I said that I had been up to a couple of projects so now that I’m FINALLY done I thought I’d share.

My biggest project was making two Rollie Pollies. They are big fun bean bag type pillows. They’ve been a hit and I occasionally have to go over and sit on them myself because I’m completely and totally in love with them.

They were so fun to make but were quite the LARGE project. I haven’t ever made anything like this so it was a new, fun learning experience. I was trying to get the kids to model for me but my little stinker, Isaac, wouldn’t smile for me. What a tough guy!

I stuffed my red striped one more then the gray one and I think we like the gray one better. It’s softer and molds more to our bodies better. If you are thinking about making them yourself, I’ll tell you that I filled my Rollie Pollies with shredded foam from foambymail.com. It was the best price I could find. I guess foam is what the Love Sacs have in them. I went with foam instead of poly fill or actual bean bag filling because I’m hoping this will allow them to last forever and stand up to all the running, jumping and rolling abuse they will have received without ever having to re-stuff them.

After spending a bunch of time stuffing the inner linings with the staticy, messy, vacuum plugging shredded foam I’m think that if I ever made these again I would pay the extra few dollars and take it to a local furniture mattress supply place I found that will fill the bag directly. How nice, eh!

Either way, they are finished and I think they are absolutely darling.

I’ve been busy sewing.

One for a girl…

One for a boy…

Anyone interested in purchasing? $45 plus shipping.

My cute momma is a wonderful seamstress. Her favorite thing in the whole wide world, besides me, is quilts. She will never turn me down when I want to make a trip to our favorite fabric store… well, unless I’m taking all my kids… then she might be tempted to pass… and I don’t blame her. Ha.

I have yet to open an Etsy shop for my baby booties (thank you for all of your nice comments, by the way) but she has started one for her quilts. Check out her Etsy shop where she has a few handmade quilts for sale.

Whoo hoo! Go Grandma Debbie!

I think I just made my cutest baby booties to date. I made them for a cousin of mine who is due soon. I hated giving them away. I can’t get over how well they turned out.

I had my big sis snap a photo at the baby shower before I had to say goodbye to them. Sniff.

She put the photos on flickr here.

Okay, well, my sisters and I joked about making a pillow for every holiday but now it seems to be coming to pass. I loved my fall and winter pillows  so much that I had to try a Valentines one.

I couldn’t really find a example online that I loved for inspiration so I came up with my own. Looking all over the web has made me feel like hearts are kinda cheesy so I was going for a whimsical look. I did my best to make an uncheesy pillow.

Here is how to make it with a 16×16 pillow form-

Supplies

1. Fabric scraps for your hearts. Make sure that the fabric is bold enough to stand out on your background material. This was a bit of a challenge for me.

2. Appliqué material: I use Heat’ n Bond but there are a few other types. I’d get about 1/4 yard for this project.

3. Material for the pillow front, cut to 17″ x 17″ square. Look for something like lightweight canvas or even a muslin will work.

4. Material for the back. Cut 1 rectangle 17″x 14″ and cut 1 rectangle 17″x 10″.

5. 16″ x 16″ pillow form. If you choose to use a different size pillow you’ll just have to adjust the measurements of the pillow front and back.

***

Step 1: Trace or draw your heart shapes onto your appliqué material. Roughly cut out the hearts and iron them on to your desired material. This allows you to “fussy cut” each heart so that you can get the fabric pattern into the heart shape as desired. Iron the heart according to the directions on the appliqué material. (press & hold the iron over each heart for a few seconds) Repeat with all your hearts.

Step 2: Now with scissors cut out your hearts and peel off the paper backing. Arrange them on your pillow front material. I placed my fabric on top of my pillow so I could get a good idea of what it would look like and how far to stay away from the edges. Make sure to stay at least an 1.5″ away from the edges to leave room for sewing.

Step 3: Once your design is how you like it, iron over each heart to tack it in place. This will keep everything in place while you sew them on.

Step 4: Now you can sew along the inside edges of your hearts. A zig zag stitch or blanket stitch could work as well.

When I sew my hearts on I move my foot from heart to heart without cutting the strings so it goes faster. Afterward I’ll go back and cut the strings on the front and don’t even bother with the back side.

Step 5: To prepare your pillow back, fold one of the short edges of each pillow backing piece in 1/2″ and press, then again 1/2″ and press. Sew to hide any raw edges. These will be the edges of the envelope back. If you are confused about which edge to sew, lay out the pieces on the pillow front to give you and idea how it goes together.

Step 6: Lay the backing pieces right sides down onto the pillow front over lapping the centers. Make sure your right sides are facing towards the right sides of your pillow front and your outer edges match. Pin around the edges well.

Step 7: Sew a 1/4″ to 1/2″ inseam around the edges. Then clip your extra corner fabric off so the corners will turn nicely. Turn it inside out and stuff a 16″ pillow form in it.

Ta da! That’s it. Enjoy your pillow.

With the bulk of my big scrapbooking project done, I found some time in between making Christmas cards to make my next sewing project. My sis in law really was the reason for me being on the ball because she wanted to make one too. She came over and we went to my favorite quilting store for some funky fat quarters.

I present to you my Wintery Forest Pillow… Ta da…

I have to say it was so much fun to make and even more fun to sit and look at once it was done. I was very tempted to add a star and polk-a-dot ornaments to one of the trees and in fact cut them out and stared at them for half an hour but… I forced myself to restrain. Maybe I need to make a second one that looks more Christmasy. My only beef with my pillow is that I wish I had moved the trees up a bit so the trunks weren’t sitting right on the bottom.

My super-duper-internet-searching-sister found the inspiration on Etsy and of course made one of her own. Go check them out and feel inspired yourself.

I’ve taken a little break from the computer and have been doing a little sewing instead. I made these darling baby shoes following a pattern from Startdust Shoes. Leah has grown out of the little shoes my sister made her (which I have loved) when she was born.

The pink pair took some trial and error to figure it out. It’s a simple pattern but it’s just like me to sew things on backwards or miss catching an edge in the stitch. The second little boy pair went much faster.

It’s a perfect project for leftover fabric. I just had to get some thick soft fabric for the soles and interfacing for the uppers and waa laa… toasty toes in the winter time.

Here is Leah not really wanting to model for me. I couldn’t quite figure out how to get a good angle of the shoes without just getting a picture of her chubby legs (which I thought was darling but I’m biased. I spend hours during the day just squeezing them.) She was more interested in eating leafs and attacking my camera than giving me a smile. She’s a cute little stinker anyway.

I figured out something I could do with my scraps of fabric.

Pretty fun, eh?