Seaside Home Book Giveaway

**This giveaway is closed!**

I'm SUPER excited to finally tell you all that Micah's Sea Turtle Quilt is in a BOOK! 

 I was contacted by Suzanne Woods in November of 2010 (right after Micah was born) and asked if I would like to participate. After a bunch of crazy work (thank goodness Mum was there or I don't think I could have done it!) and a good 6 months of having to part with the quilt (talk about nerve racking!) I had almost forgotten all about it.... and then my book arrived in the mail! 

It's actually been out for a few weeks (I think?!) but life is crazy right now so I am just getting around to telling you all. 

Because it's awesome (and my birthday this week) I want to give away a copy here. So please enter a comment for a chance to win. 

Or if you would rather just purchase it you can find it here on Amazon.

I will close the giveaway next Friday morning and draw a name.

We may or may not blog in the mean time... but I promise to fill you in on what's been keeping me so busy next week! 

Book of Colors in the shop

I'm done- finally!

they are in the shop

Book of Numbers - now in the shop!

Surprise! 

 I had my book of numbers printed so it is now available for purchase in my etsy shop. 

 I am very happy with the way it turned out! Now if I can just get my act together on the color book (yes there is one of those coming too!)

 And some new garland is up -- yeah!

Alright back to life... it's been a LONG week already... hope yours is better than mine!

Book of Numbers Tutorial

So April's tutorial... 4 tutorials this year can I keep this up?! I'll try to make next months not kid related...

I LOVE this book I think I like it better than the color book. I REALLY enjoyed the process of making this one. Though I am very happy to say I am done with it too! And someone suggested an alphabet book which is a fabulous idea but I am taking a break from books for a while at least especially since that would only be a larger project!

Please do not sell anything made from this tutorial it was provided free to you for personal use only. 

Supplies

1/2 yard linen fabric

1 yard one-sided fusible interfacing

wool felt 

(2) Black and (1) red Embroidery floss 

Fabric Paint (orange, green, blue)

Freezer paper

X-Acto knife

fabric marker

graphite paper/Embroidery tracing paper **helpful note I tried two methods of tracing the DMC embroidery tracing paper was my least favorite. I would recommend getting graphite paper (which I found at Michaels, MonaLisa Art Products by Speedball) It transfered with one firm trace and the transfered image had dark crisp lines.

5" embroidery hoop

Printed book template

Cut

Linen

(10)      8” x 8” – Pages

(1)        16.75 ” x 8” – cover

(1)        8” x 2.5” - inner cover

(4)        8” x 3” – binding

Interfacing

(4)      7.5”x7” - pages

(1)      15.75” x 7” – cover

Directions

1.  Use your preferred method of embroidery tracing and trace the title page wording to the cover making sure to center on the right side of your cover fabric.
**my preferred method is actually this graphite paper I bought mine at Michael's it's what I traced the hands with further in the tutorial. (I would not recommend the DMC Tracing paper.)

To make centering the template easier I trimmed the edges off my template to 1/2" past the line.

Then I was able to lay my template directly over the linen and line up the edges.

2. Use a backstitch over the top of the outline.

3. Using your template trace number, word, and roman numeral onto freezer paper. Make sure to mark the top corners of you page on your freezer paper.

4.Cut out using X-Acto knife. Any letters that have little pieces like an 'e' that will need to be used leave them just slightly attached so you don't have to worry about loosing the pieces

5. Iron a piece of freezer paper to the back of your page to keep paint from bleeding through and then center your cut out word on the front of the linen using the corner markings as a guide, pull off your slightly attached letters and iron on. You will want to do this on a high heat setting so the wax makes a good seal to your linen. Add back in the smaller inside piece and iron in place individually. Repeat for all pages.

6. Paint each word with its corresponding color. Then let dry and heat set per paint bottle instructions.

7. Trace the corresponding hands onto each number page. I cut out pieces of my numbers to help me line up where I should trace the hands

8. Using 3 strands of embroidery floss go over the top of the lines with a backstitch. 

9. Cut out felt circles.

Arrange on page, pin in place and use a backstitch to attach them to the page. 

10. Layout the book in order 

Put pages right side together example 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9. 

 You will only be sewing three sides. The side that will go into the books binding leave unsewn. I laid mine out so I could see which edges should be sewn

Pin the one side that should be sewn. 

And then run your seam around the top side and bottom of the page. I like to double check my measurements before sewing along the bottom- you want you page seams to be 7 inches apart top to bottom and 7.5 inches from sewn to unsewn side edge. 

 Once three sides are sewn clean up you edges and snip the corners

Iron on the interfacing to the inside of the page. It should lay between all of the seams to the edge of the unsewn side

Flip page right side out and press

11. Using the 4 cut binding strips bind the unsewn edge of your 4 pages.

First fold each piece in half and iron, then fold down the top and bottom of each binding piece to make a 7"  strip. Pin to the unsewn side of the page and sew a 3/8" seam allowance. Press seam. Snip page edges and fold in binding corners. Pin in place and sew down. 

14. Sew the Inner cover linen (8"x 2.5") between the 1 page and the 10 page.

15. Put right side together with the cover and sew around the outside leaving a 3" opening for turning.

16. Iron on interfacing

17. Turn right side out, iron, and hand stitch closed. 

18. position 1st and last pages so the cover will cover them when closed.

19. Use a backstitch to attach them to the book. 

20. measure space and evenly divide it between the 2 remaining pages. Draw guidelines to keep your stitches straight. 

21. Sew in remaining pages.

Please add your completed projects to my flickr group!

Reversible Bucket Hat

After seeing Jen's version for her daughter, I thought I needed this book.... When Jess commented that this was the hat she wanted for the little guy, I bought it. It was delivered two days later and I made the first version that night. That night, three (or four?) weeks ago.... I'm a bit slow with my show and tell....

 I'm so silly, I photographed it on him sideways. Part of the problem is, he's not really enjoying the wearing of the hat. He didn't mind it so much at first. Then he decided it was a great chew toy. I'm not sure he is aware that the hat will keep the sun out of his eyes. We'll have to have another conversation about it.

 The pattern is quick and fairly easy. I did not hand sew the crown as suggested in the pattern. I so do not have enough time right now. I just top stitched them together and it works fine. My machine needs to be cleaned desperately and I obviously need to adjust my tension....

 Brinkley loves to hang out for a bit, letting our chunky monkey practice his petting technique. Thankfully he is a gentle, patient dog and doesn't mind the baby kung-fu grip too much.

Thanks so much for all of the really nice comments on my last post! It is really nice to have people out there thinking good thoughts about the little things I like to do. I realized that I may have been clear about the giveaway....... I am giving away one of my copies of the magazine. There is still time to go and make a comment.
See ya in a couple of days!

Book of Colors Tutorial

Just in case you didn't check out my guest post last week here is my color book tutorial.  I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did.  I would love to see your completed project so please share by joining my flicker group!


Please do not sell anything made from this tutorial it was provided free to you for personal use only.

Supplies

1/2 yard linen fabric
1 yard one-sided fusible interfacing
Scrap fabric (purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, black, gray, white)
Embroidery floss  (purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, black, gray, white)
Fabric Paint (purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, black, gray, white)
Freezer paper
X-Acto knife
fabric marker
small embroidery hoop
Printed word template
optional: plastic bag

Cutting directions-

Linen

(11)      8” x 8” – Pages

(1)        17” x 8” – cover

(1)        8” x 3.5” - spine

(10)      8” x 3” – binding

Interfacing

(10)      7.5”x7” - pages

(1)        16” x 7” – cover

Assembly Directions
Note: All seam allowances are 1/2’’.

1. Create and 8”x8” block for each of the 11 colors from your scrap pieces. Try to add at least one textural fabric to each page, I used minky, felt, fleece, and flannel to achieve this. In some cases I appliquéd additional fabric to the top of my block for added interest.

2. Trace each of the colors onto freezer paper using your word template. Following your traced lines,  cut out each letter with an X-Acto knife.

*helpful hint - Any letters that have little pieces like an 'e' that will need to be used leave them just slightly attached until your ready to iron so you don't have to worry about loosing the pieces

3. Iron a piece of freezer paper to the back of the page and then center the cut out word on the front of the page and iron it on. Make sure the iron is on a high heat setting so the wax makes a good seal to your page. Repeat for all pages.

4. Paint each word with it's corresponding color. Then let dry and heat set per paint bottle instructions.

*tip always heat set from the back of the fabric it keeps paint from transfering to the hot iron and ruining your project.

5.  From your word print out, cut out the book title to make a stencil, don't worry about keeping the inner detail.

 6. Center your stencil on the right side of your Cover fabric as in the example below

7. Use the stencil to draw out your embroidery lines

 8. Use a running stitch over the top of the outline.

9. Layout the book in order purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, black, gray, 

white.  

10.  With exception of the purple word page and the white scrap page. Put pages right side together in order (example purple scrap page goes with red word page, red scrap page goes with pink word page, etc.) You will only be sewing three sides. The side to the left of word must be sewn. Lay the pairs out and pin the one side that should be sew. 

Sew around the top, side and bottom of the page (1/2" seam allowance). I like to double check my measurements before sewing along the bottom- you want your pages to be 7 inches top to bottom and 7.5 inches from sewn to unsewn side edge. 

 Once three sides are sewn clean up you edges and snip the corners

11. Iron on the interfacing to the inside to your page. 

**Optional add plastic bag in some of your pages to make a crinkle page. (thank you Jennifer for this idea!)

12. Flip page right side out and iron

13. Bind your page edge.
First fold each binding piece in half and iron, fold down the top and bottom of each binding piece to make a 7"  strip,  pin to the unsewn side of the page and sew with a 3/8" seam allowance. Press seam. Snip page edges and fold in binding corners, pin in place.

Sew down. repeat for all pages 

14. Sew the spine (8"x 3.5")between your purple word page and your white scrap page. 

15. Put right side together with the cover and sew around the outside leaving a 3" opening for turning.
16. Trim the edges, clip corners and iron on interfacing

17. Turn right side out, iron, and hand stitch closed. 

18. Position 1st and last pages on your "book spine" making sure they will be covered when the book is closed. Put a pin where the page will need to be sewn in at the top and bottom. Use a ruler and draw a straight guide line down the cover.

19. Use a running stitch to attach the first and last page to the book. Use the corresponding color to the page you are sewing in.

20. Once the front and last page are sewn in place evenly divide the area between them among the 8 remaining pages. Draw guidelines again to keep your page and stitches straight. 

Sew in remaining pages.