A Year of Footprints

I can't believe that my kids are one! When did that happen.
I wanted to do something different to mark their progress each month. There are a lot of different ideas out there (thanks to Pintrest I have seen them all).
The idea formed while the kids were in the NICU. One of our nurses stamped the kids feet when they were a month old, and continued with their second and third month for us. My husband really liked the idea and suggested that we keep it going and stamp them every month for a year. I was game for that, so I got on Amazon and bought a stamp pad, and somehow it has now been over a year!

We had a big birthday party for the twinners to celebrate their first year. If anyone deserved a big party it was there two strong, amazing kids. They have been through so much, and they have fought and made their way. I am so proud of them. I hurried and got this project done so we could display them at the party.

I now needed to find a way to display the cute footprints. Since I love cross stitching I knew it had to incorporate that as well. I found a great pattern by the one and only Joan Elliot! I love her patterns. And the finished project was outstanding. I now just need to frame them....

Details about the project:

I bought the aida from 123stitch.com. I love this site so much. The colors are "a touch or gray" 14 count and "a touch of peach" 14 count. It worked out perfectly. The names that I stitched for them that are hanging on the nursery wall is on "a touch of yellow", so all the projects fit together well.

The pattern came from a book I purchased online. It is a book of Joan Elliot Alphabets titled "Spell it Out." I highly recommend it.  It has the cutest alphabets featuring bears, faeries, pirates, and other wonderful things.

Colors: She originally designed it with the colors I used for Wilson's name. I then changed it up when I did Stella's because I wanted to make it a bit more girly.

More Baby Gifts

On top of the projects I have been working on for my own kiddlets, I have done two other projects for friends and family.

The first project was for my new niece, Ingrid. She is a total cutie! I have made her two older brothers blankets, so I had to make one for her. I was extremely upset about the whole project I almost didn't even start one. I went to go buy the blanket at Joann's and they didn't have any. OK, no big deal, I went to Michale's. They did not have any either. Not the end of the world, I got online to find one. NO ONE HAS THEM. I looked all over for one, and apparently they don't make the baby sized one anymore. I could of bought a normal size blanket and cut it to the size I needed, but it would of been twice the money.
I now had to find something different. Joann's had another style, its just not a pretty as the other ones. And the blocks go around the edges instead of the whole blanket being blocks. I know I totally over reacted about the whole thing, but I was pregnant, and that's my excuse and I'm stickin' with it.

I found the alphabet pattern in a book I recently bought. It is a Joan Elliot alphabet book. I love Joan Elliot designs, they are my absolute favorite. Thanks to Facebook, Joan even got to see the finished project. (its really not that big of a deal, but I thought it was pretty cool that she told me she liked it).

The next challenge was sewing it together. I am by no means a master seamstress, that is my mother. I have totally piled on the projects for her since I found out I was pregnant. She is making quilts, and bumper pads, she crocheted adorable granny square blankets for them, plus on top of it all she alters wedding dresses. When the baby was finally born, our babies were only a few weeks old and we were at the hospital all the time. The day before I was going to give it to her it still was not done. I felt terrible asking my mother to do it for me, so I tried to do it myself. I was up until one in the morning trying to get this sewed together. It to FOREVER! but, only due to my poor sewing skills. I have the knowledge, but not the skills.
I had some minky for the back, and I got it all pinned together, and in the end I swear I sewed and unpicked each side at least twice. It kept slipping and turning out terrible. I finally got it done, and it turned out alright, but it took way to long.

 This is the blanket as I was trying to pin it together. I have a nice big kitchen counter that is the perfect size, so that was helpful.

 Close up of one of the letters

 ALL DONE! and wrapped up.

The second project is for my best friend Monica and her new baby boy Luke (aka Wilson's new best friend). He is such a cutie. I got to go over to her house the other day and he just cuddled me for almost an hour, it was great.
Anyways, I got the pattern out of Cross Stitcher Magazine issue 232. It was from May of 2010. I have been wanting to stitch this design since I first saw it. When I found out Monica was preggers I knew exactly what project I wanted to do. It is really simple, but really cute.

The design in the magazine was stitched on a cute pok-a-dot aida, but they unfortunately don't make that any more either. I had to settle with plain blue. It was a breeze to stitch up, and I have had this finished for months thankfully. All I had to do was stitch the name and date and frame it and it's all ready to go.

I love Somebunny!

It's finally done!! I got a new nephew in June, and was able to gift the blanket a couple of weeks ago.

This is my brothers second child, and for there first, Lily, I made a Somebunny to Love blanket, so I decided to keep the theme and make one for Flint.

 

Lily's blanket was made about 2 and half years ago. It was the first blanket I made on this fabric, Its pre made, specifically for cross stitch baby blankets. It was a trial figuring it all out, so I think the quality of stitching on Flint's blanket is much better.

I gave Flint a cute little cow that matches the blanket, and Lily promptly stole and snuggled it. I don't blame her. It was super cute and soft.

I got this post all published and remembered that I had done another Somebunny to Love blanket! So I wanted to share that one too. It was made for my Husbands cousin's first child Anna.

It Must Run In The Family

This past weekend I got the greatest gift from my Grandma Wilson. She made me the most gorgeous tree skirt. She's so amazingly talented! Grandma has made me other things over the years, so I thought that I would take some pictures and share.

I'm so excited, I am going to have the prettiest Christmas tree this year. I asked her to make it white for me, and I love that she finished it off with sparkly yarn.

Quite a few years ago she made a bunch of these baby blankets and we got to pick what color we wanted. I love love love the teddy bear pattern that she used. I hate having it stored away, I can't wait to use it one day.

The blessing dress is amazing! I also hate keeping this one tucked away. I have to keep telling myself that one day I will get to use it.

Now I'm not sure if she did the cross stitching, I assume she did. But I know that she did the crochet edging which is beautiful. One day when I have a bigger house and a guest bedroom I want to decorate the room around these beautiful pillow cases and show them off.

This is only one Christmas project that she has done for me. I got this one a few year ago.  (Can I have more of these?)
I wish my Christmas decorations were not buried in the closet or I would take pictures of the other ones.
I have the most beautiful Santa which I got years ago. I admit I didn't appreciate it as much when I got it, but now it's one of my favorite decorations that I have. Every year when I open the box I just smile. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing gift made by my amazing Grandmother.
Last year I also got some awesome snowflakes that she crocheted and starched. I have plans for those this year....is it Christmas yet??...only 149 more days!!

I am so lucky to have such an amazing Grandma. Thanks for all that you do, and  inspiring me with your creations.

Baby Baby!

There has been lots of babies being born lately...and I love it! I love making things for babies. First there was my best friend Monica. She had a baby girl, and she is the cutest little thing ever. I had a hard time deciding on what to stitch. I couldn't find anything that I really liked. So I decided to design something myself. I found this great book at the library, and it helped me make up a pattern.If you are into designing you our patterns I highly recommend this book. There are a lot of little patterns I would never use, but there are some great pages that are extremely cute and helpful. It also has a lot of great pages with alphabets that have come in handy on multiple projects.

Then my sister-in-law had her baby, and I just adore Jonny. I found a pattern that I liked, and I swore I bought it. After like a month I never got anything in the mail, and after some investigating I realized I didn't buy it. By this time, time was running out, I needed to start this project pronto! The baby was already born and I needed to get it done. I decided since Fiona's turned out so well, I should design Jonny's. Side note, I had actually already designed something months before, but I just couldn't get myself to stitch it, it didn't seem right. I designed something similar to the one I was going to buy but not as big and little more simple so that I could get it stitched up quickly. I think it turned out really cute.

Clive-a-dile's Blanket

 Its finally finished! I've been working for a while on this blanket for my nephew and Its finally done. Clive is the newest member of the Parkinson clan, hes the cutest little kid.
I loved the way the blanket turned out, I put the softest light green material on the back, its perfect for snuggling.