I've moved!

If you found me here I just want you to know, I have moved!

www.Handmade3D.me

Come check it out, I'm all fancy now!

Flower Growth Chart

I know I have been absent a lot this past year and I do apologize. But can you believe my little Zoe turned 1 year old today! This has been one of the best years of my life. And to end it off, I wanted to create a growth chart for my little flower. I have seen cute ones at stores and online, but they are either too expensive or I think "I could do that!" Well, now you can too. :) I made this over a couple of days, but if I had uninterrupted time I could have probably done the entire thing in one afternoon. But other moms out there know that uninterrupted time is not a luxury!

What you’ll need:

½ yd of green felt by the yard 60”

Fat quarter for center of flower

Scraps of fabric for petals (about 3 fat quarters)

Polyfill Fiberfill

Water Soluble pencil

Sewing Machine

Rotary Cutter and Rulers

Thread

Scissors

Pins

** I use an embroidery machine to create the leaves but you would use any type of machine or applique or write the markings by hand.

Creating the stem of the flower:

1. Cut a strip of 6” x 60” of the green felt.

2. Using your water soluble pencil and ruler, draw 1 inch markings along the right side of the vertical length of the stem.

3. Mark every 6” with a pin.’

4. Using a dark green thread, stitch a line at every marking

a. For the inch markings, stitch a 1” inch line

b. For the ½ foot markings, stitch a 1 1/2” inch line

c. For the foot markings, stitch a 3” inch line

Special Note: With the measurements given you should be able to create a growth chart starting at 6” at the base going to just over 6’ tall. I am only 5’4” so I imagine my daughter will be around that height. If you have a taller family, you may want to mark the bottom as 1 foot or even 1 ½ feet tall. You will need at least five inches at the top of the stem to attach and overlap the flower.

5. Mark the 1 foot increments with numbers. You can use your embroidery machine or applique.

Creating the leaves:

1. I created 12 leaves in hope that she will still let me mark her growth at 12 but who knows! I would rather have too many leaves than not enough. I also changed the directions for every other leaf to be on the opposite side of the stem.

Machine Embroidery:

a. Load the vip embroidery file into your embroidery software. Add the years with your text functions. Depending on your hoop size you may be able to create more than one leaf at a time.

b. After stitching out the designs, cut out the leaves.

3. By Hand:

a. Use the attached template to trace the leaves on to your excess felt.

b. After cutting out a bunch of leaves use whichever method you like the write the ages on the leaves

Creating the Flower

1. Create the 12 petals out of scrap fabrics.

2. From your extra felt, cut a 6” circle and a 4” square. This will be the back of the flower and a pocket.

3. Stitch the 4” square on top of the circle.

4. Cut a 5” x 2” strip of fabric. This will be the hanging loop.

5. Fold the strip of fabric in half lengthwise, twice. Stitch along the edge to create the loop.

6. Stitch the loop to the top of the pocket circle.

7. Cut a 12” circle out of your yellow fat quarter. This will be the center of the flower.

8. Stitch a long loose stitch around the edge of the circle.

9. Using the thread, hold one end and gather the circle so the edge folds over itself about 2”.

10. Lay out your 12 petals along the raw edge of the inner circle.

11. Whip stitch the petals to the circle to keep them in tack.

1. Using your sewing machine, use a zig zag stich to secure the petals to the center.

2. Place fiberfill in the center of the flower.

3. Cover the hole with the stem and the felt pocket. Hand stitch the three layers together.

You are done! Measure carefully on your wall to hang. Measure your little flower and place the leaves at her mark!

I apologize for the odd spacing of this post. If you would like a pdf version of this tutorial, as well as the VIP embroidery files for the leaves, please email me at 'ellen@3doodle.com'

The Easter Bunny is coming, let's eat candy corn!

It's almost Easter so we decided to take Zoe to see the Easter Bunny. She will be four months old next week, I can't believe how fast time has gone by! She is our big little girl and is absolutely wonderful. She was so happy with the Easter Bunny, I am so happy with her picture! My maternity leave is over but I had such a wonderful time off with her. Only the past month or so was I able to get any actual sewing done. It took us a while to develop a routine. But I loved every minute of it. I made some soft books for her and joined the Stuffed Team. Below is my contribution to our calendar which will be coming out later this year.

I am currently in the Stuffed Bunny show in St. Pete at the Eve N Odd gallery. I also have work hanging for the "Hip to Be Square" show at the Bricks in Ybor. Local peeps check it out! During my maternity leave I started experimenting with my 3D modeling, printing on fabric, and quilting. I think it turned out great, we'll see if it sells!

Baby Zoe is here!

(Zoe at birth)
It has been a busy and exhausting few weeks, but I finally had a chance to post. Baby Zoe arrived December 16th, 2010 at 9:34 am. She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 20 3/4" long. She is the most precious perfect princess and we couldn't be happier!(2 weeks old)Our little Rocker chick.

Quilts, Quilts!

I completed the "Life is a Stitch" quilt a while ago and sent to my mom for long arm quilting. I love piecing quilt tops, but can't stand the actual quilting together part! The pattern is from Kimberley Enimo's Jelly Roll Quilts and More book. Fun pattern, pretty easy to do. It used Honey Buns to make the quilt. I changed it a little to use up some of my strips and put blocks in the corners instead of solid red. If you look closely the fabric has scissors, little irons, pin cushions, I thought the sign went perfect with it!

This will be Zoe's wall hanging quilt! It was a lot of fun to make, I really enjoy doing applique. I adapted the pattern Annie's Garden from Material Obsessions. I only did the top half of the quilt pattern and then with help from my mom scaled it down 50%. It being a baby quilt/wall hanging, it didn't need to be huge! I used the dark purple as the trim because the upper wall it will be hanging on is pink! It should look great above her crib. I loved the overall look of the original quilt and thought it would go well with the fairy garden theme we have for her nursery. When I originally bought the book I wasn't pregnant yet. But when I saw the pattern I knew it would be above my daughter's crib one day! In the pattern she uses more flowers and hearts. I took out the hearts and a few flowers from the original pattern to add the fairy and mushroom houses. Even better I have lots of left over fabric to make a plush lady bug, mushroom house, and flowers!

I am 31 weeks and can't wait for December to get here! I'm starting on making Christmas presents this weekend for the homemade touch. That and when the time gets closer I will be so big I don't want to do Christmas mall shopping!


For the locals, I will be selling at this year's Atomic Holiday Bazaar! I went as a shopper last year and couldn't believe the indie talent. This year I am a vendor and will be huge! Come out to it if you're around the area, it's our biggest indie craft show!

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

This past weekend was the opening of the "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" show at The Bricks in Ybor. This was another project that took a long time I was keeping secret. I didn't want anyone to know I was making the Great Gonzo! The show contained 18 artists making portraits of famous actors/ characters that can be tracked back to Kevin Bacon. Most actors can be tracked back in three or less moves, but we had to come up with six moves exactly.

If you are interested, The Great Gonzo was in “The Muppet Movie” with Steve Martin who was in “Sgt. Bilko” with Dan Aykroyd who was in “Sneakers” with Robert Redford who was in “The Sting” with Paul Newman who was in “The Color of Money” with Tom Cruise who was in “A Few Good Men” with Kevin Bacon.

While I was making Gonzo, I had a clear picture in my head of what I wanted. I was first going to make him in his caper outfit that he gets shot out of the cannon with. But doing some research and Muppet Show watching I realized he actually didn't do that that often. He was usually wearing a suit. I found a photograph of Gonzo in a maroon suit almost in a 'Kramer' pose. I thought this would be perfect! Jason (my husband) had the brilliant idea to add the chicken feathers around himdue to his love of chickens.

When I finished Gonzo, I was happy with him but not 100%. I was afraid he would look 'crafty' compared to the other fine artists that were accepted into the show. Well apparently I had nothing to worry about! Gonzo sold the day of the show, even before the opening, in the the middle of the afternoon! While at the show I sat in an area where I could watch my piece, partly because I was afraid someone would bump his nose, but kept seeing great reactions to him. People smiled, laughed, and kept saying how much they loved it.

Apparently I am doing something right!
Gonzo with his magical red "sold" sticker. My husband and I only stayed to 10 pm, and at that point were the only two that sold! Below is his piece which sold while we were there.

Quilts, Dolls, and Baby!

I have been slowly creating more plush items, but a few other projects took priority. Since the wedding has now occured I can finally show off the wedding quilt I made for my husband's cousin! The pattern is called "Fandango" and in the orange borders and backing are little love birds. It turned out amazing but took way too long!Next I received the wonderful order from the Florida Museum of Women Artists! I was able to make 10 cats very quickly, but the quilted dolls took a bit more time. Here are the finished 8 in their color varieties!Since then I have just completed a piece for the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" show at The Bricks in Ybor. The show isn't until September 24th so I'm not revealing it yet! Since I was doin all of these projects I wanted to get back to sewing something for my upcoming little girl. Here is her Christmas bunting, hat, and matching stocking! Let's hope she is here before Christmas! 25 weeks down!