Quiet Book for S.

The making of this activity book started with a string of texts...

Lisa: Do you want to make another activity book? My friend T is looking for one for her son S that would be a little older and have things like doing up zippers and tying shoes. 

Jess: Ya, no! I don't think I want to make another one. But tell her there are tonnes of ideas on Pinterest and I did blog about R's. (Side note: First activity book link here)

Lisa: She saw the blog which is why she asked.

Jess: Kids do love them, R plays with hers all the time! But it's so annoying to make, it takes forever,  and can get expensive if you have to buy all the fabric and bits and bobs. 

Jess: How about I will see what I have downstairs already and maybe do a few pages for her and then she can flush out the rest?

Jess: I realize that I just went from no to yes...

Please notice that I didn't participate in the last part of that conversation. I'll let Jess take the story from here :) 

~Lisa

OK, so sometimes I can be a bit soft... or maybe I was just hankering for a project to do. The first quiet activity book I made was for a 2 year old and this one is for a 4 year old.

Like I said in the texts, I just kind of scrounged up some stuff from my craft supplies. I did buy a few sheets of bright coloured felt but the rest of this stuff I had on hand. Make do with what you have!

The first page here is a "racetrack". There are little "cars" inside each one, and he can "drive" the "cars" around the road maze "racetrack".

I sewed the fabric on the page using a straight stich and created paths into it, making a little maze. Then I put two beads in each maze and zig-zagged the edges down.  

Using felt I cut out the black shoe bottoms and the orange shoe tops. Then cut little holes in the orange shoe tops for the laces. I sewed this down with a straight stich and then threaded the string laces in the shoes. Practice tying shoes, fisherman knots, or whatever.

The flower pot page is started with green stems, sewn down with a narrow zig-zag. Then the pot is sewn on 3 sides, making a little pocket for all the flowers. The flowers are cut from colourful fabric scraps that I ironed interfacing to, this adds structure to the blooms and makes sure the edges don't fray. I made about 12 flowers and tucked them into the flower pot pocket. I sewed a button or two on each stem to attach the flowers.

The letters are cut out of blue felt. I put a small piece of Velcro on the back of each letter and on each space. Spell your name or practice other words. I cut out spare letters too, and put them all in the little zipper pouch. I even including the letters for his sisters' name, I cut those out in red.

This page is about counting and basic math. Just string some beads on yarn and then sew the ends of the yarn down to the page. Count 1 to 10 on the beads or add and subtract the numbers.

Tic-Tac-Toe! I created the playing grid by sewing thin pieces of felt to the page. I cut out squares of felt for the playing pieces and sewed an "x" on the blue ones and an "o" on the orange ones. I made 5 game pieces for each player.

Here is matching. The playing pieces are, again, cut out of felt. I sewed the shapes on the page with a simple straight stich. I attached Velcro to the back of each shape and to the space on the board.

This clock is a fun mix of digital numbers on an analog face. Cut small blocks of felt to make each number. Attach them to the clock face circle. The hands are also cut out of felt. The hands have to be free to rotate, so I cut a slit in the clock face and in the hands, then threaded some string up through all layers and slipped on an anchoring bead and then threaded it back down through all the slits. The string is attached to the back of the clock face securing the hands to the face but allowing them to rotate freely.

The book cover is made of denim and each page is sewn down along the spine of the book.

It is a time consuming project but it makes a great gift and offers hours of quiet activity to a kid. Enjoy it S!

~Jess

Muffaletta Sandwich

OK, it's WAY passed the time when I actually wrote up something. Good thing we're a team with this blog and Jess covered for me for the last few months! My only excuse/reason is that since I'm an online teacher I literally (and I mean the actual definition of "literal" here) spend every working day sitting at the computer, so I've been avoiding it over the summer.

This muffaletta sandwich was another item I saw Martha Stewart make on her "Cooking School" show and wanted to try. Luckily for me, we were having a potluck lunch at the end of the school year so my co-workers were a captive audience!

Here is the inspiration recipe, though if you compare you'll see I made my own modifications due to 1) not being able to get the special Italian meats and 2) not wanting to bother making my own olive salad.

Ingredients:
1 large sourdough loaf
75 grams Cervelat Salami
75 grams Hot Genoa Salami
75 grams Hot Capocollo
150 grams Hot Mortadella
150 grams provolone cheese
2 cups arugula
1 500-mL jar roasted red peppers (used half)
1 500-mL jar spicy olive bruschetta (used 3/4)

Hollow out the bread so you have space for everything else. I ended up using these insides with artichoke dip later, but it would also be good to dry out and make bread crumbs with.

First put down some of the olive mix (so it can soak into the bread) and then just layer the meats, cheese, arugula, peppers, and more of the olive mix.

Last thing on the top should be the olives again.

It's maybe a little difficult to see in my pictures, but you get quite a mound of "stuff" above the bottom half of the bread.

Put the top on, wrap in plastic, and squish with a heavy pot overnight in the fridge.

The next day it's nice and flat and is easily transported in it's plastic wrap.

Cut into wedges to serve.

Since this was part of potluck lunch, it was a bit difficult to cut into small wedges (I think I tried cutting it into 12) as the layers did start to slide apart a bit, but if it's your main dish, you can quite easily cut into 8 wedges to serve.

My overall comments would be that these particular meats and the spicy olive mix made this quite SPICY! Lots of ladies fanning their faces. So judge your audience :-) Easy enough to buy the mild versions of the meats and/or not use spicy olives. I also found that this particular olive mix maybe had a bit too much oil in it, so I would probably drain some out next time. It just ended up soaking the bread too much for me.

But I think the people at work liked it! (Does this count as a photo bomb?)

~Lisa

Blanket Ladder

A blanket ladder is great way to display all your quilts and keep them within easy reach for a chilly evening or a movie night. 

This is super easy to build and adds warmth and rustic charm to your guest bedroom or your bonus room. 

First thing first...a safety selfie!

Find two long pieces of wood, these will do perfectly!

Cut some rungs for your ladder. I used a piece of 1x2 and cut 6 rungs each at 14 inches long.

Measure out where the rungs will be. Space them evenly along the length of your ladder.              

Mark lines across the side pieces where the rungs will attach. We are going to notch out this section so the rungs will be set into the side pieces. 

Now, set the blade on the table saw nice and low so that you only go through half the width of the wood. Cut a few paths between your pencil lines. This will create the inset notches for the rungs to fit into. 

Using a hammer, lightly tap the chisel to bust out the remaining bits in the notch. It's good to have an assistant to help hold the wood steady, or use a vice or clamps to keep it secure. 

Those are the hands of our Crafty Dad, he deserves a shout all for all his help and support of us as Two Crafty Girls!

Now that you have cleared out your notches with the chisel, you can do a final touch-up with the table saw. Hold the two side pieces together and carefully move them through the blade and side to side across the blade to make your notches all smooth. 

Now fit the rungs into the notches.

 Secure with wood glue, and screws. 

I gave it a quick sand and a light coat of stain before bringing it into the house and filling it up with my handmade quilts. 

How nice is that?!? I love it!

Chenille Quilt

Each new baby needs their own special quilt.

I had the opportunity to make a quilt for my dear friends' baby girl.

This is quilt is very special because of the back...a chenille quilt! 

To begin, make the top anyway you like, there are so many options. I found a mix of purples and yellows perfect for a baby girl. The top is 4 patch and fences, but do whatever you want.

Then pick some coordinating fabric for the chenille back, I picked 4 different flannels, all with similar colours.  Making a chenille quilt can be a good option if you have lots of fabric and no batting. This kind of quilt gets its warmth and fluff from the many layers of fabric, not from batting. Now layer the quilt top, right side up, and then 4 layers of backing fabric, all right side down. You kind of make a quilt layer cake. When all your layers are stacked and secured with pins you can start to sew.

 The important thing with this quilt is to sew on the diagonal/bias, it is a must! We are going to make a whole lot of cuts and if you sew diagonal lines it will become soft and fluffy, but if you sew straight lines (parallel or perpendicular to the selvage) it will become a mess of fraying threads. Sew a diagonal line through all the layers about every half inch or so.

This takes a lot of time and patience, oh, and a lot of thread. Before you get going, wind up a few bobbins, it will make your life a bit easier to have them already prepared. Then just sew, sew, sew!

Once all the lines are done, stop and admire your work. Nicely done!

Now grab your sharp scissors and flip the quilt over, we are going to start making this quilt into a chenille quilt.

Cut through the troughs. It will feel weird to cut up a project you have been working on for hours, but trust me, and try to ignore your sweaty palms. I cut through 3 of my 4 layers of backing. This leaves the quilt top and one complete layer of flannel intact, and provides 3 layers of softness.

See here on the backing...3 cut layers and one intact layer.

Keep it up, you have to cut through each trough, and your hand will ache and your mind will be numb, but it will be worth it!

Gorgeous! So cuddly for baby.

Now attach your binding.

Once it is all done, put the quilt in the wash. Yep, a quick wash or a simple rinse and spin. Then put it in the dryer. This will help to fray the cut edges just a bit and it will make it super soft. A chenille blanket is perfect for a baby, the more you wash and dry it the softer it gets. So no need to worry about spit up or spills, it just washes off and makes an even nicer quilt in the end.

Here it is, put to good use, in baby J's nursery!