No Sew Baby Monthly Appliques

I want to start out by saying that it's hard to believe my post from this same day, last year was about the crib quilt I made for this sweet button of a girl who will be seven months old on Sunday.  Where does the time go???

Today's tutorial is for no-sew baby month appliques.  Now, I know you can purchase monthly stickers, but these are more personalized, and a little different than what everyone else might be doing.  These are so easy to apply that anyone can do it.  You could give the appliques with a set of plain onesies as a shower gift and new mommy can iron them on herself.  You wouldn't want to iron them on beforehand because it's really hard to know how big a baby will be and what size they might be wearing at a certain age.  I'd recommend either giving the appliques by themselves as a gift or as I said earlier, pairing them with 12 different size onesies.  

Knowing what month baby is due makes it easy to customize these around the holidays.  A January month could be a blue fabric with white dots or snowflakes, February could be a red fabric with little hearts, March with green fabric for St Patty's, and so on.  For whatever reason, this didn't occur to me and it's something a friend suggested to me the other day.  So now, even though I have through month nine done for Zoe, I'll be redoing them to match the upcoming holidays.  

I guess you're probably ready for me to get on with this so here we go!

This tutorial will work for any applique you want to do.  If you decide you'd like to stitch around the applique, I'd recommend either medium or lite Heat-n-Bond.  The ultra-hold will be too hard to sew through.  You should be able to find Heat-n-Bond at any place that sells fabric or sewing notions. Even Wal-Mart has it.

MATERIALS

Various fabric scraps big enough for your numbers

Heat-N-Bond Medium or Ultra-Hold 

a pen - I find a sharpie is a little easier to use

iron

INSTRUCTIONS

In Word, choose your font style and size and type out numbers 1-12.  I've used Comic Sans @ 400 in BOLD for mine.  Now, print them out. Print them in reverse, or in mirror image if you can. 

Next, rough side down, on top of your printed numbers, trace the numbers onto the smooth, paper side of the Heat-n-Bond.  IMPORTANT:  if you didn't print your numbers in reverse, flip your printouts over before tracing.  If you don't trace the numbers in reverse, they will be backwards once your put them on the onesie.

Now you'll cut around your numbers.  Don't cut them out yet, just cut around them, leaving a 1/4 inch or so space.

I recommend cutting any open spaces in the numbers out first, before bonding.  For example, the 4, 8 or 0.

Following the instructions on the back of the Heat-n-Bond package, bond your numbers to the fabrics you've chosen.  Once you've bonded and let the fabrics cool, you can cut out the numbers.  

Leave the paper backing on until you're ready to bond.  When you are ready to bond the number to the onesie, peel the paper backing off and position it right side up on the onesie.  *Using medium heat, press the iron down on the number for 6 seconds.  That's it!

*If your iron is too hot, or you leave it on the applique too long, it won't bond correctly.  If you do this, let it cool down a little and try again.  

Linking to:
Wow Us Weds
Creative Spark
Look What I Made 
Sugar & Spice 

A Room for Zoe

I've finally gotten around to taking photos of her room.  Of course, these days it has that "lived in" look so I had to do some staging to get the good photos.  You know, the ones I should have taken before she was born. 

I'd planned on a gender-neutral room right up until I found out I was having a girl.  Once I knew a girl was in our future, those nursery plans went out the window.  We already had an over-sized red chair that I knew I'd be using in the nursery so I basically had to design the room around that. 

The paint color we used is a Valspar (Lowe's) color called Sea Air.  I made the curtains from some inexpensive fabric from Hobby Lobby.  I posted about the mobile here (I'm actually in the process of making a smaller one to hang over the changing table).  I kept the bedding simple and only made a rag quilt for it.  The print came from the Etsy shop, a little sweetness.

Aside from the crib, this changing table was the only other piece of furniture we had to purchase.  The crib and the changing table are both from Target.  The mirror you see here also came from Target.  Lucky for me, my sweet Zoe was born in Feb so I was able to find these red and white fabric baskets, in the Wal-Mart Valentine's Day section, to use for storage.  The piggy lamp used to belong to Han.  Its shade was lost long ago so I bought a plain white one and glued some ric-rac on it.

 

The dresser belonged to Han and  the hutch came with another dresser I thrifted just the week before I found out I was expecting.  Perfect timing!  You can't really see it, but there is a photo of my mom on this dresser (look for it at the end of this post).  She passed away 4 weeks before Zoe was born.  This was also the photo I had in the delivery room with me.  My mom was there for me when Han was born, and she was there with me when little Z came into this world.

Here's the chair the room was designed around.  The pillow came from Target and was another lucky Valentine's Day find.  The side table was made by Charles back when we did Han's first room makeover .  By the way, Zoe's room is the same room that was made over in that post.  Han got moved to another room so we could use this room for the nursery. 

This little shelf, that hangs over the red chair was something I thrifted a few years ago.  It was in the master bedroom until we moved that room up next to the nursery room.  The little peg people came from the Etsy shop, mooshoopork.  She doesn't have any available now, but you can ask for a custom order.  That's what I did.  I'd pinned them and by the time I was ready to buy them, they'd sold.

The shelf over the cubes was one I'd thrifted a couple of years ago.  Seems it was just waiting for Zoe.  A coat of white paint, and it was perfect.  The lamp was a plain one I bought at Target.  I added the red ric-rac and used this tutorial for the fabric rosettes.  The abacus and the vintage Fisher Price cash register were thrifted back before my niece was born in 2010.  I'd planned to give them to her, but didn't for some reason.  I LOVE that cash register.  My sister and I had one when we were kids. 

The Etsy shop, mooshoopork, also sells these adorable plaques.  She didn't have any listed when I bought the peg people from her, and so I just ended up making my own since it seemed simple enough. 

Isn't it adorable?.

We found this cute little rocking chair in an antique shop last Fall.  The smaller Raggedy Ann was thrifted sometime before I knew I was expecting.  I just love Raggedy Ann, and had to have her.  Once I bought the rocker, I bought the larger, newer Raggedy Ann to keep her company.

Well, I guess that's it.  I didn't do a whole lot of crafty, decorative things while I was pregnant, but I did a few room makeovers that I'll be sharing in the next few weeks.  I'm hoping to get back into blogging on a regular basis.  Pregnancy just zapped any energy and creative ambition I may have had.  Thanks to those of you who still have me in your readers!  I was pleasantly surprised at the comments I received on my Zoe post earlier today.  

I love you , Mama!! 

taken at my wedding reception lunch on 6/22/08

Linked to:

Anti Procrastination Tues @ New Nostalgia
Get Your Craft on @ Today's Creative Blog 
One Project at a Time @ A Bowl Full of Lemons 
Take a Look Tues @ Sugar Bee Crafts
Creative Spark @ Clean & Scentsible
Be Inspired @ Elizabeth & Co 
Wow us Weds @ Savvy Southern Style 
Power of Paint Party @ Domestically Speaking
Sugar & Spice @ seven thirty-three  
Transformation Thurs @ The Shabby Creek Cottage 
Fridays Unfolded @ Stuff and Nonsense
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home  
Creative Things Thurs @ The Vintage Farmhouse 
Free for All Friday @ Sassy Sites  
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest 
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous 
Weekend Wrap-up @ Tatertots & Jello 
Whatcha Got Weekend @ Lolly Jane Boutique  
Show & Tell Sat @ Be Different, Act Normal 
Met Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch 

She's Here

Zoe Brenna Quinn Thompson

Born 2/16/12 at 6:30 AM

Weight - 7.13 pounds

Length - 19.5 inches

Nursery Crafting

Well, I'm still alive, and still baking this little bun. We've got about 10 weeks until her debut, and I'm just putting the finishing touches on her room.

Today, I want to share her mobile with you.

I'd planned on making one from the beginning, I just couldn't figure out what I wanted. I shared one type of mobile with you all, months ago. I actually started making that one, but of course, as soon as I found out I was having a girl, my nursery plans changed. Out went the gender-neutral room, and in came the floor to ceiling girly room.

I ran across this mobile a sometime back in late summer, and decided I'd give it a shot, even though, it seemed to be pretty time-consuming.  

Following this link will take you to The Handmade Home, and to the tutorial for the mobile.  I'm just gonna run through a few tidbits on how I made mine.

********

First off, this wasn't nearly as time consuming as I thought it'd be.  It's the perfect TV project.  Since I started knitting, nearly 10 years ago, I have the hardest time just sitting and watching TV.  I absolutely HAVE to have something to keep my hands busy.  This project was great for that!  

Second, for a mobile, you can't beat the price.  I spent around $5 on this.  The only things I had to purchase were extra felt sheets, and the baker's twine I used for hanging. 

I used a few pieces of fabric on some of the rounds, but I found I liked the way all felt looked better.  It just really made the embroidery stitches stand out (it seems like I may have read this very same thing over at HH).

I found my baker's twine here.

I cut all of my circles by hand.  I traced around various household objects with a fabric pen and then cut everything out.  I used objects (spool of thread, small tape measure, suction cup) that had similar measurements to what Ashley recommended.  * Just so you know, I've added the Sizzix Big Shot she recommended to my Christmas list this year.  Fingers crossed that i get it!  I have so many plans for that machine (think garlands galore).

Our ceilings are 8ft so I didn't make my mobile nearly as long as the ones over at HH.  This means I didn't need quite as many rounds as she did.  I ended up doing 5 strands.  The 4 outside strands had 4 completed rounds on them and the center strand had 6.  I ended up using a total of 44 rounds. 

I used a 15" hoop, which I painted to coordinate with the rounds. 

********

One good thing about this mobile is that you can use it for years.  It's not really babyish, and would be fine in a child's room.  Shoot, Han is 13 and she wants one for her room.  

I'm hoping to be back to blogging more frequently, at least until Zoe arrives.  It's been a LONG time since I've tended to a newborn so I'm not exactly sure how much free time to expect.  My guess is, not much. 

Linking to:
Met Monday
Motivate Me Monday 
Sunday Showcase 
Made By Me

A Perfectly Imperfect Quilt

It looks like I'm just a day shy of a month with no posts.  Sorry about that!

Let's see, I last posted about planning to decorate my new master bedroom.  We've been in that room for three weeks now and I love it!  I've still got to hang curtains and also hang a few other things up, and then I'll be back to blog about that.

Right now I want to share with you a couple of things.

Number One:  We had an early gender ultrasound and found out that we're expecting a GIRL!!  We were all three hoping for a girl.  Her name will be Zoe Quinn.  Charles chose the first name, years ago, and I chose the middle name.  Actually, it was a name Han suggested several years ago, back when we used to sit around and try to come up with names for fun.   

Number Two:  I immediately went back to my original plan of a girly nursery with blues and reds instead of the colorful gender-neutral nursery I thought I wanted.  

I have a pretty good board going on Pinterest for all of my ideas, and I've already started on making some things.  This weekend, I finished this quilt.

It's a rag quilt that was inspired by this one made by Kristin at Write it Down.

I loved the fabric she used, but sadly, it's no longer available.  Luckily, I was able to find a similar fabric line from Moda called Ruby.  I bought 2 charm packs and ended up using 70 of the 84 squares (I left most of the gray fabrics out).  I used cotton batting in the craft size, and for the backing, I used some matching fabrics from my stash.

I say this quilt is imperfect because it is.  All of my quilts are.  I'm what you'd call an impatient quilter.  I try to get them done as fast as I can, and this often means that my blocks don't match up like they should, and I usually end up having to trim up the sides of my quilt tops because some rows end up longer than others.  You know what though? I'm OK with this.  The quilts I make are never going to be in a quilt show.  They're never going to be passed down from generation to generation.  They're meant for right NOW, to snuggle up in while taking a nap or watching a movie.  If you're like me, or if you've never even tried a quilt, this one is for you!  The ragged seams will take away from the fact that you have wonky blocks and rows, and the quilting-as-you-go part?  Shoot, quilting can't get an easier than that!

The tutorial I used, which is the same one that Kristin used, is here at Creations by Kara.  Kara mentions that flannel is the best fabric for flannel, but I honestly didn't have any problems with just plain old cotton. 

Well, that's all I've got for now.  Hopefully I'll be back later this week with a master bedroom update. 


Linking to:
Motivate Me Mon @ Keeping it Simple
Met Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch 
Amaze Me Monday @ Dittle Dattle

Master Bedroom Inspiration

I may have mentioned that we're moving our bedroom from downstairs, to one of the bedrooms upstairs.  To make a short story long, as Leslie likes to say, we'll be switching Charles' music studio with the master bedroom.  His studio, is next to the bedroom that Han occupied until a couple of weeks ago.  We moved her down the hall and we'll use her old room for the baby.  The short version of this is, we want to be closer to the baby.


There were some other deciding factors in this, mainly that it's too loud on the main floor.  Not only do I hear every cricket living in the backyard, but our room shares a wall with the living room and as luck would have it, it's the TV wall.  Charles rarely goes to bed before I do, so when I do go to bed, it's like I'm trying to sleep in the living room.  Another plus to moving is there'll be no more lugging laundry up and down the stairs.  The laundry room will be right down the hall!  One last plus is that I'll get the whole closet (not a walk-in) to myself.  Charles will keep his clothes in his studio since he'll still be using the master bath (I'm now sharing a bathroom with Han.)


When we first began talking about the move, my first concern was as to how I would decorate the room (of course!).  I just finished the current master look in March, but it just felt odd to do another room exactly the same.  I looked around on Pinterest, and pinned a lot of photos, and decided that I basically wanted the same kind of style, but I'd just switch it up a bit.


The walls have been painted and I chose a Better Homes & Gardens (Wal-Mart) color called Creamy Pebbles.  I had it color matched at Lowe's in Valspar paint with and eggshell finish.  I found the color through Leslie from Goodbye House, Hello Home.  She used it in the bedroom that her foreign exchange student is staying in.  It's a beautiful room, so you should go check it out!  BTW, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but Leslie and I are friends IRL. We met through our blogs and found that we only live about 15 minutes away from each other!


Since Charles is still working on the new floors and trim, I obviously won't be sharing any photos of the room today, but I'd like to share some of the pins I have for inspiration.


Here's my Pinterest link to this board.  You can find the source for each photo by visiting the pin.

I'll most likely be using white bedding with neutral throw pillows.  I especially love the throw on this bed.  Pottery Barn has some that I love, but I was't really wanting to pay PB money for one.  I thought I'd make one myself, but after I totaled the yarn costs, I found that it would be just as expensive as buying one from PB.  I'll still check around to see if I can find a cheaper version, but since I'm not buying new bedding this time, I think we can maybe splurge on a throw (that baby can spit up on... ha!).

This wall color is similar to Creamy Pebbles, and I absolutely love this bedding!

Not sure if we'll have a bedside rug, but I do love this one!

I'd love to make some pillow similar to these for the bed.  If anyone know of a good tutorial, please let me know.

I thought something like this would look nice over the bed, but since we have a tall-ish headboard, I don't think it'll work.  I still like it, though!

I really like this plate arrangement.  I'm planning to move the green desk from our foyer into this room, and if we don't end up installing a TV in the wall over it, I'd like to hang some plates there.  This space is between the two windows in the room, and I think this piece of wall, with the plates on it, would look nice framed by the windows. 

I've got all of the pieces for this little set-up by Miss Mustard Seed and I thought that it'd look great on the desk.

I pinned several boxwood wreaths because I wanted to make one to hang in a large empty frame I plan on using.  I haven't been able to find faux boxwood stems anywhere, and finally just ended up doing a coffee filter wreath.  

I haven't made too many final decisions yet, as far as what will hang where, because I want to wait and see how furniture placement goes first.  This room is considerably smaller than the current one and so I'm not sure which of the two possible ways we'll be arranging the furniture.  Hopefully the transformation will be completed by midweek.  If so, I'll get started on everything that needs to be made and get a post up asap.


Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Yeah, I Got Nothin'

Seriously, guys.  I'm having huge creativity block over here.  My mind is consumed by pregnancy and diabetes (I'm type 2) right now, and the only creative thing I've done lately is some knitting for baby.  Even that's hard since I have no idea what gender this little niblet will be.

I haven't posted in over a week, and believe me, I haven't forgotten about my blog.  I just can't come up with a project to do and blog about.  Well, I should say that I can't come up with a quick project to blog about.  I haven't found the time to work on anything that would take a good amount of time to work on.  I seem to run errands all day and by the time I get home, I'm too tired to do anything.  I can only imagine what life will be like once baby arrives.  I honestly don't know how you guys with multiple small children find the time to do all of the projects you do, AND blog about them.  

Like I said earlier, I have been doing some baby knitting.  Right now, I'm working on making a mobile that will be a mix between these two CUTE mobiles that I found.  I've done the band that goes around the ring and am about to start knitting birds just as soon as I can get a few minutes to sit down. 

*If anyone is interested in these particular mobiles, you can find them here.

Oh, Baby!

If I've seemed MIA the past few weeks, it's because I've been working on a new project.

(Charles made these tickets which we included in our dads' Father's Day cards)

That's right, our family of three will become a family of four sometime late next February.  This was a huge surprise for us and we couldn't be more excited.  We have some pretty big adjustments to make as it was only Han and I for the first five years of her life, and then we were joined by Charles about eight years ago.  Han will be 13 when this baby is born.  Long gone are the years of not leaving glasses and other breakables lying around, and not having to be conscious of basically every move we make.  What a difference this baby will make!  It's surreal to think that this time next year, when we have dinner (in or out), there will be another body to fill in the empty space that's always there.

I haven't been pregnant in nearly thirteen years and I can basically say that this feels like my first time being pregnant.  I've found that I don't remember much at all after all of this time.  Some things, I remember once they happen this time around (hello, crazy boobs!).  Mostly, I'm feeling VERY impatient for that sweet babe to get here, just like last time.  I always thought that if I ever did get pregnant again, I wouldn't rush it and would enjoy it.  Yeah right!  ha ha

Lucky for me, we might be practically rearranging our whole house, which will give me something to occupy myself. Yay!

Of course, I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't already started daydreaming about a nursery.  Here are my mood boards so far.  I'm sure this will change 10X over before the time comes to actually do the work.

GIRL:

 

SOURCES:

1- Fabric - Michael Miller

2 - Artwork by Emily Martin (theblackapple on Etsy)

3 - Fabric - Michael Miller

4 - Artwork by Emily Martin (theblackapple on Etsy)

5 - Fabric - Michael Miller

6 - Artwork by alittlesweetness on Etsy

7 - Artwork by Emily Martin (theblackapple on Etsy)

8 - some sort of white ceramic lamp

9 - Fabric - Heather Bailey (she's expecting too!)

10 - Fabric - Michael Miller

BOY:

 

SOURCES:

1- Fabric - Michael Miller

2 - some sort of green ceramic lamp

3 - Fabric - Michael Miller

4 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

5 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

6 - Fabric - Michael Miller

7 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

8 - Artwork - sugarloop on Etsy

Why is it so much easier to plan a girly room?  We're still looking around for what furniture we want to use.  I do know that whatever we get, it'll be white.  I have a big red chair that is in my studio right now, that we'll be using in the nursery.  I think that's why there's so much red on the girl's board.  I'm not sure how red would do with the colors for the boy board, but I guess I could always slipcover it.  Anyway, I'm just rambling now.  I think this will be the only nursery post for a few months.  I still have several months before we get started on it, and I'm not really counting my chickens, even though it kinda seems like it.  I just couldn't help it.  The designer in me just needed to get this out of her system.  Plus, it sure is fun to put those boards together!