Inspiration for Crafting

I updated almost a year ago about the denim blanket project I first shared here. My original plan was to make a picnic-sized blanket. Goodness knows I definitely have enough jeans to make a few blankets that size! But we've encountered a new possibility. Let me explain.

We are having our third child, and first BOY!, sometime after Christmas. Sammi, now 4, is excited to have a brother. The other day as we were driving home from preschool she said she wanted to cut "this" up and make it into a blanket for baby Scott. Since I was driving I asked her what "this" was and she said her denim shorts. I had an ah-ha moment because it dawned on me that I had cut enough squares for a baby-sized blanket. I told her I already had squares cut and would she like to help me use them to make the blanket. She agreed.

Finally, after almost a week of talking about making this blanket, we pulled out the squares today while Elli was napping and got to work. Sammi helped me arrange them. She liked the pockets a lot so I think we have at least one pocket on every row!

After we arranged all the squares, 81 in all, we started sewing them together. I'm mostly using my new serger to do the job. But on some pieces the seems are too thick so I've been sewing them on my regular sewing machine. I got half the rows sewn before bedtime. Sammi loved sitting by me at the table and chatting with me while I sewed. She really wants to do the pedal herself, but I told her we're in her observing stage of learning to sew! Sometimes I have her sit on my lap and guide the fabric through which seems to make up for not doing the pedal.

Posted by Amber P. at 10:34 PM 1 comments    

Labels: baby, blankets, sewing

I finally pulled out the box of jeans and squares I've already cut. Over the last two days I've cut nearly forty more. I've still got a long way to go to get enough for the picnic sized blanket I want. But every bit helps. I'm having a lot of fun cutting out pockets and loops so that they'll "work" when I sew the squares together.

As for the backing, I'm thinking of buying a full size flannel flat sheet and making it that big. The blanket we already have has flannel on the back and I really love the way it feels when I wrap up in the blanket. Now that we're in Tennessee, I'm wondering if it will get cold enough in the winter to wrap up in a denim and flannel blanket! We'll have to wait and see.

Posted by Amber P. at 11:16 PM 2 comments    

Labels: blankets, project ideas, sewing

Christmas was a big hit! Sammi loved the baby doll beds I posted before. She also loves the baby doll blankets. They were so easy to make and the perfect size for baby dolls.


The pink blanket is flannel. It's about 20 inches square. We just turned over the edge and hemmed it. Seriously took less than 10 minutes!

The blue and green blanket is from two fat quarters I had. I sewed them together right-sides facing. I left a small opening, turned it out and then sewed around the blanket to give it a finished look. I even used one of the fancy stitches on my 25 year old Bernina! Again, less than 10 minutes.

The quilt is a simple 9 patch. I made the square about 4.5 inches so they'd be 4 when sewn with a .25" seam allowance. I used super thin cotton batting. Then I just sewed straight lines along the 9 squares to quilt it. This one took a little longer, but not much. It took me about 30 minutes of sewing.

Sammi has loved wrapping her dolls up in doll-sized blankets. It adds to the reality of her pretend play!

Posted by Amber P. at 3:49 PM 0 comments    

Labels: blankets, dolls, gift ideas

I found out about this quilt tutorial on homemade by jill and just love the concept and the finished product. Isn't it adorable! I have some fat quarters I really like, but not enough that match to do the quilt. I'm still searching...

In the meantime, I had tons of fun browsing the oh!fransson blog where the quilt tutorial originates. She has a great sense of presentation to her projects. Although, the projects are so beautiful themselves that they would shine anyway!

Posted by Amber P. at 9:45 PM 0 comments    

Labels: baby, blankets, project ideas, quilting, sewing

Here's another project I'm working on. It's a baby blanket with the shell pattern. I bought the yellow yarn a few years ago for another baby blanket for my friend and started this blanket with the leftovers. I ran out and had to buy another skein. Since the last time I bought the yarn, they've changed the look of it a bit! The new yarn is more shiny and smooth. If you look closely you can see where the old yarn stops and the new yarn starts! Oops. That's my lesson in attempting a large project with leftovers!

This blanket has been a lot of fun, but I can only work on it when my little one is sleeping. Otherwise she tries to play with the part that's already done which is difficult since it's still attached to the part I'm crocheting now!

Posted by Amber P. at 2:20 PM 2 comments    

Labels: blankets, crochet, project ideas, yarn

Here are the flowers I've done so far. I came across this adorable idea on stardust shoes' blog and got the pattern from Lion Brand Yarn's compilation of free patterns. Joanna's idea was to make a bunch of the flowers and then sew them together in an afghan shape (instead of a scarf as the pattern directs). I thought that would be perfect for Sammi's baby doll blanket. I chose yarn from the collection I've acquired over the years. The colors are not that attractive, but I thought they would make a bright blanket for her baby.

The individual flowers are really quick to crotchet up. I do a bunch of centers in one color and then go back and do the flower part with the different colors. It seems like I can make huge progress in a short amount of time. That's my kind of project! Sammi likes them because she can take a flower and walk around with it. With the yellow blanket, she tries to pull on what I've already done, but she can't do anything with it since it's still attached to what I'm doing. We both get a little frustrated about that. I've decided to save the yellow blanket for times when Sammi is asleep!

Posted by Amber P. at 2:32 PM 2 comments    

Labels: baby, blankets, crochet, project ideas, yarn

I've wanted to make a denim blanket for years. I started saving jeans only to realize that I don't wear jeans! It was taking forever! Then I mentioned to my mom about wanting to make the blanket and she produced the largest box of jeans ever! I think there are enough jeans to make a few blankets. So now that I was armed with jeans, I just needed to find some company to help me through this long project.

My friend Melody came over last week and we started cutting out the squares for our denim blankets. We gathered all of our materials, pulled out our brand-new Gingher scissors, my newly replaced rotary cutter and mat and then looked at each other! The first cut is always the hardest.

But we finally braved the unknown and cut up our jeans. At the end of the day I had 80 5" squares. Only 270 left to go! So far I've just cut up the legs of the jeans. My next brave cut will be to tackle pockets. Thank goodness for new scissors (Thanks Brent for the Christmas present!!) because that denim is some pretty thick stuff. I can't wait to start sewing strips together and see the pattern form...

I strongly recommend using a rotary cutter for this or any quilting project because it went two to three times faster using the rotary cutter to make strips from the jeans and then cut the strips to squares. As of this post I have over a hundred squares and I did tackle those scary pockets. I think they will turn out pretty cute!

Posted by Amber P. at 2:21 PM 2 comments    

Labels: blankets, explanations, project ideas, sewing