our "new" highchair

Our highchair cover cracked in two pieces some time ago and it didn't bother me too much until Alyssa started solid food. She has a habit of banging her head from side to side and doesn't even flinch when it smacks against the plastic of the highchair. So this is my cute (and machine washable) solution.

Crayon Rolls

I found a cute pattern online for a crayon roll and tried it out today.

Alyssa's Quilt is finished!

I set up my craft room and with the help of our quilter's group getting together again, I am finally back to my quilting. This is a project I had hoped to get done before Alyssa was born (I have enough fabric for a boy version too) but when we ended up moving before she was born, my quilting got boxed up for awhile.

Anyways, I used the Yellow Brick Road pattern which even though it is super easy, I still managed to make a mistake on the cutting directions but thankfully in the world of quilting, you can just rearrange and make something a little different instead. I used Moda flannels for the top and quilted random hearts. For the backing, I used a minkee fabric (super soft) but since it's also tricky to quilt, I only quilted the top to the batting, not the backing. It made for less work when finishing off - no binding! And thankfully I didn't have to hand-stitch the minkee. It was a fun project and I'm happy with the results - and I think Alyssa is too.

auction quilt

So there's a fundraiser tonight for JCS and I was called to make a donation. The donations are supposed to be of your time and most people commit to things they will do in the future - host a workshop, make flower arrangements, make a meal or baking, etc. But with baby on the way, I decided I'd rather put in the time now if I wanted to donate something. So I got this idea to make a rag quilt but wanted to keep costs down and wanted it to appeal to parents of school-age kids. So I made a John Deere quilt from donated jeans cut into squares, my stash of fleece to make the batting, and purchased flannel. Because I was cutting from jeans, I couldn't make the squares larger than 7" so I ended up needing 150 squares for each of the top, middle, and backing - so on I went to cut 450 squares. And I started the project before life got even busier with the house thing, so thankfully I received some much needed help from my friends Laura and Miranda when it came to the piecing and sewing - otherwise I don't think I would have had it done on time! I'm pleased with the finished project and it turned out nice and big - a twin-size quilt (90 x 60). Hopefully there's some interest in it tonight.

Update: It went for a very nice $225!