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!

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.

Bitty Blocks and Hexagons

All my red and white bitty blocks arrived in the mail!  Aren’t they so cute?

I’ve been swapping bitty blocks for a while now, and I don’t think I’ve done anything with them…until this week when I got out my first set…camping….and made a pillow out of them:

Someday I’ll find the perfect person to give this pillow to!

Here are the fabrics I purchased last week for my sampler class:

I’m loving the colors, even if my husband isn’t sold on them!

Here’s my first block in progress:

The picture in the bottom right is from our teacher so we could see what the block should look like…the yellow flower is my practice, and all those hexagons that need to be sewn together, that’s my block.  I need to have 2 done by the next class.  I’d better get busy!

Quick Update

Happy New Year!  Is it too late to say that?

I need to catch up here with you and then maybe I can get back on track with blogging…just maybe!  Right now it just seems overwhelming since I haven’t posted in a while!

I posted one time in November, once in December and once in January.  Hopefully I’ll do better in February!

Looking back at pictures, let’s see what’s been going on around here!

I got back into my flickr swap group: “Bitty Block Committee” in January with the “Red and White on point” swap.  I couldn’t resist red and white bitty blocks!  The blocks we swap are 3.5 inches.  I decided to do a cake stand on point:

And here are all 12:

I’m just waiting for 2 more blocks and I’ll show you the collection.  They are mighty cute!

I’m taking my first quilting class!  You heard me right!  Yes, it’s about time, after 17 years of quilting. 

We were working on English Paper Piecing our first class.  We are doing a sampler, but when she pulled out this Dear Jane I had to snap a picture!

Someday my Dear Jane will be done *sigh*…maybe if I’d work on it, it would get done a little bit faster .

I’m excited for my sampler class.  Should be a lot of fun throughout this whole year!  I’m going to be picking out my fabric this week for it.  I’m excited to show you what I pick out!

At our January Quilt Groupbee’s Meeting we made these thread catchers.  This year our curriculum is going to follow along with the class I’m taking. So since we covered English Paper Piecing in class, I’ll be showing the ladies how to English Piece at our February Meeting.

Here’s a pretty good tutorial for English Paper Piecing hexagons:

http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2010/04/hexie-paper-piecing-tutorial.html

The way we learned in class was a little bit different, but mostly the same.  It’s fun to have a hand sewing project to work on!

That’s a pretty full post.  I’ll leave it at that and catch up with you more in a little bit!

Well Hello There!

I really have been gone for far too long!

We are fully into the Christmas spirit around here.  We’ve done some things a bit different this year, and I like the changes.

I hosted our quilt group meeting for December on the 1st at my house, so I decorated earlier than I usually do.  I think I might do this every year!  It’s been so fun to enjoy my Christmas decorations for the whole month. (well at least up until this point!)

I just love to see the tree all lit up with so many fun ornaments from the years of handmade ornament exchanges.  Besides the tree, my favorite decorations are the Nativities. So sweet.

Another thing that’s a bit different this year… we’ve just been wrapping and putting the presents under the tree as we purchase.  Something I haven’t done in the past.  With the kids getting older I am not so worried about the impact of Christmas morning. What am I going to do on Christmas Eve?  I’m so used to wrapping presents all night after the kids go to bed!

I’ve done more online shopping this year.  It sure has been nice to shop in my jammies!  But it hasn’t prevented me from braving the stores a bit.  My tip is…hit the mall right away in the morning before it gets too crowded!

I’ve spent the last couple days helping a friend with some Christmas sewing…a couple bags that will be the gift as well as the wrapping.  They turned out so pretty. 

I’ve got a bit more shopping to do, but I think I’m almost done!  And one more trip to the post office.  (I hope!)

Merry Christmas!

Pumpkins!

Happy Halloween!  I know these pumpkins have been around FOREVER, but I finally got around to making some.

They were very easy and I’ve always loved them when I’ve seen them around.

I gave all three of these guys away, so I’ll have to make some more for myself.

I can’t believe we are already into November starting tomorrow!

Tattered Flowers

I’ve been having fun making these fun fabric flowers today from sew4home.com:

I made the one below with left over binding from a quilt project:

I like it a bit better because it’s not raveling as much as the others since it’s cut on the bias. I put it on my daughter’s backpack.

Her friend was over, so she got one for her backpack too!

And one for me:

These are so easy to make and so addicting!

It’s Baby Shower Time Again!

Halloween Table Toppers

You may remember I made this a couple weeks ago.  I was supposed to put a piano key border on it, but it was just a bit crazy for me and I wasn’t sure I liked it.

So instead I decided to try again using mostly black and orange in the center and not using as many different fabrics.  Then I added the piano key border in the purples and greens.

It’s still a bit crazy, but I like it better than the first version.  I put it on my kitchen table, and it fits perfectly there.  I think I need a table topper there alll year round!

I ended up just adding a purple border to the original table topper to help tone it down a bit and put that one on my other table.

Happy Halloween!

Mumbo Gumbo inspired

Remember that pile of strips from yesterday?  This is what became of them last night at quilt group.  Thanks to Jen for the fun project idea! (from the pattern here http://www.pieintheskyquilts.com/mumbogumbo.html)

Next meeting we’ll be adding a piano key border and getting it layered, quilted, and bound.  (well probably not all in one night…but we’ll be on our way to finishing this up for a fun Halloween table topper) 

Now it’s time to get back to my other project!

Fun, fun!

Getting ready for a Halloween project…stay tuned….

Meanwhile I’m working on this:

Fun, fun!

R is for Rocket

Here’s what I’ve been up to:  More 3.5 inch blocks.

This time we are doing an alphabet swap and I was assigned the letter R.  Our assignment was to have something pictured that starts with the letter we were assigned, and the letter is supposed to appear on the block as well.  So, I combined those things and designed this rocket.  I picked up the background fabric while I was on that recent shop hop.  It turned out to be a great fabric for this project!

I had these 4 blocks up on my design wall from quilt group the other month when we I was teaching the ladies how to make these stars.  So when I needed a baby gift, I was able to grab them and whip up a quick doll quilt. 

I wish I had a picture of the cute, bright pink stuffed hippo I bought to go along with it.  She had pink and green toe nails and stars around her eyes.

I also recently finished up a group project that was a special quilt gift for a friend and got it off in the mail today.  I hope she feels all the healing love it was stitched with when she receives it!

Now it’s time to clean up my work space and get back to my doll quilt for DQS11!

Bitty Block Committee

I’ve mentioned that I participate in a 3.5 inch block swap on flickr.  Recently we were swapping wonky stars.  Here are the other monthly themes I’ve participated in:

Camping: (mine is the roasting marshmallow)

Black and White, plus one color (I had green):

Beach/Ocean: (mine is the snails trail/monkey wrench – to the right of the light house)

Trees on white:  (mine is not pictured here-I wonder where it is!)

Houses: (mine is bottom left – owl house)

Font/text: (mine is top left – embroidered)

Halloween: (mine is the cauldron)

Modern Christmas: (mine is the pink present-everyone else’s had a pieced bow on it-I gave myself the reject)

and Sewing (mine is the rotary cutter at the bottom)

It’s so fun to get these little blocks in the mail.  Each one comes individually from it’s maker – a little piece of artwork.  Bitty blocks arrive throughout the month from all over the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Argentina.

These blocks are piling up.  Do you think I could somehow get these all into the same quilt and it would make sense?  Probably not.

Thanks Mom!

Unfortunately I don’t have a “before” picture.  This is the best I’ve got:

My Mom was so kind and gave her old sewing machine and cabinet to Miss K.  We’ve been giving it a new colorful life and today we reassembled it and put it to use!

Miss K is so excited!  She already made a drawstring glasses holder for her brother today and has big plans to sew a make-up bag for a friend, and a skirt for herself.

She even loves it all closed up as a desk.  She made herself a paper name plaque, she looks so official.  Her stack of lined paper and a pencil pouch are all ready to be used.  It’s not surprising, office supply stores are her favorite place to hang out!  (She’s a proud owner of her own Staples Rewards Card!)