Sewing progress

This is my design wall as of today. I have a few projects in the works. The Red and Aqua blocks are from a swap I did over on Jane's blog. They look a little wild and crazy to me when I lay them out. I am thinking of appliquéing Emily's name very large on the front of the whole quilt. This way the blocks will look like more of a background and not just everywhere. Th small block in the top right corner is a scrap quilt I am making for our guest bed. The plan is to make two scrap quilts for the daybed/trundle but I have not decided if I am going to use the same pattern for both. On the far left is a semi truck block that I paper pieced from Paper Panache. It was a mystery block. I love how it turned out! I am going to use it in something very special.

 Across the top you will see the $5 quilt blocks that I am making from my local quilt shop.

Here was the block from last month. I am sorry it took me so long to get it posted. I am using Thangles for all of my half square triangles. The only frustration with this is that it takes just a little more fabric than she gives us in our kit each month. So I had to purchase the oops kit the first month. So I have an extra 10 inch square of all the fabrics in the quilt along with a half yard of backing. I woulf much rather purchase the oops kit then have to draw all those lines.

Here is the block for this month. It took quite a bit of time. I worked on it off and on for two days. The fact that it does not have to be done until Saturday and that I am already done is an accomplishment. I usually wait until the night before.

No Sew Swap

I just joined a great swap hosted by Kathleen. This is a new swapping idea for me. It is a no sew swap. You pick a block out and cut nine kits. Keep one and mail the other 8. You do all the sewing yourself when you get your baggies back in the mail. What a cool idea. I already picked my block and will get cutting this week. I am making the Glory in Scraps block from Quilters Cache.

Current book club selection

I lead a book club on Ft Benning with PWOC. We choose a different Christian fiction book each month. We are currently reading The Nativity by Angela Hunt. This is the second book we have read by this author. We meet this Thursday to hand out our next book A Bride Most Begrudging by Deanne Gist. I have already read this one because I couldn't wait. I need to get busy and read The Nativity before Thursday. Ahhh busy busy busy! Here is our list for the rest of the semester. These are all great reads. 

January  A Bride Most Begrudging – Deeanne Gist 

February  The Face  — Angela Hunt

March  Blessed is the Busybody – Emilie Richards

April  The Yada Yada Prayer Group  Neta Jackson

May  Petticoat Ranch  Mary Connealy

Gifts I made for Christmas this year.

Here is a Poochie bag I made for my Aunt. I made two of these in different fabrics. They are the perfect size to carry a few books home from the library. It would also make a nice lunch bag. I showed a friend how to make these and she took off. I think she made 20 or more of these. This was only her second sewing project. Check out the tutorial for this great bag on Happy Zombie

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This is a chess board that I made using an iron on interfacing grid. The grids are made by Quilt Top Express.  This is a great way to make a personalized game board for the chess or checker player in your family.

These are some baby doll buntings I found in the Moda Bake Shop.  I altered the pattern because I wanted to make something for my daughter's Beanie Babies. The pattern for the bunting calls for 10 inch squares, but I used a charm pack and the end result was these pictures above which are a perfect size for Beanie Babies.

This is a bundle of gifts I sent to our family in Indiana.  From L to R, a tiny poochie bag (just the right size for a gift card), two journal covers that I designed myself, a pig pillowcase, 4 floral coasters, and a personalized towel.  I will be posting a tutorial for these great notebook covers in the near future.

I made these father and son pajama pants for our family in DC.  They arrived in the nick of time for them to wear these when they watched the playoff games.  

This is the first project I ever made from the Moda Bakeshop.  The tutorial for it was very simple and it was a lot of fun to make.  I had it done within an hour.  This is a grocery bag dispenser.  This one went to a friend in Kansas.

This little bag takes 20 minutes.  I made two of them this year as gifts.  The tutorial for this is very general so you can play with the sizes and make one almost any size you want by following the basic instructions on the tutorial.

These were for the females in the house of our DC family.  The apron on the left with the ruffle is reversible.  The mother's apron is also reversible but there is no ruffle -- just an applique of a crown.  There is no specific tutorial for me to lead you to on these because I read multiple tutorials and then winged it.  The crown design is mine.  I got the courage to try this without a direct pattern at my mother's leading and encouragement.  She said I had been sewing for so many years I should be able to know what I want, lay it out and make it.  That's what I did.  Because of her words, I made six things this year without a pattern.  This was a major stepping out of the box for me. However, I believe this opens a new chapter in my quilting and crafting.  The chef's hat came from a great tutorial from Michael Miller Fabrics' blog.  I was able to make two of these in very little time.  On the first one I forgot to put interfacing in the band but it still looks great on -- it just isn't able to stand up by itself when it's not on your head.

The second hat was for my youngest.  You can see how impressed she was.  LOL

Christmas Garland

On Friday night we sat down after dinner and got busy making a Christmas light garland from felt. I orginally saw the idea on Cakies Blog . I made mine quite different. Emme picked what colors we used. Grandma, Lil and I cut them out. Then we thought about gluing them but the only glue I had was white school glue. I know from past experience that this does not work well with felt. So we decided to sew them

Lil took on this job and I was so excited. You would think that since she is my daughter that she could sew like a wiz and that she sews all the time. Most of the time she is occupied with other things or she will wait to ask until I am really busy. She has tried a few things in the past but she gets frustrated with herself if she makes any mistakes. She is really good in the kitchen though and I fell in time she will do more sewing. Anyway back to the lights. We kind of raced. I was in charge of pinning and she was in charge of sewing. We got them done in record time.We strung them on red double fold bias tape. We hung them in our kitchen and bathroom. Our whole house is starting to take on a cheery glow.

I just won a great book!

I have been reading blogs all over the web and have happened on a few that have had a wealth of good ideas and my personal favorite tutorials. I have made my Christmas to-do list from many of these great blogs. One that I enjoy gleanning ideas from is Prudent Baby. They have some great craft ideas posted weekly. Check it out. I just won a book from this blog and I can't wit to receive it and get to baking some great cookies.

I have completed my second block for the $5.00 quilt project at my local quilt shop Sew Much Fun. I really like the fabrics we are using. Batiks have such a fresh look to me. I have been using Thangles on this project to make it a little easier for me. The only draw back is that I use a little more fabric then they give us in our kit. I had to buy an oops packet at the shop which has 1/2 yard of background along with a 10 inch square of all the fabrics we will be using. So as of today my $5.00 quilt has cost me $30.00. That is not too bad. We will see as I go along if the total increases.