Furtling First

Archie the Wonder Dog has made my day . . . and possibly my year! I came across this fabulous idea just yesterday (the 3rd of Feb here in the USA) and am going to join in. I'm one of those mentioned that has neglected my blog and, like Archie, I love the idea of more in-depth looks at crafty projects than can be seen over at Instagram.

So, without further ado, a words and photos compendium of my January 2019 crafty projects:

First off, we received some lovely Christmas gifts that called for a show of gratitude and so I pulled out my stamps and inks and made thank you cards. Since around October, I haven't done too much paper crafting (card making), and so it was kind of a fun switch to play with the inks. The card design is CASE'd from Susanne Netz at Sunn Stampin. I pulled out my StampinUp! inks, an old doily stamp from Close to My Heart, and a sentiment stamp from Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Susanne, for the color combination!

(My kitchen counter, background, sure looks PINK! It's really not.)

These notes got posted by the 7th of January and I was on to sewing projects. 

I do love Pinterest and probably (definitely actually!) spend entirely too much time there. At any rate, I've "pinned" many inspiring things and, wonder of wonders, have managed to DO some of them. Warming bowls of soup in the microwave often results in burnt fingers and when I saw a tutorial for the very clever microwave bowl cozies, I had to try one out. It took a bit longer than I expected but now that I've made one, I think it'll go faster and my plan is to make more for gifts (next Christmas?).

Used some lovely batik from my stash.

By the way, it works beautifully and my husband even uses it to heat up his bowl of instant oatmeal.

Two of our six great grandchildren had birthdays in January and having spotted this tutorial for a child-sized beanbag chair, I lost my marbles and decided to make one for the six-year-old. Yes, what was I thinking?? However, once I got it finished, I was pleased with the results and put in the back of my mind that I'd make a couple more (for March and June birthdays). I had to ship it and finding a box that would accommodate its bulk was a trick - and then there was the postage . . . 

Once it arrived at the destination and our granddaughter sent a photo of the happy boy, I was satisfied with my efforts!

Top left: Interior bag; Top right: Outside removable cover; Bottom: Detail of top

The happy birthday boy.

Our other January birthday child was going to be one-year-old on the 19th; a birthday party was planned for the 27th and so that gave me a bit more time to craft her gift. We went into the city one afternoon and stopped at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store for a meal. While there we purchased a child-sized rocking chair for the birthday girl. I had the perfect fabric in mind to make cushions for it and by the 25th the chair was dressed and ready. This tutorial from DIY Candy (that yes, was a Pinterest find) I adapted for the seat and back cushions . . . easy peasy. 

The fabric is Sage Glen Paper Dolls The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection from 2003 and was purchased for a quilt class I took back in 2004. I never made the quilt (had fun with my friends though) and, in fact, sent the class instructions and fabric to my sister in New Zealand. She never made the quilt either and this last October she sent it back to me! 

Turns out I was very, very ill on the day of the party; my husband took the little chair though and reported back that perhaps the birthday girl was too young to know what it was. However, our granddaughter (baby girl's mommy) was pleased.

Speaking of being ill - January started out pleasantly enough health wise but Monday, the 14th, I woke up and couldn't make a squeak! Laryngitis! That whole week and even into the next, I was barely able to whisper (which my husband thought was very pleasant indeed. Haha!) and then it morphed into a head cold and by the 27th stomach flu (I guess). I took many naps over the duration; thank goodness I'm retired and didn't have to get up and go. I did miss out on quilt meeting and a couple Sunday worship services but managed to cook meals and do laundry (oh joy!). 

On January 14th Emily Dennis at Quilty Love kicked off a quilt along using her new pattern Quilty Hearts. I grabbed the pattern and by the 24th had my fabric picked, pieces cut, and a few blocks sewn. This, I thought, would make a fun project to use up some of my fabric stash and get back into my [unwritten] to do list of making a quilt a month . . . ACK! I'm already behind!  Anyhow, this completed quilt will show up for February's Furtle (fingers crossed). As of today, the first four rows and corner units are sewn together. Here's how it looked on the 24th:

I'm making a throw size which requires 50 heart blocks.

I chose these navy and teal fabrics from two fat quarter bundles I'd gotten back in 2014 - RJR Rotary Club and Moda Sunday Supper.

Our next door neighbor's daughter is going to be mommy to a baby girl any minute and I wanted to make up something for her. I had some minky fabric leftover from the wedding quilt (blog post here) and while at Joann's getting fabric for the beanbag chair, found an pre-patched fabric that would match perfectly and give me the opportunity to try Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company's "even easier" self-binding baby blanket. Just a note - Minky is very hard to cut into a square! Anyway, it was for me. I made it work, though, and here are the results:

The soon-to-be grandma loves it.

So, that's it for my January Furtle. Hope I get this up in time!