Silhouette PixScan and Some Small House Updates

I am no stranger to making appliqued onesies.  They are so great for using up fabric scraps.  Here are some other onesies I have made:

When Silhouette came out with their PixScan technology I immediately thought of how much material I could save using it.  It also saves time because I can cut all the fabric parts for applique onesies at the same time.  Here is a run down of how PixScan works.

I laid my fabric scraps with the heat n' bond backing on the PixScan mat.

Then I took a photo of the mat with my iPhone.

Then I uploaded the photo into the Silhouette design software by clicking the PixScan icon.  Next I just dragged my designs over the correct fabric square.  When you go to cut your designs, the Silhouette reads the registration marks on the PixScan mat and then cuts your designs.  It was seriously that easy!  There are many other uses for PixScan but this one will certainly be one of my favorites.

I also have some small house updates for you today.  They aren't super exciting but I am happy to have them taken care of before baby gets here.

First of all, about a month ago my husband decided to finish installing the quarter round in the master bedroom.  We started this project a LONG time ago.  Unfortunately we cut half of the pieces incorrectly and so we had to order more quarter round.  Lowes took forever to get it in and then they lost our order in the store so that when we went to pick it up, no one could locate our order!  By that time it was winter and we didn't want to be going back and forth between our unattached garage to cut the pieces.  I am so glad that my husband finished it because I was tired of looking at those quarter round pieces just hanging around.

I also finally hung my degrees up in the office.  As a gift for my masters commencement my parents paid for the custom framing of my undergrad and masters degrees.  I didn't want to hang them up until the office was painted so that is why it took so long (I graduated with my masters 2 years ago)

That is it for my quick post today.  Today I also edited the photos for a post on all the finishing touches in the nursery and I also took photos of the nursery so that I can post the big nursery reveal soon!  Check back in the near future for those posts.

Handmade Baby Shower Gifts

I can't believe that it is March already!  This school year has been flying by. It will be Easter before we know it which means that I have got to get those dining chairs finished for when we host Easter dinner at our house. I painted 3 of them gray, the same gray that is on our dining room walls and I hated it so now I am going in a new direction and I am very excited about it.  I can't wait to share those with you but I have got quite a ways to go yet.

For now, I have some small projects to share with you.  Yesterday I attended a baby shower in Bismarck, ND and it was a blast.  I also had a blast making the gifts for the baby.  I gave a joint gift off of the registry with a friend but I also decided to make a few things as well.  

I made some onesies with fabric appliques using my Silhouette Portrait, heat transfer fabric interfacing and fabric scraps from my stash.  There are two types of heat transfer interfacing: one that is lighter hold that is used if you want to stitch around the edges of the applique and a stronger hold one that is made for just ironing on the appliques without using the sewing machine at all.  I had the latter kind on hand so I did not stitch around my appliques. The fox shape and North Dakota shape both came from the Silhouette online store.

The North Dakota one is definitely my favorite!

I also made a card to go with my gift.  The cut file was a freebie from this post from The Thinking Closet.  

Lauren used Silhouette's new washi paper for hers.  It is a really cute new product and I really want to get some eventually but I just used some cardstock that I had on hand instead.  I used a sketch pen to print the writing on the front.

And of course I had to throw in a set of burp cloths.  I should have taken a picture of the second one in the stack because it had cute jungle animals on it.  The theme of the shower was safari so it went perfectly with that.  

I hope you enjoyed my cute shower gifts.  P.S. I won one of the shower games by not saying the word cute during the gift opening.  That was no easy task my friends!