Ticker tape doll quilt

I've been meaning to make Abner a doll blanket for ages. She didn't seem fussed by dolls for a while there, but now she totes around her Cabbage Patch doll and stuffed monkey around the house most days. I had given her a scrap of fabric to use as a doll blanket, but even Abner knew it was kind of lame. You could almost hear her thinking, "Mama, I have seen every last one of the quilts you've made; I know you can do better than this." The time had come for a proper doll quilt.

Yesterday when she came home from school there was a wee surprise waiting for her - a brand new, mama-made, ticker tape doll quilt. I saw a few of these quilts on Pinterest recently and loved the look of them and how they used up so many little teeny tiny scraps. [Yes, I'm still on a scrap busting kick.]

There is a great ticker tape quilt tutorial over on Sew Mama Sew if you want to make your own. For a doll quilt, I found a fat quarter to be the perfect size. The only variations I made from the original tutorial were to piece together some scrap binding rather than chopping into a nice big piece of batting. I also laid out my scraps on the quilt top (secured with straight pins) before stitching them down. I found this helpful (if a little pokey) for making sure I was happy with the final arrangement.

I also used this project to try out this fancy pants machine binding technique. See how there is a little strip of green accent fabric peeking out? Pretty cool, eh?! The whole thing is machine-done, so there is no hand sewing involved as there normally is in binding a quilt. I kind of like hand stitching my binding and I don't love how (despite careful pinning) I wound up with a line of stitching around the perimeter on the back, so I'm not sure I'd try this again. But, the effect is kind of cool and the technique is very clever, so do give it a try if you'd like. I found this tutorial from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks quite helpful.

With this project, I'm pretty tapped out on scrap busting ideas yet I've barely scratched the surface of my scrap pile! Send me your favourite scrap busters, please!

Fabulous fabric bunting

Who says bunting is just for parties! In my continuing quest to conquer my scrap bin, I whipped up a little fabric bunting to dress up our lounge mantel. I dug out all the scraps that had a bit of a vintage vibe, cut them into rectangles, stitched a channel and strung them up. No fancy finishing. Just raw edges in all their glory. A perfect project if you're looking for almost instant gratification.

Photography scavenger hunt for kids

In the last few days before Abner started school, we were scraping the bottom of the barrel finding ways to stay entertained around the house. I think we were both sick of all the games and books we have and one can only spend so much time at the local library and museums. In a fit of genius, I came up with the idea for a photography scavenger hunt.

I wrote out a list of things for Abner to find around the house and yard. She had to read each item herself before running off to photograph it. Once she'd taken the picture, she had to bring me the camera so that I could see the photo before moving on to the next item on the list. I tried to write multi-word, descriptive clues so that Abner got some good reading practice. As Abner put it, "it's fun and I get to work on my learning skills, too!"

I love that it kept her busy for about an hour as I worked on some sewing. Abner loved it because she got to practice reading, use her digital camera, and she got to proudly show off her photos each time. Here are a few of the photos she took the last time we played:

a favourite book

a pretty quilt

a wooden elephant

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day has nearly past here in New Zealand. Thought I would share a few pics of our family sharing the day together at Sandfly Bay. We did plenty of walking along the beach, checked out the sea lions resting on the beach, built many sandcastles, destroyed just as many, splashed in the ocean, and made the long trek back up the sand wall to the car park. All that, plus we went out for breakfast and had ice cream in Portobello. Phew. What a day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I hope your day is as sunny and fun as mine was.

Postage stamp chair pads

I made up these postage stamp chair pads a few weeks ago for my sewing chair and Abner's antique school desk using this great tutorial from Elizabeth over at Oh, Fransson! I've used the technique before, but always find it difficult to explain when people ask me about it. If you want to give it a try, get your hands on some light-weight fusible interfacing and check out Elizabeth's posts. With this technique, you get the satisfaction of quickly piecing a project without the headache of keeping track of your rows and piecing all those little, teeny tiny squares together!

For these pads, I used two layers of batting to provide just enough cush for my tush, but still keep it manageable to push through my machine. A walking foot is definitely recommended if you're going to give it a try yourself. I decided not to quilt the finished piece since they're kind of small and probably won't be going in the wash too often. The layers are secured enough (I hope) with just the top stitching around the edge.

So, you'd think with all these scraps being used up on these scrap busting projects, my stash would be looking a little weak by this point. You'd be wrong. I think I have enough squares cut and spare scraps left to make up an entire set of chair pads for our kitchen chairs plus a new more projects! Stay tuned - more scrap busting projects coming your way soon!

Reusable fabric food wraps

I'm a big fan of Abeego beeswax fabric food wraps. I bought one for TDSH a few years back and he uses it most days to pack his sandwich for lunch. I haven't managed to find any similar product here in New Zealand which kind of had me bummed out since we're now packing lunches for Abner too.

Luckily, I stumbled upon a tutorial for making your own beeswax fabric food wraps over on The Art of Doing Stuff a few weeks back. So, on one of my first kid-free days, I gave it a shot. Folks, I think we have a winner. These turned out great!

Making them yourself definitely feels good. The cost is minimal (could have made it even cheaper if I'd used up some scrap fabrics instead of buying new) and it really didn't take long to whip up a couple of these bad boys. I found a vegetable peeler worked well to get the bits of wax off the big chunk. I even kept the foil I used for these ones so that I'll be able to take advantage of the wax left on it for the next batch I make. How's that for reusing!

I still prefer the Abeego originals, but these will do until I can get my hands on more.