Heart Garland and Pillow Wrap

I decided I wanted a heart garland a couple weeks ago, so I dug through my felt stash and cut out a ton of little hearts.  I'm sure I cut out more than I used but my kids kept running away with them as I cut them, so I'm still finding more scattered around the house as the days go by.

After making the subway art pillow, I felt I needed something else on my other pillows.

I also made a wrap for my couch pillow.  My couch pillows are black, so I figured it was a good background to go with a wrap of hearts.  I will probably unstitch them and sew them onto a ribbon for next year though.  Right now, they are just tied together with the ends of the thread but it won't stay tight, so I'll probably sew them to a ribbon to be able to keep it tied on.  But I just did a fun decorative stitch as I fed the hearts through the sewing machine - which will make it trickier to pick out later :)
                         

Scarves

I made 5 scarves for family members this past Christmas.  Oddly, all the tutorials came from one person...Susan at Living with Punks.  I made 2 of the Mama Ruffle Scarves, one for my mom and one for my mother-in-law.  She also provieds a template for the Chrysi pin flower (I made mine about half the size though).  I also made one of these and attached it to a hair clip so I can wear it in my hair or on a headband.

I haven't really worked with knit fabric much, so this was kinda fun to try it out on these scarves.  They are really easy to make, but for some reason they took me a loooooong time.  I think I'm too picky with trying to get the ruffles evenly spaced and perfectly lined up along the edge of the scarf.

I also made 3 of the Lil' Dude Scarves.  2 for my nieces (I didn't take a picture of the fully finished scarves for some reason), and one for my father-in-law.  I opted not to add the pocket on the inside - just for sanity sake since I was making 3 and only had one nap time to do it in.  I also sewed my giant button hole/zig-zag stitch BEFORE I cut the opening.  I've tried the way in the tutorial where you cut the slit first and do a tight zig-zag stitch around the edge, but I could never get it to look clean and pretty.  So I sewed the lines first and then clipped between them.

Since the tutorial and dimensions were meant for kids, I had to get longer fabric and add an extra strip to the bottom for my father-in-law's scarf (finished, it was about 60" long instead of the 45" for the children's one).  My husband modeled it for me since I had to test the length on him to make sure it looked okay on an adult.

I think I've made him watch one too many seasons of "America's Next Top Model" since he was trying to "smize"...smile with your eyes.  Sorry Honey, I don't think Tyra would call that a smize :)

Words of Love

I knew this was going on my to do list when I saw it.  It's kindof addicting to make these.  I had some standard red yarn and some fuzzy pink yarn on hand, so I decided to make 2 of them.  I can't decide which one I like better.  Last night, I liked the red one best, but this morning while I was taking pictures of them, the pink switched to my favorite. 

I don't really like them next to eachother - I think that's why I don't like the red as much today...it's overshadowed by the pink one, so I will definately put them in separate rooms/areas so I can enjoy both instead of comparing them.

She had some wire from a hardware store, but I used floral wire.

Valentine's Pillow

I was on One Pretty Thing last week, browsing through the Valentine's Roundup posts and came across this idea at Dittle Dattle.  I pretty much stopped what I was doing and made it right then and there.  And the awesome thing is she made the design into an SVG file (here) that you can import into your Cricut if you have the SCAL software.  I don't know if you can use it other ways, but this worked for me and I was so happy that I didn't have to try and replicate it - all the hard work is done!! 

I didn't have silver fabric paint, so I used black - and I like how it turned out.  I'm not a fan of the bow, but it looked like it was missing something if I just did a band of the ribbon.  I may have to coax my mom to use her machine and embroider "love" on a ribbon for me like the example did.  But until then, I just keep fixing the bow since my husband thinks a pretty pillow is one to lean on - silly man.  Pretty pillows aren't for touching.  I thought my kids would be the ones destroying the bow, but I was wrong.

I didn't want to have to store a whole pillow in my valentine's box for the rest of the year, so I just made a removable pillow cover for one of my everyday couch pillows.  That way, I only have to store the cover - much easier!  I have always referred to this tutorial when making a removable pillow cover.  They are super simple to make, but it helped getting dimensions from someone.

Valentine's Wreath

These type of wreaths are everywhere in blogland.  I initially saw it last year in January/February, but I can't remember where I saw it.  Now they are all over the place...  I wanted to make this heart one last year, but for some reason, I didn't.  So I made it this year.  It's made out of felt circles and then folded into quarters and pinned to the foam wreath form.

I made a pink circle wreath in the same manner last year for spring time...

 And then I made one out of felt stars for 4th of July last year (definately my favorite so far)...

Valentine's Blocks

I knew I was going to make these the second I saw them.  Pretty much anything from Brown Paper Packages makes it to my "to-do-list"

I had left over 4x4 posts from the Seasonal Word Blocks, and didn't know what I was going to do with them...

I LOVE them!!!

Another plastic bag holder

I finally made something for myself!! 

I made another bag holder.  After sewing the strips together, I felt like it needed something...so I topstitched along the edge of each strip.  I love how it turned out.

Little flower hair clips

I'm not a huge fan of the gigantic flower on my baby's head.  So I like when I find a tutorial or idea for a smaller flower or bow that I can make for a hair clip for her little head.  Right now, she doesn't have hair, so I just clip them onto a headband. 

And, she's taking her morning nap now, so she can't model them.

I found the pattern here; it's suggested as a shoe clip, but I made mine into hair clips.  I glued those mini snappy clips to the back - perfect size so it doesn't show behind the leaf.

Curtains

I think I've said I'll never make curtains again...

But I guess I lied.  We finished painting the last room in the house (we've only lived in the house for a year . . . so that's not slow at all, right?).  And after the walls and window sill were painted, The old blinds looked beat up and ugly.  So I ripped them out (actually my husband did) and used the last of my JoAnns gift card from Christmas on some fabric and the curtain rod.  The fabric was 30% off and the rod was already 60% off, but I came armed with a 20% off entire purchase (including sale items) from Michael's that they honored.  So I was sad to use up of my gift card, but I'm loving my curtains.  Actually, I have $1.47 left, so maybe I can buy a button or a candy bar :)

This window is right next to the front door, so we needed something pretty.  This said it was "silk" but I think I remember seeing 100% polyester on the label, so I think it's impostor silk - oh well, I love it.  It's a charcoal gray so that looks nice next to the black computer desk.

It's tricky to iron and sew sheer fabric to silky fabric - it will not stay put.  I guess it would if I pinned it, but I'm lazy and like to get frustrated, I guess.  ( I used sheer on the back side to add a little more bulk and keep out a little more light.)

Winter Snowflake Lamp

I love when I find a project that I can make right then and there.  I found this idea on Crap I've Made and realized I had the exact same lamp sitting in the garage.  I bought it a few years ago at Ikea but never really liked it - it just seemed too plain.

So this was a great project to spruce it up.  And if I ever change my mind and want it plain again, I can just peel off the vinyl.