Not a Very Crafty Christmas

I have been having no luck. Seriously...I am trying hard to be crafty but it is not working. First I wanted to make scarves but couldn't find fabric to match (Thanks Michelle - totally going to try grey), then I was going to make these bubble pouches and put some Govida, Frango and Lindt chocolate in it for my office mates, I cut them out, bought everything I needed but then when I was getting ready to sew them together - I can't find the hair elastics that I bought to hook on the buttons. I am getting some more today and then I am sure I will find them.

Then I was going to make these little calendars for my daughter's preschool teachers (there are 10 of them so I wanted something useful but not to expensive) but after M and I drove to 7 different stores in our town looking for the little calendar - I had to order them on line and may not get them in time (might just make as a New Year's gift).Then I was making cookies - since my Grandma is usually the Christmas Cookie Goddess, I had to step up and make them- and the spritz first were deformed but I got that fixed and then I burnt half of them. I did make her traditional Italian cookies yesterday (all 12 dozen) and they turned out so I am 4: 1 on my Christmas crafts/cookie. I should have taken pictures but I wanted to pack them up before I ate too many. :) I have never had them fresh and they are so good fresh. I had to text my brother and brag that I was eating the cookies and he had none. He is looking forward to his stale portion on Christmas.

Oh, and I lost our Christmas cards. I bought the photo cards at Costco, filled out the envelopes but I can't find the cards. Help me...please. So everyone will get those in the new years as well.

On a side note that will make you grossed out but chuckle at the same time - my 91 year old grandma shared a little secret thought she had (I know not so secret any more) - She said, "did you know I have wrinkles on my butt?!" Oh, to get old.

Oh, also you should check this out. I know of Kwanzaa but had never really read anything about it to know much more than its an "African" heritage holiday and it goes for like 7 days but that was all I knew. There was this short post you should read. I wish we all celebrated this sort of thing. All the tenants really should fit in all our lives. Anyway...a little Kwanzaa education for you.

Oh, the very top picture is M and her friends decorating cookies at a friend's house. I didn't make the cookies - thank goodness. The kids would have been so disappointed!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful day off of work whether you celebrate the day or not.

I lied

Okay, only a little. I said I would be posting about the scarves I was making. Well, I made the tops then I got so frustrated I threw it to the side. Why so frustrated? Well, the top is mainly dark purples so I wanted a dark purple fleece or flannel for the back. All I could find was bright purple. Do you know where I could get some dark purple flannel or fleece? I wasn't happy with black. I would really appreciate your help and then I could really finish them. :) Thanks.

I'm Back Again and so Quickly

My brother asked me to make him so bags for gifts for x-mas. I said sure as long as he pays for the fabric. I always buy excess fabric so that is how I receive my payment. So, first is the above bag. I made two, one for him and one for myself. I ended up not liking the size of it for me so I think I will send it to my aunt in Texas after I change the button that is. I am not liking it. This bag is from Artsycraftybabe. It is a free pattern of hers called the Phoebe bag. The flowers are hers too. No creativity on my part. :)

This bag is from a vintage McCall's pattern that I acquired from my mother. Its from the late 70's. I like it. Super roomy. I made myself one too. (I have to test them out, right? And I needed a Halloween bag.) This is for my brother's friend who is going to school so she needs room for books and loves skulls. I love this fabric. I got it here at Pink Chalk Fabric. They deliver super fast. I highly recommend them. The buttons are also vintage from my great aunt Oska's collection of buttons.I made two buttercup bags designed by Made By Rae. I thought I messed up on the purply one so I made the maroon one. I put snaps on it and then I couldn't sew around the edge and it really needed it so I was super frustrated. Then the next day I realized, duh, I have a big hole in the bag still. Why not take the snaps off, sew the edge and put the snaps back. I am so dumb sometimes. The purply green one is from Amy Butler's LOVE collection. I made the handle shorter and since is was so wide I folded it in so it has a little peek a boo effect. The maroon is from Anna Maria Horner. I again used a vintage button. I really love that one. I thought about not sending it but I sent a photo of the fabrics to my brother so I kind of have too. I am sending him one extra bag with the intentions of him returning one so I hope its that one.Finally, I made an Amy Butler Swing Bag. I have so gotten my money's worth out of this pattern. I have like four of them for myself and I made one for every one of my friends. Much use. In fact, I have made 4 out of this exact fabric. Its Amy Butler's Nigella line. Love it. I get compliments still when I use mine. This is the pattern that sucked me into making bags. When I was looking at the link I was eyeing another one...hmmm....

My next project is making skinny scarves. I broke my ruler so I need get another one before I continue but maybe I can share this weekend with you. That is what everyone is getting this year. Skinny scarves made with kimono silk and fleece. Odd combo, huh? Its gonna work, really. :)

Wow - its been awhile

I have been so preoccupied with my grandma and the holidays that I haven't had a chance to blog at all. We really haven't done anything but holiday stuff. M and I saw the Nutcracker and we made gingerbread houses, had a sleep over and more. Nothing too exciting to share. But I did finish my quilt blocks for the three bees I am in. I forgot to take pictures of all of them but here are a few. Check in tomorrow for the bags I made. :) Oh, I threw in a couple of my kid too. The first one is at the Nutcracker. My mom made M's dress and the next is Gingerbread making. You can't tell but she is wearing a Grinch t-shirt. She picked it out herself. Nut.

So Much to Say

First, We went to Great Wolf Lodge for a little vacation. That place is AWESOME! If you have any in your area you should go. The only one on the west coast is here in Washington but there are a ton in the east. It has indoor water slides, a craft room for kids, a teen room, a build a bear type station, a build your own crocs station, and a game called Magi quest where you buy this wand and game and run around the 5 floors fighting dragons and collecting ruins. M and Quoc had a blast. Above is M helping a fairy.

Then, I took a class Monday from Jean Wells. It was her Intuitive Design class. She has a book on it but the class was so inspiring. She taught us how to make wavy lines and to sew without a ruler. Plus ways to inspire yourself and create ideas that you love. Then she showed us how to finish our quilts off with a technique from her book but since changed how she does it. Man, I hated to see the day end. Below are some of her quilts I wanted to run away with but thought the other 25 participants would catch me. You have to check out her book out and definitely take a class from her if you can. She is over at the Stitching Post in Oregon if you are in the area. She luckily came to Bellingham for this one though. I am so excited to get something made for myself. I hope my family likes it cus its what they will probably get for x-mas. :)

We love Halloween!

Here we are. Our 12th Halloween together. Why would I know something random like that? Because we love Halloween. We have every Halloween picture on our wall- year round! So here we are; a gypsy, A vampire and a fairy princess.

We went trick or treating with our friends and their kids. My friend is a genius and lined her daughter's princess costume with fleece. Awesome! No coat required. We totally lucked out and a storm came through the night before and wiped all the clouds away. We had a clear sky and it was pretty warm. Yea, for Trick or treating. M got like 5 full size candy bars!

We are going to Great Wolf Lodge this week. We are really excited! A water park indoors, spas, games, food. It should be a blast! We haven't gone on a vacation well since I was preggers with M and really it didn't count. It was an overnight bus trip to Paris. Not much romance with a bus full of people. :) Then again, not much romance water sliding with a four year old. :) But we will LOVE it!

My New Bag and a Few complaints

Here is my new bag. I was making it for my brother to give as x-mas gifts but I decided to make myself one for Halloween since I had exactly enough fabric. I absolutely love this fabric. I'm not one to wear skeletons or skulls other than Halloween but my brother's friend is. The pattern is an old 1970's pattern I acquired from my mother a while back. It is a great way to display your favorite fabric. The handle is supposed to be tied but I find that it usually isn't that comfortable so I sewed them together and put some red buttons on. I wanted turquoise but I wasn't going to go to the store for buttons when I have like 5 billion at home. Red will do. The inside has one pocket that was fussy cut so that it had a little picture on it. So far I love it! Like my fancy pen with my name on it. I bought one for my niece for her 15th birthday. I think she was more excited over the pen than the 50 bucks we gave her. Kids. So weird. I also made a mini quilt for STUD but I can't show it yet. Soon. It is very cute.So here are my complaints. One, MY WASHER DIED MID CYCLE. So I have a washer full of wet cloths and water. So annoying. Second, I know I live in Washington and we are known for rain but oh my goodness, we have been getting so much! I can't believe it! I guess that is what happens when you have a virtually perfect summer with record heat. So, I guess I won't complain. :) Plus my grandma is in the hospital again. I hope your day is going better than mine. I pulled out the Mike's Hard Berry Drink. Yumm...

Bags Galore

I got very motivated this weekend and made some bags. Both of these are for ladies in my office. I just kind of well, hate this bag so I was lacking motivation to make it. Its my design - I really can't blame anyone. It might be that I have been carrying the same bag in different colors for months and I am sick of it. Why I didn't make myself a new one you ask? Well, I needed to make these first. :)
This second bag is for my friend Kris who is a sewer but you know, never any time, so she asked me to make it for her friend whose a sewer as well. It came as a kit so I just had to follow directions. It was supposed to have free motion quiting on it but I am not very good at that so I embellished the wand with shiny beads. Each sewn individually so they shouldn't fall off...I hope. My mom made the saying for me on her machine since mine isn't so high tech.



The Wicked Witch side I traced the hat and the band on the hat. If I knew how to do trapunto that would have been cool. I have the panels too so I may make myself one as well. Oh, I didn't take pictures of the inside but it is lined with yellow fabric with ruby slippers on it and has pockets made from stills of the film on the same panel. Its lined with eco-felt. I am not overly familiar with it but I really liked the stiffness of it. I wonder if it washes well. The handles are webbing.
So this last bag...I know...its not done yet, was made from scraps I had. I'm calling it my library bag. I need to go back to the fabric store and see if I can get more red to line it and make the handles. I seriously used every scrap. Look at the flower- scraps. The flower is removable. Its one of the Kanashi flowers from this book.
Scraps. See the line at the top. I didn't have enough to make it the whole size so I improvised. I actually like it. I would have made it a bigger strip but...scraps. That is all I had. :)

I should have been working on the bag my mom asked me to make or the four bags my brother commissioned for x-mas but oh well. The Library bag was way more fun and took me like a half hour.

Now I need to work on quilting bee blocks. :)

Baby Quilt and WIP

So here are the two quilts I mentioned earlier. This one is the baby quilt for my friend.

Here is a close up of the rainy day girls. I ordered it in purple or blue but they sent me the pink. I was sort of bummed but I guess it all worked out. They are super cute. Honestly, I bought it to make myself something.

This is the back. I didn't know the baby's name but it really needed something so I quickly hand embroidered a rainy day umbrella.

Here is my WIP. Its a lime green and yellow string quilt. I love it. My hubby even loved it. Too bad it doesn't match anything in our house. As you can see on the top is white. I still have to do a white border all around and then I will bind it in one of the lime green fabrics. Back, you ask, got me. Not that far. :) I'm really happy with how it is turning out. I was thinking about selling it on etsy. It would be my first quilt. It all depends, of course, on the final quality. I won't sell anything that I am not fully proud of. I am sure you all understand. :)

Dresses, dresses and a miniquilt

I can't believe it has been that long since I posted. I still haven't taken a picture of the two quilts I made. Okay one quilt, one top. The weather has turned so I don't have many options since my camera is dying and doesn't take indoor pictures very well. Any suggestions for a new camera? I keep reading reviews but then I read a bad one and decide to keep looking. But either way here are some pictures of other things I made. :)

I love this little dress. I saw it and had to make it and I am not someone who makes cloths for their child. Besides the one's I am showing you - I have only made one other dress for her and calling it make is a stretch since it was this funky wrap dress. I'm not even going to try to explain it - it was a weird, super simple design. Anyway, this dress is the Kyoko dress from Modkids. I got it at PinkChalkFabrics. Super fast delivery. M is going to wear it at her great grandma's 91st birthday party or maybe to meet my sister in law's soon to be in laws. She wants my hubby and me to come to be buffers for her parents. They can be odd as all parents can be.

Here is the second dress. I know, I was totally motivated. So weird. This one M really wanted a purple dress so I used all stash fabric. I was so proud of myself for not buying more. The kyoko dress I had to buy the turquoise but I had the black part. It is intended for a play dress. In fact, she already stained it the first day she wore it. It is really big and airy which I think she loves. She loves to be a naked baby. And she hates when I say naked baby since she is not a baby! This is the Syndey dress from Modkids as well. It has a pointed hood (or the option to make a rounded one) and you can have short sleeves or make it a shirt. My kid likes dresses. Oh and it is supposed to have a strip work bottom but I just did one fabric. The fabric was crazy enough.

Here is my mini quilt from Doll Quilt Swap 7. I was so excited to get it. I love the quilting and it smells really good. Her blog is at Craftalittle. I love it. My daughter ran around the house with it with a roll of tape trying to find a place to put it up. I think I am going to put it up in the hallway since I have nothing there yet. Don't worry - I'm not taping it. I think it is taped to my desk right now.

Here is the back.