Table Runner

For my easy-storage seasonal decor, I was planning on getting a plain colored tablecloth and making different runners for each season. Stacey over at Icing on the Cake gave me a new and even less-to-store idea!


This table runner involves the same basic material for the entire runner with seasonal ribbons and shapes you can change out. Brilliant! I'm definitely putting this on my to-make list!

St. Patrick's Day Printables

Inspired by Kimberly's clever St. Patty's Day printables, I designed some for a dessert social a friend and I are hosting next week. While I loved the clever poem Kimberly provided, I decided I'd prefer good ole' candy for my bags. Here are two possibilities I came up with for the bag topper:


The first is a plain white lunch sack, folded down and then in to match the width of the bag topper, and the other is just saran wrap! I probably would have used a plain zip-lock sandwich bag, but there were none to be found in the house!

In addition to the bag topper, I designed matching invitations to send out. While I don't have a picture of the ones we used, this is a generic one I modified:

So after all that designing fun, I'd love to share them with each of you! Just click on the image of the invitation (above) or the bag topper (below) to be taken to a printable pdf file that has four of each per page.


Please let me know if you end up using these, I'd love to hear the details!

I'll be linking to the parties on the left as well as to these:

Someday Crafts Categorically Crafting

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Technical Difficulties

Please ignore how uglified my blog is right now. I'm having technical difficulties. Why doesn't blogger have a three column template to choose? Ugh.

*edit - I got most of it back!! Now I just need to fix the header. But I have a sick baby right now, so that will have to wait...

Seasonal Decor Blocks pt. 2

I edited my Seasonal Decor Blocks post when I thought I'd found a really clever way to add one block to the original seven and get four more words than just the original 16. Later, I went to the original post at Little Birdie Secrets where I found even MORE great ideas in the comments section! With only TEN blocks, you can create THIRY different words! None of the words use all the blocks (though if someone sees a word that works, PLEASE tell me!), so you may be wondering what to do with the extra blocks while you have one word displayed.

Here's one idea:


Just use ribbons, other knick-knacks, or notions to accessorize (and don't take a picture from the side!). Another idea - maybe you can make two short words with the blocks and display them in different locations? I'm not sure if any of the words lend themselves to this, but it sure would be fun.

So what are the magic blocks and words? The blocks are as follows (with the first 7 being the original 7):

Block One: H Y E D
Block Two: A C R S
Block Three: R P E T
Block Four: V N L O
Block Five: E O M D
Block Six: S M K I
Block Seven: T F B W
Block Eight: U A G L
Block Nine: P J I H
Block Ten: F P S C

And all the wonderful words you can make (in the most haphazard order!) are:

Harvest
Welcome
Faith
Family
Spooky
Friends
Winter
Freedom
Blessed
Snow
Home
Hope
Monster
Mother
Dream
Easter
Lucky
Love
Santa
Glory
Romance
Pumpkin
Frosty
School
Autumn
Spring
Summer
Father
Fall
Happy
Merry
Fairy
Fairies
Jolly
Flowers
Wishes
America
**Edited to add:
Birthday (Thanks, Tiffany!)
**Comment on the original Little Birdie Secrets post by Kalynne also gives us:
Flake, Hearts, Christ, Jesus, Bloom, Flag, Irish, Sun, Swim, Pool, Ghost(s), Witch(es), Vampire, Fright, Thanks, Leaf, Treats, Turkey, Jewels, Cuddle, Pillow, Party, Heart, Smile, Wonder (that's a total of SIXTY words!)

If you make a set, please post a link in the comments section. I would LOVE to see how y'all took this idea and ran with it! Have fun!

Linking to the parties on the left and:

Someday Crafts Categorically Crafting

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Felt House-A-Long Week 2

Well, I'm a little behind (still), but this is what I have so far. As a reminder, I blogged about my plan here. I made the decision to work with two sides at once rather than one at a time. This is because I didn't want to work with the tree in two halves. I might come to regret that decision, but so far it's working ok. :)

So to begin I cut my three main pieces (roof, side 1 [ which is the right and back sides of the playhouse], and side 2 [which is the left and front sides of the playhouse]). I set the roof and side 2 aside to focus on the side with the tree in the middle. I wasn't sure at the time whether I would finish the right side or the back side for week 2, but kind of just winged it (wung it?) as I went.

Working with the first piece, I folded it in half to center the tree (I free-handed the trunk while it was folded in half):


I unfolded both the side 1 felt and the tree and pinned liberally around the perimeter of the tree.

I don't show the next step, but for the top and bottom I used a long stitch to mostly just baste it. I knew I would have grass on the bottom and leaves on the top to reinforce those stitches. I used a wide (4 or 5) short (1 or 2) stitch (often referred to as a satin stitch in embroidery) for the sides of the trunk. I wanted to make sure they had a nice clean edge.

I couldn't find a green I liked in the felt yardage, so I had to make do with the little 9"x12" sheets. That's the main reason I didn't copy Tina's tree, which I LOVE the simplicity and elegance of. So I grabbed my sheets and the bowl nearest to the width of my sheets that I could find and started cutting circles:

After cutting five, I placed them on the felt and filled in the blank spaces with scrap pieces of the darker green and "leaves" made with a lighter green. It looks pretty wonky, but when you think about the fact that you'll only see one half at a time, I decided it would do.

I decided to use free-motion quilting to sew the "leafy section" to the felt. I was hoping it would add to the leafy effect, and I actually think it turned out quite well. I sewed a simple long straight line and three cross-lines on each of the leaves. It wasn't until I finished one and stepped back that I realized it looks kind of like a football. Oh well. This is for a boy-child for now, and in the south football isn't exactly gender specific, so it shouldn't be a problem when (if) a baby-girl comes along. ;)

For the shutters my initial plan was to use painters tape to mark my lines and sew straight lines across to mimic louvered shutters.

After trying to take off the first piece of tape, I realized I needed to change my strategy. The back side looked great, and the painters tape added some stability to the felt, so I decided to go ahead with my lines and use the back side as the front side. Make sense? I also trimmed the sides slightly to cut off the paint and slightly uneven sides. Here's a pic comparing the front and back:


I don't have any pictures of how I made my windows. I cut 9"x9" pieces of a shower curtain liner remnant I used to recover my kitchen chairs. Then I sewed 1/2" strips through the center. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that sewing plastic isn't the greatest thing for the machine needle, but it hasn't broken yet, so we'll see how it makes it through the other plastic sewing.

I then took the window and the shutters and pinned them where I wanted. I kind of followed Fawnda's guidelines for my window placement. I did another satin stitch all around the borders of the shutters. A slightly thinner (3) satin stitch for the "top" of the window, and a much thinner (2) and longer (3) satin stitch for the bottom. I knew that would be covered up with the window box.


So after cutting the window box, I used that same old satin stitch to sew the bottom and sides. I left the top along so that we can add greenery and flowers and whatever that kid's imagination dreams up. I haven't done the grass because I'm hoping Hobby Lobby will have the green I like by the yard. I'm not too excited about trying to piece all the grass. It's kind of tough to see (since it's laying on the floor), but I cut out the felt behind the window. Kind of like a reverse-reverse applique. :)


I'm hoping it's crooked because I had to take the pic from the top to avoid getting my shadow in the way. So, that's my week 2 progress. I'll try to get the Week 3 (the back side) up this weekend.

So,what do you guys think? (And by that I mean that I want only positive feedback. The time for constructive criticism is past, I'm afraid. My poor ego couldn't handle it, even though I generally LOVE constructive criticism...) And if you have any questions about the how-to, PLEASE ask. I have to do another window on the other side, so I can take more pictures of that if you guys want. And anything else that is unclear, let me know and I'll do my best to clarify!