Baby Burp Pads

How many times have you seen someone in public with a plain towel or cloth diaper thrown over their shoulder to use for a baby burp pad? About 20 years ago I saw a TV show called Carol Duvall and she had baby burp pads on there and I never forgot them. I made them for my daughter-in-law 4 years ago and again yesterday for my daughter. They fit perfectly over your shoulder and are much softer than a dish towel. Aren’t these much prettier to use in church or out in public than a plain cloth diaper?

Here are the step by step directions to make these. First take a newspaper and using the fold in the paper cut out this shape freehanded.

When you unfold it you should get something that resembles a dog bone.

Using this pattern unfolded cut 2 pieces of fabric and one piece of quilt batting. Place the fabric with right sides together.

Next place the quilt batting on top and pin together.

Sew around the edges but leave a gap that is not sewn approximately 4 inches wide.  I try to do it in the curve.

Reach into the center of the burp pad and pull it through the gap and then press out all of the corners and curves to form the burp pad.

Pin the opening closed making sure to tuck in all of the loose edges. Then sew closed.

It will then look like this.

Now add a border around edge to provide extra strength on the edges and to hold the quilt batting in place.

The center curve rests perfectly along your neck. I made the 2 darker plaid ones for my son-in-law Ben to use with Isaiah. I think these are so cute. Do you think she will need more than 6?

My New Sofa Table

If you are following me over on Facebook you have heard me talking about a sofa table that I have been working on. Well, I finished it this morning and I love it. I can’t get the pictures to show accurately how dark the highlights are but I am sharing them anyway. This is the before picture.

 This is the after picture.

From the first picture the table looked fine but on top it had a nasty water stain.

Now the top looks like this.

I found this for only $25 and I knew from looking at other blogs that I could make this beautiful with a little elbow grease.  The knobs were a shiny chrome and I knew that I would be making them a rubbed bronze by spray painting them.

 I am very pleased with the final outcome. I read many blogs on how to do this before I began. This blog post is what actually inspired me to try it.

My Romantic Home

I did the wood wax and one of the blogs that I read said not to sit anything on the table for at least two weeks so I have not decorated it yet. I hope to get big square baskets to go on the bottom of it. I already have the items that I want to sit on top and will try to remember to update with a picture of it decorated in 2 weeks. I just need to find the baskets.

I also want to find end tables to do this exact same color.

Quilling

After my Thanksgiving craft day with my daughter, Samantha I decided to buy her a quilling kit of her own for Christmas. Yesterday we spent all morning working on quilling pieces of paper and then arranging them to form flowers on cards.

We really enjoyed this and I can see her doing this quite a bit once she gets home to Virginia. Most of the time her cat, Kahlua sat on her lap watching her quill at the dining room table.

For those who are new to quilling let me explain. You have a small tool that you use to roll thin strips of colored paper into circles. You place these on a board and secure with stick pins. Add a touch of glue to hold the ends together and allow to dry. Once dry you can form them into various shapes and to form beautiful pictures. I will add several links at the bottom of his post for you to expand your interest. This is the board and tool that we use to make our shapes.

If you can’t find this kit at a store near you try the link below to order your supplies. I have had the same board for approximately 5 years and it is still in very good condition.

http://www.quilling.com/tools.htm

Samantha made a card for a friend of hers and she stuck mainly with quilling pieces and only using a punch of a butterfly. Look at the detail of her quilled flowers.

Below is a picture of the card that I made. I used quilled shapes for the leaves and small red flowers but stuck with punched daisy flowers that I embellished by curling, layering and adding pearls to the centers. Samantha and I both layered our butterfly punches and caused them to have a 3D effect by lifting the top butterlies wings a bit. I am not sure who I will give my card to yet. I may end up keeping it as a momento of my afternoon with my daughter.

I am looking forward to making more things with my new colors of acid free paper that I have bought. It opens up my creativity to think of many places to add quilled flowers. I have added them in the past to my scrapbook pages and will probably begin to add them to my framed works as well. I will add a few links below to show you the many options that you have in quilling.

http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/quilling/

http://www.handcraftersvillage.com/quilling.htm

http://www.quilledkeepsakes.com/Gallery_I.html

Try googling quilling projects and you will spend hours gathering ideas and suggestions. It is a beautiful art to get hooked on. Enjoy!

Family Time

I have had the best week. My daughter, Samantha and her husband Ben came to visit for the holidays. On Friday, Samantha and I played with crafts. We had originally wanted to make gift tags but it turned into my showing Samantha how to Quill. Quilling is a very old form of paper rolling and forming of pictures with the small pieces of rolled paper.

Samantha made gift tags and pictures with the quilling and I also used some of the quilled paper as well. I also used stamps to create a couple of gift tags. I miss the crafting days that Samantha and I used to have when she lived at home. I hate it that she lives so far away in Virginia but she is happy there and the people at the church where she and Ben work seem to really love them both. The first picture is of the gift tags that Samantha made and the second picture are mine. You have to ignore the glue that you can see. When they dried you could not see it I promise.

This morning my daughter-in-law Kristin came over with Caleb for Samantha and Ben to visit with before they went home to Virginia. Caleb dazzled us with his new abilities. He can walk about 3 steps at a time now between furniture. I am amazed at what he is doing at only 8 months of age.

I also have one step in my living room that Caleb was able to crawl up for the first time this morning. Caleb would squeal and chase after Samantha’s cat. It was very cute to watch. After a couple of hours of hard work chasing Kahlua, Caleb fell asleep in his father’s arms.  Don’t you just want to kiss those chubby cheeks?