Handmade Toys or How I Entertain a Toddler

As I look around my house, which is now pretty much overrun with kid gear, I notice a few things made by me. I thought it might be nice to share a few (and also let you know some things that have been popular around here).

Exhibit 1: The Tag Blanket

I made this before Amelia was born, or when she was really little, but it only became popular in recent months as a blanket for Amelia's cuddly toys and dolls. She is nuts about laying a stuffed kitty or some other "doll" on the floor and throwing a blanket over them. She pats them on the chest and does it again...and again...and again. She spends all kinds of time trying to get the blanket just so, very amusing. For the record, Amelia was never into this when she was a baby. She also completely ignored Sophie, just sayin'.

Exhibit 2: Jar of Crocheted Gumballs

It has been my experience that a lot of anything small is a very good toddler entertainer. This has been on a shelf in my sewing room for a few years now and is one of many things now in Amelia's possession. Go figure.

 Exhibit 3: Apron

I whipped this up one day while Amelia was napping. She has a really cool play kitchen, and the seamstress in me insisted she have an apron to go with it. She loves to wear it and to adorn her toys as well. And I had to make it reversible because it's just more fun that way.

No really, she likes it.

Exhibit 4: Crocheted Cherry Pie

I found some really cool tiny baking pans at the dollar store and had to put something in them. I crocheted this little pie to fit the pie pan. I have no idea how I'll make a bundt cake, but the banana bread (not shown) is coming along great. The more fake food, the better, I always say.

Exhibit 5: Tea

Amelia has a very cool coffee maker, which she really enjoys, but I wanted to be fair to Nick (he's a tea drinker). I made this little tea bag in about 10 minutes this past weekend. I imagine it will get lost at some point, but I think it's pretty cute anyway. Amelia seemed to like dipping it in the mug.

Exhibit 6: The Fluff Ball Stuff

Apparently, this activity is very popular in the "toddler busy bag" world. Most of my friends are in a toddler group where they made these. It's the simplest thing in the world but has definitely filled some time. All you need is some of those disposable bowls with lids that you can get at the grocery store, some fluff balls from the craft (or dollar) store and a knife. Cut a hole in the lid of the bowl and you have a new game. I have found that the fluff balls themselves, and the 6 or so bowls with lids, have been just as fun on their own.

Well, those are few of our handmade toys. I hope you like them, Amelia does!

Schnibbles Times Two

Hey, I made some quilts! I think the last quilt I made/finished was before Amelia was born, so this is exciting stuff for me.

Have you heard of "Schnibbles"? Well, as usual, I'm pretty unaware of what's cool out there in the world, but I do kind of know about Schnibbles. I've seen loads of the patterns around and I have a pattern book, which I love. 

Anyway, a friend of mine from the world's best baby group is pregnant with twins (poor thing) and this past weekend was her baby shower. After crocheting an entire blanket and deciding I couldn't come up with a good color scheme for a second blanket, I started in on making two quilts. This decision was made about 2 weeks ago, by the way. I had some charm packs laying around that were appropriate for a boy and a girl, and I had the "Schnibbles times two" pattern book...easy.

Really, it was pretty easy. Here's what I made.....

 The pattern is called "Plan C" and the fabric collection was "Punctuation" by American Jane. This one's for a baby girl.

The pattern for this quilt is "Hot Cross" and the fabric is "Lollipop" by Sandy Gervais (love her!). I prefer this quilt, I don't know why, maybe it's just the unique color scheme.

I'm glad I got a chance to work on something different for a change, and to give them to someone who I know will cherish them. They were very well received. :)

Oh yeah, and here's my most recent snap of Amelia at 19 months!

I took this picture in my living room which just received a much needed skylight (more on that later). Previously you would have had to turn on 5 lamps during the day just to see someone in that room! yay!

Still Kicking

I just wanted to stop in a say I'm still alive. Is anyone out there? I've actually started writing more than one post and haven't had the chance to finish, so I'll keep it brief in order to get this online. 

Here's what I'm up to:

 Amelia is now a whopping 18 months old (yes, I knit the sweater). She spent her 1st birthday at Disneyland and turned 16 months at Disney World, not bad for such a young lady. She's in "school" 3 half days a week (yay) so I've been back at the sewing machine and working on my shop again.

I'm always making something. Here are a couple of my latest projects:

This is Amelia's Easter bunny. I thought it might be fun to make here a new critter every year....this will be #1 in a set. I got the pattern on Ravelry here.

I'm still a fan of monkeys (though I rarely make them anymore) so when Rebecca Danger came out with this monkey pattern I had to play along. Isn't he the cutest? I think Nick likes him more than Amelia does.

I'm still making tons of these:

and generally having a good time. Hope you've been well all these months and I really hope I can manage to blog a bit more than once a year from now on. Fingers crossed.