Christmas Swap Goodies

Heather received her package yesterday so now I can show you what I sent her! I had so much fun putting this all together.

Something Chocolatey: Chocolate Charlie, it's made here in South Bend and is only available during the holidays!

Bits of Fabric: She has 3 boys already and is pregnant with a girl, so I thought a charm pack of Bliss would be nice. Very girly.

Something Homemade: I tried my hand at a wonky star. I put three of them together and they made the cutest table runner. I used Christmas fabric but not so Christmasy that it couldn't be used other times.

Something Unexpected: I put together some homemade Christmas cards for her to use. I actully added 2 more to the four shown in the picture.

And I threw in an ornament just for the heck of it :)


Table runner


Close up of a star. I just did some simple quilting around the star and around the frame of the quilt. I love the scrappy border :)

Hey Mom!......look familiar?

My Mom made these sweatshirts for us girls about 18 years ago! How I ended up with both of them I don't know, but I know I kept them for something because 2 kids later I knew they would never fit! Well...


With a little cutting....


a little interfacing for stability....


a little pinning and sewing....


they are now my newest Christmas pillows!

The design itself was closer to the neckline of the sweatshirt than it was towards the bottom so the blue one didn't have enough material at the top of the design for it to be centered on the pillow, but I like the way it looks :)

Christmas Swap!!

My Christmas swap is wrapped and ready to go! Just need the right size box and it will go in the mail tomorrow! I hope Heather likes everything...and she better open everything right away :)

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Click on the picture below to head over to Jodis Blog! She's hosting a Christmas Cookie Exchange next week, Dec 6th-13th! It will be a week long of recipes, tutorials, cookie packaging ideas, giveaways and MORE. Even a Linky Party that everyone can join and share their favorite Christmas cookie recipe! I already have a favorite in mind!

Lucky ME!!

I'm so excited to be the WINNER of Jodi's scrapy giveaway!! I can't wait to see what goodies are in that box! Check out her blog, Pleasant Home , it's one of my favorites!

Little Sneek Peak

What I've been working on. Can't show it quite yet because it's for a certain someone. Whatever it is, it's super easy and super cute and I'm addicted.

Christmas Cactus

I WANT TO MAKE ONE OF THESE!!..... eventually

GO IRISH!

This posting everday for a month is actually really hard!

Today is kind of a lame post. I've been here for what seems like the last 48 hours! My 8th Notre Dame football season is quicly coming to an end!! Although it wasn't a season to write home about, we're all looking forward to next year! Farwell Irish Football 2010. Now bring on the basketball, women's basketball, and hockey season! Not to mention Christmas break, we're all looking forward to that!

Inspiration

So I have this swap to do. I have little time left to get everything together. It's the Homemade Goodness that just has me confused. I want to make something really nice for her. I know people say they're not picky but, yeah, I think they are, I am, I mean, I'm not snobby picky, I appreciate anything home made, but we all want something that we'll actully use or display, right? I started just gathering stuff up to give me a little inspiration for some idea of what to do. I also spend way to much time online surfing all the wonderful blogs out there. Not to mention flickr, or google search. Where do all those other quilters come up with those fabulous ides?! Anyway, I have a few ideas rattling around in my head and I hope to get started soon!!

HAPPY VETERANS DAY

Christmas Cards

My Christmas cards are finished!! All I need to do now is take the kids picture! I'll even be done addressing envelopes before the weekend is over!
This is my rendition of Nicole's Shining Star card. I used 2 birds, didn't use the vellum, and what's a Christmas card with glitter? I glittered my star instead of embossing it! Now that I look at them together I do kind of like just the one bird in the tree, oh well.

My Card


Nicole's Card

UFO's

We all got 'em. Stashed away. Stuffed in boxes. Crammed in bags. Tossed aside for whatever reason. I'm showing some of mine with the hopes that the embarrassment alone will help me get out of my UFO funk and get them done already!
The first I guess you could say isn't really an "unfinished" project, but one that needs to be started! KarrieLyne hosted an awesome charmpack quilt along back in July. I got everything together and.........

STUFFED IT IN A BOX.


My next project is a pair of window treatments for my bedroom. I went to visit my parents back in June and Mom helped me cut them out. I need to find just the right color material for the back. In the meantime........

I CRAMMED THEM IN A BAG.

Finally, this "beauty" is waitng to be covered with a gorgeous black and white fabric. I actually have the fabric torn off the ottoman but for now is been....

STASHED AWAY


Oh, not to mention the missing trim in the above picture that needs to be done. I won't even tell you how long that's been gone.

NaBloPoMo

Apparently, November is National Blog Posting Month. If you have a blog, any kind of blog, you have to post once a day for the entire month of November. You can sign up here and even win prizes. I didn't officially sign up because I WAS going to do it, then decide NOT to, then decided to give it a try anyway, 2 days late of course. It seems to have helped me get things done though just so I'd have something to blog about each day :) Some of my posts might just be random pictures, or have nothing to do with crafts at all. Hopefully I'll have lots more to show you, but for now, this is my post for today. I'm headed off to work, and don't know when I'll be back so today I kept it simple. :)

Ahhh...Bliss

Ever have one of those days where you feel like sewing, but don't really have anything in mind? That's how I felt about this little charm pack of Bliss that I bought. Sooooo, I cut the charms up into half square triangles......

.......and just started sewing them into rows. I had some white fabric leftover from my Pinwheel sampler so it came in handy! Not sure what to call it and I don't know if it's any kind of official pattern that's been done before, but I like how it turned out! It's crib size, but all the preggers I know have had boys!


I LOVE the colors in this fabric and will use again soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH

I just wanted to take the time to wish my oldest son a very Happy 20th Birthday! You've been an absolute joy! I don't know where the time has gone. Love you

5 months

19 & 3/4

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's that time of year again, and my head just gets overwhelmed with ideas for Christmas! I've already started my Christmas cards and right now I'm about 80% done! I've also joined a Christmas Swap over at Little Miss Shabbys place! Our package needs to contain some chocolatey goodness, a hearfelt homemade item, some yummy fabric bits, a Christmas card and something unexpected. I'm very excited to put this all together for my swap partner Heather! I've already started her goodies and might show some little peaks later!

My Christmas card pieces! I'm actually a copy cat this year when it comes to my cards. I saw the design here and just had to tweak it a little so it's not an exact copy :)

Summer in the City Giveaway

I really hate blogging about these giveaways......it ruins my chances of winning :)
But, Little Miss Shabby is giving away this gorgeous stack of Summer in the City fabric. Go enter and take the time to read her blog too!

Denim Quilt

This has to be one of my favorite quilts so far! I started this way back as a graduation gift, but....I loved it so much that I didn't have the heart to give it away! It took me a while to find the right backing for it. I originally wanted to use a flannel sheet. I made a trip to our local thrift shop and found the PERFECT cotton sheet for the back! It has huge hydrangeas on it in the same tones of blue as the jeans! I couldn't have been more lucky! It's my TV watching quilt and is nice and heavy for the winter :) And the best part about this quilt is the cost:

Denim from old jeans-FREE
Cotton Sheet-$1.99
Thread-about $3 worth


Close up of the quilting. Just an easy loopy line.

The Perfect Back

Two Words: 50% Off

I guess you could call this my first pile of actual "stash".
I have no use for it....yet.
But it was 50% off and I couldn't resist :)
6 yards of yummieness!

Happy Fall Y'all

This is a pattern I bought about 3 years ago and never did anything with. As I was decorating for the upcoming holiday, I realized that I didn't have anything fall/halloween'ish for my table and remembered I had the pattern. It called for a black background but instead I re-used and recyled an old coat that I was going to throw out! The brown tweedy fabric worked perfect as a background, and to me, made it look more like fall than Halloween.

Latest Projects

I have a bunch of projects to show but I'm going to space them out and not show them all at once, that way I might actually update this blog a little more often :)
The latest project is Christophers Halloween costume. The Scarecrow from Batman. I have a little more detail work to finish on it but you get the idea. It was pretty simple to do once I figured out that by using some fusible web on the inside, the burlap would actually hold together better. It's woven together so loosely that everytime I put a handstitch in it would just come apart.

And this little baby is finally finished! My Pinwheel Sampler. Well, the top anyway. I LOVE the way it turned out!! I added some extra borders because I'd like to use it on our bed sometime and I needed it a little longer on the sides. I hope to work on it over Christmas break.


Lots more to show later this week :)

A MUST HAVE Giveaway!!

Just have to let everyone know that KarrieLyne at Freckled Whimsy is giving away an AccuQuilt Go! I would just love to get my hands on one of these!! Go check it out!

Friendship Star

My very first actual, usable quilt is finished! Actaully it has been for a while I just hadn't posted a picture of it yet :) Still waiting for my background fabric to come in so I can get my pinwheel quilt done. I might look for it elsewhere!

Catching Up

Well, unfortunately my pinwheel quilt has been but on hold for a bit. I ran out of the back ground fabric for the sashing and as luck would have it the quilt shop is out of it and it's on back order:( Hopefully it comes in soon because I'm excited to get it done.
On another note, thanks to this little beauty I'll be able to get a few other projects finished!! This was my Mothers Day gift and I absolutely love it! Nice even stitches, dropping feed dogs, lots of extras, including a quilters accessory package with everything I need, and it's soooo quiet!!


The first project to get finished is my friendship star quilt. It took some practice (ok, a lot) but I finally got the hang of the free motion quilting! It's not perfect, I have some sharp points and some loops I didn't want in there, but overall I'm happy with it.


I love how the back looks!

More blocks and a layout

Rachels block #8 was to find our favorite pinwheel block and make 2. I did a little searching online for some different blocks.....but then found these.....Aren't they awesome! Thanks to KarrieLyne I found my favorite block! It's done by paper piecing, and was quite simple......after some trial and error of course.


These area couple other blocks I found, but I'm not too crazy about them.



These 2 are definately going in my quilt.

This is my first layout. I'm not sure if I want to add more or not. I really like the size of a 4x5, but I really like the way it looks on my bed so it may get bigger :)

Pinwheel #7

Block #7 is done! I notice that instead of "measure twice and cut once".... I think that measuring 6 TIMES and cutting once seems to help keep things straighter! This is one of my favorite blocks so far! And I was wrong about the finished size of these, I said before they were 10 inches, they're actually 12!! I'll have to post a picture of them all together soon.

Pin Cushions

Not much to share today. The next pinwheel block in the Quilt Along won't be up until Saaturday so I haven't done much sewing this week.
I thought I'd share these adorable pin cushions I made from Heather Baileys pattern. I think they are the cutest things ever! There's also a little strawberry pattern that came with it but I need to find some emory powder to stuff it with. You use it to keep your pins and needles sharp. I've also read that you can use crushed walnut shells that you can buy in the lizard section of the pet store! I'm off tomorrow so I'll be checking those items out.

Block #1

Finally got block #1 completed. I stopped at the quilt shop yesterday to see if they had yardage of the Frolic fabric. It was all still in the back waiting to be cut into fat quarters and put out on the floor :( BUT, the nice lady offered to cut me the fat quarters that I needed!!! I LOVE Erica's!


What's this mess? Yup, I started another project. I have this great Ginger Blossom fabric that's just dying to get made into another pinwheel quilt! I guess I don't completely hate triangles.


Finally, I just had to share this adorable picture. He had his first baseball "tryout"/practice yesterday evening and was just whomped out! He fell asleep on the couch, so I woke him up and told him to go to bed. Well, he made it half way off the couch. He slept like that for about 20 minutes before I realized he hadn't gone to bed yet!