mr. monkeysuit

Fall to Christmas

Was:: fall mantel

Now :: Christmas mantel. Meet the jingle girls.

These were so much fun to make! I used Going Sew Crazy's excellent clothespin doll tutorial with a heavy dash of Allsorts inspiration. 

Can you believe I had everything in my craft room? All the supplies; the wood clothespin doll bodies and heads, the paint, the fabric, the little felt leaves, the beads, the ribbon and the tiny velvet bows. It is nice to have a well stocked craft room but that is nuts!! 

(On that note, If you are looking for supplies, I got mine at Caseys ;)

It's been a whirlwind of Christmas activities round here. I took the kids to the Nutcracker (they loved it), we went out into the country to cut our own tree,complete with hot chocolate in a cabin and candy canes for the journey home. And we've decorated the tree and our home. We chose a smaller tree this year but according to the kids,all the decorations had to go on. The tree is holding up pretty well under the weight. And it looks cute in a kid-decorated kind of way.

There is still lots to do this season. Cookies to be baked, parties to be had and gone to, presents to be made, bought and wrapped. Thank goodness my Mum is coming into town this weekend. She will be enlisted in all kinds of baking, sewing and babysitting. Lucky for us, she is great at all three!

I am feeling good about Christmas this year. I've let a few things go and am trying to do a few more spontaneous things with the kids. It really helps that baby-face Frances can go without a nap so we can have days that flow more freely. I've cut back on the entertaining this year and I can't tell you how good that feels. Just seeing a few friends and family, hanging out with my kids and maybe even having a night or two out with my lovely husband. Pretty sweet. 

This is probably my last post for the season. I'm planning on finishing up some quilts while my Mum is here so there should be plenty to show and tell in the new year,but for now I'll wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Thank you for sharing this space with me. It brings me joy to be part of this smart, funny and creative community. Thank you for each and every comment, kind word and email you've sent this year, I've loved each one. 

From my home to yours, Happy Holidays! xxx

traveling art show, a free pattern

Happy first of December to you! 

(I had a sum total of three hours sleep last night, so please forgive me if I seem a bit incoherent.)

As a way of spreading a little Christmas crafting love I've decided to offer up my traveling art show pattern for free.

It's a nifty little pattern for a wrap which holds all kinds of favorite art supplies. Each wrap can hold a notepad, crayons, pens and a Dover little book or any small sized activity book. 

They are much beloved by my own children who have, at last count, three each. I have been giving lots of them as presents this year and they've been a big hit.

I keep a couple in my car and one in my handbag and I use them all the time. They have saved my sanity more than once while waiting at a restaurant for a meal to arrive. They are a breeze to make and are completely addictive. 

The pattern will be permanently in my sidebar soon, but for now you can find it right here.

Happy Crafty Holidays!

more scented sachets + getting festive

More scented sachets but not for the laundry.

Linen and felt are such a perfect combination.

 

These were a joy to make.

You know how some projects are just fun and simple and come together just the way you imagined? This is one of them.

I got the images from the book below. It is Japanese craft book ISBN 4-579-11051-X and I have no idea where I got it from. It has been on my shelf for a long time. It is a book about making leather bags and wallets but it has some wonderful simple images that lend themselves very well to projects such as this.

book cover

 

image from book

image from book

I filled these ones with pine, rather than lavender, which I got in Maine this summer. I really love it and it reminds me of one of my favorite family vacations. 

In other news:

I haven't forgotten about the tissue holder tutorial I promised. I keep thinking about it but that's as far as I get with it.

I am getting all psyched up for Christmas and bought some cute things for the kids from All things Small over on Etsy. 

I also bought some of these wood blanks for decorations or maybe even presents. I'm not sure yet. I also have a cheapo wood burner that I'm thinking about trying out so be prepared for some swearing and burnt fingers. 

Check out this blog and here amazing Etsy shop. I want a whole forest of those trees!!

Happy Monday

favorite fabrics quilt

A new quilt for a new friend.

She's just a little friend, only a couple of months, old but I have a feeling I am going to love her a lot.

 

So I made her a quilt with lots of my all time favorite kids fabrics. Like the little girl in a red dress fabric above. How cute is that?

 

Some Heather Ross prints and an adorable Peter Pan fabric.

There are lots of bird fabrics and quite a few fairytale prints.

 

Some gnomes.

Some houses and hedgehogs.

 

And a little hello from her friend Cissie.

I modeled it on this quilt, which is still in daily use round here. It's about 55" square, a perfect play size, I think.  I hope this quilt will get all the love that ours has...dragged around, jumped on, used for dressing up as a ghost, a roof for a fort, for wiping up spills and snuggling under reading a book. 

When it is stained and has holes then I'll know it was a success.

easy book making and supplies

I want to share with you one of our favorite activities at the moment. Simple book making, nothing fancy, but its a project the kids and I can do together. I also want to share with you some of my all time favorite supplies for kids crafting.

I invested in one of these friskars rotary paper trimmers. I do think they are quite expensive but I waited until I got a coupon and got one at Michael's.

They are perfect for this kind of activity and pretty kid friendly. 

Our pen of choice is always Berol. They are far, far superior to crayola and last at least ten times longer. I've got a dozen each of the chunky, the broad and the fine pens and they have been going for months and months now and my kids use them EVERYDAY...and they will last a lot longer still.

I can not find a good US source for these pens but they do have them on eBay. This seller in particular has a good selection and the shipping seems reasonable.

I know it seems like a lot for felt tip pens but honestly I swear it works out cheaper than buying a new pack every few weeks and they are so worth it.

(Do you see my newest table quilt? I am still loving them. I have one more to finish off and then I think I'm done.)

I adore that notepad up there called Sptrectrascope. I found it in Borders, (which carries Paperchase products) but I can't find them online anywhere except Amazon UK. Each page is a different color...truly different. It is great for so many kids projects, I wish I'd bought more now. 

These patterned papers are easier to find. They're from the Martha Stewart range at Michaels. These ones to be precise.

 

So the kids and I cut the paper and the card and then I ran the books through the sewing machine. I sewed some straight down the middle and made some reporter style notebooks like the one below. I prefer to sew the books rather than staple them...mostly because our stapler is too short.

We ended up with a fresh batch of blank books ready to be turned into works of art.

 

This is Floyd's interpretation of one of our favorite books. 

We are big on crafting here and I am always on the look out for good kid friendly art stuff. So if you have a favorite art supply please leave a comment and tell me. I would love to hear about it. Especially with Christmas coming up and the dreaded stocking stuffer dilemma.

feeling quilty

Thank you for all your fabulous suggestions on how to quilt this. I knew if I put it out there you would solve my problem. Over a hundred of you voted and I found a bunch of new quilting favorites.

Here are some;

Citric Sugar suggested pebble quilting which I think would look great but I'm not sure I have patience for. I tried a small sample of it once and it is work.

Flaun and Greta suggested concentric circles and spirals, another idea I also loved. This is a great example. Or spirals like upstatelisa.

UK lass in US suggested interlocking squares which is a close second to my very favorite suggestion. 

But the one that made me go wow was by Rossie who sent me a link to simply robins flickr photostream.

Go there now! Quickly. Run. Look at it and soak it all in. She is amazing. 

I do so love finding something this beautiful so unexpectedly.

photo borrowed from simply robin

Rossie directed me to the above photo (thank you!!) and I think it is a perfect fit for the orange quilt. 

photo borrowed from simply robin

Look at the use of color in this one. Just gorgeous. And the quilting...ahh.

Treat yourself to a cup of tea and spend some time browsing through Robin's work...you'll come away filled with inspiration and feeling quilty all over.

blog :: http://simplyrobin.blogspot.com/

flickr :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplyrobin

orange quilt...well...

...almost. The top is pieced and in fact has been finished for a while.

My mum was here in June and she helped me finish the back and then we basted it together.

 

I carefully rolled it and put it on a rack with one or two other wip quilts.

And there it has sat. And sat. For many months now. Because I can not decide how to quilt it.

It's generous twin size so I really want to meander/stipple quilt it because that is going to be the easiest and quickest way, by far.

But I don't know...maybe it should be concentric squares...or stitch in the ditch.

And so it goes on. 

Please help. Cast your vote and help me finish this sucker.

How should I quilt this quilt?

meander
concentric squares
stitch in the ditch
other; ideas please?

books and giveaways

Exciting news!

Alissa and Kristen are writing a book all about our virtual quilting bee, Block Party.

It will include quilts made by all of us...so I'm going to be in a book. Neat, huh?

But YOU can be a part of it too, by way of the Block Party blog quilt along. Even neater, huh?

 

But wait there is more good news.

 

There's a giveaway going on right now over the the Block Party blog.

 

So scoot on over there and win yourself some fabulous fabric...

...and join all of us on our quilt making journey.

I think this is going to be so much fun.

dying yarn, simple style

An unexpected (ahem) day off from school (that would be Columbus Day. So not really unexpected unless after seven years of living here you still forget about it.) led us to this project.

 

I read about it in the latest Living Crafts issue and was instantly taken with the simplicity of it, so at a local fiber festival I picked up a skein of Dye For Me Happy Feet with this very day in mind.

 

A day when my two little ones needed to get out all the food coloring and pipettes and get to work on an experiment. They did indeed love dying the yarn and the instructions seem pretty fool proof.

 

We ended up with a skein like this and yes, yes, I do realize now I should have heeded the advice about restricting color choice but they were just having so much fun with it.

 

I wound it into this and knit up a small swatch.

Pretty, pretty colorful.

The plan is to make two pairs of socks with it. Not for me.

But for four little happy feet. I think they'll dig some rainbow socks.

moleskine cover tutorial...for you

 

A little something from me to you.

 

It's the moleskine tutorial I had for sale in my shop.

What better way to celebrate new beginnings than sharing? 

You can find the tutorial here and there will be a permanent link in my sidebar.

The cover fits the soft back Moleskine cahier notebooks (5 x 8.25”) but will also fit the hardcover notebooks (5 x 8.25”) with a little less wiggle room.

PLEASE DON'T

• sell the pattern or use it in some other non-copyright friendly way

BUT YOU CAN

• make this pattern as many times as you want
• link to the pattern on your blog
• show and tell- I'd love to see your versions so please send me photos or links
• sell the finished product in your online shops, craft fairs, etsy, wherever

Just in time for the holidays.

Happy crafting friends.