Rag Tag Blankie

My cousin had a baby boy this past Thursday night and I wanted to make her something cute for her new little buddy, so I put together this Rag Tag Blankie. 

 This is the beginning of the process. I've just used leftover squares from my rag quilts. the squares are 6" x 6". I think you could do 8" squares and make a little bigger, but still nice sized blankie. 

Match the front and back squares together, pinning them in the center.

 

You can see here both sides of the squares. 

These are the ribbons I used for this blanket, just some leftover ribbon from bows and other projects.  

Put two squares, lined up one on top of the other. Make sure that the two squares you want to be on the top of the blanket next to each other are on the top and bottom of this stack. 

Sew a 1/2 inch hem. And then do the same for the bottom two squares. 

After you have these two "rows", stack them together and sew a 1/2 inch hem. 

Do not sew the outside hem at this point. left up each square, fold a piece of ribbon in half, and pin it between the two pieces of fabric. Make sure that more than 1/2 in of the ribbon is inside the square, otherwise your hem will not hold it in place. 

Continue to place the ribbons around the square. I used four ribbons on each side, but you can use as many as you want. Use different sizes, colors, and textures.

The front should look like this with all the hems facing up. 

This is what the bottom should look like. None of your hems should be sticking up on this side. 

Sew a 1/2 in hem. 

Pull out your pins. As you take out each pin, give the ribbon a tug to make sure it is secure and isn't going anywhere. To make them more secure you can go around the square again to make two hems. You do not want to go less than 1/2 in though ! This will make ragging the blanket too difficult. 

These are my rag quilt snips. I got mine at Jo Anne's. You can find them at any craft store. They make ragging your blanket easier, but you can use fabric scissors. 

Take a coupon ! They are about 20$.

Take the snips are cut around the edge of the blanket and the inner hems. 

When you get to ribbons snip each layer separately over and under the ribbon.

When it's done throw it in the washer and dryer and it will rag to look like this: 

I am linking up at these amazing parties ! You should too ! 

Spring Birdhouse

Sunday I took my baby brother to Michaels. He turned 18 yesterday ... *sigh*

For his birthday he picked out a new artists pad and some very nice pencils to draw with. Here is something he whipped up between dinner and cake. 

I happen to think he's pretty awesome ... as in i'm incredibly jealous of his mad skills. 

While we were at Michaels, I picked up this birdhouse because our apartment is in dire need of some spring color. ironically after I bought this it snowed yesterday, much to my dismay. 

I used Acrylic Paints to paint the outside. I can't wait until my birthday so that I can use my new camera to take my photos instead of my phone :/ I'm pretty sure the paint would actually look green and not yellow. 

A couple embellishments on the front (with hot glue) 

And the back ...

And the sides ...

Because the butterflies were very glittery i got some "Fairy Sparkles" to add to the birdhouse to make them look like they belonged. 

I'll show you where this cute little house ended up soon ! 

New Bows Up @ Etsy !

Here are some new bows I put up in the shop this week ! Click on the image to see the bow over at Etsy !

Monograms

So ... tonight I decided to take another swing at this Silhouette thing ... 

My husband got a Nook for Christmas and I bought a Nook Color with my Christmas money ((which our little girl loves to read the kid stories on by the way )) and I decided to make a little something something for our covers, after my husband brought up the idea actually. 

His came out pretty good on the first shot. His initials are JMH. 

 I went through about 4 designs to get mine down. I had to find a font that didn't make the S or M's lines too small. The vinyl was shredding and the Silhouette was having issues cutting the teeny tiny lines. I am happy with the way it turned out though. My initials are MSH.