Bookshelf Cover

With Seth approaching 6 months very quickly, this means he will be starting solid foods soon!

We have a bookshelf in our dining room that houses our cookbooks and other various items.

I thought it would be a good idea to protect that stuff from flying food. :)






So I decided to make a semi-quilted cover. Attached with velcro to easily remove it and throw it in the wash.



Materials:
Various fabric I was saving for just such a purpose.
Thread (yellow and black for me).
Velcro dots.








I decided to do strip piecing. So I chose my favorite fabrics and cut a 3.5 inch strip of each.

Then I sewed them together two at a time.



I cut the pairs in half, rematched them with a different half (lengthwise) and sewed those together. So I ended up with 3 panels of 4 strips.










Then I cut those into 3.5 inch strips...so each strip had 4 squares.










I laid them all out to decide what went well together and then sewed 3 together. So I had 6 panels comprised of 12 squares.

I cut strips to fit between all these panels of a different fabric 2 inches wide. I sewed those all together. I sewed strips the same width down the sides but sewed 4 inch strips to the top and bottom so it would meet my length requirement.

Then I sewed on my backing (I did it the quicker way, sewing right sides together most of the way around, turning it right side out and finishing the hole.) then I topstitched around the whole edge to reinforce it and for decoration.





I put the Velcro dots on the bookshelf and the matched them up with the quilt so they would be even.









And the finished result:

Yay! A safe place to keep some things!

Keep an eye out for pictures of the actual eating of solids!

Curtains are Hung!

Hooray! The hubby and I worked together to get Baby's curtains up. I made them, and he did the carpentry!

The man in action.

Thanks, Hubby!!

Make It and Love It

So I'm rather obsessed with another blogger, Make It and Love It. Pretty much everything she makes, I want to make. and she makes it seem so doable!

First I made Seth these rings:

Tutorial Here
Easy...Just sew some tubes of fabric, stuff them and stitch them together round each other.

Next I made Adam his Father's Day gift.

I guess the pictures aren't the greatest, but it's a clay pot filled with candy. :)
Tutorial Here
Again, easy! paint a pot, sew a tie using her pattern, glue together & fill with candy!



Then I made some comfy flip flops.

I got some cheap Old Navy flip flops, which I usually can't wear because they rub between my toes and I can't stand them. But her tutorial gave me a nice way to fix that! These ones are a little loose, but I can redo them easily if I want AND I have 2 more pairs to do. Now that it's cool out...haha. 

Finally, I made Seth one of his Christmas presents:

I'm pretty excited to make more of his Christmas. :) Here's the tutorial. She's got so many other projects I can make, too! And in truth, most of them don't take *that* long to do. yay!

It's so nice that he takes naps in his crib now & goes to bed around 7 so I can get some of these things done!

Baby Room Curtains

Well, Seth is already over 5 months old, but I finally finished the curtains for his room today. :) (My excuse is that he came 2 weeks early!!)
I kind of made them up on my own, but I used inspiration from Sallie's kitchen curtain and this random blog -- scroll down to find her curtains. :)







I found 3 colors of fabric that would go well with the "giraffe" themed room - all cottons. I took fabric #1 (the top section, green fabric) and cut 1 strip 16" tall. I used my rotary mat for this. (Tip: fold the fabric in half with selvedge edges matching to cut a shorter piece & then it fit on one mat!)















I hemmed the selvedge edges 1" on each side.

I folded it in half, right sides together, lengthwise and sewed the unfinished edges @ 1/3".












 
I turned the fabric right side out, ironed @ the seam & the fold, so the tube became a panel.

Then I sewed a seam 2" from the folded edge to create a space for the curtain rod.






With fabric #2 (brown/accent color), I cut a strip 4" tall, then folded it in half lengthwise and sewed the seam 1/4" from the edge to make a 1 3/4" wide strip.

I ironed it just as with the first piece. I also found that if i ironed the seam like with a quilt while it was inside out, it was easier to get the seam to lay right.

I sewed up both edges so that the strip was the same width as fabric #1.

 Then I took fabric #3 (yellow, bottom piece) and cut a strip 12.5" tall.I hemmed the selvedge edges so the strip is the same width as strips 1 & 2 - using a 5/8" seam.

I hemmed the bottom edge (folded it over 1/2" and sewed @ 3/8").

I sewed the top edge to the back side of strip #1 @ the seam with a 1/4" seam, then ironed it flat.

Then I made 2 strips just like #2 only cut the fabric in half so the strips were half the length. I sewed them on 8" from the middle of the curtain.

Then I sewed the long brown (#2) strip on top of the curtain. I placed it just above (about 1/8") the seam from before and topstitched it together.
























Now all we have to do is get my hubby to put up the curtain rods, and Seth will finally have his mommy-made curtains up!