Whitniffic Whatnots

Ok, so my very first blog post included these goofy little things called Pee Pee Tee Pees. They're made especially for changing little boys' diapers... cover it up and prevent a mess! I witnessed a situation in which one of these would have come in handy this past weekend- somehow the fresh air must trigger an automatic response to go! It got me thinking about making some for my little nephew... as if I weren't making him enough stuff as it is! Anyways, I decided to document the process and share it with you, just in case you wanted to give the funniest (and often most appreciated) gift at a baby shower! They're super simple... and you can make a whole bunch of them with scraps of fabric or fat quarters and a little chunk of flannel; I fit 16 on a half yard. I ended up making 14 little cones total. I figured that if a baby goes through 8 to 10 wet diapers a day and not all of the changes require a cover cone, 14 should last mom and dad a couple days before having to...

With this baby shower right around the corner, I've been ramping up production of all the little details I want to incorporate in my part of the decorating. I won't divulge all the details right now (I want it to be a surprise!), but I will say that it involves a LOT of colorful clothespins. I mentioned in an earlier post that I somehow acquired a whole bunch of wood clothespins... well this takes care of 200 of them! Of course, painting that many clothespins would have been a ridiculous chore, so I decided to color them with fabric dye. So much faster! I started by dividing my clothespins evenly into three gallon-sized plastic zipper bags, one for each color. I then added urea (a chemical that helps the dye absorb into the fibers) and powdered fabric dye (I use Procion dye from Dharma Trading ; I do a lot of tie dye in summer and had this on-hand) right into the bags, then filled them up with hot water. I sealed the bags, shook them up and let them sit for a few ho...

Weekends are never long enough. AND it snowed. In mid APRIL! I'm really hoping that was the very last snow we'll see until December. I don't think I can take any more! I guess one benefit to nasty weather is staying inside and crafting. I didn't get a chance to work on my potting bench more, but I did make an accessory to go with it. I used another one of my thrift-store frames (from the photo booth at my wedding) to make a planting calendar. For some reason I acquired 300 wood clothespins a while back. I think I was going to do something with them at one point, but I don't remember what it was. So I painted a couple of them magenta and strung them on wire stretched across the picture frame. I added cute little paper flowers to the pins, and designed and printed out six months' worth of calendar pages to hang from the clips. Ta-da! Simple and cute. Eventually, I'll mark the dates of all the veggies and flowers I've planted, from sowing to tra...

Last weekend was pretty productive! Saturday was gloomy and cold, so I stayed inside and quilted (of course!). I got the Funky Jungle Chevron quilt top assembled and most of the back, although I didn't realize that broadcloth is only 42" wide instead of 45", so I had to figure out a way to make it slightly wider without looking like an accident. Broadcloth is not very broad... I don't know why they call it that. It also shrinks if you iron it too hot. It's unfortunate because it's so soft and comes in such pretty colors! It's just not that great to quilt with (in my experience). Here's the quilt top, in the process of being sandwiched and pinned for quilting! Sunday was a much nicer day, and I spent most of it in the backyard working on my potting bench makeover. This old dresser was actually my husband's childhood dresser, and apparently it's been in his family for a long time. I found a stamp on the edge of one of the doors that says ...

I tend to go a bit nuts- especially when someone gives me an open invitation to decorate something for them, such as a baby room. Well... I guess it wasn't an open invitation; I offered my services. :) I'm so pumped about the yellow and green jungle theme that I just keep making more and more cute baby-related stuff. I really love these silhouette designs I put together. I really want to print them on matte paper and paint the animals with glossy clear coat to make them pop out a bit. I think they'd look adorable on a nursery wall... but I'll let mom-to-be decide if she wants to hop on the crazy train with me. :) I can't believe how excited I am for this little guy to come! I'm usually not a baby kind of person, but with so many friends becoming parents lately, they don't seem so foreign anymore. After all... I was the last baby in my family, so I've never really known any! My hubby and I went to Chicago for a concert a few weekends ago, and w...

OK... so I stumbled across another baby quilt on Pinterest that I fell in love with. Of course, I found it after the first one was practically done, but I had to make one! I guess little nephew will get two quilts...Here's the quilt from Generation Magazine . I didn't even look at their pattern- it was simple enough to figure out. Back to the the first quilt for a minute: I got the giraffe applique stuck down. I decided to put it on before quilting for the sole reason of not having stripes though the giraffe shape on the back. It looks a little strange that the stripes show through a bit, but I think once he's quilted it will look fine. A little tip: try to find fresh fusible when doing pieces like this! I've had a bolt lying around in my closet for a couple years, and the paper was really difficult to peel off. I had quite a bit of fabric left over from the giraffe quilt, so maybe it wasn't so bad that I decided to make another one. Along with using up t...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my step-brother and sister-in-law's baby boy is coming in June, and we have begun the planning for the baby shower. Unfortunately, I missed the first meeting because I was traveling for work (they had pizza!), but I was recruited to make the invites... which is super exciting! I love making invitations... I thought it would be awesome to do a Sweet Safari shower, since they want to do the baby's room in jungle theme, but mom-to-be wanted to keep the shower simple. I couldn't resist the giraffe though... too cute! I designed the invites and sent them off to be printed as postcards... it's so much easier that way than printing them myself. But as soon as I got them in the mail, I added cute ribbons and buttons! I pre-made the ribbons over the weekend while I had free time, so all I had to do was peel and stick and they were ready to stuff into envelopes and go! Waiting for the invites to arrive in the mail gave me time to get...

I've been slowly working on the honeycomb quilt whenever I get a spare hour... which hasn't been very often lately! Here's a rundown of the progress I've made over the past two weeks. Thirty 5.5" strips of fabric with 1" black sashing down each side. Went through a lot of thread... more than expected, although it makes sense now that I think about it. Each strip is the width of the fabric, 45", so each strip took at least 90" of bobbin thread. That adds up quick! Each strip was cut into triangles, using a plastic template and a rotary cutter.      All in all, I think I cut somewhere around 240 triangles. I pinned all these pieces up on the board to keep them organized!  Then the fun part... sewing all the triangles together to make half hexagons...  Next comes sewing all these half hexagons into strips, then into the quilt top! This should be a test of my piecing acc...