Dinosaur Birthday Party Shirts!

This weekend is Davy's birthday. I wanted to do a craft that 5 year-olds could manage on their own and still make something nice. I thought about machine embroidering a dinosaur on a shirt and letting them decorate it with fabric paint. (to self) "Are you crazy?! You have no free time! Keep it simple!" So, I revised my original idea to make appliqued dinos using Heat 'n Bond and let the kids decorate them with fabric markers.

This picture shows one of the finished shirts. The green dino is the original applique that was embellished with grass, dirt, an underground fossil, and eggs (not dino poo). Here's what I started with:

I made 10 different shirts and inserted cardboard to make them smooth:

The kids had a really good time decorating. They worked on the shirts for about 20 minutes and then put them on so we could take pictures (for the thank you notes).

I think this idea has a lot of scope. You could make the appliques work with any party theme, for girls or boys: tea party, space, cowboys, ballerina, etc. The materials were very inexpensive. I bought a 10 pack of boy's undershirts at Walmart for $7 and 1/4 yard of several plain fabrics for the appliques. The fabric markers were my biggest investment. I bought 2 packs for $10 each (but these can be used again and I bought the more expensive brand). What do you think??

Another Little Smocked Dress Quilt

 Everyone loves these little smocked dress quilts. I have made 4 of them so far: 2 large (one isn't quilted yet!) and 2 small. You may remember that I shared another one here which was a charity quilt for my Guild. This one was made entirely by me and hand-quilted by my Mom. (the blue marks hadn't been washed out in these pictures-oops). These 4 bishop dress blocks were samples for a class I taught. I thought they went together pretty well, but wanted to do something different for the sashing. I decided to set them off with a double row of 2" blocks. These were cut entirely from scraps. When I have a scrap of fabric smaller than about 1/4 yard, I cut what's left into 2 1/2" strips, sort of like making my own "jelly rolls". I have used these strips so many times for projects and it's easier to store a bunch of strips than a lot of irregular scraps. Sometime when I have free time again, I'd like to make a boy's smocked outfit quilt. They are really fun to do! I like being able to work on one block at a time and because a lot of the sewing is by hand, it is portable. Do you like this quilt? If you do, leave a comment and brighten my day!! Thanks for reading.

BOO! Candy Quilt

I made this wall hanging at one of my Quilt Guild's Fall sewing retreats. Twice a year, we spend a weekend at a nearby retreat center in a beautiful rustic setting. All we do is sew, eat, chat, and sleep (in that order). It is a fun time and I always get many projects completed in just 2 days of intensive sewing.
This little Halloween quilt was fun to make and was completed in a few hours. The purple and orange blocks are actually folded pockets to hold Halloween candy. Of course, I don't fill it too early in the season or you know what will happen! The ghosts are made from men's handkerchiefs. I found the pattern in an old issue of McCalls Quick Quilts magazine. I hang this quilt by my front door to greet visitors in October. It is one of my favorite Fall decorations. I hope you are all enjoying some beautiful Fall weather where you are.