Tv Show opening animation

My husband put a link to download the animation that I made for my tv show here. The music is not attached to it yet. A local band, Wednesday Night Militia, is working on the music for it. If you watch it, please let me know what you think. Thank you.

Birthday Party Goodie Bags

My oldest son's birthday is this coming week. Ever since his 4th birthday party, I have been making the goodie bags for his party. I really don't like the little plastic goodie bags that go home and go straight into the trash. I wanted to make something that the kids would want to keep and remember the party by. My mom and I made the 1st ones together. His 4th birthday was a Spiderman theme. We bought red and blue felt sheets. On one color we painted a large spider web, and on the other color we painted a large spider. We used the squeezable fabric paint. Then I placed a thin ribbon along the sides and sewed the bag.

His 5th birthday was Elmo. One side was red felt. I painted elmo's face on it. I chose red so that I just needed to outline Elmo's face, and paint the nose and eyes. The other side of the bag was gray fake fur with large google eyes glued to it.

His 6th birthday was a soccer theme. I used white felt (which I bought by the yard). I found a silhouette of a soccer player kicking a ball, and I printed it out and used it as my stencil. I also did the same for a large soccer ball. So one side ow the soccer player and the other side was a large soccer ball. I used a lot of black paint. I also found some glow in the dark paint that I used to highlight the soccer player's clothes, make action lines, and write the child's name on the bag.

I painted the child's name on their bag for a few years. Now I attach a name tag to the handles so that the name can be removed and the bag can be passed on to someone else (kids get older and grow out of things). I would cut a tag out of felt using my die-cut machine, paint the child's name on it, and attach it to the handle before I sewed it on.

His 7th birthday was at a mini golf course. I started with a green piece of felt and then I sewed on red , orange, and yellow felt so that it looked like grass and a sun set. I then painted with black a golf ball and golf club.

His 8th birthday was a pokemon theme. I was pregnant with my 2nd son, and my due date was a month before his party. I started making the goodie bags 5 months early. I finished them the week before the party. One side was yellow felt. I painted Pikachu's head and ears on that side. Again I chose yellow felt so that I just had to paint the outline instead of using up way too much yellow paint. The other side was white felt and I painted a pokeball on it.

Last year he turned 9 and wanted a Webkinz bag. His 1st webkinz was a tiger, so he wanted that to be on his bag. I did not want to paint any more. We picked out some dark green fabric with a leaf print (fern like) on it. I also bought some tiger striped fake fur and some white fake fur. I still had to use felt as a stabilizer. I chose green felt to match. I used fusible webbing to attach the leaf fabric to the felt. Then I cut out a circle and 2 triangles from the tiger striped fur. After pinning in in place, I stitched them down with black thread. I then cut 2 small circles from the white fake fur to use for the tiger's nose. I stitched them in place with white thread. I used a zig zag like stitch that one might use when appliqueing. I glued 2 large google eyes on him. I also sewed a pink button on for a nose. Then using white embrodiery thread, I made 6 wiskers. The back and front of the bag was exactly the same. It took a lot more time making these than painting ever did.

This year his party theme is outdoor water fun. I did not want to make a time consuming bag (times 8 or more) this year. Between other projects and chasing a toddler around, I wanted something simple. So we went to the fabric store and he picked out a printed fabric that looked like pool water (a bright blue with glod lines). I also bought matching fabric later (they didn't have the same print) for the handles. I made 4 out of 9 bags today. The party is in 7 days. No painting, no detailed sewing, just basic sewing. I cut rectangles out of the fabric (to what looked like a good size). I folded the 2 ends (which will be the top of the bag) twice, and pinned them. I then cut 2.5 inch strips for the handles. I ironed them so that the outer edges were folded to the center, then I folded them in half. I sewed the open side closed. Then I measured, cut, and attached the handles with pins. Then I just sewed the tops of the bags down, handles and all. I folded the bag in half, right sides together. Using a zig zag stitch, I sewed the sides together. I then sewed triangles (1.5 inches) on the bottom corners. This is so the bag can have a flat bottom. I turned it inside out and I'm done. I still need to make name tags for the bags. My son likes it, and I was able to make 4 bags from start to finish in one day. I even had my toddler on my lap while I was sewing.

Hopefully I'll finish some more bags today. I don't want to work on them tomorrow, because thats when my birthday is. My son was a late birthday present.

I will post pictures soon. I will post the pictures that I have of past bags.

Concept drawing & other doodles

Here is my concept drawing for the tv show. I actually did the animation for it today. It was the first time that I had ever made an animation. My husband has a degree in film & animation. He set up the camera and showed me how to use the program. Then I just used a bunch of collage items and moved them around while click (capturing) frames. I think it turned out pretty good.

This drawing I made on Sunday. It is a branch or a vine with a plant growing out of it.

The others I made last night. I'm thinking of turning this one into a t-shirt.

I don't like the vine on this one, but I think the flowers turned out ok.

This one is a work in progress.

Quilt Guild Box Exchange

We got back our box exchange blocks at the last quilt guild meeting. Here is mine. I love it! The top 2 on the right are the ones that I made. The directions were to make your choice of either a crazy quilt block and/or a wonky log cabin block. The person could make one or two blocks. They had to use this brown batik fabric that I included (brown w/ some green, orange, and yellow with branch like patterns). I also included some yellow fabric for them to use if they wanted to. I think everyone used both fabrics. I also asked them to stick to a certain color scheme, and to use fabrics that were nature inspired. I really love it. They really look good together. Now I just need to make a quilt out of them.

Oh, I also won 10 of the 30 block of the month blocks. There were 3 winners (10 blocks each). I was so happy. I really wanted them. I did not win mine back. They are all so different and interesting. You can look on an older post to see the ones that I had made. They were inspired by African quilt blocks (no rulers or rotary cutters were allowed).

Patriotic Plastic Bag Wreath & Recycling Champion

I made this from start to finish today. I bought a wire wreath frame, but you can used recycled material cut into a wreath form. This is a medium size frame. All the plastic bags need to be about the same size in length. The handles and bottom seem need to be cut, then you tie the bag in a knot around the wreath frame. You bunch them together, and then fluff them. The blue bags are newspaper bags. I tied them on first so that I could have them evenly spaced around the wreath. Then I tied on the white bags. One hundred and twenty bags were used to make this wreath. The bow was $1 from The Dollar Tree. I used a twist tie that I had saved from a bread bag to hang it. Some places have red bags, but I did not have enough of them saved to add to this wreath.

You can see a picture of my Christmas plastic bag wreath on my blog as well. Another plastic bag wreath idea is a Halloween one made from gray and/or black bags.

I was also named Chelmsford's recycling champion for the month of May this year. Here is the link to the article.

Block of the month

Last month Opal in my quilt guild showed everyone May's block of the month. It is inspired by African quilts. The drawing on the left was on the instructions for this block. We were not allowed to use any rulers or rotary cutters or templates for this block. We were given fabric that was kind of a white and black plaid with orange, yellow, and green squares in it. We did not have to use it (I did), but we were suppose to base our fabric choices off of it. We were also asked to throw in a crazier looking fabric in the mix. It was a fun challenge, but it was a challenge. The half square triangles were tough.

Scotty Dog quilt block

This is the last block that I have received in my quilt guild's block exchange. It is made with reproduction or close to reproduction 1930's fabric. I think it is really cute. Since we all made one block each, we cut out the fabric using templates. Each colored piece of fabric in the block is different. The original person precut all the background pieces. I would love to make one of these (with different fabric). I think it would be really cute for my youngest son who loves dogs or for my parents. Tomorrow night is the last quilt guild meeting before the fall. We are displaying the box exchange blocks on fabric and returning them to their owner. I am looking forward to seeing mine.


I have googly eyes around my computer desk. Just for fun (kicks and giggles), I glued some on my stapler. I think it looks like a beaver now. if I gave it ears, it could be a bunny. Now I have a little friend to keep me smiling at my desk.