EGGS-TRA FUN :)

I found some Easter material that I liked, so I made some Easter napkins. ( I actually had the idea to do these several years ago.) Then I had the idea to buy wood eggs and paint them like the eggs on the napkins.I used acrylic paints and sprayed it with a clear gloss. I did use some artistic license in painting the eggs, they aren't exact copies from the napkin print. Sometimes I put these in a small Easter basket I have; sometimes I put the eggs in the bottom of a clear glass vase and put fake Calla lilies in the vase. I am glad I did these, because they have been fun at Easter.

BABIES BOOK

This is my latest cloth book for the babies. (I always make two.) It's easier to take pictures before I sew the pages into the cover. These babies are felt, and the pages are heavy pellon. I have used buttons, beads, ribbon and embroidery for the details. The trick is to use what you already have on hand, if you can. At times I have used patterned felt. I brush powdered blush onto the babies' cheeks. I have frayed the yarn to make finer hair.

This is the cover. I used regular cloth with a pellon insert to stiffen it.

Patterns ( I realized I forgot to fix the arm on the hugging baby. Please do make the arms the same size. :s)

NEEDLECASE

Okay, I realize that I have a needlebook and pincushions, but I wanted this needlecase, too. There may not be many others who would even want one, but when I sew and do embroidery, I leave needles threaded with different colors of thread, especially when I am working on such projects as the little cloth books I make.
So I made a pincushion just for putting these kinds of needles in, and then I felt like it needed something more to protect me from all the sharp ends when it is in my "project case". By coincidence it fit exactly into the traveling case you buy for soap. I got mine for 97 cents at WalMart and it even matched the scraps I used to make the needle cushion.
I am really glad I did this. It makes my projects go more smoothly.

HEALTHY BODY GAME

I made this "game" for the class I teach at church. (3 year olds turning 4) The bags are made of felt, and the cards actually came from a clip art book I have, which I copied on cardstock, but you could also do it with magazine pictures of what is healthy for your body and what is not. The children choose a card and put it in the black bag if it is not good for your body, in the other bag if it is.

SLEEP MASKS

These are mostly ideas I got off Pinterest, but I thought I'd add them to this blog anyway. I used to think sleep masks were only in old movies, but then I found out 2 of my granddaughters have to have them to sleep.
My daughter's little girl was imagining shapes in the dark and getting scared, so her mother got her a sleep mask and the problem was solved.
My son's 2 youngest girls shared a room. The youngest was afraid to sleep in the dark and had to have the light on, so then the older one had trouble sleeping, until she got a sleep mask.
Because they sometimes sleep here, and would forget their masks, I made some out of fleece scraps, so they'd be soft to sleep in. Of course I made several, because then the little girls who don't normally sleep with sleep masks want them when they come here. :)

Thread Catcher

Okay...don't ask me why I wanted a thread catcher, but I did. In years past, I just taped a paper sack to the side of my sewing table and used that until it was full, but lately I haven't done even that.
I used scraps left over from the cloth book covers, since I have given them away and don't have anything for myself with this material. This is a quilted material.
I traced around a large canning jar lid for the bottom. I sewed double fold wide bias tape around the side,  then cut a rectangle piece around it, leaving enough in back for a seam to sew up the side.
I then sewed the bias tape up the sides of another rectangle piece, and folding the bottom under, sewed it to the thread catcher. The buttons are sewed on top, purely decorative.
I then cut a rectangle for a pin cushion. The pin cushion is filled with sand to do double duty - to sharpen needles and pins, but also to weight the thread catcher down. I made the seam come up the back, and then just tacked down the 4 corners. I did add the lady bug and bluebird buttons to the front of the thread catcher for fun, because I had them left over from another project.
This project wasn't very time consuming and I am glad I did it, because it will make me smile when I am using the sewing machine. :)  And all those cut off threads will have a place to go for awhile.

NOISY BOOK 2

This is one of the books I cut out just in case my husband had to have surgery and I needed something to do in waiting rooms. Then he didn't, so I have been making them up anyway. It's easier to take pictures of the pages before they are assembled, but I took a picture of a colors book and the cover I am going to put on this noisy book.

Here are the patterns. I do things differently from everyone else, I make the book first and freehand everything, then draw patterns later. :)