1776 ~ 18th Century Colonial Furniture

My husband had a class project for a set design class where he needed to design a set for the play 1776. The musical is about the events leading to the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence in Pennsylvania, in 1776.

Because he needed to design a set where a lot of the show would take place inside the Independence Hall he would need to have enough 18th century colonial tables and chairs to fill the hall. While I was working on my Tiny House project as a Sophomore, instead of cutting my model out of foam core it was suggested to me to have my model laser cut. I figured out the pieces of my house like a puzzle and was able to build my house in one day. I heard that others spent days building theirs and am so grateful that I was able to get mine laser cut.

I was able to find paper model furniture online so I thought we could just do it ourselves. I suggested the same thing to my husband for building all the furniture he needed. After talking to the couple who did my laser cutting they said they would be happy to try it on card stock, they hadn't tried using the laser on material so thin.

This way we could be able to get exactly what he needed and not have to pay for a bunch of sheets from online where we were only getting six chairs per sheet and they still didn't have the table he would need. Then I designed the table tops and bases and was able to figure out the chairs. The furniture was cut to quarter inch scale. I think they turned out really great. The professors and other students were really impressed with them as well.

SIL Quilt

I love how these two quilts turned out. As I have said before I HATE binding quilts but my mom has shown me a great tricky way to do them and have them turn out fantastic. My SIL gets home from Uruguay tomorrow and I'm so happy that I was able to get her quilt done for that. She has been serving an LDS Mission there and sharing her testimony with everyone down there and with her family and friends here at home. I LOVED my mission and think that every young lady who can should serve. It is such a great opportunity to serve others and strengthen your own testimony. I really am excited for her that she choose to serve.

The purple one, however, I have had with me for some time, like I said, I hate binding. The hard thing about working on fun projects like this is then you have to give them away.

Let me know what you think!!!

Paper Mache Masks

Another activity we did over the weekend was paper mache masks.

For the YW activity we have this week we are doing the masks and it was my job to research it and figure out how to make them. So I spent some time on YouTube. With my niece an nephew this past weekend I wanted to try out mask making and see how it went. I also wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing so I could make any adjustments if I needed too. After a number of videos and recipes I actually decided I wanted to try plaster bandages, unfortunately we could not find them at ANY of the craft stores we checked.

What you will need:
We went with 2 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups water with about 1 tsp of salt for the plaster ~ just mix it all together. We then tour a bunch of strips ~ about 1x4 ~ from newspaper. We also got some white printer paper so the last layer would be white and it would be easier to paint.

How you do it:
To start you need to COVER you face with petroleum jelly. This will make it easier to get the mask off your face and keep your hair from getting stuck in the plaster. Now you need to dip the paper strips in the plaster and make sure to get both sides. I would then run my fingers down both sides to make sure and get the excess off. If too much is left on it will take a lot longer to dry. Then we let it dry ~ we helped it dry faster by using a blow dryer and holding the button for cool air. Then you repeat and add another layer. All the things I found said to do 4-5 layers but we were working with a 4 and 8 year old so we kept it to 3. For the third layer we did the white printer paper. After it had a chance to dry and stiffen up enough, we took the masks off and let them dry over night. In the morning we trimmed them to how the kids wanted them and after church we painted them.

Because these masks were not too thick I was able to use a hole punch and put a hole on both sides by the ears where we tied on some ribbon. The pieces were long enough to pull to the back of the head and tie the mask on.

The making off.
It was my nieces idea to pose like that under the bed.

Designing!!

Spider Man and Batman in one!

Ta Da!!!

My nephew loves Spider Man but the whole sticker would not fit on
so he put the leg and that is what you see in the middle of his forehead.

They absolutely loved them, which made me happy. They could not wait until their mom came to pick them up so they could show off their masks.

Iron-On Mission Shirt

My mother-in-law wanted to make a shirt for my niece to wear when we go and pick my sister-in-law up from the airport. She has been in Uruguay for the last 18 months on a church service mission. A picture was picked out and then the fun started.

The directions can very a bit depending on what brand of iron-on you use but here are the steps we took:
1. The article of clothing needs to be pre-washed. Don't use bleach or fabric softener.
2. import the desired photo/image into Word and size accordingly. Then flip the image so it looks like you would be reading it in a mirror. This is important if there is text in the image because if you don't the image will end up mirrored when ironed-on.
3. Follow directions for specific type of iron-on.
4. Believe it or not the little star studs are iron-on as well. We just placed them where we wanted them then followed the directions on the package. I did not have too much faith in them until I went to pill off the little bit of the package that was left on them to help hold the stars in place while I ironed them on ~ the stars did not even budge.

I think the shirt turned out so cute and can not wait to see my niece wearing it.

With all the crocheting I have been doing lately to keep myself busy I have acquired a number of hooks ~ and I was misplacing them all the time. To help me stay more organized I made this little holder. I know my husband thinks I hold onto way to much stuff but you just never know when it will come in handy. The elastic is from a project I was working on ~ well, I won't tell you how long ago ~ but I could never bring myself to toss it. The two materials are from school. They were samples that were gathered to work on design projects but I never ended up using them, so I used them in a different way. All in all I think it turned out pretty handy and I haven't misplaced a hook since I made it.

Quilt in a day

Over the weekend I talked to my mother-in-law and asked if she wanted to have a quilt made for my sister-in-law when she got home from her mission in Uruguay. She thought it would be a fun idea so on Saturday we went and got the flat quarters to make the quilt Turning 20. Maybe I was being a bit ambitious of me but I was able to sew the quilt top and later in the day we went over to my in-laws and we tied the quilt. Here is my quilt-in-a-day!! I love the colors and how it turned out. My mom said that she was amazed at how we ~ her kids ~ could just take on a project and go at it to get it until we get it done. Well, you are the one that taught us. We would go to bed on a Saturday night and on Easter morning, she would have two new dresses sewn for me and my sister. She is the one who taught me to work until it is done.
~ Love you mom!!!

Because I can't afford to take the quilts in and have them machine quilted I do it my self. On the quilt I made for Paul a couple of years back, instead of tying it, I stitched by hand using a bigger stitch length. I love how it turned out. That is why I stitched both of these as well.

This is a quilt I have made for a friend of mine but have never gotten around to binding it. Now that I have two to do maybe that will help motivate me to get them done. The pattern for this one is Yellow Brick Road.

Coming Soon!!!

Ok, I know it has been awhile, but it has been crazy around here. Just last night I was over at my directors house ~ I am a beauty consultant for MK as well ~ and she had the cutest headband on with a flower. As we got talking I told her that I made beanies and found out that she made the headband and flower. I tried looking at some patterns for flowers ~ lets just say I am more of a visual learner instead of a pattern person when it comes to these flowers designs. Anyways, I am so excited, we are going to get together in the next little while so she can show me how she made the headbands and flowers and I will teach her how to make my beanies. I am so excited to finally learn how to do crocheted flowers, they will look so cute on the beanies.

Watch for them to come soon!!