Silhouette Giveaway

Dreaming about one of those fancy electronic paper cutting machines? Craft Critique is giving away a Silhouette SD. With this printing and cutting machine, you can use their downloadable designs or you can design on your own using their computer software.

Papercrafters are very enthusiastic about this versatile cutting machine. Head on over to Craft Critique and check it out. Leave a comment there before July 2, 2011 to qualify.

Practical Guide To Patchwork Review

My review of Elizabeth Hartman's book The Practical Guide to Patchwork is up over at Craft Critique.

It is an excellent book with very good modern quilt patterns. I had fun choosing some modern prints for the quilt top I made.

She always presses her seams open which is.. um.. not a technique I prefer, but it was necessary for the pattern I chose to make. I started this project way back before Christmas but I had to set it aside to host the holiday and only finished it this spring.

Check it out at Craft Critique!

Baby Boy Bibs

There were a couple of baby boys born to friends recently. I have trouble crafting for boys, but bibs and receiving blankets are easy as there are lots of good novelty prints suitable for small boys.

These receiving blankets are a soft flannel on one side and a cotton print on the other and bound with packaged double fold binding. Fabrics are all prewashed and dried in the dryer. I make these blanket about 42 inches square, so they are larger than the little receiving blankets you purchase at the department store. At least they were larger than what was available a decade ago when I had babies!

I also made these baby bibs. Each is a layer of prewashed flannel and a fun novelty print. These bibs are more absorbent with two layers of flannel, but I forgot about that little tip until after the bibs were finished and packaged.

Honestly, I woke with a start in the middle of the night thinking, "TWO layers of flannel!" In any case, they are still absorbent and cute! I found a simple pattern free on the internet. They snap in the back.

One set of these were given at a shower to a mom who is an anthropologist/environmental scientist, so decorated the package with this elephant from the Martha Stewart website using fusible web backed fabric that I ironed on to brown paper. Have you tried finding something on the Martha Stewart website? Good grief... I'll keep looking for the elephant pattern and link to it if I find it.

My spring project this year was to organize my whole fabric stash in the basement. I'd say that I have needed to do that for about 4 years or more, but I finally got to it after rewiring some extra lighting down there and installing a television that runs Netflix Instant. I have a lot of fabric. In fact, I started to feel guilty, like I haven't sewn enough or something, but then I remembered all the quilts and pouches and bags and pillowcases I've sewn and I realized I've sewn plenty and I should not feel guilty about my hoard. I even used up some of the stash of red fabrics my grandmother started collecting for a Craft Critique review that will run soon. Here is a sneak peek at that project: