DIY Game Day Pillows for Football Fans

The DIY Game Day Pillows are the perfect afternoon project to be ready for Thanksgiving Weekend football...or get a jump start on a Christmas gift for your favorite football fan.  Special thanks to Shannon Fabrics and Fairfield World for providing me with product and to Fairfield World for compensating me for this post.

One more unicorn...

I was just about ready to mail off the unicorn I-Spy Quilt to my brother's new baby, when Eric (my husband) pulled out his star chart to have a look at the night sky and casually mentioned there is a unicorn constellation named Monoceros.

Uhhhh...what?!?  You didn't mention this before?  I'd been thinking the back of the quilt looked a little blah.  (Now mind you, I usually make my quilt backs totally plain fabric, so using the night sky fabric was already a little fancy for me...but with the row of I-Spys and the moon there seemed to be a lot of empty space.

So I decided to add one last unicorn to the quilt in the form of stars.

Double Scrap Prism Baby Quilt

When I was making the Scraps for Jax quilt back in June, I ended up with lots of little bits of color that were 2 1/2 inches wide and varying lengths from from 1 inch long to about 6 inches long.  They were just so conveniently the same width and so pretty, I just couldn't toss them.

So I used the scraps from the first scrap quilt and made a doubly scrappy quilt back in June too.  I arranged them from lightest to darkest and it ended up reminding me of white light split into it's colors by a prism.  (And you know I'm a science nerd...)

I made it for my new niece Olive.  I think it's kind of artsy and different.

Felt Shield and Sword - Version 2

We're pretty inconsistent gift-givers around here.  Last year we didn't send any gifts to the kids' birth families, so this year, I didn't want to drop the ball.

Little Brother got an awesome home-made super hero outfit from Charlie and Mimi (Little brother's little brother and little sister...each a little younger than Little Brother and Sweet Pea respectively), so I wanted to make them something fun.  I couldn't think of anything...and then the night before I needed to mail everything we thought of these.

Here's a cute picture of Charlie with his sword and shield, borrowed from his mom's blog here.

I made some felt shields and swords for my kids about a year and a half ago, so I decided to whip some up for Charlie and Mimi.  Okay...I guess this gift was really more for Charlie...but they've got to go in a set.  You have to have someone to sword fight, right?  And I figured Mimi wouldn't really notice if the gift was more for her brother.

And so it begins...

I've started on Christmas presents.  I actually started last week because...believe it or not, my "blog life" is usually a couple days to a week behind my "real life."  The real shame about craft blogging and Christmas presents is that you're super excited about the presents you're making for people because the idea is SO brilliant and perfect for your loved one...but YOU CAN'T SHOW ANYONE...yet.

So I made awesome progress on a project, using some of this sweet thread.  In fact, I emptied the spool of thread on this project and just have a little pink left on the bobbin...all the while listening to Christmas music.

Don't worry, though.  Even though I won't be able to post about most of the gifts, I've got a few projects from last Christmas I never blogged about, as well as some from even farther back before I had a blog at all.  I'm also hoping get some archiving done, so I can share some "Best of..." posts with you to help you find some of the better stuff in my archives to give you some ideas of things to make for this holiday season. 

And I might sneak on a few pictures of stuff I'm making for my own kids, we'll see.

Anyone else started their Christmas crafting yet?  What are you all working on?

Personalized Scripture Bags

Wondered where I was the last week?  I've been making these.

I've been teaching the 9-year-olds in Primary at church since January.  Yesterday was my last day teaching them, since we're moving on Friday and Saturday.  I'm going to miss them.  They've been a great class.

When I first started teaching them, I was trying to think of a good incentive to get them to bring their scriptures to class.  We weren't really supposed to bring treat and I wanted it to be something that would be a motivator for them and also somewhat church related...and of course it had to be cheap since we've been living on a very limited budget.

Make Your Own Baby Ties (with Optional Matching Toddler Tie)

Update April 2011:  Since this was one of my very first posts, I've updated it with some newer pictures of the finished product.  I've used this tutorial several more times, and the ties always look great.  Little Brother hardly notices it's on, so he's not pulling at it...and they don't come off since they're held on with elastic instead of a clip.

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Because afterall, you want your Little Man to look dashing even when he's playing in the dirt.

Tutorial: Burp Cloths-The Easiest Baby Shower Gift Ever! - No Measuring Required

The inspiration for these came from some my mom made for my older sister when she had twins a couple years back. It was my favorite, so I decided to try making some. They're easy to mass-produce (especially if you can get past being a perfectionist...it's taken me a while) and there have been very few baby showers I've been to where someone else gave burp clothes. These are also SUPER nose wipers for toddlers. In fact, I like them even better as nose wipers than as burp cloths.


I've tried a couple things for baby shower gifts over the years. I used to get a onesie and cross-stitch something personalized onto it for the mom. Then when we brought Firecracker home, I realized that wasn't such a great gift. For me...I like to give gifts that I feel will be really useful, and even though the onesie was personalized and handmade, it was only one onesie amongst hundreds the recipient would have and use.