Hi Guys! I am releasing my new quilt pattern today called Moonrise. Hop over to my etsy shop to purchase.
Moonrise stemmed from my love of Alexia Abegg Moonrise fabric collection. Upon seeing her fabric line I knew I needed to make something special with it and the Moonrise quilt was born. I kept calling it my moonrise quilt so when I decided to pattern it the name stuck around. You can see the first quilt and in Alexia’s Moonrise fabric collection below.
The Moonrise quilt comes with 4 sizes included in the pattern. Starting with a baby size which is the perfect size for a crib or a floor mat. Next up is a throw size and the most made size for quilts in my opinion, the throw gives you the right size to make this a super quick sew along with ending up with a quilt usable by all people to snuggle. The last two size are a twin and a queen. These take a bit more time and fabric but would be the perfect addition to any bed or sofa if you like a little bit of a bigger snuggle quilt.
The pattern has a lot of information included for each size. It gives you the recommended fabric amounts for the suggested fabric combo for each size. Along with fabric requirements for making it all scrappy, or making the different parts of the quilt from the same fabric. Don’t worry even with all that info each size has it’s own page of fabric requirements and cutting amounts so it’s easy to decipher.
I also include, cutting diagrams for fat quarters and yardage along with a coloring sheet, and diagrams for laying out your quilt.
This little baby quilt is smaller than the pattern but you could whip it up from the pattern information easily. I went with the option to make each plus from a separate fabric for this and love the scrappy feel to it.
As you can see from the various options in this post that the pattern works well for all styles and combinations, from using a full fabric line, to selecting your own fabrics, to a scrappy style, or even solids. There is so much flexibility with this pattern.
This is the baby size, perfect for cribs. It was made by my friend Stephanie Thomas who was one of my testers. She used the adorable Little Red into the Woods line by Jill Howarth.
I hope you enjoy this peek at some fun quilts made from this pattern and will make your own and share the process with me on social media or through email.
You can purchase your copy of the Moonrise PDF pattern in my etsy shop today. Oh and a little hint if your looking for a discount code check out my podcast with Stephanie Socha. I shared a full shop discount over there. ;)
It’s a big week here in woollypetals land with podcast releases, fabric design, and a new pattern. So I hope you check one or two of those things out and they can inspire you. Let’s make beautiful things together.
This quilt is made with Tula Pink Freespirit Solids in Taffy, Hibiscus, Tula, Mojito, Aegean, Cerulean, and Iris. The background is Cotton and Steel XOXO basic in Chocolate Chip. Oh and isn’t this backing just about the cutest thing ever? It is all sorts of dollhouses and little girls playing and crafting. Big massive love for it! P.S. it’s called Welcome to my Dollhouse and is an Alexander Henry Print.
What??!!?? You read that title right. I designed some fabric. Now it’s totally self “published” as in it is all available through Spoonflower. For those who don’t know what Spoonflower is they are a company that digitally prints fabric for others on a myriad of substrates. You can simply design and print your own, or make it available to others in your own little store front to buy. There are so many AHmazing fabric designs on Spoonflower I encourage your to go and peruse for a bit and be inspired. You can see my Spoonflower store front here.
You may have noticed if you have been to my blog anytime before January 2019 that I recently updated my logos on this blog and across my woollypetals internet presence so that everything coordinates. I designed my logo to be simple and bold including a shape from my floored pattern. But since it was all solid, albeit bright and bold solids, it wasn’t quite right. Then I discovered I could easily pop little stars onto my background via photoshop and hit the mark with what I was trying to achieve. You may have notice from my quilts and sewing that I am mainly a fabric print user so I needed some of that in my logo. Stars have always been my favorite shape so it was a no brainer.
Back to the woollypetals fabric…. well the background of the logo with the stars was really my thing and it was brought up in a group chat with my sewing ladies that it would make awesome fabric. With much encouragement from them I went down the rabbit hole and figured out how to design swatches and get things set up on Spoonflower. Ordering and receiving samples of fabric I had completely designed myself was some sort of out of body experience. I have been floating ever since. You can check out all the different colors available currently, more coming soon, in my Spoonflower store front and order some for yourself.
My fabric is called Starry Eyed and each of the squares in these images is a separate fabric. The only one with multiple colored stars is the one below with rainbow stars. I currently have 33 of these available with requested swatches for an additional 8 colors which are shown in theses images.
There are 25 options with a colored background and white stars, of which 19 are currently available. Then 8 fabrics have a colored background with the stars in one color, all of these are available now. I have 9 fabrics with a white background and the stars in one color, all but one of the yellows is available currently. Lastly I have a white background with the stars in a rainbow of colors available now.
If you have never ordered from Spoonflower before here are a couple notes:
The colors may vary slightly from your screen. A few of my colors looked different on the screen than in person which is why I have some that aren’t available because I am adding the colors I was trying to achieve. You have to order and approve an actual color swatch before you are able to sell that specific fabric. The best way to double check color if your trying to match something is to order a Spoonflower color sheet.
It’s more expensive than regular quilting cotton. Being that they print digitally on demand.
I prefer the Kona cotton substrate when ordering since I use that a lot normally. But for slightly less money you can get their basic cotton which is very nice just a bit thinner.
They have oodles of substrates. Cotton, guaze, knit, minky, canvas, wallpaper, giftwrap, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
You can order a very inexpensive sample box of all their substrates if you are not sure what to order.
The hand of the fabric is a little stiffer than regular quilting cotton since the ink is printed on top of the fabric. I do find the prints that have a white background with only a bit of color feel soft and pliable from the start. But once you use and wash your fabrics they will soften up a bit.
Washing may fade/full the colors a bit so keep that in mind. Spoonflower sends care instructions with any order.
I hope this helps you think about ordering from Spoonflower. I would love to see if you use my fabric to make something so please tag me and ask any questions you want to know and I will try my best to help you. If you an Instagram user I have a story highlight about my fabric so you can see a video of it.
This is a Fill A Yard from Spoonflower. Anybody can order one and it is a great way to swatch things or to get 42 6″ squares from a myriad of fabrics.
This is not a sponsored post I just want to share with you my new fabric and also help give information about Spoonflower so it’s not a scary endeavor. I am leaning this year that I just need to do the things that in the past were new to me and I would get so bent out of shape worrying about or putting off till it was almost to late when in reality they are so not as bad as I let them loom in my mind.
Guys! My friend Stephanie Socha has a great Podcast called Make and Decorate. Stephanie asked me awhile back if I would like to be on her podcast and between feelings of doubt that I could do it and general scaredness I said yes. 2019 is my year of doing things that scare me and trying new things even if they seem scary (disclaimer: most aren’t).
Well let me tell you Stephanie made it so fun and easy to chat with and we had a blast!!
You can go and listen to my episode, and see the show notes. All her other awesome episodes are such a great listen as well. Plus she has a discount code for my etsy shop in the show notes!
I thought we would take a look at my Floored Quilt Pattern and all the variations you can use the pattern for.
You can find my Floored Quilt Pattern in PDF format in my etsy shop. The pattern is for a 60″ x 72″ throw quilt. All the fabric requirements for the quilt are for the throw size with a selection of roughly 5 fabrics being the standard. Because of the nature of the quilt makes it customizable I also have included the fabric requirements for each medallion and X in the pattern. So you can make it larger or smaller to give it your own flare. I have made it with all the medallions a different fabric and the X’s scrappy, all the medallions different with the X’s all the same, Ombre Medallions with all the X’s the same, and a set amount of fabric (fabric line of 9) with all the X’s the same. I feel like there could be several more combos in there I haven’t tried yet.
I have also experimented with size, a king size, the throw size, and a crib size.
I hope you get inspired by all the different versions there are and make one for yourself or a friend.
This black and white version is almost King size, measuring 96″ square. I made it for my queen guest bedroom. I like oversized quilts or comforters, so on a small bed I will almost always make or buy a bigger than normal size. It has yet to be quilted.. ahem. I used a low volume white, gray, and black only, fabric for each of the medallions, with one medallion being a pale yellow liberty print (towards the top right). The X”s are all Kona black.
In the above picture is just this quilt top. The picture below is after it’s been quilted and the picture you find on the cover of the pattern.
I used the Art Gallery Fabric Bundle Campsite for this quilt. I bought extra yardage of the marshmallow on sticks fabric from the line for the X’s. This line had 9 fabrics plus the marshmallow. I added the orangy print with white stars from the Cotton and Steel Print Shop line. The 9th fabric from the line is what it is bound in. This leaves 9 medallion fabrics. 5-7 Medallion fabrics would be more the norm for this mix of patterns. I horizontal straight line quilted it and backed it in a cream with orange polka dot fabric by Denyse Schmidt.
This throw sized ombre floored quilt was a lot of fun to make. I was pulling solids for something else and kinda got to thinking that an ombre sunset would look fun. I used the included coloring sheet to figure out color placement and how to sew it up. I sewed it during a week at a lakehouse in Michigan and took it to the top of a very high dune to get a good picture. That photo at the top of the post has my husband, father-in-law, and son all behind it holding corners in the wind. LOL. They were quite the troopers. But it was worth it to get a picture with the sunset that mimics the colors in the quilt perfectly, or visa versa.
This cutie little crib size quilt , 36″ x 54″, was a recent quilt order and maybe my favorite thus far? I love the color combo so much on it, and the complete scrappy feel. I selected a different fabric for each medallion which means 13 medallion fabrics since parts of medallions are peaking out of the sides. Each X is made of four low volume (in the color scheme) prints. Each low volume print repeats just once in the whole quilt. You could definitely use only one cut of each print but I needed to stay in a certain color range.
I also added a partial plus and partial medallion strip to the top and bottom. This isn’t part of the pattern but could be figured out pretty easily if you wanted. Crib size is a little different which is why I opted to do this.
I quilted it with big loopy quilting which I wasn’t sure would work on this quilt pattern and discovered that it of course works. What was I thinking.
I hope this gives you a nice overview of how your can make this Floored Quilt Pattern in many different ways. You can check out the hashtag #flooredquilt on Instagram for all the awesome tester versions too. They did an awesome job of making unique versions. Please use that hashtag if you have made this quilt as I LOVE to see all the versions. You can always email me picutres too.
To get your own quilt just click on the pattern cover just above and it will take you to my etsy shop.
I thought I would share a few boy quilts I’ve made lately for custom orders and for gifts. Enjoy! (by boy I mean they were made for boys but I personally would use any of them ) ;)
The Ghost Quilt and The Fancy Fox Quilt below where twin quilt orders from a friend for her boys. They picked the colors and I selected all the fabrics and final designs. The Ghost Quilt is from Then Came June and Pen and Paper Patterns Modern Holiday Collection. I had wanted to make one but I have plenty of Halloween quilts already so this was the best of both worlds getting to make it for an order. I used Kona Cotton Ash for the background and a variety of fabrics I had on hand in the color palette requested. If anybody wanted exact fabric details I’m sure I could scrounge up most but a lot are old cotton and steel or Halloween fabrics I had.
This Fancy Fox Quilt is a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman that I have used often for kids quilts and enlarged in a myriad of sizes. The colors where chosen by my friends son and I opted for Kona Cotton Saffron for the background.
Both quilts were enlarged to Twin size so they would be a substantial quilt and be able to be used on the boys beds as well as to cuddle with. The standard for both patterns I believe is closer to a throw than a twin.
I quilted both quilts with my go to loopy free motion quilting because it is speedy and always looks great with any quilt design. I’m happy to report these quilts are being well loved by my friends sons. Win Win!
That stunner up there ( I just cant get enough of it ) I made for my newest nephew born in September and gifted to him at Christmas. I had two charm packs of that awesome Simple Simon Co. fabric line Let Them Be Little. It is just full of the cutest prints. I randomly laid out the charms to sew up the front which end up measuring around 40″ square.
I knew I wanted to do something a little fun on the back since the front was simple patchwork. I Drafted a large star on several sheets of paper I taped together and then foundation paper pieced it and then added borders of the same Kona Cotton Fern background to make it large enough to back the quilt. I believe the star ended up being 15″-18″ point to point and makes a very good impact at that size.
I quilted it in BIG loopy quilting and its just perfect to me seeing the quilting in the patchwork and then on the back in the green space.
I have a wonderful friend who’s go to baby gift is a small baby play quilt usually around 36″ square and she recently ordered 2 for baby boys. I just love making these for her because she gives me a gender, sometimes colors or nursery theme, sometimes parents likes, or sometimes just a name and lets me run with it. Coming up with an interesting design for a 36″ square is a lot of fun. These next two fit the bill.
This one is an itty bitty version of my soon to be released pattern. I am contemplating Moonrise or Crossover for the name.. thoughts? Anyway since its small and I kept the background solid I used a different fabric for each plus in the quilt and based it around the fabric in the middle plus that is helicopters. I’m pretty sure Luke picked that out at one point at a fabric store. But I kinda ran with a skyish theme from there.
I tried a new quilting design on this one too. I sewed horizontal lines 1/4″ above each row seam with my walking foot. Then I switched to my free motion darning foot and made triangles in each “square” that connected to the straight lines. It’s somewhat hard to explain without a video. If your happen to be on Instagram I have a snippet of a video of it saved in my Quilting highlight reel. I really liked the way this turned out and am excited to try it again.
Keep on eye out for the Crossover/Moonrise Pattern Release in March 2019. It will have multiple sizes included in the pattern and is a simple pattern to adjust to any size really.
Okay the last “BOY” quilt today is this giant X quilt. This quilt measures 36″ and each X block is 12″ finished. I used the X part of my Floored Quilt Pattern to make this baby quilt. I love the graphic punch the pattern gives it.
I selected fabrics based on the fact that the dad loves to fish and the mom is an interior designer. This one was so much fun to make so scrappy.
The quilting is free motion loops that I made a little skinnier and taller than normal to mix it up. With navy blue minky on the back it sure to be a regular cuddle quilt.
Boy quilts can be super fun and full of none specific fabric too. I love just pulling fabrics from my stash for quilts specific to boy or girl and have even been none to use a coordinating floral in a boys quilt before. All I’m saying is don’t be afraid to mix it up a bit. I don’t currently have my custom quilt pricing published anywhere but if your interested in knowing pricing just shoot me an email which you can find in my about page.
Blaire Wilson is the New American Girl of the Year for 2019. I took my kids into the city of Chicago on January 1st to check her out and ended up letting my daughter bring her home. Whoops. Who am I kidding we were never not going to leave with her, sorry honey. Anyway she is adorable and my daughter LOVES her to pieces.
Once Blaire joined my daughters AG family consisting of Nanea, Luciana, and Camille, we got to work reading her book right away and really enjoyed her story, along with getting a bigger picture of where she lives. Blaire’s book tells us her bedroom is on the third story of her families Victorian Bed & Breakfast in the Turret. So naturally my mind went to how can we recreate her room. Being an Interior Designer by trade has me always planning rooms and to get to make one in the scale to fit Blaire sounded like great fun.
My daughter has an American Girl “Dollhouse” consisting of two 16″ deep x roughly 50″ wide shelves in her closet. I’ll pop a little picture below to see it. It’s pretty full, with 3 dolls already residing there I knew Blaire’s room would have to be elsewhere, along with it being Turret shaped. We plan on making a big dollhouse this spring and I may try and figure out how to incorporate Blaire’s room room in that design.
(The light was there purely for pictures) We had just finished making a little kitchen area to fit all the kitchen supplies she got for Christmas.
I constructed the room base from Foam Core. Using 3/8″ thick for the walls and ceiling and 1/2″ thick for the floor. I planned out of graph paper the room plan after looking at a ton of turret floor plans. The one I model it closest to had a closet in the open space and the door in the corner. Once the plan was set I cut the walls out, I had to do a little bit of fancy cutting to get the angles on the edges. After cutting the walls to size and making sure they worked in the layout I had come up with I cut out all the windows and then constructed the room. I used painters tape to hold the walls in place on the outside while the glue set and then replaced the painters tape with masking tape. We will be “siding” and “shingling” the exterior with paper strips at some point so it will all be covered. You can see the outside in the picture above. The picture below is an in progress picture of which I took few. I seemed to take more videos in my Instagram stories more than anything.
Once the walls were glued I taped it to my cutting table to get a size and shape on the grid to cut out the floor foam board piece. Once the floor was cut to size I attached it inside the walls with glue and used painters tape to hold it in place, of which you can see in the exterior photo is still there. ; ) But it will get covered.
I ended up cutting each wall at roughly 12.5″ wide x 24″ tall, and the longer wall without a window at 15″ wide. The full room measures about 28″ deep x 30″ wide. It’s pretty big.
Okay onto the roof. The was the trickiest part. I am sure there is a scientific method to figuring out the exact size and angle to cut the wedges but I used the trial and error method. I cut two wedges to about the size I thought and trimmed until I had the proper shape and then cut out the rest. I decoupaged the ceiling before gluing it all together so the seams where a little cleaner. I ended up covering the seams with masking tape “beams” anyway. But I had a friend tell me it looks just like the ceiling of her turret attic so that makes me feel good.
I made a Window Seat from 1/2″ thick foam core. If only it opened for storage. Ha ha. I decoupaged wood grain paper for the seat part, and used hobby wood, similar to balsa, to add some moldings to the front of the seat. Blaire and probably a friend can sit and read a book or plan a party on the bench.
I found the cutest paper from Maggies Holmes Bloom line that both my daughter and I loved, I bought some pieces but couldn’t find enough anywhere to buy, which final lead me down the path of digital scrapbooking supplies. So cool. I was able to buy the digital file for the paper and print it on my printer. The color and scale is slightly different than the paper due to altering the file a bit in photoshop to print on bigger paper. But it’s still super close to the original paper, slightly smaller print, and more grey coloring probably due to my printer settings. I decoupaged all the walls with this paper.
I used a different scrapbook paper from the same line to decoupage window mullions, and then used hobby wood, similar to balsa, to make actual window frames and baseboards. The floor is actual vinyl plank flooring that looks so much like real wood. It’s from Lowe’s as is very inexpensive and easy to install. I would use it again in a heartbeat and probably will when we build the big dollhouse.
Once all the “building” was done I was able to get more into the decorating. My daughter helped select all the fabrics from curtains, bedding, and pillows. I really tried to just direct her towards a selection that would all work well and let her decide on final choices. Boy was that hard! She did a good job picking stuff if I do say so myself.
I made simple little rod pocket curtain panels and used dowel rods for the curtain rods. I cut small rectangles from square wood and drilled holes big enough for the dowel to slide through. I ended up gluing them to the wall since it’s foam core. I would definitely have used screw cup hooks or eyelets if the walls were wood. My daughter requested the little garlands be cut from scrapbook paper and hung on each window. So cute.
I found adorable butterfly scrapbook paper and thought if we could make the ceiling vaulted I would string the butterflies from the ceiling. I cut out two of each butterfly and glued them together so they look the same on each side. I used a long needle and regular sewing thread and strung them through the ceiling seams. It was super easy to do and makes a big impact.
We couldn’t find a desk my daughter liked so I made one from foam core based on a picture of a real desk we found. The drawers even work. LOL. I don’t imagine this will last long. It doesn’t have a lot of weight to it so the drawers are hard to open. I’m also not sure how long the decoupaged paper will hang on for since it’s on foam core. It’s all kind of an experiment. But Blaire needs a workspace right? I used some beads and gold wire I found in my bead stash and strung some little handles. The legs are made from hobby wood and painted gold. I do think I could make this out of wood now that I have made a foam core prototype. Once it warms up and I can stand to spend more than a couple minutes in our unheated garage, where my saws are, I will try it out. Hopefully at that point I will be better at documenting the process and can make a tutorial for it.
For a Bed I scored Ebay and Tutorials on Pinterest but ultimately I settled on the American Girl Bed for Molly. It wasn’t her original bed but a special release bed available the last year she was available. I found it on Ebay from a wonderful seller and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived in it’s original box in even better condition than described. I made new bedding for it, storing the old in the event we need it in the future. I made a fitted sheet for the existing mattress, a matching pillow case for the existing pillow, a reversible comforter, and a handful of pillows of which my daughter dictated fabric and shape for each.
Well that may be it! Whew.
I do have to say I would like to make from wood. Yikes! But we will see how well this holds up. My daughter although only 5.5 yrs is very good at playing with her dolls gently and carefully. If it feels like it could get ruined by the time we make the BIG dollhouse I’ll incorporate a wood version in that. If this one is doing good I have thought on making an attached garage on the BIG dollhouse and could set this on top of the garage so it’s “attached” to the house. The main reason I didn’t use wood to start is I was sure of cutting all the angles to construct it. Plus, cold garage, time, cost, lol all those factored in. This was supposed to be another “quick” project like the Snow Chalet. Oh well.
My daughter is a huge fan, and I had a blast making it. Designing in this small scale is infinitely quicker and easier than designing in real life.
Check out a little tour video my daughter did of the room down below or on my Youtube Channel. It’s the first video ever over there. Yikes! Lots of Learning to do on that front, like turn the camera sideways. ;)
Thanks so much for stopping by! Please let me know if you need any info I may have not covered.
So I have dived down the Rabbit Hole of making things for my Daughters American Girl Dolls, and lets be honest we pull out my old dolls to “play with” too.
I was looking on our local Craigslist for a couple American Girl things that I hadn’t been able to find on eBay, and since we live near a store (Chicago) I figured I may have luck on Craigslist. While we didn’t find anything to purchase I did stumble across a used American Girl Winter Chalet for a pretty reasonable price and had my son not been sick I may have purchased and left it at that. But being house bound, I started looking up details on the Chalet and realized it was kinda small, and while still utterly adorable, I decided to see if we could whip one up real quick with a cardboard box. Cue eye roll. That real quick project got away from me due to the fact that I am particular about details and how cute things look, not to mention being the proper scale. Luckily, I mean not really, my son was sick for two weeks on and off which meant lots of time at home and lots of free time so I worked away and ended up with our fun Winter Chalet and Hot Cocoa Stand.
Okay here are some details for you. While I didn’t take any process pictures, sorry about that, I can give you an overview of how I made the Chalet and if you have Instagram I have some story Highlights saved from during the process.
I used a cardboard box, just a random box we got in the mail, the box measures roughly 18″ x 18″ x 15″. I am pretty sure you can get Home depot shipping boxes in the store very similar to that size. So I cut one side off, and the top “roof” off, I added a peak at the back by just cutting some card board to fit the width and height of the peak I wanted and taped it to the existing box. I also cut a piece of white foam core board the size of the back wall including the peak, and glued it to the back wall as extra support and so there would be no seams. The roof is two pieces of foam core board I decoupaged with scrap book paper before hot gluing onto the roof. I cute the red roof beams from foam core and did two layers glued together so they are thicker, then they are just glued in place after being painted.
I cut sticks from a dead bush in our back yard and glued them on the front like log pillars. As you can see the one as popped off a bit on the right so i will reattach with a stronger glue. I did use Hot Glue for everything and while it has held up great thus far we will see how long it lasts.
I painted the outside with just a basic brown craft paint to keep it simple.
I cut windows out of one side of the Chalet with an exacto knife. The shutters are made from thick Popsicle sticks that I cut the rounded edges off, glue together, painted, and glued to the sides.
The walls are papered with a gingham scrap book paper and a wood plank scrapbook paper. Both papers were found at Hobby Lobby. I just cut to match seams as we went around.Then I cut a thin piece of the wood paper and glued it over the spot where the papers met as a “trim” piece. I used Modge Podge for all decoupage, a layer of it under the paper and after the paper dried a layer over the paper to seal it for longevity.
To make the Fireplace I needed something round to match the look of the one in the Real American Girl Winter Chalet. I finally settled on a protein powder container. I cut the bottom and the top off, and then had to cut it into maybe a third of a circle, I kind of measured it against the wall to figure out the exact size. It was all trial and error. I hadn’t attached the roof at this point so I had the angle at the top of the walls to measure against. Once I got the right size, I cut the half circle shape in the front for the opening. I glued the protein powder bottle to a 1/4-1/3 circle cardboard piece as its base. I added a duplicate partial circle piece on top of the protein bottle for the mantle. On top of the mantel I attached the top portion of a Pepsi 2 liter bottle, and then a paper towel roll over the Pepsi container spout as the chimney. I really wish I had a picture of this process for you. The best I can say is trail and error and don’t give up, and HOT GLUE can help anything. :) After it was all glued together I painted the top with a gold metallic craft paint I had, several coats right over the paper towel roll and the Pepsi container. I painted the interior of the fireplace black, and decoupaged the rock paper, from Joann Fabrics, over the bottom portion with Modge Podge. I had to clip the paper overlapping it on the curved sections. With the busy pattern of the rocks this isn’t to noticeable. But you could also paint it to look like rock. I added a trim piece on the mantel to match the trim on the walls and a little cardboard scrapbook NO. sticker. The wreath is a bottle brush wreath I had in my stash and I just used a dot of hot glue to attach it. I cut the logs from the same bush as the “log” pillars and added a tealight under them for the glow. The whole fireplace is detached so you can move it out to access the logs and tealight.
The Benches where probably the trickiest part. I used real wood, and mdf I had from my dollhouse. I cut the bases from 1″ ( actually .75″ thick) wood and just traced a similar style to the real Chalet bench. I drilled the holes for decoration, and attached it all with real wood glue and clamps. They measure roughly 4″ high x 6″ wide. I painted with red craft paint after they where assembled. If you wanted to make a bench but don’t have wood working tools I suggest pursuing your local craft store wood section and see what you can come up with.
The Antlers on the back wall were a quick make. I cut a base from brown cardboard and then antlers from red card stock. I just google antler images, printed one out, and cut that shaped from the card stock. I then glued the antlers on the base and hung it on the wall with dot of hot glue.
The little table was an addition not seen in the original Winter Chalet. I have had that birch wood disc from Micheal’s Craft Store in my stash for ages and cut it down from a circle into a little less than a half circle and attached it to 3 wooden spools I had that equaled about the height I wanted of 8″. The birch wood disc is still available at Micheal’s Craft Store, and they have cute wood candle sticks that would make great bases also. The Joy poster is cute from Scrapbook paper from Joann Fabrics and the items on the table are from American Girl.
Okay onto the Hot Cocoa Stand: I watched a YouTube Video by Eighteen Inches and did a lot of the same things she did in her How to Video for her American Girl Hot Coca Stand. I thought I would just share what I did differently here. But go watch her fun video tutorial.
The base of this Hot Cocoa stand is a brown paper mache’ box I found at Micheal’s Craft Store. I believe it is roughly 8″ Square and 4″ tall ( or in our case deep when used for the stand) with lid. I flipped the box on it’s side so the opening is in the back ( the above view is essentially the bottom of the box). I cut the lid in half slightly deeper than the box and placed it on the top with the lip overlapping the front of the box as sort of counter edge. I used the other half of the lid upside down glued on the inside for a shelf. I painted the inside, and the top red, and then decoupaged the wood scrapbook paper on the front and sides of the the box. I hot glued sticks from outside on the sides towards the back, they measure about 24″ tall. Enough for a doll to stand under any sort of sign or garland you attach to the top. I wrapped a mini faux evergreen garland and some mini lights around the top for a festive feel. I had both in my stash, but I am pretty sure you can find something similar in the miniature Christmas section or fairy section at Micheal’s, Joann’s, or Hobby Lobby.
You can see the inside, or backside, of the hot cocoa stand above where we stashed some extras. I laid scrapbook paper on the shelves to dress it up a little back here.
We had fun with the Food. Lots of yummy treats and Hot Cocoa Toppings were made.
We used a hole punch and punched circles out of all colors of craft foam for the little “sprinkles”. My kids made a lot of the sprinkles, it was an easy job they could help with. I made marshmallows with white clay by rolling snacks of clay roughly 1/8″ thick and then cutting the marshmallows of the snake and softening the edges by rolling each one in my fingers for a second. I made peppermints in a similar fashion to the marshmallows, but instead of just plain white I rolled several snakes of red and white together to get that peppermint look.
We also cut tiny little sticks of cinnamon from brown craft foam and put them in that clear box ( from the container store) on the bottom. For the whip cream I followed the tutorial on the Eighteen Inches video I linked above.
The Hot Cocoa dispenser was a bit tricky to figure out. I finally found a round clear container similar style to a paint can at the Container Store. the lid pops off so I cut a brown piece of craft foam with a wavy top and taped it into a circle that would fit the container perfectly. I liked this option over paint so we could change the drink offered. I glued a bead to the lid for a handle, and follower Eighteen Inches tutorial for the spot. Then we just taped the sign on to let our customers know what is offered. The little cups are from a vintage tea set my daughter has and the birch circle is from Micheal’s Craft Store.
Lastly we made cookies and brownies for treats, the brownies are in a little metal tub found in the Joann Fabrics fairy garden section. I followed eighteen Inches Tutorial again and they were so easy to make from clay, as long as you buy the correct clay. ;) I bought clay that doesnt harden first and made a bunch and then cooked them, only to have them melt and not harden. oiy! Oh and the little candy canes are also made from clay by just rolling a white and a red snake and them twisting together into one snake. I think cut 1.5″-2″ long sections and shaped into a cane before baking. My daughter brought me that red and white stripped fabric from my stash and asked me to cut little napkins which I think is a cute addition since we don’t have plates.
Here are a couple shots of the dolls so you can see scale.
The Sled in the last picture is from the Target dollar spot this year and is the perfect American Girl doll size, plus it’s a chalkboard.
The Snowmen in the last picture are a craft we made last year.
Okay I hope you have enjoyed reading a little bit about how I made our Winter Chalet and Hot Cocoa stand. It was such a fun project and can be made as simply or extravagant as you please. I would love to see if you make something similar to mine so please tag me or send me some pictures. As always please feel free to comment or email with any other questions too.
I will be having some food sets available on Instagram later this week so keep an eye out for those.
Does anybody else have all these grand plans of getting so much done over the summer and then when summer starts you get absolutely NOTHING done? Well that sure feels like what is happening over here right now. LOL. Having the kids home all day everyday is a lot different this year. They play super well together, and by themselves, are outside a ton, and don’t need me to entertain them, not that I would. I do need to be present to engage with them here and there and a lot of the time within earshot to make sure no one dies, so that means my sewing room on the top floor of the house tucked away from the bedrooms isn’t super practical to be in. Enter a lot of hand stitching and slow stitching during the days if I am able to, and sewing room projects happen at night after they are in bed if I am not to tired.
So here’s a little of what I’ve been working on this summer break:
My Tula Nova:
I completely all the hand stitching and then hand appliqued it to the black and white polka dot background. It is currently half quilted, just of the medallion with white thread. Yay! I just have to finish quilting the Background area with black thread so it blends in and then bind.
La Passacaglia:
Current Rosette I just started. I have 30 minutes a day at swim camp and have been slowly stitching those pretzels together amidst trying not to sweat to much in the 90 degree pool facility. :)
These two, above and below, I finished over the last month. I made the one above to big, so I will add another star and green diamond and place it in a different spot. But I love the brown and white scallop and how I fussy cut it so I am doing that with a stripe on another current rosette, not pictured. The little mice in the rosette below are just killing me with cuteness.
This La Pass quilt will be quite the crazy all the fabrics find of scrappy quilt. I am looking forward to the end only to see the vast amount of prints and how the years, yes years, have changed the fabric choices. My only goal for this quilt is to repeat fabrics as little as possible or not at all. We will see if I can achieve that.
I currently have three rosettes waiting to be attached to the bigger section of my La Passacaglia, so once I stitch up the two I have cut out and mostly basted I will be connecting them all and then continuing on this long term quilt project.
Other slow stitching projects I have in the works right now are:
The Hexagon Flower Rings I designed from third hexagon pattern pieces. I wish I could find a picture of this to link, It is on my Instagram and is in shades of pink, blue, caramel, and a citron yellow.
Kingfisher quilt by Tales of Cloth I started last week to attempt joining in with the stitch along. Check it out it’s stunning. I am hoping to make mine super similar to the one Jodi made and has pictured in her advertising. So gorgeous!
A handful of other little EPP projects I unearthed last week. All are in final stages or close to completion. It’s jut more fun to start a new or fresh project then to finish an old one.
As always you can find the most of me on Instagram.
I’m finally sharing Norah’s room here. Her room is bright and full of cuteness and she loves it and so do I. Win win if you ask me. :)
Norah’s middle name is Brave so this print was perfect for the entrance to her room. The Print is from Holly Casto Design but doesn’t look to be available anymore.
I made Pinch pleated drapes with semi black out lining for her windows from a Nate Berkus fabric found at Joann fabrics. They are white with a simple navy leafy detail. The print between the window is a blonde girl holding bears and it’s by Emily Martin of The Black Apple. The abstract art is all Norah. I just show her a selection of colors I like and she picks what she uses.
She has a little reading nook at the end of her bed since she LOVES to read. I found the cute little rocker at a vintage shop and she is constantly rotating books to here from the playroom.
I did a board and batten treatment on the back wall so as to break up the bold Coral on all the other walls. The bed is from Overstock can you believe it. It was so inexpensive and has been super durable even though I catch the kiddos swinging on it occasionally.
We hung a little bit of fun art over her bed and chair. The Giraffe is affectionately dubbed Dorothy and we found her at Homegoods. The Hooray pendant is from Hobby Lobby. The N is a vintage marquee cover and the little girl painting is also vintage. I found the brown craft paper letters that spell be brave at Joann Fabrics. The abstracts are Norah’s handiwork again. The rug is from Rugs USA and looks to no longer be available since I purchased it 4 years ago, and the chair is vintage and recovered.
The arrow sign is from Hobby Lobby as is the Flamingo. I used some Denyse Schmidt in a thrift store frame to make her a little pin board. The white bulldog is a night light from Target and the gold bulldog is a bank from Homegoods. The bear picture is from Target. Everything else is Vintage.
Norah’s closet is nice and large and since her clothes are small she has amble room to store a lot of toys so they don’t clutter up her room. She plays in here ALOT. Someday I think it would be super fun to paint a fun design on the walls.
I put her fancy forest on her bed when I finished it a month or so ago and it so completes the room.
She has a Frances Firefly quilt tucked on the end of her quilt so she can lean on it if she sits down by her books.
I used the whole line of Maribel fabric by Annabel Wrigley and added in a couple others from Michael Miller and Cotton and Steel. This quilt really is a labor of love. There are a lot of hours in it. But the end result is totally worth it to me and Norah super loves it.
The back of the quilt is a handful of coordinating prints made into some fun patchwork. I free motion quilted this quilt with a wood grain pattern and couldn’t love it more.
I hope you enjoyed Norah’s little room tour. I so love to decorate kids spaces. They are so bright and full of color and don’t have to be totally serious. :)
I’ve been itching to give the kids bathroom a little refresh since we moved in but it wasn’t that bad to begin with so it had to wait till a week ago when I had some time to tackle it.
Okay so here’s a little glimpse of the after. Can I tell you how hard it is to photograph a long narrow bathroom…. It’s not easy!
So before we talk about the after lets take a peek at the old.
Yes, I realize it’s just fine, neutral, livable, clean. I just didn’t love it. We replaced the faucets a couple months ago which is a whole story in itself, started with some very pricey plumbing quotes, which turned into a plumber causing a massive leak and having to replace a ceiling….. and then we found a wonderful skilled handyman to install a bunch of new faucets for us at a fraction the cost. Thank goodness! The old faucets in here were chrome and had those giant cut plastic knobs straight out of the 90’s. I also replaced the lights in here as soon as we moved in to these nice inexpensive outdoor lights from Lowe’s.
The small darker squares on the floor are hunter green and for the first year living here all I could think about was replacing them, which wasn’t in the cards currently. But then the dark green trend started popping up and I thought maybe I could work with them. So I dubbed it the kids camp bath and went with that theme for the refresh.
The hardest fix was taking the giant mirror down, and sanding through the paint to remove the raised letters underneath. I could never get a good picture while the letters were painted over with the pale blue color on the walls, but after some serious sanding I smoothed it all out and could see what was written. The picture below is what was around the entire room just under the ceiling.
So the game plan was:
-remove mirror
-sand words away
-shiplap wall behind sink
-paint walls and vanity
-replace mirror, knobs, toilet paper holder, and hooks
-hope the kids don’t wreck it to fast
I am very pleased with how it turned out and it wasn’t any sort of work that even a beginner DIY’r couldn’t tackle. The hardest part was removing the mirror, mainly because I had no clue what I was doing. It definitly didn’t go as smoothly as the YouTube videos I watched said it would. I taped the heck out of it and slowly chipped it off, breaking it a bunch, but the last 2/3rd came off in one nice big piece I now have to figure out how to dispose of. ;) The sanding was the other hard part, but luckily I have an electric sander that helped speed the process along. It still took a couple hours and sore arms to accomplish though.
The premade Shiplap I found at Home Depot was so easy to use and since I was doing only one wall it wasn’t that expensive. I have used 4′ x 8’ft sheets of luan or underlayment in the past and ripped them down to 8′ ft lengths by the height I need typically around 8″. This process is cheap as the sheets cost $12, but it’s time consuming to cut them all and much more finicky to hang. For a large room I would still do this as it’s saves sooo much money but for one wall I love this shiplap option. Linked below.
Here are a few sources for the things I used. I linked things when I could. I’m not paid or sponsered by anybody I just like to give as much information as possible since that’s what I always love myself.
