Framed Crayon Monogram

While browsing blogland for teacher gift ideas, I came across this one here using crayons and knew I had to make it for K* preschool teachers.
I ran out to the store while both kids were at school and found black frames on sale at Hobby Lobby and bought crayons at target in case I didn't have enough at home in my stash. I printed the S and M in like 450 size font and lightly traced them with a pencil onto the textured card stock we were using. I used a knife and scissors to cut the crayon tips off, mainly the knife I think. If I scored one side a bit and then rotated the crayon, it cut pretty cleanly. I used tacky glue so that K* could help, I read on some blogs that they used hot glue. I maybe should have used hot glue, after 15 hours+ ours weren't dry yet. Must be the humid climate we live in. Some letters of the alphabet are definitely more crayon monogram friendly. I used my silhouette to cut the teacher's names out of black vinyl with the font pea kels bells.

I had planned to make marker vases for some mini carnations that K* picked out at the store, but I didn't have enough markers or colored pencils or crayons for obvious reasons (and didn't want to run back to the store). The plan was to use a rubber band and some ribbon to hold the markers around a small glass vase. Then, they could use the markers next year. Luckily, I remembered these plastic craft paint cans I bought at Michael's last year and never used. I cut the pretty designs out of vinyl meant to look like etched glass with my silhouette. This is the first time I've used this kind of vinyl and I really like how it looks. I may be putting snowflakes on every window and mirror at Christmastime this year. It was hard to get a good picture though. Hopefully, her teachers will have some use for a plastic paint can.

The finished product!

Funny comment: When my son, S*, came home from school and saw what we were doing, he exclaimed, "That's the biggest waste of crayons ever!!". I thought it was pretty funny. And since when is he worried about "wasting" something? Kids are fun.

See my second crayon monogram post here.

5 Turning Twenty Quilts

For the five graduating seniors in our church's YW youth group, we made them each a quilt. The pattern is the original turning twenty quilt pattern. We used the 16 block size, which is 4 blocks by 4 blocks. Earlier in the year, we asked for ladies to donate fabrics from their stashes that they no longer wanted to get us started. Then, we bought some fabrics to coordinate with and supplement the fabrics that were donated while trying to work the quilts into the colors the mothers told us their daughters liked. Five quilt groups were formed and each group worked on a quilt top. My friend E* and I worked on the purple & black quilt top. We spent a few hours cutting & sewing and got it done in one night after the kids were in bed. Then, I collected the quilt tops and bought the backing and binding fabrics. I spent two days doing a lot of sewing. K* was my little safety pin helper while making the quilt sandwiches. I machine bound them using a feather stitch. This was my second time machine binding & it worked out pretty good in general. I think I'm just a little bit too picky sometimes and this was good for me to do with a time constraint and realize that it was good enough and didn't have to be perfect. On Tuesday evening, we met as a group and finished the quilts up by tying them and then presented them to the graduating girls. It was a lot of fun, and I think the girls really liked their quilts. Thanks to those that helped out in any way!

This is the other quilt, she wasn't able to make it that night.

Easter Dress: McCall's 5793

This is the Easter dress I made for K* this year. It's the first time I've sewn her a pretty church or holiday dress. I used McCall's pattern 5793 view D. The fabric is Simply Baby #30377 by Windham fabrics. I bought it last year, it's so sweet and almost screams SPRING! I bought 12 inch tulle on ebay and used two layers of it, rather than cutting out several pieces of tulle and folding those in half like it calls for in the instructions. Made it easier in my opinion. I also changed the sleeves. I made them about an inch or so shorter (I would probably make them even a bit more shorter if I were to make this dress again) and put a band on the sleeve bottom instead of elastic. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Add a puffy half slip and a cute, little girl and it's even better.

Bunny Tee

This is a tee shirt I made around Easter for K* using freezer paper and a cute, bunny shape I cut out on my silhouette. After cutting the shape out of the freezer paper, you iron it onto the shirt and use fabric paint. It was my first time making one, and I either didn't iron it down enough or used too much paint because the paint bled under the freezer paper a little, but it turned out pretty good I think. Once you decide on a shape(s) and paint and have a tee shirt, it's a fairly simple project. Slowest part is waiting for the paint to dry. Maybe I'll let the kids make a "supervised" one over the summer.

I used freezer paper stencil posts from make it and love it to figure out what I was doing. Always lots of great stuff on her blog.

Silhouette shape: bunny rabbit_C00164_19547