My last-minute Valentine I made for my son using one of his drawings won second place in the Sew, Mama, Sew! contest! My prize is actually the one I wanted most, a CD containing more than 20 Amy Butler quilting and sewing projects. At first glance, I thought it was just the patterns and instructions (which alone was impressive) but it actually includes software that lets you alter the designs, try out different fabric swatches, etc. I can’t wait to try it out!
For some reason, it has never quite occurred to my husband to get me chocolates for Valentine’s Day, even though I LOVE chocolate. Maybe he thinks its too cliche. (He did get me a nifty extension table for my sewing machine, which is also much appreciated). So this year I took matters into my own hands and bought both my husband and son small boxes of chocolate from Granite State Candy, our favorite local candy shop, in hopes that they would share. And I made my son this adorable hedgehog, using a pattern by Betz White. So cute! Next time I think I will wash the brown wool felt to make it a little fuzzier. I had an old felted tan sweater I used for the body, and have a bunch of grey pieces ready to sew together to make some of the mice also included in Betz’s pattern.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I decided at the last minute to enter the True Love Valentine Contest at Sew, Mama, Sew! and make this little fabric card and envelope for my son. I used the same technique that I recently used to make my husband a notebook cover, but this time, I used a smaller paintbrush and painted before embroidering, which worked better than trying to paint right up to the stitching. (and I used a picture he drew of me and him instead of Daddy and the cat).
I’m sure he won’t be terribly excited by it, but it will make a nice keepsake. And I know he’ll at least like the envelope, since he’s always writing letters to friends and relatives.
I know at some point I’ll have to let my son make or at least pick out his own Valentines, but while he’s still young enough to not have much of an opinion about it, I can’t resist taking over. I had been wanting to write about “The Polymer Clay Cookbook” for a while, so this was the perfect chance to try out a bunch of the projects. You can read my Associated Press article (and tutorial for making the ice cream cones) HERE.
Since my son’s school asks everyone to bring in signed cards that aren’t addressed to specific classmates, I tried to stick with the projects that would appeal to both boys and girls. I thought it would be hard to come up with silly puns for each item, but once I got going, it was pretty easy. My part is done, but it might take my 5-year-old longer to sign all the cards than it did to make the charms…
Happy Birthday to my impossible-to-buy-gifts-for husband! He hates surprises and tends to buy things for himself before I get around to it. Add in the fact that his birthday comes just over a month after Christmas and a week before Valentine’s Day, and I’m usually scrambling for ideas. But this year, I think I did pretty well. I got him a new sport coat for work, a subscription to “Backyard Poultry” magazine (unless I talk him out of it, he insists we are getting chickens in the spring) and this notebook cover I made at the last second by taking one of my son’s drawings (that’s Daddy and our cat, Sammy), transferring it onto linen and then embroidering and painting it. I’m sure it would’ve turned out better had I not started it a mere two days before the big day, and had I taken 20 minutes to go buy a better paintbrush instead of using one I swiped from my son’s art kit. And I really do not know how to embroider. But given the design, I think it’s ok that it looks like a 5-year-old made it.
It’s been so exciting to see my son’s first real attempts at drawing, and I’ve been so eager to incorporate his creations into some kind of project. I was inspired by the wonderful bookmarks Amanda Soule made with her children’s artwork, and probably should’ve stopped there, with just outlining the drawings with embroidery. But a few days ago I stumbled upon the painted embroidery by Melissa Crowe at Checkout Girl. Please take a look at her amazing artwork, and you’ll see what a pale, pale imitation my attempt is. I’m envious both of her talent and location (Portland, Maine), where I once lived and probably would’ve stayed had my job not been temporary. (Actually, Amanda lives in Portland, too. There must be something in the water!) To make the notebook cover, I followed this tutorial at Bloom And Blossom, though I ran into a bit of trouble. The directions called for cutting the fabric 1.75 times the width of the opened notebook, but that seemed like way too much, so I just ended up wrapping the fabric around the notebook and figuring out how much I needed to cover it and make the flaps. But I really like the tutorial overall, because unlike a lot of other notebook cover tutorials out there, there aren’t a lot of layers of fabric and bulky seams in this one.
