Handmade Christmas 2012 is Done!

I made 16 mug rugs for a Christmas cookie exchange party my super talented friend, Amber Housley, threw.  It was so much fun!  Lots of sweet ladies and lots of yummy cookies (and cocktails!) 

I made a few gifts for my youngest son's preschool teachers and my eldest son's Tae Kwon Do teacher.

Made a some voile/velveteen scarves for my cousin and another cousin's girlfriend.

I was in the home stretch sewing the binding on my last handmade item.

I knew my father in law would appreciate this label.  I really want to stamp this on everything I make!

Ta-da!  Handmade Christmas 2012 is O-V-E-R!!!!  This is for my father in law (who is a hunter).  Hopefully he'll love it even though it's modern--really, the deer need to save my design choices on this one.  

I managed to tidy up my sewing space too!  I'm not sure the last time it was this clean!

What? Don't you have a closet of shame?

Basic Zipper Video

I made a few last minute gift pouches and I thought I'd share a quick little video tute on how I attach a zipper when I'm NOT using zipper tabs.  A few additional tips for how I make pouches

1.  I like to use a linen blend or home dec weight for the exterior.  It's not necessary, but they come out much nicer

2.  I use Shape Flex for interfacing on the EXTERIOR only.

3.  After the sides of the pouch are sewn together, I clip the corners if I'm making a square pouch and clip curves if I'm making rounded corners.

4.  I use a longer stich (3.0 setting on my BabyLock) to topstitch than I do to assemble the pouch.
5.  For this video and the pouches sewn, I used a 7" zipper, but the zipper tape was 8.5" long.  My fabric was cut 8.5"x6.5"
6.  Other than when I attach the zipper, I use a 3/8" seam allowance when assembling the pouch.
6.  I purchase all my zippers from ZipIt on Etsy

Here's the video!  If there is enough interest in a longer version, I could probably show one from start to finish, but I feel there are lots of great tutes out there already.  It's usually just the zipper attachment people struggle with or fear so that's what I focused on.

Last Minute

There's nothing like waiting to the last minute to start a Christmas project! I decided last night to make quilt for my father in law with my precious Lush fabric.  Luckily I was able to swap some hard to find Anna Maria Horner for a piece of the deer! I'm sort of winging the design so cross your fingers it all works out (and in a timely manner!)

I also cut into some of my Marimekko fabric that I got while I was in NYC to make this idea pouch.  This thing is pretty roomy and I like that I have a special pouch to keep pens and notebooks in--they usually get lost in the abyss of my bag!

I picked up some Architextures from Amanda at Westwood Acres.  Love this line!  I got some yardage of my favorite prints too.

I received this SUPER generous package from Ellen last week.  So much hard to find stuff in one package--all out of the goodness of her heart!  I cried.  I'm a dork/fabric junkie.  The Lush is already getting put to use in my father in law's quilt, but I think I'll pet the Bohemian for a while longer! 

A Quickie and Some Glitter Blast

Super fast breakdown of how I did this (per Alison's request). **P.S. This one is slightly misquoted.  It should say, "to join THE crowd"

Supplies:

Canvas:  I got the gallery wrap ones so they have 1-2" of canvas on the sides

Krylon Glitter Blast paint:  one can will make two small canvases

Sticker letters: from the scrapbook area, the size you want depends on how big your canvas or quote is

Hot glue gun: I use the el-cheapo kind

Ribbon: I used fancy Anna Maria Horner ribbon that I got on sale at fabric.com

Directions:

Put the letters on the canvas.  Go outside to paint and put down a plastic bag or cardboard or something so you don't have a glitter driveway or grass.  Following the directions on the can, spray over the entire front of the canvas evenly.  You have to spray a bit to get it dark enough (at least I did).  DON'T TOUCH IT FOR 20 MINUTES!  When at least 20 minutes have passed, you can remove the letters.  I would suggest letting it dry a tiny bit more before you do the next step.  Working on one side at a time, put a line of hot glue along the middle of the canvas side and press your ribbon down on top. Ta-da! Fun decor!  I now want to make a million of these in all sort of colors, quotes, and fun sayings!  Thanks to my friend Sara Rose for the inspiration and the heads up on the spray glitter paint!

More Baby Gifts!

One of my friends from high school is having a baby and his wife's shower is this Sunday.  I think it's expected and understood at this point that I give handmade gifts--registry, smedgistry!  I used a hoarded Wee-Play charm pack and some Michael Miller Soft White solids to create this zig-zag quilt.

I bought these adorable burp cloths and shoes from my friend, Beth.  Sometimes you just need a little handmade help! 

I made this toy basket to match the burp cloths.  It was super simple and I loved how it came out!

Gotta have the label on the back! :)

I debated what sort of HST layout I wanted, but decided to go with a zig zag pattern since it's more traditional, like the couple I'm gifting this too.  I couldn't resist a little modern black & white striped binding though! I needed to put a tiny bit of my style on the project!

All packed up and ready to gift!  I hope they like it!

More Stuff I've Been Too Lazy to Blog

Made this table runner for the holidays. 

 Hubby says it isn't festive enough, but I took Susan's suggestion and stuck a tree on it.  BAM! Festive! ha ha!

  I thought I would sell it or gift it, but......

I did a little binding experiment and it didn't come out exactly how I wanted.  This bit looks good, but there were parts that didn't catch and I had to go back over them.  I feel like this re-stitching makes the back look messy and I can't, in good conscience, sell or gift something that looks sloppy.  Oh, I also managed to use straight-grain biding on the curved corners! Lazy quilters shout "hell yeah!"

Made this quilt-as-you-go block.

Turned it into a pillow.  I'll probably sell it since it doesn't really go with anything at my house.

Made fabric buckets with Ashley's tute.  I think this is my new method of scrap storage--SO much easier for lazy old me!

oh yeah, made this one too!

Finished quilting this top that has been done for a while.  I planned on selling it, but my oldest said he wanted it.  Since my kids rarely show interest in what I make, I caved and let him have it.

My sweet friend, Stefanie, brought me this sweet mini charm pack from Market! Isn't it cute!  Any suggestions for what I should make with it? 

Quick Holiday Projects

If you're visiting from BabyLock, welcome!  As you may or may not know, I use a BabyLock Symphony--and LOVE it!  When BabyLock asked me to participate in their Snappy Holiday project, I was honored.....and a little shocked! :)  I decided to make this festive little pillow using reverse applique and raw edge applique along with a bit of quilting.  I hope y'all like it and if you make one, please let me know!  Be sure to head on over to BabyLock and check out the other projects!!!  If you want to hop over to my little etsy shop, you can enter the code "BABYLOCK" at check out for 15% off!

Coach, Circus, and Cranberry Pie!

My friend Ali came to visit last weekend and we had the best time! We went shopping and ended up at Coach where I had a 25% off coupon and convinced Ali she NEEDED that yellow tote!  Yellow is Ali's "signature" color, so it really was a necessary purchase!  I needed no convincing that I needed the yellow clutch! :)  I just love a good leather bag!

We also went to this local craft fair.  I had heard all sorts of hype about it and how it was the best one. Um, lets just say Ali and I felt it wasn't our style.  We did manage to snag this AWESOME pie!  It was a cranberry-almond pie, but it was kind of like a tart or coffee cake in reality.  Whatever it was it was fabulous and we ate every last bite in two days!

I got a bee in my bonnet about making this quilt.  It's a pixelated heart based on one Jolene made with Kaffe fabrics.  I knew I wanted to use Anna Maria Horner's Field Study as soon as I saw it! I was very focused on finishing this one over the weekend!  When I get really into a project I tend to sing to myself.  My song of choice this time was "do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-CIRCUS!-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-AFRO! CIRCUS AFRO! CIRCUS AFRO! Polka-dot, Polka-dot! Polka-dot! AFRO!"  So anyone with kids will know the reference there, but Ali had no clue what it was from!  That didn't stop her from getting the song stuck in her head! ha ha ha!!!    Ali got a ton of stuff done, but I'm not allowed to show you anything because it's top secret! 

Jolene's quilt.

I'm so happy with how it came out!  It's hard to see the quilting from this picture, but the heart is quilted with straight lines that form a "V" in the center.  The neutrals are free motion quilted.  I *think* I may list this one in my shop in order to help pay for this:

Eeek! I have no idea how to use it, but I'm going to take my Pixelated Heart quilt out for a REAL photo-shoot to break it in!

Not to get all mushy, but I just love all the friends I've made through this online sewing community! It's so special when you actually get to spend time with one of them in person!

Chugga-chugga!

I think I can I think I can I think I can! I'm chugging on through some projects!

I finished my Modern Maples quilt!  I'm still a bit undecided on how to quilt this so it's been put aside for now.  All ideas are welcome!

This is my backing for my Modern Maples, but I don't have quite enough so I'm still brainstorming the best way to make it work!

I also finished the custom order table runner.  It's a larger version of a tutorial I have on my blog.  This one is 20"x80".  The font is from Word and is called Georgia.  Heads up if you make one of these, it is spot clean or hand wash only!  The center portion isn't quilted so it's gets a bit wonky if you wash and dry it like a normal quilt!

I finished this custom quilt top too!  It's been nick named "The Beast" since it is 108"x156"!!!!  It's at a long arm quilter now because I was not going to even attempt to wrestle that!

I also finished a few gifts for my best friend's baby shower! I won't be able to go (she lives in TX), so I may have gone a bit overboard with the gifts.  This is a peek-a-boo play mat based on Anna Maria Horner's pattern in Handmade Beginnings.

I modified the original pattern by only making 6 blocks instead of 9.  I did this for a few reasons: 1) I wanted to eliminate some of the girly colors since she's having a boy 2) I wanted to personalize it a bit by adding the applique  3) I really didn't have any cute I-spy type fabrics in other colors.  Oh, I also didn't add the border that the pattern calls for.  The mat is 36" square.

Peek-a-boo!  I used some precious fabric here (not that my bestie would know that), but it's for someone special so I needed special fabric.  Had I to do this over again, I think I would have added some batting or at least some top-stitching to the flaps--just to make it feel more polished.

I raw edge appliqued the letters in matching thread rather than blanket stitching to add even more texture after it's washed.

I was especially happy to find a home for that squares fabric! I was gifted that fabric by a friend and have always loved it, but I never had the right project for it.  This was a match made in heaven!

I also made a minky-backed monogram blanket, two appliqued onesies (Texas and the Apple logo), and three bibs!  

Here's a better pic of the monogram blanket.

Whew!  Off to work on some more projects!!!!