Monster Blocks

Monster paper-pieced quilt blocks made MANY MANY months ago (back in February).

These are Monsters who's mom's wished they had girls. 

There are only 5 monsters and I think that's an odd amount for a quilt so I'm anxiously awaiting the other ones the creater of these patterns has yet to put out. I think she has Bride of Frankenstein coming out someday and I can't remember what else. I went ahead and made Frank into a mini quilt while I wait...

The Frankenstein on the right (below) is the 1st one I made but I somehow made him too small and messed up on his mouth (should have been black). The werewolf is my favorite. He is what made me want to make these blocks.

A tree quilt and Christmas Morning

The "lovely little forest quilt" pattern is from here (purlsoho) 

and the Gnome paper-pieced pattern is from here (artisania) .

I didn't long-arm it, a lady in Montana did.

The back. Not a good photo but you can at least see the quilting.

** edited 10/2016 to add approx quilt dimensions 

and how it's laid out***

So just to recap: the LOVELY LITTLE FOREST QUILT PATTERN is from purlshoho (click here) and it's free. It's a small wall hanging so I made 4 and put those 4 into a quilt.

The GNOMES are a paper-pieced FREE pattern from Artisania (click here) I made 3 or 4 and sprinkled them in the quilt where a tree would go.

Below is a diagram of the quilt. Please understand that I did all measurements AFTER quilt was made so these measurements are APPROXIMATE! 

1/4 seams are included in the measurements.

Christmas morning. Santa is kind of a pig. He just stuffed their Santa bags and ran!

Checking out each others toys.

Emily got a dinosaur holding a blankie and teddie bear from Papa J and Grammie Dar.  And Ava got some super soft hand puppets from Aunt Julia and Uncle Steve.

Uncle Jeff and Cousin Jevin got her these monster feet clompers. We had these when we were little but they were made from large cans and rope.

The other day I sent them outside to play in the snow armed with squirt bottles filled with colored water. You can't see it very well but they squirt it all over the snow. You have to put a lot of food coloring in it or it'll be too faint.

At the Schweinfurt Christmas Market.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

A mixer cover

I finally made a mixer cover! Finally! It's not exactly what I wanted but it'll do. It's really thick (hard-to-sew-on thick) vinyl or coated cotton in very 70's or is it early 80's colors? All I know is this make me think of our house in Oceanside with the mustard color fridge (I hope I'm remembering that correctly. Something was that color!) and brown cabinets. This print though is anything but early 80's. It has dear, mushrooms, squirrels, and hedgehogs.

I had started out sewing the seams to the outside using the brown colored bias tape but the stuff is so thick my stitches on the bobbin side were baaad. Anyone know why this happens? That's one reason I stopped making the bibs. So I took the tape off and sewed the seams wrong side together like you see it in the photo. I did use bias tape around the bottom. I used the pattern from here (instructions here and pattern here) and it was so EASY. Had I used cotton I would have lined it and put a pocket for the manual on the outside (like this one or like the one made by kitchen aid)

I don't think I showed the below quilt since I changed it up a bit. I went back, ripped out squares and sashing to add wee gnomes. I saw someone had done it on flickr and had to do it on mine! Right now it's at the quilters being quilted. I opted not to do it myself because of the trees and I wanted special stuff and I'm not experienced enough on the long arm to do it.

Boy gnomes above and girl gnomes below. I used this paper piecing pattern and tutorial. It's soooo easy once you get the hang of it. look at her store on etsy. She has new Halloween paper piecing patterns that I want just bought because they are $5 on sale from $7 in her store (not the etsy store)! So cute! Emily's going to love the monsters!!

And I don't think I ever showed or at least talked about the polka dots I had painted on Emily's wall when she was about 1. These were so easy. I cut holes on quilters template (thin flexible plastic) using a scraping booking paper circle cutter. I actually cut several holes at random on one sheet so i could make several dots at once. Using blue painters tape (my very best sewing friend) to hang it on the wall and using acrylic craft paint in the color butter I think and a sponge brush, dabbed and filled in the holes. Then moved the sheet to a new spot and did it again. This method of using quilters template isn't the best as the paint can leak around the edges and not form a perfect circle but it is faster than tracing each circle then carefully painting them in. Anyone know of a better way? I would love to do it again although Jon wouldn't. We had to paint over it (as you can see in the picture) before we moved out. It took two coats and it went fast so what's he crying about? I just had a thought that maybe I should try fabric decals.This person used cornstarch but I thought you were supposed to use actual starch? Anyone? I wonder how my German walls would like that! Do any of my friends that have lived over here know how that stuff does on the German walls? They are so porous and wall-papery. I'm afraid it won't come off.

I just wanted to show a picture of Ava and how she can't keep her clothes on. This was one of our drives to Schweinfurt loaded up with household stuff. I looked back and she had done this with her shirt. She also had taken off her socks and shoes. She does this ALL the time!! She tried to take off her clothes at Emily's parent teacher conference. One gross thing she tries to do now is take off her diaper and dump the contents in the toilet after she poops. The 1st time I caught her doing this I almost had a heart attack! I mopped the floor good that day:) I feel like I maybe should have covered her boobies in photoshop with stars or something. Does anyone feel violated?