Blog Update

Has been a while since my last post.
I was just not in the mood for blogging. But life goes on, and life is good.
A couple of days after my last post, a boy from our community took his own life. He was 15 years old. We know the family and it was devastating as you can imagine.
It felt like he was everybody's kid. What a tragedy. Now, after the funeral, things are going back to "normal". For that family  and many other people, life will never be the same. Heavenly Father in his infinite wisdom and compassion will take care of them. We pray that they can find comfort and peace.

So, not much of crafting going on here.
I am starting some projects for Brenda's birthday later this month.
But, I was able to make a little gift for a boy  from our church  that turned 8.
In our faith, the kids are baptized at this age.
I found this cute craft at Rachel Berry's blog. Here is how my first CTR towel turned out.

The lds kids are very familiar with this shield. CTR stands for Choose the right, and is related with a very special day : The baptism day.
Sorry,  I don't have a picture of the towel tied with a bow and the baptism poem, but Rachel has it all on her tutorial.
The boy loved it ! His parents and grandma liked it a lot too.
A sweet little gift and very affordable. I got a nice white towel at Home Goods. I had the blue fabric and other materials at home.

Life is made of both sad and happy moments.
Let's try to  focus on the happy beautiful moments.
Like a lovely foxglove from my little garden patch. Spring is a miracle!

And, when life gets hard, because it gets hard many times, lets remember that we are never alone...
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!
Ana Paula

Ivy Letter Topiary

Hi!
I wanted to make a big initial  letter to display on a shelf , and when I found this cool idea
on  Family Fun magazine, I  decided to give it a try.
Great gardening craft to make with kids!

My problem was to find a rectangular pot that fitted inside a pretty container. Good luck on that!
So, I got two small ivy plants on two pots,and put inside a loaf bread pan as you see above.
When it is on the shelf, nobody will see inside, right?
I made the letter using sticks and twine. The magazine asked for 12-gauge covered floral wire, but the sticks worked better for me.
Now I need to be patient and wait the ivy grow and cover the letter. As it grows, I will tie it on the sticks.

Let me tell you, next time I will start with longer ivy plants. :)

If you don't have the magazine and want to make it, you can find the directions at the Family Fun website.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

Cross Stitch Spring Sampler

Hello!
I have done lots of organizing and cleaning around our home. It is a never ending job. But I found some time for gardening and  sewing.
Today I have something special to show you, my latest sewing project.
The pictures came out a little odd... I think was the angle, but here it is.

Pretty, isn't it? I love this Janlynn pattern. I had to have it.
No, I did not stitched it, I have to tell you the truth. I have done big patterns before,but nothing as big as this.
I think I  would take the rest of my life to complete something this detailed because I am a very slow stitcher.
Since I wanted this sampler badly, I cheated and got a finished one on e-bay. It came from Canada and is beautifully done by a exceptionally talented cross stitcher.

It is a very exquisite design. A collage style sampler including all the spring holidays, gardening and even spring cleaning.

I tried to frame this the way I always do, getting a frame and a mat at Michael's, but it did not work. I had it for over two years and finally decided to make it into a quilted wall hanging.
It was hard work for me. I really love quilts, and admire people that can quilt especially because I cannot really do it. I wanted to make a fancy wave border and make  seams to machine quilt it.  I did it after several attempts. It was the first time I did a quilted border like this. It is not perfect, but I am very pleased with the results.

I think is great when you go out of your comfort zone and try new things.

Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula

Cross Stitch Lavender Sachet

Hello!
I love lavender. My sister in Brazil loves it too.
I am sending her a late birthday gift, and decided to include a lavender sachet.

The pattern is from Rico Designs. I made some changes. It was charted for Anchor, but I found  a conversion chart for DMC online.

Another change I made: A ribbon bow instead of the cross stitched  from the original.
I used lavender satin for back and lower part of the front. I also used some lace and tiny beads to add a little more to this very simple design.

I added lavender buds to the filling. I am sure she will like it. :)  Smells wonderful.
Now, I need to make one for me too!
Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

Selvage Pillow

Hello!
Some time ago I had a post about some pillows I wanted to make.
This week I checked one out of my to do list! Here is how it turned out.

Since I found the Selvage Blog I wanted to make something "selvage".
I started collecting the selvages (fabric borders).

I had more than enough for a pillow.
First, I cut a piece of muslin  of the size I wanted for the finished pillow. Then, I started putting the selvages over it, overlapping the frayed edges until I was happy with the look.

 

 After that I used the rotary cuter to make the strips of fabric even with the muslin base.

Then I started  to sew the selvages on the muslin base. Sorry about the blurry picture.

It is an easy and fast project.

I made the back. I used a natural cotton fabric. After sewing front and back together, I turned it and inserted a pillow form.

Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula

Crochet Fabric Basket

Hello!
When you have very limited storage space, you need to get creative.
I got a nice big basket for our board games at Home Goods. The problem was that it was not enough.
I needed one more basket to contain our ever growing collection , but the prices of big baskets are outrageous.
About a year ago someone gave me a big amount of craft supplies from a state. It included tons of scraps.
Most of the fabric I had no use for, until I had an idea... to make a basket.
So, I cut  long strips of fabric two inches wide.
I folded the the borders, so it would make a "clean" basket. If you want a ragged looking basket, skip this part.
I  made balls as I was folding. I think if I make another project like this one, I will sew the pieces together.
This time I just tied. With the big pieces of fabric I just left about an inch or two on each side making a long strip.
I am sorry, I have trouble expressing myself in English sometimes.
You can see this step here .
Anyways, I started to make the basket. Let me tell you, I am not a crochet expert. I had to call my Mom in Brazil.  Here is how it looked like after working a while.

And a little bit more.

It is pretty cool to crochet with fabric. Goes fast! :)

The boring part is to cut all those strips.
As I said before I am not good on crochet. I had some trouble shaping the basket, but at the end was not so bad!

I like the colors and the texture.

I am happy that I could use part of the scraps, and make it into something useful for my home.

It was really a fun project!

Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

Recycled Baby Dress Matryoshka Doll

Hello!
I love to recycle some of my daughter's baby stuff.
When I saw the cute dolls made by Our Shabby Cottage I knew exactly what to do with that cute dress Brenda had the opportunity to wear for only a short time.
I am sorry but I don't have a picture of the "before" dress.
Here is the Matryoshka doll.

I used pretty trims to dress her up. And pink polka dot for the apron.

Here is a close-up of her hand embroidered face. I had fun doing it!
And guess what? This doll is so cool, she has a sleeping side!

I wish the shape was a little better... but I am happy with the overall look.
I  love the fabric... pink roses on pale blue background.

Brenda likes this doll. Well, she loves any doll. The good thing is that I have leftover fabric to make another project coming up soon.
Hope you like the idea and recycle some old clothes and turn them on new beautiful things.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
Ana Paula

Some Very Special Books

Hello!
Today I want to share some of our favorite Children's books.

Our collection of My First Little House Books based on the Little house books series.
Being a  Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, I started getting these books for my daughter when she was about three years old.
It's a great way to introduce the Little House Books and feed the excitement for the "real" ones.
Brenda loves these books. Every birthday and Christmas she got a couple of them. 
They are lovely books. The illustrations are beautiful.

Brenda is in first grade and can read these books with little help .
We told her that she will get the "real" ones for her birthday in June. She can't wait.
But then she asked me - Mommy, when I get the Laura books, can you  save these ones?
Please don't give them  away... I want to save them for my kids!
You see? That's my girl! Of course I will save them.
Here some more pictures.

So sweet! These books are a real treasure!  I love Pa Ingalls!

I don't think I need to tell you about the great values these books can teach children. Especially today's children. I really could go on and on talking about them.
Brenda asks so many questions.  How things were at that time, why the Ingalls family had to move, about the chores the girls did, about Jack, about everything.
She is very impressed with the fact that Mary sewed a dress for Laura's doll on her birthday.
Last Christmas she asked for a Laura doll. I made one for her. You can see it here .
She also has two sets of Little House paper dolls.
Now, Brenda has to wait and be a good girl and she will get the "real" books for her birthday.
They are already in my special hiding place. We got a set of the first five books with full color pictures from Amazon at a really great price. We plan to get the rest of the books again for Christmas and birthdays, since she is still young to read all  the books by herself.
I hope you have a great day!

Ana Paula

Girl and the heart flower tree

Hi! I have a little cross stitch to share. I just finished it this morning.

The design comes from a magazine called  "Special Burda - The best suggestions of Anna"  from 1988.
It is a very special magazine to me. First of all, it was the first cross stitch magazine I ever brought.
Before of that I used my Mom's stuff - mostly from some kind of samplers she still has- pieces of fabric with cross stitch designs all over, not organized or framed. Just pieces of fabric where she "copied" designs when she had access to a new one. When my Mom was young, in her little town on the interior of Brazil, magazines were very rare.
Anyways, this magazine is also special because the cover and the instructions inside are in Portuguese. The rest of the magazine is in German. I don't speak German, but this is not a problem, anyone can understand the patterns . And there are many pretty ones in this cherished magazine.
The sweet girl and the heart flower tree is one of my favorite designs in it.

I changed the colors a little. The original had a blue dress. I "pinkified" it.
I decided to make it into a mini pillow decorated with white ric-rac. I am very pleased with the results.

The back of the mini pillow was made using the same polka dot fabric.
One more close-up of this darling design.

Have an enjoyable weekend!
Ana Paula

Cross Stitch Easter Eggs Pattern

Hi!
If you read my blog, you know that I like crafts. Most of all, I love Cross Stitch.

Sometimes I go crazy looking for a pattern. Right now I am looking for this one.
I think this is just lovely! Especially  the sampler style eggs.

I tried to get this a couple of times on e-bay.
An e-bay seller told me it is a Cross Stitch calendar page.
The last seller who had it said it was from a book, but she will not give me any more details.
There is no way I can find out, unless some nice lady out there can recognise this pattern and be gracious enough to give me some info on that.
I am sure someone saw this before. So, if you have any detail on this pattern, please let me know. It will be very much appreciated.
Here is the picture again.

Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.