Makin' Valentine's Cards

Last week I got away to a Card Making Workshop.  I found it through Meetup.com.  One of the other moms on one of the meetup groups I belong to recently became a rep for Stampin' Up, which is a high quality stamp company.  It was a lot of fun!
Meetup.com for those who haven't heard of it is a site you can join all across the world.  Each city has people who host groups looking for like minded people to meetup.  The range of groups is incredible.  I've met some great moms that way.
Onto the cards.  This was my first go at card making in a long time.  I'd made our wedding invitations, but they were very simple.  As well I made birth announcements for our first born 6 and half years ago.  I used to do a lot of scrapbooking, but since kids the scrapbooking has fallen by the wayside.  I will get back to it one day.
The cards were fun once I got into it.  Our host had a lot of product to choose from to use and a lot of samples to inspire.  Here's what I came up with.

 for my 6 year old son

for my 1 year old daughter

 for my 3 year old son

for my husband

Opinion Please

I've just cut out the quilt top for my first non-quilting kit quilt.  The only part I haven't done is cut out the rectangles for the border.  The directions need 40 3 1/4 by 5 1/2 squares.  I just don't know what material to use.  I have a yellow, but I don't know if it should be all yellow?  I still have enough of the other fabrics left to cut out some with those.  What do you think? 

Bird Mobile

Since I've started crafting, I have been taking a look around at what other crafters are doing and posting.  One my favorite discoveries is Maggie and Sparrow.  Kathryn is a quilter from Down Under, who hand quilts all of her projects.  I think they are gorgeous.  Her mobiles caught my eye and seeing as I have no travel plans to Australia in the near future, I thought I would try my hand at my own.  You can see one of hers here.

I chose birds as the theme I just love these little birds.  I think they are so sweet.  These little birds are on my daughters snuggly quilt that my mom made her when she was born. 

Here's my daughter's little corner of the house.  She shares a room with us, but I still tried to make a nice little nursery corner for her.  The fabrics for the mobile are the same as the stuffed letters I did with her name this fall.

Here's how the mobile turned out.  I took a lot of shots of it, trying to get it in the best light.

Daisy flower birthday cake

My daughter turned one today - this is the cake I made for her.

sneak peak of what I'm crafting on

Cute!  One of a few little birds that will become a mobile for my daughter's room.

How do you Craft?

I'm just curious if others have a craft group of sorts?  It used to be that quilting circles and sewing bees were common things, but not so much now.  Am I mistaken?  Or has the internet allowed a resurgence of crafting 'together' but still apart as we meet online to share and mail away?  I've been attempting to host a twice a month "Stitch and Bitch" group with some success.  The other women who have come have enjoyed it, I know I certainly have.  And I'm hoping it continues.  What about you?  Do you craft alone? or with others?
Most of my crafting happens at night after my kiddos have gone to bed and I get an hour or two to myself.  Are you like that?

Jedi Robes for kids

I did it, I made 2 Jedi Robes for my boys for Christmas.  The long brown outer robe and the white tunic underneath, plus a belt.  I made it from a combination of an online tutorial plus my own adjustments for kid size.  This was my biggest sewing project attempt to date.  It even involved a Skype consultation with my mom when I got stuck along the way.  Because these robes were a secret project, I used the boys snowsuits and sweaters to figure out measurements.  I made them deliberately big and hemmed it up a bunch of times so they can still use them as they grow.  The online tutorial I used you can find here and found it very helpful.  I did have to make adjustments with sizing, this was only problematic with the hood.  The hood was way too big for a kid sized costume.  I ended up measuring the along the length of the neckline so get the right hood length and made the width smaller than what their tutorial recommends.  It worked.  Here's a few pictures of my process.

 Ironing the miles and miles of fabric. 

 Cutting the outline using the snowsuit.

 Pinning it together .

 Using a sweater to figure out the tunic.

My little Pad-O-Wan learner on Christmas morning.