Weekends of Crafty Goodness

What does one do on a rainy holiday weekend? Craft projects for the nursery, of course. The dining room of our one bedroom apartment now comes close to resembling a nursery thanks to some crafty and creative additions.

For Christmas, I finished the "hockey quilt," for Rich. It's a standard Crib size with an Ohio Star pattern. I used flannel for both the front and back, and a cotton batting. A large portion of the quilt is machine quilted (in the ditch. Hopefully the machine quilting will help it hold up better through many washes. The white squares are hand quilted in a "net" diagonal checkerboard pattern and the star centers feature a hand quilted redwings logo outline. I made the pattern for the logo by tracing the shoulder patch from the Winter Classic jersey. The border features blue and red prairie points. This quilt doesn't really go with the nursery theme, but we think Johnny will like it just the same.

Several weeks ago, I created about 4 receiving blankets out of flannel. They are simply 2 1yard cuts sewn right sides together, then turned out and finished. For two of the blankets, I cut the 45" down to 36" so the resulting blanket is square and easier to use for swaddling. Very simple, but Jo Ann's has so many cute flannel patterns and they look very nice. The double layer of flannel should prove to be pretty warm too.

I also created a dust ruffle--yet another layer in my shabby chic decorating. The fabric for the dust ruffle was easy to obtain. We had an old blue and green striped fabric shower curtain we weren't using. The fabric was cut to fit the crib length. Remnant pieces were added at the headboard and foot board to complete the look at no cost to us.



This weekend I created a "crib caddy"-- a fabric creation with pockets designed to hang from a crib and keep necessities handy. We're actually tying it on to the changing table, as that's where we need more storage anyway. Besides, it's a small space, so everything is within arms reach of everything else. I used grosgrain ribbon instead of the prescribed bias tape, which seams fairly sturdy. I followed a simplicity pattern, which made it seem more complicated than it was. Having made it once, a second one should go together easier, but it's not on my priority list.

Since the cost of a new glider was not in the budget, we've decided to recover our old glider. Structurally, there is nothing wrong with the old one, other than the fact that the cushions were old, a little worn and not very comfortable. I wrapped the old cushions in 2 layers of high loft batting and a layer of fleece. For this project, I used a full size pre-packaged batting, which was enough for the cushions, and ottoman, with enough left over for the memory boards. I very quickly tacked the batting/fleece in place with some loose hand stitching. Tacking things down was a good idea; I could tell it would have been a nightmare trying to stuff the cushions into the covers otherwise. I chose to cover the cushions in a blue and white gingham.With the cushions on the fabric, I cut out two pieces with roughly 1 inch extra all the way around. I stitched together three sides, leaving the "bottom" open to insert the cushion. Once the cushion was inside, I hand stitched the opening with some ribbon tabs to tie the cushions to the chair.


So we have this "pond" theme for our nursery, and above Johnny's crib is his own lily pond. We made lily pads from green fabric. I used coloring book images to create a rough pattern and enlarged the pattern to various sizes. Two pieces of fabric were stitched together, turned right side out and filled with a little bit of scrap fabric or fiber fill. To create "veins" I used a variety of machine stitching patterns. Some of the lily pads were sewn to the blue tulle "pond" canopy. The canopy is attached to the ceiling in a random draping fashion using thumbtacks. Rich did most of the ceiling work as I directed from the ground. Next, we added extra lily pads suspended from fishing line, as well as tissue paper "lilies." Sparkling blue butterflies from Hobby Lobby's summer decor finish off the ceiling masterpiece. We were careful to keep the canopy far enough from the ceiling fan, but close enough that when the fan is on, the hanging pieces have some movement.

On the wall behind the crib we painted pre-cut wooden letters. You can find these letters at just about any craft store--ours happen to come from Walmart, where they were marked down. Rich gave the letters two base coats of white. I added green and blue accents and voila, for much less than $16 a letter we have a cute wall decoration.
Under his name, we added a frog. It's actually a kid's summer placemat from Jo Ann's for $1. We may add accent fish to the sides yet.


On the to do list yet... Finish the memo boards, create a window treatment and more wall art. I might make a "pond" mirror--but that's not a priority.