Speaking of crafty gifts...

Kudos to Pinterest for inspiring my creative side when all I want to do is nap.

 

apron in a jar.

 

spray paint thrifted frames, add corkboard.

 

Scrap paper + thrifted frame.  Add dry erase marker.

 

white tiles + scrap paper + mod podge = coasters! 

 (add felt to bottom)

 

my fave...a perpetual calendar.  brilliant.

could use...covered buttons glued to flat-top tacks?

Now accepting...crafty gift idea goodness.  Inspire me not to nap.  Please.

if you've the notion to create...

'specially with the Big One only 92 days away, I think these are the CUTEST.

Source: Elizabeth's Embellishments

Obviously, you could just buy them too.  Er, no.  Really.  You could.

first little gift

Last weekend I had the chance to stitch up this little pillow for a Christmas swap I'm doing.


The prim snowman design is from Heartstrings Embroidery. All of the Christmas fabrics were ones I had in stash. I think they were mostly from Hobby Lobby. I used 3" strips to patchwork a border around the wool felt embroidery.


That's the sum total of my sewing (for others or me) for the past week. But I'm off for Thanksgiving now, so hopefully I'll have things to share!

Not today though, I'm leaving in a little while to shop with my sister & Lu, and then we're off to dinner and this:


Have a great day!

post Christmas post

As per my usual, I was up til after 11 p.m. Christmas Eve putting the finishing touches on one last present for Lu. Meet "Katherine" (named by Lu upon opening), a sweet patchwork-y dolly. I adapted the Black Apple Doll pattern (free pattern & video tutorial at Martha Stewart). I used Paint.Net to resize the pattern pieces (no copier handy here at home) until she was the desired size; her arm & leg patterns were sized to a different scale than her body for the skinnier leg.



For our photo shoot, dolly bundled up for the winter chill. ;) I used all stash prints for body & clothes and it was fun mix-matching the prints! I used 2 different Amy Butler fat quarters for her body and the first pull on skirt, and an American Jane scrap (left over from the table runner) for her legs. I had to adjust her leg thickness (or thinness rather) because I HAD to use this little apple green print!


I made her another little skirt, pink dotty print, for those days she's feeling especially winsome.

She has wool felt hair and a hand embroidered face. Her "blush" is also pink wool felt, running stitched in place.


Her caplet is plum wool felt, with a matching turned brim hat.


A pale green wool felt scarf completes her winter wear!


Lu absolutely LOVED her. And I LOVE her. I really want a funky one with pink or aqua felt hair. The pattern is already on the cutting table for another!

My mom loved her table runner too! It turned out SO cute. I really wanted to keep this one myself!
I used 11" strips of several jelly roll prints. I alternated the starting strip with a 5.5" cut instead to offset the prints. I used a fleece for batting because I couldn't get to the store (of course if I'm off of work then I'm guarunteed to be sick. This time I suspect flu. It's taken 5 days to feel sub-normal.) I backed the runner with apple green gingham, and the binding is a different American Jane blue dot.

Here's a better shot without so much sun (so you can see the yummy colors & prints).


This runner was my first foray into the world of stipple quilting by machine. It was fun! But hard. I need more practice. Mom doesn't care a whit that it's less than perfect, bless her.

Was Santa good to everyone out in blog land?

toasty

As long as I'm bundled in the covers that is! It's been FREEZING here. (And yes, I'm kind of a wuss about it.)

I uncovered long enough to photo some more gifties though! First, a set of candy cane stripe tea towels, embroidered with this fabulous design from Urban Threads:


Aqua and red are one of my absolute favorite color combos!! I added aqua rickrack and grosgrain trim. The top towel has the Toast embroidery, and it's coordinating towel just has the trims. It's hard to see in this photo, but the lettering says "Feelin Toasty". Here they are tied with ribbon for gifting:


Ten years ago or so, I used to make spool & clothespin dolls when I did the local craft fair circuit. My favorite was always a Wizard of Oz set. I wish I still had one to show you! They always sold out and I never did get around to making one to keep. I do have some holiday dolls left, I'll have to dig some out and snap a few pics for you.

Anywho, I was so happy to see clothespin dolls emerge again last holiday season over at Alicia Paulson's blog (as Santa Lucia dolls). JennyB at Allsorts has been crafting some especially cute ones recently too. They've got my creating juices flowing, so Lu & I did some clothespin doll crafting this weekend! Here's my first finished dollie. Don't you love her big spotted bow and scottie dog dress?

"Dolly Shannon"

Today I'm trying to finish up work on a table runner for my mom's dining room table. (Yup, another Christmas gift). I sort of procrastinated on this thing, and I'm down to the wire (but the end is in site!) I'm going to stipple quilt it this afternoon, but here it is basted:



I used a jellyroll (my first!) It was a real time saver! I can see lots more jellyroll projects in my future! The prints are from American Jane "Recess" by Moda. I wish I had a yard of each of these!!

Ok, off now to run to the post office. I missed the mailman by thismuch this morning. Doh. Still have to get my Christmas cards in the post!

pillowtalk

More little gifts...I finished the snowman pillows for two of my buds at work, just in time for our Christmas party on Friday! They turned out so cute!

The snowman design is from emblibrary, and you might recognize the charm packs from last week. They're called "S'Mores". I pieced 2 charm squares together for each side of the pillow, and added a backing of pink & white dots.

Next pillow was also for a coworker. It's the cutest Prim design from Heartstrings Embroidery. This one I pieced more "log cabin" style with not totally holiday prints. I was hoping the little pillows could stay "out" for the winter season and not just through the holidays.


I made 5 more tissue covers for everyone too. Somehow I only photo'd 4 though. Don't ask me how! :D


And for Lu's Sunday School teacher (who is getting the pretty shabby rose wristlet from last month) I stitched out this beautiful nativity lace ornament. So pretty! It was a freebie (maybe last year?) at Advanced Embroidery, but is now for purchase. It's beautiful!! I tied this on the package bow.


Now I'm off to do some wrapping! I may have one or two little gifts to share later!

FOUR MORE DAYS!!!

Frenetic Holiday Wrapping Song
(You HAVE to click this one to see the timed light show!)

patchwork tissue cover

Still have time to stitch this up for a quickie little gift! It's a patchwork cover to pretty up the portable tissue packs! Who wouldn't want to reach for a tissue housed in this?

And we're off! First, choose 4-8 patchwork friendly cotton prints. I used my old standby, charm packs from Moda. These are from the "Nest" charm pack by Tula Pink. You'll also need a bit larger scrap of fabric for the lining/bindings.


If you're using yardage, cut 4 strips 1-3/4 x 7 inches. OR if you are using charm packs like me, cut 8 strips 1-3/4 x 4 inches.


Seam your 4 strips together using 1/4" seams. I pressed one set of seams to the right, and the next set of seams to the left.


For the charm pack version, sew the two 4-strip sections together to make one long patchwork section. I flipped one over so that they are even more patchy & fun at the center seam!


Press this seam open!


Now we're ready for lining & bindings. I used my pieced section for the pattern piece.


Cut your lining piece the same width but 5/8" longer on each short end as shown below:


That extra length on each end will act as our binding! Yup, we're lining & binding in one step! Match one short end of the binding to the pieced section & stitch RST with 3/8"-1/2" seams (this depends on how wide you want your finished binding. I used 3/8") Next, pull the other end of the pieced section to the other end of the lining. (see below) Obviously the patchwork is quite a bit shorter than the lining so you'll have an odd bump out of fabric on bottom. You'll see the magic in the next step. Just go with it!


Turn your patchwork/lining right side out. You can already see the magic happening!


See how the extra length of lining acts as a "binding"? Press well!


With your patchwork facing up, bring the binding edges into the center. If you used the 4" pieces to start with, you'll have a nice center seam to match them up to! Pin in place along the short edge. You can also overlap the ends just a little for a snugger tissue cover.


Stitch across both ends!


Trim a little and finish up your seams with a wide zigzag. Mine was 5 width by 1.5 length.


Turn your pouch right sides out & poke/roll out the corners. There you have it! A really sweet patchwork tissue cover, perfect for anyone on your gift list!

song for today

to-do's

My To-Do list is getting longer by the minute!! How's yours?? I haven't had a spare second to work on my Threads top OR my BWOF sewalong, and Friday found me down with an ear infection again. (That's my 2nd this fall and my 3rd in my LIFE. Isn't that weird?)

Anywho...I did stitch out this cute Urban Threads bad bunny tee for Lu:


Isn't he a cutie?? Of course as the nature of my life goes (I never win Karma's toss, no matter what you've heard elsewhere) while trimming the stabilizer from behind the design, I cut a teeny hole in the tee. This was more than a little frustrating since it was washaway stabilizer to begin with, I was just trying to save the scraps. Argh.

Here's the whole tee, a $3 clearance short sleeve from WallyWorld! I darned the tiny hole & added some festive little bows to hide it.


Back to the list...I have this cute book from Tone Finnanger:


And it has the CUTEST little boots and ice skate ornaments in it. It has several cute projects, but the boots & skates are on my list for today.

I also want to try this little pattern from All People Quilt. They have a quarterly challenge, and this was the 3rd quarter challenge. Go HERE for the pattern (scroll down a bit.)


I love this bag pattern from the Oh Frannson! blog. It's called the Margaret Sling Bag. It's a free download HERE.


I don't have a recipient in mind for the Margaret sling but I thought I'd share it in case one of you need a quick, snappy project for someone on your list! I'll definitely be trying it out after Christmas though.

I also want to make some little travel tissue covers. Something along the lines of this from mixitgoods.com (I have this fabric! My stash is bottomless. LOL!) but more patchwork-y.


I'm sure there are a dozen and one tutes on this out there, but I'll probably be winging it, so I'll be sure & share the pattern I come up with!

I'd like to try my hand at scrappy patchwork belts too...Lord knows I have plenty of scraps and I'm pretty sure I've got a ultra cool belt buckle or two lying around. I'll photog the process if I get to those this week.

More to-do's...An art portfolio from the current issue of Quilting Arts Gifts (GREAT special magazine!!) & a Jonas Bros. themed messenger bag for Lu (Meg of Boutique Nutmeg totally gets credit for the idea, she has a spectactular one in her Flickr stream), personalized pillowcases for both kiddo's, finish my mom's table runner...whew. I'll never get through all that today! But isn't trying half the fun??

Listening to THIS.