Projects?

I know there are being projects worked on - anyone have pics to share?  I have a project to share but I can't post on here until I give it away - don't want to risk the recipient getting a sneak peek!  (I should be able to post pics after Thursday.)
I'm also working on something else, but, again, I can't show it yet. 
Whatcha doooin'? 

Quilting Group

Remember I posted a short time back about a quilting group that I am in????
http://howcraftyarewe.blogspot.com/2011/01/quilting-project.html


Well, we have been working on each others blocks and adding a border each month.

Here is an update of my quilting so far....

This is my first project after my own block. The original block had was the little 9 patch in the center. I turned it added the light brown triangles and blue/white border on the edge.

This was my block after the second trade. The original block is the brown and white in the middle. The next border put on was the grayish and pink. Then it was my turn and I added the pink stripped border. Not my favorite block, just because I wanted to do so much more, but ran out of time and material!

I am so happy with how this one turned out! My third border and block. I added the white and green triangle looking border on the very edge. I learned a lot on this one, took my time, measured correctly and think it looks good!

It has been so much fun and my next meeting is tomorrow, where we will trade for the fourth time!

I LOVE PUZZLES!

I have loved puzzles since I was little. Mom and Dad plus my grandparents always had plenty of puzzles for me to do. I remember a "Where's the Beef?" hamburger puzzle. I remember a "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM" puzzle that was all scoops and super hard! I had a really pretty whale, ocean scene that I framed and put on my bedroom wall in high school. I often wonder where all our childhood puzzles have gone to??

For Christmas this past year, I asked for a puzzle and got one! Since then, I have been on the look out for good 1000 piece puzzles at the bookstore, thrift shops or Graves drugstore. Our new coffee table makes the perfect puzzle board and fits most all of them...so far.

My niece, Lily, loves them too! She is really good at putting them together and we often play with puzzles when at mom and dad's. It's a family thing!

Here are a few I have completed over the past few months.....













Do you like puzzles too???

Cloth Wipes!

I wanted to make some new wipes up for this babe.  I've got some that I made when Alex was born but we still use those on both the boys when they go, so it will be nice to have two sets handy.  Plus, I already had the material, so its not like I actually had to spend money on this project!  (Well, I guess I spent the money sometime last year, but since it was so long ago, it doesn't seem like I spent anything...ya know?)

I've been procrastinating on doing the whole project - mainly because my sewing machine is cheap and the thread gets all boogery quite often.  No fun.  (One of the main reasons I bought a ring sling instead of making my own - I just couldn't handle the stress of constantly re-threading while working on such a big project!)  So, little by little, I've been getting the wipes done.  One night I cut out some of the flannel material.  Tonight, I matched some of those squares up w/ the terry cloth.  I pinned and cut about 10-12 wipes, and got about 6 sewn.  I've still got quite a bit to finish up but I like that I'm able to at least hold some of the finished product. 

All of my project tools and materials.  Big terry cloth laid out on the table, w/ the flannel on the left, measuring/cutting tools, then the cut/pinned wipes waiting to be sewn, with the completed wipes bottom right.

I sewed 3 wrong sides together then flipped it inside out and sewed the 4th side.  They aren't perfect and they aren't too pretty but they'll get the job done!

I'm currently looking up info on putting our wipes in a wipe warmer.  I want to keep these warm for his little tooshie but don't want to burn the wipes, or grow bacteria in them.  From what I've read, it seems pretty simple.

Chopping Blocks

My Grandpa passed away in May of 2010. Grandpa worked for for the railroad most of his career. Grandpa built the house that he raised four kids in. Even though it wasn't my everyday home, I grew up there too.

So, you can imagine that the house and garage were FULL. Over 50 years worth of our family life was lived in that house. One of the things I got from the house was a chopping block one of his hobbies was wood working.

So, as you can imagine he had LOTS of wood in the garage when we were cleaning things out. My husband, mom and I hauled 3 truck loads full of wood that could not be used to a burn pile. We donated some to the local high school for the shop teacher to use but we still had a nice pile.

I thought and thought about what we could do with some of the wood and said to Heath that we should make some cutting boards like the one grandpa made.

So we made a trip down to the house when no one was around and picked up some wood.

Heath bought a piece of walnut to add to the lighter colored oak that we had and we got the rest of our supplies.

We laid out the wood.

Then, started gluing.

It may look a little rough looking after we glued it but that's okay because what we didn't get wiped off the surface was sanded away.

Then we clamped.

We left the boards clamped for a week. They could have been cut sooner but we wanted to make sure they were nice and stuck besides we didn't have time during the week.

Then we cut.

Then we were ready to sand and oil.

After the first oiling.

I read that the boards need to be oiled once a day for a week, once a week for a month and once a month for as long as they are used. We used mineral oil because it is the only oil that we will not go rancid. I bought 3 bottles from the pharmacy area of the store.

The finished product after being given to my mom and dad for Christmas.

In all we spent under $60 for all the supplies (except for the wood, which was free). We made three large cutting boards and a smaller cutting board.

I gave one to my parents and one to each of my brothers and sister-in-law. Now they have something that was inspired by grandpa but made by Heath and I. And while it may appear that Heath did all of the work, he did not. I just had camera duty and trust me, there was glue and saw dust and mineral on my camera from being on my hands.

Sorry this post was so delayed. I wanted to wait until after the gifts were given for Christmas and then we got into house hunting mode. And now I am typing this from my craigslist find of a desk in my new office in my new house (more on that to come).

So, what do you think? Do the new ones look like the original (at the top) that grandpa made?

MY BLOG!!!

Okay girls, here you go!!
Lost in the Woods--my blog, complete with pics of the new hair! I have a growing list of thoughts, funnies and other stuff to blog about. Enjoy! :) I will keep posting crafty things on this one too.

http://lostinthewoods-erin.blogspot.com/

Diaper Cover

I started the diaper cover on Sunday and finished it today.  It really did work up very quickly.  I'll have to use either safety pins or a Snappi to hold it closed.  (I'll put either a prefold or a fitted under this.)

Baby girl hat

As many of you have seen on my blog, I posted the completed project that I've been working on - a sleep sack and hat for "Arlo."  I also snuck in a little time to make a hat for a friend who had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago.  I mailed it on Friday so hopefully she gets it in the mail before she looks at this blog (if she'll even look here, being busy with a new baby and all!).

knockoff....

i found this blog yesterday and instantly fell in LOVE with it....... http://knockoffdecor.com/

it's basically A LOT of DIY tutorials to make stuff that resembles things from Pottery Barn, William-Sonoma, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrell, Pier 1, etc.......it's the BEST thing ever!!

I think I'm gonna make this http://knockoffdecor.com/moss-monogram/ over the weekend to hang on my front door for the Spring ......super easy, super cute and super cheep.....Pottery Barn sells them for $79 bucks......

Can you help me?

You've heard (read) about the sleep sack I'm making for this (still nameless) baby.  I've gotten to a point where I don't feel comfortable going further for fear that I might have to rip out more than I might already have to .....


So when I first read the pattern, I felt quite confused about what it meant by where to mark for the sleeves.  I finally felt comfortable enough to continue on, and marked at row 13 as stated.  I then saw that the "bodice" was crocheted from the waist up, not the neck down, so I thought maybe that was why I was confused.  But now that I'm working on the sleeves, it seems so wrong!  My sleeves look way too big.  But when I look at the photo posted with the pattern, it does look like it is 13 rows from the waist.  My bodice has 38 total rows as stated in the pattern.  So think you can take a look at my pics and the patterns pics and tell me where I'm going wrong??  Thanks!

(Also, when I work the math, it checks out - 38 rows in the bodice, minus the 13 rows that were not intended to have sleeves, = 25.  As I was crocheting the sleeves, I came up with 50 all the way across - 25 for the front bodice, 25 for back.  So if I'm doing everything like the pattern says, and the math works out, WHY do the sleeves look so big??)
Here is the pattern.
Here is my sleep sack so far:

 Also - I looked at the pattern again and saw that my sleeves, at their widest point, should measure 7.5 in. across, and mine measure 11in!!  So how can my math work out but the inches are so wrong?
WAHHH!!  I need help!!