Creativity

Life took over.  Creativity took a back seat.  And I think I lost a part of myself in the process.  But I'm finding that part again.  And it feels great!

It's amazing what creating does for me.  It really brings me happiness.  I'm hoping to be back in this space sharing my creations because it makes me happy.

I've been working on a few different things that I'll show you.  But for today...my daughter started her second trimester of her sophomore year in high school and asked if I'd make her a pencil case.  She chose the fabrics and zipper from my stash.  It was so fun to make!

My google search brought me to this tutorial, which I loosely followed.  I'm so glad I stopped whatever I was doing and sewed this up for her.  So fun.

Card Exchange - March

Our Challenge this month was watercolors, chalk, markers, or something colored in.  So I decided to try out watercolor.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the process.

I took 4.25 inch x 11 inch strips of watercolor paper and painted them with various colors that blended nicely.  I was able to get 2 flowers out of each strip.  I put them into my Cricut and cut this flower out.  I found the image online and enlarged it and cropped it.

Added a little sparkle and some stitches of course… and voila!

Yummy food, good company, and fun cards tonight!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Valentine centerpieces that I made for a Valentine party we had at church. 

Christmas Swap

We’ve talked about doing a swap for a long time now, and we finally found the perfect opportunity to swap doll quilts...Christmas!

My sister and I have been long distance quilting together for lots of years now.  We have participated in swaps together joking it would be funny if we got matched up.  And also saying we should swap with each other sometime.  Recently we’ve discovered Skype quilting together!

Well, I was going up to visit for Christmas, so we decided now was the time, even though we were busy with other Christmas sewing (she was really busy!) and other holiday commitments. 

And here are the results!  It was so fun to give them to each other in person.  I made this quilt for her.  You might recognize this block from my sampler class this year.  I just love it!

I added a few reminders of me, like the ladybug in the corner, and the same fabric is all over the back.

And here’s the gorgeous hexie quilt she made for me called “Honeycomb.”  I just love it!  She also gave me a hexie needle case…so fun!

It already has a special place on my wall where I can admire it and have a little piece of her with me while I sew.

Thanks Trisha for the fun swap!

November

Well hello there!  I totally missed all of November here on the blog!

I better get caught up! Let’s start with the end of October.  Here are our jack-o-lanterns that we carved.  We had a my little pony pumpkin, a Cinderella pumpkin, and just a cute face. Halloween was a scattered evening for our family, everyone having different things to do that night.  But we had fun carving pumpkins together a few days before.

The marching band once again took top honors at the final band review.  Go AJ!  We love spending the day once a year at this exciting competition. It looks pretty dry here, but we were definitely soggy by the end of the day from all the rain.

Miss K is turning into such a lovely lady…here she is at the Evening of Excellence at church.  She has worked so hard to improve her life and she is incorporating wonderful values in her life, and she sees the benefit they are making!

Card exchange group for November produced these fun Holiday cards:

And I participated in the Bitty Block Committee’s Winter/Christmas and Fall 3.5 inch block swaps.  Here are my contributions:  Ribbon Blocks and Fall Leaves.

I’ve got more to show and tell, but that’s it for now!  Hope you are having a wonderful December!

Dumplings

I had an amazing thing happen to me a few months ago.  After donating some money to a charity to benefit a friend’s sister, my name was put into a drawing for a jewelry shopping spree.  I just couldn’t believe it when my friend called me up and told me I was the winner!

There was no way I was going to be able to keep all that to myself.  So I emailed all my sisters and Mom and a couple friends and offered for them to pick something out for their birthdays this year (even if they’d already passed).

Well, the jewelry arrived and I’ve been holding on to all of it for my sisters and my Mom that live up North.  I finally had the opportunity to visit this past weekend for my Mom’s birthday so I was excited to give them their jewelry.

I discovered these cute pouches on Michelle Patterns.  She calls them dumplings.  I actually made one of these up for my daughter’s backpack.  She needed a Contact Lens Kit, and this little pouch ended up being the perfect size for a little bottle and a contact lens case, just barely!

And since it’s never enough to make just one, I made up 4 more for my sisters and mom and popped their jewelry inside for a fun presentation. I love wrapping that can be used later.  I added the ribbon tabs, one on each end, to make it easier to zip open and closed.

They were a big it and I have a feeling more of these will be made in the future!

Finished blocks!

I had some hand sewing to do on my recent Sampler blocks.  And this weekend was the perfect time to work on them:

Here are all my blocks so far: 

I believe we have just one more block to make at our next meeting and then we’ll start working on putting the quilt together! 

So when my sister pointed out that Anita was doing a Quilt a long, I had to join in. This first month we did baskets.  Each month we’ll be doing a different block, they will be all different sizes.  And there is no plan of how they will go together at the end.  I like the idea of this random sampler, and am excited to participate!

I am just going to use my stash, so it’ll be great to be able to use what I already have. 

Here’s the cute button she made for the participants:

Fall Leaves

I joined a swap group this morning that needed one more member.  The theme was Fall/Thanksgiving.  So even though the deadline is Oct 31, I decided to get them done today.  I took pictures along the way, so you can see how this block is made.

I love this quick way of making half-square triangles!  I needed 48 – 1 inch finished half square triangles for my 12 leaf blocks.  So I added one inch to the finished size and measured out a 2 inch grid.  24 squares (6 by 4) yields 48 half square triangles.

Draw a grid on the back of the light fabric, add in the diagonal lines, and sew on 1/4 inch on either side of all the diagonals.  Cut apart on the lines with a rotary cutter.  And voila!  48 half square triangles are done in no time.

The part that takes the longest is the trimming to make them just the right size.  I like to make them a smidge too big, so that I can trim them up to just the perfect size.

It does take a while though…

I needed some chocolate to get through it…

Then I got the stems all sewn.  Just a ribbon sew down the diagonal of the square…easy.

Here are all the  parts, ready to be sewn together.

They made a pretty cool pattern when I put them all up on the design wall together!

 

They’re all ready to pop in the mail.  And now I’ll be getting fun mail all month as all the fall swap blocks start arriving!

Card Exchange–September

From sewing a pouch to sewing cards.  Here’s this month’s. 

Sewing fix

I came across a tutorial today.  I was intrigued and had to try it out.  I love zipper pouches.  They are a quick sewing project that is so functional. This one had a different zipper technique.

I love how it turned out and how wide it opens up! I can see more of these in my future.

Now it’s time to clean up the fabric and get the paper out for the cards that need to be made by Thursday!

Placemats

I swap 3.5 inch blocks on Flickr.  Here is what I did with my Trees and Houses blocks.

Summer

What a fun and busy summer. I’ve just been focusing on my kids and enjoying every minute. But now as we are winding down our summer and getting ready for school to start I’m looking forward to getting back to the sewing machine and to this space as well!

The Bitty Block Committee swapped trees in July. Here are mine. They required a special trip to the quilt shop to pick out this sky and water fabric.

And these are my July blocks for my sampler class. Bowties with inset seams. Fun!

And since school is starting and band camp is underway, that means it’s time to sew color guard flags as well!

Hope to see you again soon!

Miss K and The Birthday Quilt

Miss K wanted to make a quilt for her best friend.

She picked out the fabrics.

She pressed, I cut, she arranged…

We sewed.

She was so happy with the result and her friend was happy too!