We are going to an engagement party this weekend, and I picked up this cool Anniversary Dishtowel from Anthropologie to give as a little gift. It lists all of the traditional anniversary gifts up to the sixtieth anniversary. When I purchased it, the woman at the checkout offered me a gift box, to which I said "Sure!" Now the box she gave me was the right length and width, but way to deep for a dishtowel. But it is an Anthro box, and therefore awesome quality and gorgeous in itself, and a total waste to not use. So I had a dilemma. Deep box, flat little dishtowel. What to do? I had no choice but to make something else to go in the box with the dishtowel.

I love to give ring bowls as engagement or wedding gifts. They are a perfect gift for just about every couple, small, inexpensive, and practical. I'd never made one myself, but I still have a bunch of wool roving that needs to be used up. To make this bowl, I layered the roving around a Styrofoam form, then began jabbing away with my felting needle. Once it was mostly felted, I removed it from the form and moved on to wet felting. This shrunk and firmed it up quite a bit, and I formed it into the shape I wanted. I allowed it to dry, and went back in with my needle and patched up any thin spots. Then I needle felted a heart and embroidered it with some cotton embroidery floss in a scratchy style to matches the towel. Finally, I needle felted the heart into the bottom of the bowl.

I'm really excited to share this t-shirt that my 4-year-old son, Huck, and I made for my husband, Steve. I asked Huck to draw a big picture of Boba Fett (a bounty hunter from Star Wars, for those of you who don't have Star Wars obsessed persons living in your household). Huck made a line drawing, and I used the freezer paper printing technique to put down the colors. Then I used my handy dandy fabric markers and a light box to translate his drawing over the freezer print and we ended up with this spectacular t-shirt!
Steve loves it, and it comes on the heels of a botched Boba Fett t-shirt that I tried to make for him last year that he hated ("hate" is a strong word he says, but he never wears it) to replace a very old t-shirt that he screenprinted in high school of Boba Fett that is falling apart but he has a deep sentimental attachment to. This shirt, I think, is far more stylin' that both of the previous Boba Fett t-shirts. Huck, however, thinks his lines are too wobbly. Artists!

I made this for my dad for Christmas. The reindeer are my boy's handprints (ages 2 and 4). I used gold thread to embroider the trees and silver thread for the ground. The birds are ironed-on appliques made with fabric backed with Lite Steam-a-Seam 2. The reindeer themselves have french knot eyes (I added one strand of white to the black embroidery thread to give a little "glint" to the eyes),and embroidered the antlers in golden brown. I also used a black fabric marker to add little noses and hooves. Finally, I brushed on some silvery white fabric paint "snow" on the ground.

This is a Christmas gift for my dad's office. He is a Physician's Assistant (somewhere between a doctor and a nurse-he sees and treats patients similar to the way a General Practitioner does). I thought this would be fun to put on his desk to freak out his patients. I bought this jar at Marshall's for $7 and wrote "LEECHES" on it using black paint pen, then stuffed it with some fat little pieces of black licorice.

I'm not sure if this is the right section for this, but this is for inside your purse, and it's kind of a wallet-like thing.
Anyway, I made a bunch of these tissue cozies as stocking stuffers. The outside fabric is muslin and the insides are different cotton scraps I had lying around. To do the text, I printed out my sayings and then traced them in fabric marker over a lightbox. I made a dozen of these in one evening, so very quick to do!

Bride of Frankenstein


Frankenstein


Wolf Man


The Mummy

I made these finger puppet notecards for a personal swap with someone who is a big fan of the Universal mosters. The cards are 3.5"x5" and the puppets are made from eco felt and various scraps of material.

I recently participated in my first Organized Craft Swap.  "Yarnies vs. Sewists"
My partner's favorite color combo is red and black, and she preferred something non-girly. Styles she likes are rock, goth and steampunk. That was kind of challenge for me, as my style is more vintage-modern and I love light colors! But there is a Goth that lurks deep within my soul (wish I had pics of my Robert Smith worship days). I made a WIP tote for her crochet projects based off of my original Monster Art Totes that I made awhile back (here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=340056.0). I found some great Alexander Henry fabric that fit my theme, and I lined the tote and made the side panels from it.





I also made a crochet hook book to fit inside the inside pocket of the tote. It is fleece and soft to protect the finish of her hooks.

On a recent visit to a friend's house, my almost-4-year-old son, Huck, got very attached to a hobby horse. So attached that we ended up taking it home with us. That sparked an idea off in my head, and I started to draft a pattern for my own stick horse. My original plan was to make this as a Toy Society drop, but Huck really likes it, so I may have to just make a new one.

Of course, this is my first go at this, so I see lots of things I can do to make my next one better. Less forehead, wider snout, crimp the ears so they stand up more. I'm happy with the mane-I found an amazing yarn store close to home where I plan to spend a lot of money. I'm still trying to figure out a way to properly attach the head. It pops off now and then. Hot glue, maybe. Inside and around the base (so it is stuck to the fabric as well as the stuffing inside). My husband suggested stuffing a bunch of red yarn on the inside so when the head pops off, the red yarn all falls out.



Here's Huck modeling it 

My friend got married this weekend, and I made her and her new husband this quilted picnic blanket. The clouds are made from fleece and the birds are connected by a skinny piece of lace trim. The heart is made of a sparkly red vinyl and the name banner is trimmed in gold thread. The rest of the blanket is made with cotton quilting fabric and the batting is natural organic cotton. I didn't wash the fabric before sewing so that it would pucker and have a bit more of a vintage feel. In addition to the blanket, I made a carrying tote that included plates and utensil sets for two. I also made roll-up napkins for the utensils to be tucked into.

[UPDATE:]

This is a quick little project I whipped out for my 3-year old son, Huck. He needed a snack sack for summer school. It is a little smaller than a regular lunch sack-just big enough for a juice box,a pack of animal crackers and a clementine. It has a little strap on the back (that matches the lining) that he can either hold or sling over his shoulder. If I did it again, I'd probably add a stiff rectangle of something (heavy interfacing? plastic? something washable.) to the bottom of the sack so that it would hold it's shape better when it is picked up and loaded with yummies.






UPDATE: I made a tutorial for this on my blog/Flickr (very, very, very image heavy, so I couldn't easily do it here). The tute is slightly modified from the original to correct some issues I discovered after some use:
http://hideousdreadfulstinky.blogspot.com/2010/08/lunch-sack-tutorial.html