Pillow Project

Seriously, does it get any better than this!

 I started this pillow for Molly the day she was born.  We were waiting at the hospital for Molly's birth and I still needed some embroidery thread.  There was a craft store across the street and since it didn't appear that Molly would make her appearance for several hours we decided to walk over and buy the thread.  20 minutes later as we were walking through the hospital doors we got a phone call from Molly's birth-grandfather saying that we needed to get to the birthing room as quickly as possible.  Miracle of miracles, our sweet baby girl was born within the hour.

I finished the embroidery work before Molly was 2 weeks old and then it sat. And sat, and sat.  And now, just in time for Molly's birthday next month, I'm finished!  Yeah!

Molly is just as excited as I am!

Happy Father's Day!

We love you Daddy!

I made matching aprons for us to wear while we cooked up our Father's Day Feast!  Molly's really into pockets and was so excited that her blankie fit in her apron pocket.

Quiet Book: FINISHED!!! (with the option to add on...)

Hooray!  I may be the worlds slowest sticher, but that just makes every completed project that much more meaningful!  Truth be told, I don't need a finished project to get excited.  Every little accomplished step is a victory for me.  Isn't this just about the cutest Quiet Book cover you've ever seen!  I didn't have a pattern,  but I knew I wanted handles, some kind of clasp and an inside pocket.  It took way more time than it should have for me to figure it all out, but I did it and learned so much in the process.  Hopefully all these new sewing skills will stick with me and make the next project go a bit quicker.

 Here's how it looks open.  I love the fabric!

 I was completely mystified about how to connect the cover to the metal rings holding the pages together.  I came upon the most brilliant idea online and I forgot to write down the site so I can't give proper credit.  I sewed a piece of ribbon down the center of the inside of the book cover leaving gaps for the metal rings to slip under.  Thanks to whoever came up with this genius idea!

 I sewed a pocket to the inside back cover for paper and pen or to tuck in a little treat.

 And here are the last 2 pages of the book, at least for now...

 I'm in love with these little felt finger puppets.  So cute and really not too difficult to sew!

 This page pales in comparison to the barn, but is still a great page for learning in and out or on and off (you can stick your hand in the glove).

All buttoned up and ready to go

 Here's my inspiration! 

Quiet Book: A Few More Pages...

There are still a few pages that I'm working on and I need to do a cover, but I wanted to get what I had put together so we can start using it.  I'm really happy with how the quiet book is coming together and I've had fun practicing my sewing skills.  Yeah for sewing!

Learn to tell time

 Practice counting and phone etiquette

(Molly's favorite page so far)

 Shapes, colors, and learning how to snap things together

Learning to lace and tie.  I could have done a shoe for this 

but since we're such big football fans a football was a much better fit!

March 2011 Project: Quiet Book

At the beginning of the year I decided to choose one project every month to work on during Molly's nap.  For January I chose to catch up on Molly's scrapbook, in February I made fun Mr. & Mrs. pillows for our bed and in March I started a quiet book for Molly. 

Growing up we had a quiet book that my mom made and I've always planned to make one for my kids.  I've been filing away ideas for years and Molly is at the right age to really enjoy something like this.  The initial book will have 12 pages that are fun and will hopefully teach something.  I'm making it so that I'll be able to add pages as Molly grows and is ready for more advanced quiet fun like braiding a girls hair and a tic-tac-toe page.  These are my first 4 pages:

Molly loves airplanes so I had to include one in the book.  It opens up so she can load and unload the suticases.  This page doesn't really teach anything, but Molly likes to count the button windows, so we'll call it a counting page (1 airplane, 3 suitcases, 4 wheels, 5 buttons...)

This is big enough to tuck in a bag of fruit snack with the luggage.

The balloons have velcro on them so they can be removed and matched with the right color.

Flower Pot: Button the flowers onto their stems

Noah's ark: unzip the ark to find the animals

No, No, No...

It's hard to imagine our sweet little girl has decided, practically overnight, that she loves to say no.  This is how a typical conversation with Molly goes at our house these days:

Me: "should we play with the toys?" 

Molly:  "no"

"do you want to color?" 

"no"

"Let's read a story." 

"no"

"Do you want to go outside?" 

"No.  Shoes?" and she runs to find her shoes.

She cracks us up!

Shane and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this week.  He surprised me with these beautiful roses that Molly helped him pick out.  And I made these fun pillows for our bed.

Happy Anniversary to us!