Leap Pad Case

 

 In the age of technology, kids are so tech savvy at such a young age! Every time we went into the toy section at the store, our oldest son would gravitate towards the Leap Pad (which looks just like an iPad), and he knew EXACTLY how to navigate it! I checked out the games that came with it. Many of them were educational. So we got him a Leap Pad for his 4th birthday.

 

At first, we got him just one game. Then for Christmas, we bought him a second game. Then we had a problem, what did we do with the little game cartridge when it wasn't in use? It looks like a memory card, and I didn't want it to get stepped on, lost or damaged. I looked up carrying cases online and they were SO expensive (for my taste anyway).

 

I searched pinterest (LOVE!) for some kind of homemade case and found a tutorial, found here. I was able to use fabric and velcro that I had left over from a blanket I made from a friend. The fabric called for interfacing, and I was like "huh?". But I had some upholstery fabric that I used in placed of it. That was a mistake! It ended up being so thick and stiff. And there'ss many layers to sew through and lots of flipping inside out of fabric. Batting would have sufficed, or a few layers of scrap fabric. The only thing I had to buy was a zipper, .99 cents!

 

 This turned out adorable! It's the perfect size for his Leap Pad and has a pocket in the front to store his games. Perfect for traveling and storing everything!

Elmo Quilt

I made 2 quilts for Christmas, one for each of my boys. It was my first quilting project. The only thing I am disappointed in is that I didn't flatten and smooth the fabric and batting enough when pinning. So there was a little bunching here and there. Nothing noticable to the average person, but frustrating for perfectionist me!

Euan loves 2 things right now. Cows and "Melmo"! I couldn't find any Elmo only fabric, and I really wanted a life size Elmo blanket. I drew a 3 foot sized Elmo on the red fabric with pencil, using googled images as my inspiration. I used a triple stitch setting (for boldness) and followed my pencil lines. This was Elmo's basic shape. Some lines went jagged, some went a stitch too far, but this totally worked for me. Elmo is fuzzy, so it looked perfect!

I cut out other colored fabric for the eyes, nose and mouth and did an applique technique. But after being washed, Elmo's eyes bled through a little and are now a faded red. Maybe for future projects, double up on the white and prewash the red fabric.

I am so proud of my quilt, even with the mishaps. I was pleasantly surprised with how adorable Elmo turned out! It's better than I had planned!

Cars Quilt

A Christmas present for Ethan. My first attempt at making a quilt. I got the basic instructions here. However.... I did the traditional binding, tedious hand stitiching! I bought the fabric for the front, and used an unused Cars flat sheet for the backing. It wasn't complete by Christmas, just the binding left to complete. But I wrapped it up anyway and finsihed it the next day. Ethan loves it!