Quilted Christmas stockings

I have been wanting to make my family stockings for quite some time! I knew what I wanted but just couldn't find any tutorials to help me out! I ended up scaling down one pattern I had used previously and used a tutorial for another as well as making up a few patterns as I went! I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

My nightmare is over!!

Last year I decided to take on my first actual quilting project. My cousin Rachel has been making tons of beautiful quilts and inspired me to try it out! She even came with me to buy the fabric and find a pattern! I ended up purchasing a book and bought a larg quantity of fabrics to make a particular pattern.

Half way through cutting out the fabric I realized that I hadn't picked the easiest of patterns and was starting to get skeptical. Then I started actually sewing... By then I knew for sure I had lost my mind and had picked the worst first quilt pattern of all time! It required me to make 700+ flying geese. This process took lots of time and many rounds of trial and error! I even put it away and made 5 additional quilts with much simpler patterns in the mean time.

Luckily making the other 5 quits helped me realized that I really do like quilting and finally gave me the inspiration to just finish it and move on! I am happy to say I spent my New Year's Day on my sewing machine and finished the top of the quilt! The satisfaction was immense and I am ready to tackle another tricky quilt! I will post more pictures once I have quilted and finished the edges!

The twins room!!

So now that the crazy Christmas chaos is over I am ready to tackle some new home improvement projects! I am also ready to show you a few things I've been working on! Currently my two main areas of focus have been my twins room and our master bedroom. I don't have any pictures of the master bedroom but fear not!! Because I will very soon! I do however have some of the boys room!!

The weekend before Christmas I got a little crazy and decided to finally paint some stripes on the boys' wall! After a couple weeks of everyone in our house being sick I was over laying around and ready to get my hands a little dirty!! I am very pleased with how these stripes turned out and used some tricks I found on Pinterest to make this process a piece of cake!!!

After using a long (yard) level to mark off my stripes, I applied my painters tape. Then I took a small crafters paintbrush and painted some Modge Podge on the tape and the wall, being sure to get it under the seam where the paint would typically bleed under. I then had my wonderful cousin/sister in-law help me paint the stripes which took no time at all!

I was amazed at how perfect the lines were using this method! I seriously could have saved countless hours had I don't this with the white border in Scarlett's room.

I am still debating what I will do with the remaining walls. I am deciding if I will add stripes to a few more or if I will paint them a light grey... More on that later. I also am planning a DIY art project to hang above the cribs that I am very hopeful will be inexpensive and one of a kind!! I also plan to track down a good rustic/chunky shelf to go above the dresser opposite the striped wall. Lastly I will also be on the hunt for a book storage solution (not a book case). Stay tuned! More info/ pictures of the master bedroom will be posted soon!

Skirts

Skirts!! I made Scarlett, myself and my niece all skirts for family photos! I wore mine for our individual family photos, and the girls wore theirs for my husbands families pictures.

baby quilt

This quilt was made for a friend of mines soon to arrive baby boy! Here it is in a couple of stages! I did a single crochet around the edge. I felt anything more would have either been to girly or just too much!

I have been terrible about posting lately!! And the truth is I have actually been pretty productive!!! I made a quilt for a friends baby shower, I made Scarlett, myself and my niece skirts for family pictures!! I made all three of my kids costumes for Halloween AND have crochet several pot holders!!!!! To avoid many jumbled pictures I'll just start with Halloween! The boys were pirates and Scarlett was a mermaid.

Happy Saturday!

These I whipped up while I was pregnant and this was her first time wearing them! Little girls just make me grit my teeth they are so much fun!