Dinosaur Tails

4th of July

 Our 4th of July wreath we made using a straw wreath, felt squares and pins!

 Sweet Js

 Jenni was excited about her new skirt I made. :)

 

Happy 4th!

Felt Tic Tac Toe

I made a Tic Tac Toe game board with X and O pieces for our Fall Party (and future game nights). I made five X and five O game pieces using felt. I first cut out ten X and ten O pieces. For each game piece, I sandwiched batting in the middle of the top and bottom piece (bottom O, batting, top O) and sewed around the pieces. Next I cut a large piece of brown felt and sewed around the perimeter. Then I cut four long strips of light brown felt, 1 inch wide, and sewed those to the brown felt, completing our Tic Tac Toe board.

Cinderella and Prince Charming

Last month Jenni and I began brainstorming costumes for her and Joshua. One of our ideas was Dora and Boots. After a couple of weeks thinking about being Dora, Jenni told me that she is already Dora any time we are in the car and she pulls out her map to tell me which way to go (a frequent game on car rides). So I asked Jenni J what her next idea was. She wanted to be a princess. The first princess that came to mind was Cinderella and immediately I thought of Prince Charming for Joshua. Jenni was happily on board, and since our little man is 1 1/2 years old, he's automatically on board too :)

Without having a pattern to go by, I spent the next several days drawing patterns using a dress of Jenni's and a button down shirt and pants of Joshua's as guides. We purchased the fabric and trim details and I got to work sewing! Jenni's Cinderella dress came together quite nicely - perfect for twirling! Joshua's Prince Charming costume was a bit more complicated but I love how it turned out! Jenni kept asking if Joshua would dance with her when they both had their costumes on, just like Prince Charming danced with Cinderella :) Jenni loves her sweet, satiny ball gown and Joshua enjoys dressing up with his sister.
Sweet babies. Sweet memories :)

Fall Bean Bags

I first noticed a tutorial for alphabet beanbags many months ago and thought it was a wonderful idea. With our fall party coming up, I wanted to make some beanbags for our beanbag toss game. I made these quick and simple beanbags with my little helper, Jenni. I used scraps of fabrics that were shades of fall colors and ended up making ten beanbags. I cut twenty 5 inch squares, sewed the squares with right sides together, leaving a small opening to turn right side out. I pressed the seams open, turned the fabric right side out, and ironed flat again. Jenni filled the bags with dried pinto beans (3 pounds of beans for 10 beanbags) while I sewed the openings shut. These are so fun! I originally made them for our upcoming beanbag toss game and then thought they would be great for many other purposes - tossing back and forth saying the letters of the alphabet, tossing back and forth counting, making patterns, Joshua matching colors, and for all other kinds of fun. I love the idea on The Crafty Cupboard of painting on letters or numbers too. Endless fun!

Counting Cookies

Math and chocolate chip cookies = winning combination :)

I made these fun felt cookies with light brown and dark brown felt, coordinating thread, and batting. For each cookie, I cut out two circles of light brown felt and a circle for the batting. I sewed the "chocolate chips" onto the top layer of felt first and then put the cookie together with the batting on the middle and sewed around. I sewed over a dozen cookies with chocolate chips and then made just as many cookies with the number painted onto the top of the cookie with fabric paint. I am looking forward to using these during our math time, practicing simple addition.

Fall Felt Leaves

They make working with numbers that much more fun! :)

Felt Fractions

For each circle, I used two layers of felt, fabric paint and thread to hand sew the layers together. I love hands-on learning and am looking forward to J using them in future math lessons!

Quilted Rag Letters and Numbers

I found an awesome tutorial on quilted rag letters and decided to make Jenni a few sets to work with letter recognition and spelling. I also made a few sets of numbers to work on number recognition and simple math. They are super soft, colorful, easy to wash, and so much fun. I will soon be making Joshua his own set in manly colors :)

 I printed and cut out the lower case letters template and the numbers template.

Then I traced the letters onto solid color fabric and cut them out.

 I cut out each letter and pinned it to white felt (for the quilting material) and white minky dot fleece fabric (for the back).

 I sorted and sewed the letters by color.

 After sewing the three pieces of fabric together, I trimmed the edges of three layers leaving a little over 1/4 inch around the edges of the letters.

After sewing and trimming around the letters, I tossed each set of colors in the washer and then the dryer, giving the edges a ragged/used look which I liked. I originally hung the letters on a clothes line on the wall, but since have taken them down so they are more accessible to Jenni J.