Urban Zoologie Owl- another favorite fabric!

I've had the chance to work with more fun fabric recently! I'm making a baby bedding set for a gal in New York City! All the way from little ole' Wyoming. It's turned out so fun and comfy and she did a great job picking fabrics! I've learned a few things along the way too, like 2 thick layers of batting plus two layers of minky fabric do NOT fit in my sewing machine. And, you need to use extra pins on super stretchy fabric. Everything went fairly smoothly though and I'm hoping the orders will keep rolling in because it's so much fun staying home and getting to work with fabrics that are so cute.

The double sided minky, plus piping crib skirt sitting on top of the crib sheet (Urban Zoologie Cream Owl) on top of a cotton cream and orange single pleat crib skirt.

The side view of the crib bumper and sheet.

The pillow, blanket, bumper, sheet and skirt.

The minky backed blanket.

More baby's room stuff

So I'm busy working on the rest of my SIL's baby room stuff. It gets more fun the more I work on it thanks to the fun fabrics! Can you believe I don't have a crib to set the stuff up in and take pictures? After 6 kids, we got rid of the crib and have a mattress waiting for the toddler bed. So my kitchen table had to act as the crib.

I have a removable boppy cover:


A blue checkered minky sheet (my new favorite fabric) on top of a striped and blue and brown, 3 pleated crib skirt:


The whole ensemble (so far):

Last I am making the crib bumper (introducing 2 new coordinating fabrics that haven't been seen yet!) and 2 basket liners. Depending on the left over fabric we may come up with a valance or curtains. And I may throw in a surprise... shhhhh.

Complete baby bedding sets available at my etsy shop!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/OnceUponaChildhood?ref=si_shop

I've been waiting...

To make something out of this fabric! I know this "chevron" fabric is trendy right now and I know a million people have made pillows from it. I've been dying to get my hands on some and my SIL gave me the perfect chance. I'm making her baby's room stuff and this is the pillow for her rocking chair. I love it!


I'm thinking that a big stack of these pillows in all different colors would be great for a craft fair right before Christmas. What do you think? Would you buy one for an easy present that anyone would love? How much would you pay? What color do you want?

Also, her diaper stacker. Excuse the nasty dresser that it is hanging from. And I need to spend some more time with the iron but then it'll look great! Can't wait to meet my new little nephew and also to get the rest of the baby bedding done.

Bar-b-q Chicken Salad

So awhile back I was on a "Whole Foods" kick, just cooking more nutritious meals for my family out of whole foods and avoiding all processed foods. Summer came and I lost track if I was doing better with our meals but I came across this dinner idea and now I'm back to thinking about it! I LOVE COLOR in my food. I can't stand when there is only one color on the plate. This salad is beautiful on a white plate!

I make dinner for 8 so this is the amount of stuff I used:

Cut up your 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken and cook it in a small amount of oil.
Toss with 1 cup of bbq sauce (if you made this homemade it would be healthier! I bought mine).
Lay on a bed of lettuce.
Mix up a relish of corn, black beans, and tomatoes. I used 6 roma tomatoes, 2 cans of corn, and about 1 1/2 cups of black beans.
Top the chicken with the relish.
Sprinkle with shredded cheese and crushed up tortilla chips.
Garnish with sour cream or ranch and salsa.

YUMMMMMM!!!!
Add a side of stir-fry'd summer squash and steamed green beans and you have a great "Whole Foods" dinner from the garden!

Wedding Dress to Twin Blessing Blankets!

That's right. I have a friend who cut up her wedding dress so I could make her newborn twin girls blessing blankets. How sweet is that? She did the cutting up of the dress, not me. And she used the bleach pen on the stains, not me. Phew- I didn't mess it up, thank goodness.


We used the satin under skirt from the dress for the binding (cut into long strips and sewed together). We used the lace overlay for one side of the blanket. We used the pretty bottom lace for added interest on top of the lace side. We used white minky (not on the wedding dress) for the other side. You could see through the lace side but the minky fabric is double sided and fairly thick so it added bulk to the blanket. Then I found some white rosettes and used those to make the ties look nicer than white yarn. I tied all of the layers together in 9 places.

Then I doubled it all for the other blanket for baby #2!

They are meaningful, resourceful, and beautiful!

Kindle Cover

So my husband surprised me with a Kindle for my birthday and I immediately thought of the cover I wanted to make for it. I just wanted to protect it and store it so it would have less of a chance of getting ruined (in a house with 6 kids the likelihood is very high!) So I finally pulled out some fabric that I snagged from my mom's house last time I was there, and got busy.

I used some heavyweight upholstery fabric, a layer of lining, a layer of batting, and a layer of stiff plastic craft stuff (don't know the name).

When I was done I think I decided I could do without the layer of batting since the fabric itself was so heavy. It was hard to get it all in my sewing machine because it was so thick.

Quick tutorial: Measure your fabric, batting and lining to be 1 inch larger on the 2 sides and bottom of kindle and about 4 inches bigger than the top of the kindle. Cut it all out. Layer it with the batting in the middle and fold the side and bottom edges together and sew the side and bottom edges together. Turn it inside out. Position a stiff velcro piece about 1/2 inch from the top of one edge and the soft velcro side 1/2 inch from the top of the opposite edge and sew them into place. Measure the stiff plastic craft stuff to fit the front and back, being only as tall as your kindle is, and cut two pieces to slide into the layers that are already sewn together. Slide them in before continuing. Turn over the top edge so the velcro is now on the inside
and lined up with each other, and top stitch through all layers sewing the turned over edge down about 1/4 inch from the top and again about 2 inches from the top. Wah la!

I think it would look cute with a little label on the front that says something like, "Mom's Kindle- stay away!" It would get the message across and jazz it up a bit!

Wanna Be a Cowboy 2

So I was able to make three puffy quilts while on vacation with my 6 kids for 2 1/2 weeks! I gave one to a friend and didn't take pictures of it and these other two are for a baby boutique in Cody, WY. They are all western theme (since that's what Cody, WY is) and use the Wanna Be a Cowboy fabric by Riley Blake. I love the girl fabric combinations and wish I could keep one for myself! So stop by "Buttons, Bows, and Berry's" in Cody, WY to take a look at their cute stuff. Or you can find me at my etsy shop of course!