Christmas gifts

I made these magnet sets a couple years in a row now. But they sure are beautiful! My favorite is the one I made Hannah... hers is the picture below. The Kanji and Geisha girl just seems to be something of beauty. And the Kanji really speaks to my friendship with her... She is a wonderful friend.

I am sending them in sets of 5 to friends and family... I think they will be nice gifts.

Crayon Roll Sew-A-Long

You need a regular size sheet of felt (8X11 I think), and two cuts of quilters cotton of the same size. Along with two strips of interior fabric cut at 12X2 inches... (for the bais ties).

First you iron and starch both interior peices and the bias. Fold one peice of interior fabric down 3/4 of the way, starch and iron.

Fold the bias in half, then fold the halves in on themselves making the bias.

Then you pin the interior peices together, with the raw edges at the bottom, and the folded edge in the middle of the sheets.

You sew the two peices together, starting just under where the pocket lies and backstitching above the pocket and then back down to complete the seam. This makes the first stitch ON the pocket and not at the stress point.

Once you have done that on both sides, measure and mark the center line of the two seams you have already made.

Mark and sew rows to both sides of the center mark, in the middle of the center seam and the side seams.

Then do the same by marking and sewing seams in the middle of each of the already finished seams.

Repeat until you have 8 pockets.

Sew bias up, turning the edges in and stitching up the open side.

Once all the seams are done, lay the felt peice flat and lay the bias about 1/2 way up along both sides so that when you turn the roll the handles will be on either side.

Lay the pocket peice on top, pocket side towards the felt and pin in place.

Sew up the sides, top and bottom leaving a space on the bottom for turning. Try to go right along the outside seams so that the center mark is in the center of hte roll when you turn it. If your kids are anything like mine, double back a few times over the bais handles... it keeps them in place better and the whole thing lasts longer.

Turn the roll right side out, pin and sew across the bottom.

Add pencils and a Mad Lib or other similar sized book and your DONE!

Gifts for older kids

For the older neices I bought Mad Libs and added them into a crayon folder that I made. It fits those new colored pencil rollers just perfectly!

Batiks!

I am SO thrilled with these new batiks! Heather figured out that using mostly bees wax comes off better when you boil it, so with that, I made my first batiks with new shirts. They turned out beautiful!

We have all been working on new designs lately. Some of them are really neat! And some of them, well, didn't turn out so well. I got a book from my dad on symbols, and we have been looking through there and marking the symbols we think would make good batiks. Then we just wax them out!

And here is one I made just for Cyan. She loves it... but she doesn't love the camera so much today... so the back is the only pic I got. It has the best design on it anyhow. ;)

Just hanging out

Hanging out with the gang.

From left back: Cyan, Jasper, Jennica (holding Ashton), Alex (down the table now), Koya, Kajya, Maya, and then Bird (on the left next to Cyan).

Happy Summer Solstice!

This was filled with goodies and left in the woods for my children to find a gift from the fairies. It had all sorts of fun fairy stuff in it.

Butterfly dress

I am so proud of this dress! She looks so cute in it. It is only the second time I have shirred anything too... and it worked out so well!

I see many more of these appliques in my future. It turned out CUTE!

More Patchies for Sale!

A pair for a boy or girl:

Girl with black cotton/hemp:

Girl with unbleached cotton/hemp:

And a special set for my friend Dez's little girl Faith for 4th of July:

Thrifty Christmas Overload!

I felt like this last year I kicked ass at the home made gifts ideas. People loved them, I worked hard for them, and they only cost a little over $100 for ALL of the gifts we needed. Here are the pics:

This was a beautiful Ceder 4X4 that I got from a local lumber shop. I drilled holes in the top and added tea lights... then I sanded them down, and sealed them with linseed.

Beeswax shell candles. I bought wicks, wax, and shells. Put them together. (I melted the wax in a electric wok that I use for batiking which also uses melted wax)

Beaded keychains. You have to use the heaviest fishing line that will go into the beads. And crimps and needle nose plyers... but they are great. I had one on my keys for about a year.

$2 worth of bamboo... $3 vase... 1/2 a bag of $2 rocks... just add water. My brother loved this.

These sets were for different people and the board was $12 at Ikea for my mom. I also included some pics of the kids with her board and magnets. It was perfect and under $20 total. (I also glued magnets on the shells that were too small for candles)

Don't know if you can see it well... but it is an origami crane mobile. I just used origami paper, fishing line, and sticks. I love these. Each of my kids have one in their rooms. They are so beautiful and versitile. For Cyan's (which I made for her 4th birthday) I just took pictures from a garden magazine. All flowers...