it would stay.  Well, it sort of worked, but it was pretty ghetto.
Unfortunately, I didn't want to go out and buy a big piece of fabric that no one would ever see, and I surely didn't want to waste any of my stash on it.  But then, as I was cleaning my bathroom one day, I had a revelation.  A standard bath towel is about the same size as a crib mattress!  And we have TONS of old towels just taking up space under our sink right now.  Perfect!  So I sewed the crib skirt pieces to an old, ugly towel.  I didn't even have to trim the towel or anything.  It's not perfect, but it definitely works. 

And here they are!  The cribs don't match, but at least the bedding does!  Kind of.  I don't think the babies will care.   In fact, I think they really like the helicopters.  They pretty much stared at them the whole time I wrote this post.  :)

Crib Bedding

I finally got around to using my "Ready, Set, Go" fabric to make some crib bedding.

I had an old plastic bumper already, so I just made a cover to go over it.  Then I used the leftover fabric to make a little crib skirt.

I didn't really know what I was doing, but I love the fabrics so much, that it looks pretty good to me!

 Also, I couldn't help but sneak in this picture (sorry it's such a bad one - I didn't think to go outside, it's getting cold here!).  These are the "diaper bears" that were made by a friend for my last baby shower.  Aren't they adorable!

Car Seat Covers

I made these little car seat covers for my boys (who should be here in about 1 1/2 months.  GAH!).  I used some 1001 Peeps fabric I got using a gift card I won from Randi.  I used this tutorial from Make it Do.  It was a nice, quick project.  And I love how they turned out!  We are totally ready for our winter babies now.  Well, at least we are ready to transport them from the hospital to our house.  That's something, right?

Here is the front:

And the back.

I didn't want to spend a lot, so I just used plain black and white for the linings.

Aren't they cute?  Twinner car seats!

Lucky!

I have been super lucky lately!  I think I might have to stop entering giveaways for awhile.  I never thought that I would ever in my life win something from Sew We Quilt!  (They are doing a Wantobe Quilter Campaign right now with giveaways every DAY!)  I mean, come on - they have thousands of followers!  Nevertheless - I won something!  Something BIG, too (I had to pay the shipping - and it was a big package, but I'm sure it will be worth it).  

Here is Madame Samm's picture.  It is way better than mine:

I won the cutting mat, three rulers (which I DESPERATELY needed - mine has TONS of little nicks in it - plus I have always wanted a square ruler!!), the cutter, and a bunch of fabric.

And THEN I got the package in the mail, with a whole bunch of EXTRA stuff!  YAY!

The extra stuff I got was some fancy batting for craft projects, some thread, a quilt book ("More 90 Minute Quilts"), a wooden purse handle set, a mini quilt pattern, fabric glue, and a calendar!

Here is the fabric I won - each piece is a half yard cut, so a total of 4 yards!  Hubby looked at it and said it would make a really cool African skirt.  I think I will save it (for after the babies come) and do just that with it!

I also got some matching floss to go with it!

Here is my new cutter, and the fabric glue I am excited to try out.

The rulers!

I think I will be making ALL of my blocks 6 inch blocks from NOW ON! :)

I was so pleased to see this little pattern in there!  Madame Samm must really do her research!  I saw this pattern a few weeks before on the blog and thought it might be cute for my little boys' room.  So I left a comment.  Madame Samm must have seen it.  Isn't she sweet to send it to me? 

About two days later, I won ANOTHER giveaway!  This one was from Sha at Craizee Corners.  Her blog is a recent find and I really like it because she has the same sense of style (especially for fabric) as me.  I won TWO charm packs from Me and My Sisters Designs!  I was super stoked because I am a HUGE fan of Me and My Sisters.  I got a "Me and My Sisters Favorites" charm pack, and an "Amelia" charm pack.  I was so excited, I had to open it up and sort through everything before I thought to take a picture (late at night - hence the bad lighting...).  This is the two packs combined:

And all sorted by color:

A few of my favorites - the swirls,

The white pebble looking flowers,

The big flowers, and the paisley print.

I think I'm going to use them to make another puff quilt.  After I finish making baby boy items, of course.


A few weeks ago I won a gift certificate from Randi at I Have to Say....  Hers is one of the first blogs I started following back when I discovered quilt blogs.  She has a quilt-along tutorial button on her sidebar that I used a lot when I was first learning how to do things.
I decided to use her gift certificate to buy this 1001 Peeps fabric.  I think I am going to use it to make car seat covers for the boys:

And then there is this fabric.  I didn't win it, I had to buy it.  But I found it for a really good price and convinced Hubby to let me have it. :)  It's going to become bumper pads for our cribs.  I better get busy!