Christmas Gifties

I've been making some Christmas gifts. First are the Twirls for Girls Doll Skirts. . .pardon the boy doll wearing one of them. . . They're meant for dolls like The American Girl Dolls. These will go to my nieces. I hope they like them. They were fun to make - kind of a quick fix. . . well, it's patchwork. . so as quick as that can go. I plan to make more in the future to donate for Toys for Tots. I ran out of time this year.

Next up are Spencer & Parker's Teacher Gifts. . . I made a couple of artsy clutches from Bend the Rules Sewing. These were fun & quick to assemble.

& inside I added 5 handmade greeting cards each:

This was a lot of fun. If I had started earlier I would have created so many more things. And thanks to the many talented bloggers I read up on I have TONS of projects to keep me from sleeping, doing housework, making meals or socializing publicly for quite some time. I wonder if I could get away with not working for the next couple of years??? Tee hee. . . just kidding.

I'm about 2/3 of the way done with The Birdie Sling by Amy Butler. This bag is HUGE! Holy cow! I could fit a baby in this thing. {but I don't plan to - just in case someone thinks I would want to bring one of those home with me} This might go to my niece. . . but I'm not sure if she'll like it or not. . .so I will wait & see. And a little birdie told me that I will be getting another one of Camille's Awesome Quilt Patterns for Christmas. I'm SO excited! Oh! And I have, on good authority, that I will also be receiving some new fabric from Gracie Lou's Quilt Shop!!! Not to mention that I should probably be winning something from their fantastic Grand Opening Giveaway. . . . . {fingers crossed & praying for some giveaway goodness - fabric would be so fabulous}

There you have it ~ my attempt at some homemade goodness for Christmas. Wish I had more to share:) Merry Christmas to all! God Bless you all & remember to Keep Christ in Christmas!

Jennifer B

I'm still creating. . .

In fact, I made 12 + cards this weekend. . .It was SO MUCH fun! I have been thinking about creating things non stop since then. . .Thanks a bunch Val B. . . in a good way. . really.
I am also planning a quilt but shouldn't give too much detail just in case. . . just in case what? you may ask. . . Well, it's a Christmas present. enough said!

My computer is possessed. . . it's doing weird things. I need to get off of it & get sewing. . .

More Pumpkins

I've been at it again. . . and I was right, it IS a lot easier working with sweater material vs the corduroy. I've also expanded the use of the yarn to make the vines on these little numbers. The tiny pumpkin was a fussy little bugger. . .and probably has WAY too much for a stem. . .


The multi colored pumpkin - I'm not entirely pleased with how this turned out.
I think I need to redo with a solid yarn. WE'll see. And it's stem is a bit too plump
as well. . . this was one of my favorite sweaters back in the early 90's. . .
I'm such a packrat! But I knew I'd use it for SOMETHING eventually.

These pumpkins by Deb are so stinkin' cute & easy that I HAD to try them out! No sewing involved. . . . but I'm warning you. . .be very cautious. . . You will find yourself sacrificing your last hair tie/ponytail holder for the rubber bands because you just have to make one or two. Here are my little cuties. . . I didn't use sweaters. I used the bottom of some old corduroy pants. I also used dried pinto beans in the bottoms to give them more weight. Oh, and when I ran out of fiberfill. . .I used scrap pieces of fabric left from my bean bag adventure. (I don't throw anything away.) I think I have a couple of worn out sweaters that will accent this combo very nicely. . . and I do believe that sweaters will be easier to work with. As you can see, corduroy gets a little bunchy. And I used yarn. It's no wonder I don't get enough sleep.

Bean Bags

Spencer's "Friend" Birthday party was yesterday - yes, early. . . like a month early. . .but we were holding out hope to have it outside. We planned a Flag Football Birthday Party. . .and then the weather guy said it was going to rain. . . what do they know? I had to whip up Plan B - Bean Bags & Twister! So I needed to get bean bags. . .but they ones at the store were WAY too expensive & they were just too wimpy with hardly any weight to them. So I bought some dried pinto beans & used material I had on hand to create these babies. . . raw edges & all. Spencer said to me on Friday night, "Mom, you're the best Mom in the world. I'm going to remember that." How COOL is that?

We did get to have Flag Football. . complete with lines painted on the "field." I even purchased black make up for their faces. There was no sun to be found. . but the glare from their smiles was enough:)

I'm a cool mom:)

BLOOM!!! Finally finished

Isn't she beautiful? I just love this pattern. It really is a great first quilt. Don't let the time I took to complete it reflect on the difficulty. I have been busy so the binding had to wait for a bit. I did this all by myself (OK, Mom did help with some of the cutting of the applique pieces). I even quilted this all by myself! I'm quite proud:)

the back had to be pieced together too. . . I kind of "winged" this a bit. I didn't use any particular pattern to quilt it. It's definately not a "typical" quilt because of this. I can see how this could become addicting. I already daydream about different designs & color combos. This is a gift for my cousin who is due with her first baby any day now. I really want to keep it. . .but I guess I'll just have to get creating another one:)

Finger KNITTING Good!

This could be addicting. Or maybe it's just my addictive personality. This is such a quick crafty fix that it's difficult to stop! The orange one was my very first finger knitting attempt. West De Pere's colors are orange & black. . .so I figured what the heck! It's more of a children's version of the cool scarfy things that are popping up. The beigish colored one is actually a combo of fancy shmancy type yarn & a soft chenille type yarn. The picture does not show it very well. Obviously, the one on the right is Christmasy. I like this one the best so far. I do have another one started with light blue fun fur. Not sure about that one yet though.

I highly recommend this craft to anyone with fingers & yarn. You can find a great tutorial HERE. And you can definately notice the difference in the quality when you use cheap yarn vs nice yarn. And the beauty of this quick craft is that if you totally mess up. . no WASTE! Just unravel & begin again. Gotta love that!

Oh, & you're getting a sneak peak of my first quilting attempt. . .can't wait to get that done!

Ok, so what is THIS all about????

I've had this blog named for some time now. . . but have not posted to it. So, you may ask, what gives? Well, I'll tell you. . .

This is going to be the new place for my creations. The name comes from my youngest little man who says, "peekyboo" instead of "peek a boo." Cute? I thought so. And, NO, I'm not affiliated with the over the shoulder boulder hider for breastfeeding. . .although, THAT is a GREAT invention & a GREAT idea.

I have ideas in the works for my inventions. Some are completely original ideas & others are borrowed. I will give credit where credit is due. And if I somehow fail to acknowledge something you may have created. . . please be kind. There are SO MANY creations out there that sometimes more than one person creates very similar items. I am in no way stealing. . .I promise. So that's my disclaimer:)

Don't be too surprised if it takes me a while to get my act together. . . this is a busy time. ..

Hope to see you all soon:)