Statistics Icons

My husband designed 26 statistics themed icons for the ABC of Statistics poster.

Then, we made some burp cloths for coworkers using those icons. They came out pretty good, so we made some to sell on Etsy.

And to further the fun, my husband thought they would look good as pillow covers. So I made some with fleece, and we like them too. So, they also go to the shop!

I made them out of fleece since it doesn't need to be hemmed on the edges and it comes in many colors. The reason I didn't use felt is just because fleece is softer. I'd rather lay my face against fleece than felt.

They are just covers, over a 16x16 inch pillow form. To avoid zippers, buttons, velcro, etc I made them envelope style, so they have a slit in the back that the pillow slides into. I first tried to put the slit low and on the bottom, but that just pulled funny and didn't work. So I put it right in the middle which works great. (Kind of seems obvious now. It minimizes the pull for each direction.). But I am pleased with how they look! I made three different ones for photos, but there are many designs I could have made.

Bring on the Babies! Season 2

Spring was baby season #1 this year for me. And this fall brings on baby season #2. Today I went to a shower for 2 coworkers who are each having a baby in the coming months.

So what would a crafty statistics nerd give to coworkers who aren't stat nerds? Statistical burp cloths! But statosaurs and smiley distributions weren't what my husband and I wanted for this occasion. We wanted something more general. ABC's they are general aren't they? I'm guessing these two coming babies will eventually learn to speak.

So we pulled out all the stops and learned how to applique with my embroidery machine. I've been meaning to do it a while now and just never did. So Wednesday night, I just tried it. And you know what. It was pretty easy.

All you have to do is tell the embroidery program that the fill is applique. Then, load the pattern and fabric into the machine like normal, put the applique fabric on top, hit go, and it'll stop at the right spot so you can cut the applique fabric. You've got to cut it REALLY close to the stitching. But that's it. Let the machine finish, and viola, applique!

Here's what we crafted:

A is for Average.

B is for Box Plot.

C is for Correlation.

Great! And the moms-to-be seemed to like them. :)

Statosaur Stampede!

This year has been the year of babies for people I know. Not only did I have one, but so did my sister-in-law, my sister's sister-in-law, a friend from college, a friend from grad school, and 2 friends from work. And my sister is due next April! Lots of babies. That could explain the recent explosion of baby items in my shop.


I designed the statosaurs before my daughter was born, about 5 months ago. And just recently did I get around to putting them on burp cloths. I've been sharing their nerdy cuteness with my new baby friends, too. Sadly, my own daughter has only received the practice pieces or items that didn't come out good enough to sell. She doesn't seem to mind too much. :)

Another Quilt to Distract Me

Last time my excuse for not doing much for my Etsy shop was because I was making a quilt for my niece-to-come.

This time around I don't need to use the quilt I'm making as an excuse. I've managed to not only work on a quilt for my little-one-on-the-way, but I've been making new products.


Clockwise from the top left we have:

• a nerdy baby burp cloth - embroidered with a normal distribution
• pi pencil pouch - made it in time for pi day (which was yesterday)
• choose your weapon. pencil pouch - a surprisingly good seller so far!
  
• pi coffee cozy - which marvelously matched the pencil pouch

It's been really fun to work with my new embroidery machine. Things are so much neater and get done so much faster!

Quilt for my new niece

Here are some pictures of the quilt I made for my new niece. She is due May 11th. The colors for her room are light blue with brown and light pink. Actually, the fabric on the inside square in the middle on the top row is being used to create a border for her nursery.


The gorilla on a bike (Jeeves) is an old "buddy" of theirs. It's more of an inside/family joke than an actual I-like-this-image design. But I did hand applique it on (it's fleece).


So yeah, that is why I haven't had time to work on other things recently. I wanted to finish that! Oh, I also whipped together some burp cloths with left over fabric using homemade by jill's pattern. I did change some things. No batting and no fringe. I should have made it a little thicker though, one layer of cotton and one layer of flannel isn't very thi