Christmas Wrap Up

So, organization is not one of my strong skills. Getting really excited about doing stuff, doing it right away and making a royal mess while at it is pretty much the way I operate. So perhaps it would have been better to share what I was working on for under the Christmas tree before I wrapped up 2010, but at the time, I was more excited about reflecting on the past year. Now that Christmas is all packed away in the attic, I can think about it a bit more fondly now.

I wasn't sure I was going to have much in the handmade area to give for Christmas this year, but after Thanksgiving I lit a fire and got going. Both the girls got to open pajamas on Christmas Eve. Last year I cut both of theirs too long, so this year I cut Rachel's too short. I tacked this red plaid onto the bottom and really like what it added to the pants. Finally a mistake that turned out for the best!

Inspired by so many cute bunting items that I've come across lately, I whipped up several sets of note cards with buntings across them. I tacked the tiny triangles down with a dab of glue stick, which held them perfectly while I stitched across them. When I got to the other side, I turned the card around and stitched back, going down both sides of the triangles to fully attach them. I was really pleased with how these turned out and intend to make more, and I'm also thinking maybe some tote bags with buntings across them.

The muff was in response to a good friend seeing the one I'd made for another friend back in May. When she saw it, she excitedly declared "Oh, I want one in animal print!". Imagine my happiness when that little bit of filed away information was still available for retrieval from my brain come December! I waffled on what kind of animal print to use, but think this leopard with the brown velvet does the trick. The instructions come from the Fall 2009 issue of Stitch magazine. I did not however, give her my hat and gloves....I'm not that nice.

And while I shared the first of these bags that I made, I am happy to tell you that I was able to make ten in all, including one of my very own. Once I got going, I was a factory with these (which led to a really messy work area, but hey, I got results!). I'm so happy when I stumble upon something nice that I can make several of to give as gifts to friends and family. This year my mom, sister, aunt and sisters-in-law all got one, as well as Brownie troop leaders, friends and a few others! If you didn't get one from me for Christmas, expect one for your birthday ; )

And speaking of handmade, a friend posted this post on facebook today.....

A Handmade 2011: I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment. They must in turn post this and send something they made to the first 5 people who comment on their status. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011. Let's all work towards a more handmade life!

What fun! I signed up under her and have five people signed up under me. Why don't you start a post too and see how much handmade goodness and appreciation we can spread this year?

In Full Swing

Remember this scene from just a few short weeks ago? It is no more. The above it what I'm seeing now. My Christmas crafting is in full swing. Unfortunately, I can't share some of the things I'm working on right now, but I can share my mess. That's part of my wool sweaters waiting to be fulled (felted) in front. There are three more boxes out of view. The remnants of the tote bags (I've made four so far) are in the window sill and at the end of the ironing board, as I hope to get a few more made and there's just a general mess going on right now. I'd be fine with it too...if I could just find that disappearing marking pen I bought just last week. I even attempted to pick up a bit in the hopes of finding it. So far no luck.

This is something I started last night and hope to finish up tonight. I'm calling her Christmas Carol and she's part of a covert operation the girls and I are working on. At least that's how we like to think about it. We're planning to participate in The Toy Society's World Wide Christmas Drop on the weekend before Christmas. Hopefully we'll have several toys to leave around town and the weather will cooperate so that we can leave them outside in some of the fun parts of town. Stay tuned for photos.

Getting Down to Business

So, the word on the street is that Christmas is coming. It's not like Easter, which can fall at any time between March and April, and yet still I seem to be caught off guard. It's not because I've been sooo busy with Thanksgiving festivities or anything - I don't know what it is....I should be prepared, ready and maybe even done preparing ahead of time so that I can sit back and enjoy this time of waiting and anticipation. But I am not ready in advance. again. this year. I have made some positive strides though! (Phew!!)

This is the first of four bags I've made over the past few days, fulfilling my need to give certain people homemade gifts. I won't name names though : ) This pattern for this bag came from the Fall 2009 issue of Stitch magazine. I really love this magazine and try and pick it up with a coupon each time it comes out (otherwise it's $14.99... bit to rich for my budget). The first bag took some time, as I worked through the directions, which were very clear and easy to follow and subsequent bags have come together much more quickly. One key is cutting out all the pieces at once, before you start - that really seems to move things along. Also, there was a lot of switching threads for design purposes (and practical purposes). I found that once the first one was made, I could do all the steps that used a specific thread at once and save a good bit of switching and re-threading. My other shortcut had me skipping the use of basting spray (because I have it but can't find it...a-hem) and "basting" my batting to my bag fronts with a few dabs of clear, washable glue stick. This worked for me - please don't cuss me if it doesn't work for you though.

I bought enough of the green fabric for two bags, but now I'm using what I've got at home, so these are very cost effective bags. Even the batting I've saved from quilts that were slightly smaller than the batting I bought was just the right size for these bags, which measure about 11 1/2" wide by 14" high (with my sewing skills). And speaking of saving scraps, the bottom of this bag is the leftovers from this skirt redo. Reduce and reuse!

On the agenda for tomorrow....come up with a new banner head - one that no longer feels of fall. After all, Christmas is coming!

Days of Yore

This past weekend we went to a housewarming. I wanted to take something handmade, but had very little time in which to make it. The idea for these little potholders had been rolling around in my head, so I took the opportunity to the idea to paper....and fabric. The above is the end result. I was happy with one and the other fought me the whole way. I won't tell you which is which, but I gave both.

I paper pieced the house blocks, which is something that I'd done a lot of several years ago (as in before kids - when I had the time.....in the days of yore). I had a bag of pillows I'd made stuck in the attic and dug them out yesterday to see what I had stashed away. My oldest daughter is almost 8, so these pillows have been tucked away for a while now. The shoe pattern came from a quilt top that a friend had - I used the quilt to develop the block.

I designed this kimono pattern after looking at several others - combining what I liked most from several designs.

This butterfly pattern was from a book - 101 full-size Quilt Blocks and Borders by Better Homes and Gardens, I think, although I didn't find it in a quick flip through. I had fun with these butterflies, adding beading, hand stitching and layering fabrics.

Making the house blocks gave me lots of ideas for more paper pieced blocks. In the meantime, I need to figure out what to do with these pillows. I'm also thinking there might be another bag of pillows as well, as I also designed a bikini pattern and a button down shirt. I can feel an attic excavation coming soon!

Christmas is Coming

I'm sure this isn't really news to anyone, but Christmas is coming and it's coming fast and soon. Especially if you're the type that's inclined to try and make as many gifts as possible. I am inclined....and worried, because I have a loooong way to go! Take this quilt for example. The top is done, I have the batting and backing already - all I need is a few hours to quilt it, a good movie to bind it by and wham bam, I'm done. And that's excellent, because it isn't a gift I'm giving - I'm making it for a friend to give to her daughter. Yes, when this quilt is finished (hopefully next week) my gifty pile will still be empty.

About this quilt though. She wanted it throw size, which I found varies greatly. It will end up somewhere in the neighborhood of 4' x 6.5'. The monograms dictated the size of the squares to an extent, which then dictated the size of the quilt. Aside from the white sashing (which will also be the back), the quilt is comprised entirely of baby clothes from the little girl who will be receiving it. Each center square features her monogram and is surrounded by fabric from her dresses and bubbles. I think my favorite squares are the ones cut from diaper covers because you get a bit of the shape of the cover in the square - a reminder of those tiny little baby bottoms.

Quilting this will be a bit of a challenge, as some fabrics are thicker than others, the center square actually has a waterproof backing and a few pieces have a bit of stretch to them. Hopefully all will go smoothly and I'll have some better pictures to share when it's done. I had a hard time finding some nice warm light to take these photos in - another reminder that winter is coming!

Craft Hope Project 9

Craft Hope's Project 9 is about to wrap up. The deadline for sending in pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer is Wednesday. I was holding off on mailing mine until the last minute, so that I could send as many as possible. I was off to a strong start on making pillowcases and then school started for Rachel...and then school started for Sarah....and hey, whoa, where'd those last few weeks go? In the past week I picked up steam again and was able to send 21 pillowcases. All the main fabrics came from my stash and I only about a few small pieces to use as the trim when I couldn't find anything in my stash that would work. Since it was mentioned that they are often running short on selections for boys, I concentrated mainly on making boyish pillowcases. This was a good way to use up an unusually large boyish stash of fabric for a person with two girls.

I got everything packed up per the organizations requests and popped them in the mail this afternoon. And while the deadline for the Craft Hope project is the 15th., ConKerr Cancer is always taking donations. This page will take you to a state listing, where you can search for organizers in your area, hospitals they work with, brick and mortar stores that serve as drop off locations as well as mailing addresses where you can send pillowcases. These really work up super fast and are such a good way to share a smile.

Little Red Part Two

So here's my real life Little Red Riding Hood. She was so excited for today and it was so much fun to see all the kids dressed up - almost entirely in homemade costumes. It gives me a sort of Hallmark movie choked up kind of feeling - in a good way. Which might be a strange way to describe it, as I can't recall seeing a Hallmark movie ...... ever? Yeah, so maybe way better than a Hallmark movie!

I made cape number one following this tutorial. Sometimes, when directions aren't coming to me clearly, I don't do such a great job. That's not to say that this tutorial isn't clear, more that I wasn't clear. And I made a crappy cape with a hood that was really too small. And even if the hood was purely for Momma's photo shoot, I needed it to be good. And then suddenly I needed it lined as well. Cape number two followed the same tutorial with larger pieces except that I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how to line the hood without a seam showing on the inside. For a visual person, sometimes I'm not very visual. I kid you not, I tore that hood apart no less than four times. I was getting cranky. That's when I found this tutorial and skipped down to the part where she makes the hood. And you know what....the first time I'd done it, I'd done it right (and ripped it out and then proceeded to do it incorrectly three times). So there we go.... lined hooded cape.

But do you want to know a secret? In the first tutorial the cape is closed with a button.....Yeah, well, I have never sewn a button hole. Save from Mrs. Koch in seventh grade, my sewing skills are self taught and so far I've not gotten around to teaching myself button holes (......or zippers). It's sort of like Algebra and I ... I can always can always find a way around it. My detour this time took me via this cool hook and eye closure that is kind of hard to appreciate in the picture. My Aunt picked up several cards of these from the most awesome Goodwill thrifting opportunity near her - "the bins". They are from Norway and are pewter - very pretty, heavy duty and just what I needed!

So the costume worked, the day was a blast and I won't go on about how the icing on the cupcakes was too runny and most of my cupcakes had their faces slide off before they made it to school. Nope, not going to dwell on that. Instead, I'm going to get the rest of my pillowcases wrapped up for Craft Hope's Project 9. The deadline is almost here and I've got a few more to make.

Craft Hope

I've talked about Craft Hope a few times before, and participated in a couple of their projects now. What an great organization this is, rallying crafters to craft for good causes. The momentum behind Craft Hope seems to be growing, as the last project was their largest yet, with over 70,000 rags being donated. Project 9 was announced this past week and I am so excited about it. They are asking for fun, colorful pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer, an organization that distributes these pillowcases to very ill children (and teens) while they are in the hospital. Just a little something to brighten their rooms and bring a smile to their face. I have so much juvenile fabric that I really didn't think I'd ever use, so Rachel and I got busy pulling pieces out of my stash right away so that I could get started. I whipped up three the first night. They are quick and easy. You can make whatever style you want (basic instructions here), just make it fun and out of 100% cotton. Craft Hope's website gives more details, as does the ConKerr site - should you be interested. After the fun we had at our rag cutting party, I am working on organizing a pillowcase party and will hopefully find a way to get the kids involved as well. Look for a link to Lark Crafts on Monday, as there will be an interview with Jade Sims of Craft Hope (her book is in stores now), and a photo from our cutting party is rumored to be showing up on the site as well.

A Bit of This and That

I'm starting to get the crafty urge back. Something about this summer has made it hard for me to work. With the girls home, there is just no time (or peace) during the day, and at night I guess I'm just a bit too spent to start on something once they go to bed. I did manage two small projects this week though, that have me itching to keep moving forward.

I needed a gift for my girl's night out bingo game last night. Money was tight this week and I would have felt guilty spending money on a bingo gift, so I worked with what I had. I figured a jar of fresh, homemade blackberry jam would be a good place to start, but wanted to add something to it. I have been inspired by pieces of work like this one by metro-station and wanted to give something like that a go myself. I know there are others I have seen and would like to share them with you as well, but I can't seem to find them right now. So this is what I came up with, a dish towel to go with the jar of jam. I had a stash of these plain white towels that I'd picked up in Target's Dollar Zone quite a while ago (maybe around Easter ...2009 possibly) and I knew that one day they'd serve their purpose, which I think they've done quite swimmingly. I did throw in a nice bar of dark chocolate as well, so that hopefully the gift was not disappointing (can you really be disappointed if you get chocolate?).


I've also been distracted by this website, which I'd read a bit about in the Spring issue of Stitch. There is also a great Flickr pool which I would recommend checking out. Conveniently enough, I have a lot of clothes that I don't particularly love and as a bonus, I am not inclined to get rid of things very easily, which comes in very handy if you'd like to start chopping up your clothes and refashioning them. Case in point, the long linen skirt above. I love the color of the linen and the fact that it is linen, but the length was not doing it for me anymore.

I believe it was this picture of Fiona Goble's first upcycled skirt that reminded me of my own blue-gray skirt that needed a new life. I happened to have this leafy print from Ikea in my stash, which matched the color of the skirt pretty well (in certain dim light) and decided to go for it.

I chopped the skirt off a few inches above the side slits and added the decorative print band to the bottom. Then I cut one leaf out of a bit of scrap, attached it with Heat-n-Bond Lite and free motion stitched around it to ensure that it stayed put. I'm really happy with the results, but you will have to settle for the hanger modeling it, because I'm less than happy with the shape of my pudgy knees right now.

While I work on the issue of my knees (and other unsightly bits), rest assured that nothing in my closet is safe from my scissors right now.

She Can Come Now

I gave her Momma my blessing and told her that her sweet baby girl is welcome to come any day now, as her quilt is finished. Yay! Actually, I have not heard from her Momma in a few days....she may already be here and thinking "Hey, Where's my quilt?!?". Or not.

I went binding shopping for this quilt on Monday. I didn't want to use one of the fabrics that was already in the quilt and didn't have anything else I liked. Plus, you really can't ignore the opportunity to go buy some fabric. I was certain that I would want to bind it in a pink - my hope was for pink polka dots. At my first stop I left with pink paisleys, which would have done just fine, but at my second stop I came across this turquoise polka dot from Amy Butler's new Love line and I did just that, I loved it for this quilt. I also fell for this new print, which surprised me, as I have never been big on navy blue, but lately is keeps popping into my thoughts. Hmm..

And I can't get over how much I love the feeling of a freshly washed quilt, when it starts to get all bumpy, lumpy and quilty. I have a really radical idea and that is, for my next project, I'm going to make something to keep here, for me, that I get to cuddle up with. I told you - radical. I've already started piecing some strips from this project which I started a while ago and I'm quite excited about it. It's going to be light and cool and perfect for summer, if I can finish it before summer is over.

So that's that and now I need to find out if there's a new baby out there waiting for me to home love on her!

P.S. Thank you for not mentioning that I hung this quilt sideways to photograph after taking great care to make sure that all the little trees in the pink fabric were vertical in the quilt. If it weren't dusk out now I'd take more, but it is and I'm not. You know, that's how the cookies crumble and all that good stuff.

It's a Girl

The top to the baby girl quilt I started is done. This one didn't take care of itself in a week like the last baby quilt did, but I've had fun working on it. While I intended it to be a pink quilt, it really turned out to be a green and pink quilt with blue thrown in for extra measure. Sometimes these things have a life of their own....or your stash dictates what's going to happen.

In the future, if I decide to make another quilt of this style, I will go about it in a more orderly way. On the past two quilts, I have sewn the rows willy nilly with no set pattern or size. That is all nice and fine, but really, if I set about making 12" blocks and just fiddled within the parameter of the block, I think it would go faster, stay more square and probably look just as cute. Perhaps I should try one and find out.

Last night I had some "help" while I worked. I get a lot of help from this little guy. He is either asleep in the pile of fabrics I'm working with (and too cute to disturb), attacking my thread as it runs through my machine (grrrr) or as was the case the night before last, puking all over my chair and the small square of floor space I have to stand in and cut. The latter being my very least favorite form of help. The above I think is pretty darn cute, especially since he tunneled his way in on his own.

With or without help, preferably without, I hope to get this all pinned together tonight and start quilting tomorrow. It's small enough that I could get it done in a day, I think. I'll let you know.

Peace Out

If you want to know what seven year old little girls are into right now, at least at our school, it's peace, love and happiness. Especially when illustrated with a peace sign, heart and smiley face. They are drawn on everything. I have yet to find them drawn on my car door, the walls, or other places where drawings have previously made their way, but I'm sure it will happen. There are worse things to be digging though, I'd say. If only we could spread some of the peace, love and happiness around and share it with our younger sister when school lets out. That is neither here nor there though, but this t-shirt is here. I picked up a cute t-shirt for Rachel at the Goodwill by my parent's house at Easter that had peace, love and ice cream on it (also good). It was a hit at school and one mother lamented that she could not find any shirts with peace signs for her daughter that weren't crafted out of skulls or age appropriate. I told her to bring me a t-shirt and I'd hook her up. The above shirt is the result.

I attached the peace sign with Heat 'n Bond Lite and then stitched around the symbol to ensure that it was secured. This way, if the Heat 'n Bond starts to give, the worst that will happen is that the edges will take on a slightly frayed look, which I thought would also be cute. When I stitch on t-shirts, I always back them with freezer paper for stability - it works great. My critic told me this morning that it needed more stuff (the same critic who once told me that her "style" was "fancy"). I found this tutorial on making fabric flowers and decided to add some embellishment. I made the flower into a pin, so that if the friend doesn't share the same fancy style, she can remove it. Probably removing it for washing would be smart as well.

And while I was initially searching my shelf of fabric for just the right one, I remembered my recent thrift store scores. The fairies have kept me in mind, as I scored the above just recently. The bottom two are sheets and the top piece, which I ended up using on the shirt, is several yards of a vintage print. I love all three. I'm thinking that the bottom soft yellow floral will be the back for my sheet quilt, but that is on hold while I wrap up baby gifts. So here's wishing you a peaceful weekend full of love and happiness. We'll be busy celebrating just about every occasion worth celebrating except for a wedding - two birthday parties, a baby shower and a graduation. Busy weekend!

What Are You Up To?

This is what I'll be up to for the next few weeks. I picked out the fabrics for my next baby girl quilt. The jumping off point was the dress on the right. I bought it for Sarah last summer, hoping that she could wear it this summer. No dice. I knew it was a risk and one I was willing to take because I was already waffling between giving it to her to wear and just cutting it up right off the bat. And because I love to find my girl's clothes at the thrift stores, the dress only set me back a buck or two. I pulled the other fabrics from my stash and hopefully will not have to go buy any more. Pattern will be similar to the elephant quilt I just finished, although I plant to have a good bit of bright white in it to really make the other bright colors pop. I'm excited to get to work on this, just as soon as the little people go to bed tonight.

And when I'm not sewing, or running around town doing this or that, or at the girl's schools, or taking little people to emergency dentist appointments, I'm out in the yard, bent over picking mulberries. Yes, it's that time of year again. I am so eager for them to come, but after about five days of obsessively picking them, I begin to wish that they would hurry up and all fall off the tree at once. It is tedious work, makes my fingers look like I'm a grease monkey and has, in the past, been an obsession. I'm proud to say that this year I'm not obsessing about it. I will actually let the kids play in the grass, even if I haven't just picked berries. Maybe that has something to do with the two gallons I still have frozen from last year. But now it's time for fresh berries in pies and muffins and jam and oh my, there goes my waistline. Oh wait, it's already gone. Very well then, dig in!

One Week

I was able to get this quilt done in just one week, start to finish. It's not that big (30" x 39"), and probably not a monumental accomplishment, but I am happy with the results and the time frame. The baby shower is this Saturday and I also need to get right to work on another one, as there is another baby to say welcome to coming in June. I think I will use a similar sort of random pattern for that one, but it will definitely be calling for pink.

I'm glad I added the elephants. They were fun to do, and go with the baby's nursery theme, so win-win. This was fun to make but not fun to quilt. That bummed me, as I hadn't quilted anything since the girl's Christmas quilts and was looking forward to the machine quilting part of it. The lack of fun was my fault though - I didn't pre-wash the backing fabric and it had a finish on it that prevented it from sliding over my sewing machine. Rather, it sort of stuck, which was not convenient at all. Also on the not convenient list would be running out of white thread, completely and utterly out, with about three more inches to quilt. Argh!! But it's done, will be on time and now I can get into a very girly pink mood. Until then......

And Baby Makes Four

Four for a friend's family, that is - no more babies for this family. There is a baby shower in less than two weeks for this baby. On Monday or Tuesday I said to myself, "Maybe I ought to make this baby a quilt.". I am not exactly a speedy quilter, nor do I have a lot of free time on my hands, but I decided to go for it anyway. The above picture is where I am as of today. I think I will keep it that width and add maybe two more rows to the length. It's measuring 33" x 30" as of now. The mother said that, what she really needed were boy blankets, as she already has a little girl and is set on clothes, so I think keeping this on the small side would help fit the bill for blankets as well as enable me to get it done in time. The nursery theme is sage green and brown with elephants. I have plans, if there is time, to embroider silhouettes of elephants in some of the larger blocks. The inspiration for this quilt came from Lottakind on Flickr. I loved the simplicity of it and the way it incorporated several fabrics. Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems and I think I typically end up cutting too many small pieces and doing more piecing than is necessary. Hopefully I'll be able to wrap up the piecing in the next couple of days and quilt it this weekend. Stay tuned for status updates.

Seasonally Inappropriate

So what do you sew when the temperature reaches into the 90's? Me? Apparently I bust out the flannel and wool and get to work making a winter muff. What the heck, you say? I know, it seems odd, but there's a reason to my madness. This winter a friend's little girl was given an outfit by her grandparents that included a muff. The friend mentioned that she wish she had a muff. I was reminded of the muff pattern in the Fall 2009 issue of Stitch magazine that Erin Harris of House on Hill Road had contributed and thought I might just be able to make her wish come true. This friend's birthday was last month and I shall be seeing her for a girl's dinner out this week and wanted to be able to give it to her as a birthday gift. You know, so she can get lots of use out of it now. Or not.

Plaid had been mentioned in said fantasy muff, which I happened to have a large piece of. I was going to mimic the one in the magazine, but swap out the plaid flannel for the wool on the ends and have black velvet in the middle to echo the bands of black velvet ribbon. That was the plan until I could find no black velvet in town and even when I thought I had, I came home, cut it, sewed all the basting stitches down both sides and then decided I had dark brown on my hands. Enter plan B, which used the plaid flannel, but wool down the middle. The wool lending itself from an old suit of Jim's that had been cast away. It worked perfectly! The instructions didn't make full sense to me as I read over them, but I am much more of a learn as you go kind of gal, so I just did what they said and figured it out. And in the end, I'd say it worked out. Now I just hope I haven't spoiled the surprise and that she loves it when she receives it. I think I'll go back to the summery sheet quilt now and put the woolens away for a while.

A Bunting Kind of Weekend

I'm back at the buntings again. Or should I say, I'm back at making birthday presents, although we shall call these belated birthday presents. These are pretty straightforward to put together, but I have found myself a little short cut and a big time saver. This week I picked up a pinking rotary blade cutter and have left the edges of these buntings pinked. Previously, I was sewing the triangles wrong sides together, turning them right side out and top stitching them. With the pinked edges, it eliminates a couple steps, one of them being my least favorite (turning all the triangles right side out).

These buntings are going to good brother and sister friends who have birthdays just a week apart (....and in April. Ahem). I was struggling with which fabrics to use for the girly one when I looked down on the floor and saw my pile of floral sheets that I've cut into for my summery quilt and realized that those would be perfect. I've opted for colors to match the boy's room and am hoping that something with your name on it will be cool enough for a now seven year old boy. I suspect my days of making him birthday gifts are just about over and done with.

My next challenge is getting these packed up and mailed off. Oh how I do not enjoy that part. In the meantime, have a lovely rest of your weekend. I think we're going to be a bit soggy here tomorrow. A good reason to spend the afternoon inside with the family.

Quilting Right Along

Another Ticker Tape Quilt is done. Sorry for the dark photo - I really need to go back outside and take some more now that the sun is out and shining. This quilt seemed to take longer than the last one - not sure why unless spring break had something to do with it. That could be it. I love that these quilts make use of the tiny pieces that I was otherwise sticking in the kid's drawer or just tossing out. Kudos to Amanda Jean for such a great idea and tutorial!

While this was fun, I'm looking forward to getting back to the sheet quilt that I've started cutting and piecing squares for. I thought it might be a good picnic quilt, but I imagine that once it's done, I won't want to put it on the ground... or let kids eat over it.... or let anyone else touch it or use it. We shall see. First it has to get finished though.

Bingo!

Have I mentioned that I play bingo? Now stop your laughing and hear me out..... A group of friends, who all happen to have motherhood in common, have gotten together for two, maybe three years now to play bingo one Saturday night a month. Sometimes we lapse, we don't always all make it, but it is good fun. We all bring a wrapped $10 gift to serve as a prize for winning a game, we have a potluck dinner and eat really good food, have really good drinks, pause for dessert and then we play a "blackout" round and the first person to cover a board wins the "kitty" into which we've all put $5. Are you laughing so much now? Are you still laughing when I tell you that last month I went home with gardening gloves, a gardening tool, and hand thrown pot made by one of the mommas, and $45? No, I didn't think so.

So bingo was tonight. At 2:30 this afternoon I still did not have my gift and was planning to run into Target on my way and pick something up. But that felt like I wouldn't be putting much thought into it and really, I've been so stoked about the pot I won last month that was hand made. So....I had these blocks already made (minus the muslin sashing) and thought I could put them to use. They're rejects from the quilt I was making for the Mister and me that I am not feeling the love on. On their own though, I thought they'd make dandy potholders and so that's what I did with them. I added the sash, sewed them right sides together with a layer of cotton batting and insul-bright in there, turned them right side out and closed the seam and then quilted in a square spiral, following the block's pattern.

I think they turned out kind of cute. I kind of wanted to keep them for myself. I think they were well received.....hopefully pot holders are not a totally lame gift to go home with. Thank you for not saying it, if they are.

The Weekend

It may not look like it, but we've got a busy weekend ahead of us. Lots of friends and getting together, so it will be fun, but busy. Taking some quiet time tonight to sew the binding on another Ticker Tape Quilt this evening. This one is a gift for Sarah's preschool teacher who will be having her first baby this summer. I'll share the final results once it's done.
Happy weekend!