Totes for Teachers

The nice thing about having a blog that no one follows is that I can post all my Christmas goodies before the holiday and not really have to worry about spoiling it for anyone.

I made these Winslow Tote bags by Kathy Mack for the 2 main teachers at my daughter’s daycare. I really think they truly like their jobs and the children they care for and I wanted to show my appreciation with some handmade goodness.

I love this boat fabric. Its another nice piece from the gifted stash from my husbands Aunt Tiny. The bottom of the bag is a pirate treasure map fabric I picked up at Joann's.

I dipped into my stash for this bag and used up the last of my Melissa Averinos Sugar Snap fabric. I should have bought 10 yards of this stuff. I love the color combination of the aqua, orange and pink. I am going to have a hard time parting with this one, it is so pretty.

The horse fabric I used for the lining is just darling.

I love this pattern. You can use all fat quarters, or small pieces of fabric you might have left over from some other project. Plus the patchwork effect is great. Anything goes. I hope to make a couple more of these to keep for shopping or running errands.

There is still lots more Christmas sewing to get done. I wish I had the time to make all of my gifts. Maybe if I start in January I might be able to do just that. It would be wonderful to have a completely handmade Christmas in the Hill house.

Christmas Quilt and Mindless Chatter

I have a confession. Christmas is not my favorite holiday. Actually it ranks pretty low on the holiday list of favorites. I tend to get a little weighed down by the consumerism, travel, constant running around and the idea that you must do it all with a cheerful smile. I much prefer Thanksgiving or Halloween where you can still stuff your face but with so much less pressure. Which is why I was surprised to be drawn to this Christmas quilt pattern. I guess sometimes the projects pick you and not the other way around. The pattern is Trees Up Lights On by Sandy Gervais. I am making this one for my family. It’s been a long time since I made a quilt that will stay in our home and is not for someone else. I am really excited to create some simple, quiet and cherished Christmas family memories with this quilt. I can just picture my daughter snuggled under it on Christmas morning.

All the blocks are complete. Now I need to square them up and piece them together. It really is a pretty easy quilt to put together. You sew a little here, trim a little there, then sew some more. It’s a perfect pattern for anyone who hates exact piecing. I cannot wait to find the perfect backing and binding fabric. I am thinking some polka dots.

On a side note I cannot keep my daughter out of the dog food and water bowls. There is an irresistible magnetic force that draws her in. It’s rather frustrating but amusing since I am amassing a large array of blackmail pictures for when she is older.

Superhero Fort Kit

My super awesome neighbors have a son who just so happens to be born on the best day of the year (my birthday). He was having a superhero themed birthday and I needed just the right gift since well, he is special, being a Libra and all. I thought about buying him another man barbie action figure but then I found this great diy gift idea here and here and here. It was pretty quick to put together and I hope it brings him hours of imaginative play time. I remember building forts when I was a kid and loved it. Heck I still feel like a kid, anyone down for some fort time? Here are all the superhero fort building essentials you need, a cape, flashlight, glow sticks, clamps, rope and a giant sheet. I picked up a yard each of this Batman and Superman fabric at Joanns and made the cape reversible. This way he can choose which hero he would like to be on any given day. I used the leftover fabric to make the bag.
This is a great gift idea if you have any little boys in your life in need of a birthday present.

The BIG 30

Today is my birthday. I have made it to the BIG 30. Can someone please tell me when do you start feeling like a grown up because I still feel like I am 16 (and would kill to have the body I did when I was 16).

I spent some time this weekend going to my BFAM’s (brother from another mother) wedding, celebrating with friends, getting a pedicure and just enjoying the time spent with people I love. I received some great gifts, not that I expected any. Shout out to my husband for the best ammonite bracelet ever. I also thought about some of the things I want to focus on for the next year of my life. Put on your galoshes because this might get deep, not too deep, just a little, maybe like a puddle. Here goes.

1) I will embrace this hair of mine, in all its long, going grey, kinky glory.

2) I will focus more on the people/things/experiences that fill me up, rather than weigh me down.

3) I will evaluate the time suck that is technology and try to eliminate the use of it that is not really contributing to my life.

4) I will sew more, and hopefully blog about it more, because it makes me happy, very, very happy.

5) I will continue to de-clutter my home and mind from the things and thoughts that don’t make me feel good.

6) I will try to not compare myself to others so much.

7) I will kiss and hug and squeeze my dog more, because I think she feel like a 3^rd wheel since Lenora entered the picture.

8) I will spend more time building up the people I love so much, myself included, rather than focusing on their weaknesses.

9) Finally, I will slow down. I am not quite sure who or what I am racing against but I am pretty sure it’s not a competition to see who can get to the end the fastest.

Whew, did you make it through all that. It feels good just to write it down. I feel like I have accomplished so much in 30 years but still have so much further to go. I guess life is really about the journey and not the destination. Now its off to the sewing machine to work on #4.

I could not resist this picture. Lenora is fearless. No Kirby will get the best of her.

Simple Sewing

My husbands Aunt Tiny blessed me with the mother load of fabric. I'm talking suitcases full of vintage goodies, apparel blends, you name it, it was there. In the stash was this little beauty just dying to be made into something pretty. It is a heavier weight and the border print just screamed tablecloth. And since I am still a little bitter over my missing quilt pieces I needed something simple to sew. All I did was trim the selvedges and miter the corners. An hour later and she was done.
Check out those mitered corners. Great tutorial here. I wanted a double fold for a clean finish so just fold and iron once, then follow the instructions for the miter. When you are done it will be double. Sometimes you just need a simple little something to sew.

Fancy Pants

I should be sewing on my Christmas quilt. The one quilt I have made in ages that is for me/my family and no one else. The quilt that I loved so much it took me almost a year to find exactly the right cherry reds and lime greens. But ever since the basement ghost came along and walked off with 4 of my quilt pieces I have become a little pissy about it. I don’t really have a ghost but how else do you explain 4 missing pieces from 420 stacked into perfect blocks? We don’t have a cat so I cant even blame it on that.

Which reminds me of the one time when I was still living with my mom. I laid out a quilt on her basement floor and left it for the night to sew the next morning. When I came back to it there were pieces everywhere with chewed edges. She has 3 cats and I swear they had a keg party on my quilt. I never did get it laid back out the way it was originally.

I digress. So since I became all pissy about the Christmas quilt I just had to sew something adorable for little Lenora. The Anna Maria Horner Quick Change Trousers were the perfect project. I made the cloth diaper bum adjustment mentioned here, and a short while later I had the cutest pair of reversible pants.

Check out those little birds. I have been holding on to this fabric for a while waiting for the perfect project to come

along.
Can you get any more adorable than that? I see more of these pants in my future. They were easy and pretty quick to sew.

For the Love of Sewing (the super secret surprise unveiling)

My grandmother taught me how to sew with old pillowcases and barbie dress patterns. Ever since then I have had a love affair with needle and thread. One of the reasons I sew is because I get to make things for the people that I love. I made this quilt for a dear friend of mine, just because she likes butterflies, and just because she is the best friend a gal could ever have. I had this quilt idea in my head for years but could not find the right vintage butterfly quilt blocks. One day the perfect vintage quilt top magically appeared on ebay and I made her butterfly quilt dream a reality.

The butterflies are vintage hand appliqued quilt blocks and the border fabric is also vintage. The striped squares are reproduction prints that replaced plain muslin squares on the original quilt top. The sewing was not so great and the plain muslin squares were stained so I took the whole top apart, washed it and put it back together again with some new fabric.

Here is a shot of the back where I pieced together some Kona cotton and leftover fabric from the front. I think my measurements were off or I was working on this late night because how I originally planned it and how it turned out are totally different. I was sweating there for a minute wondering if I had enough fabric to finish the back but it all worked out in the end.
I love these labels. I ordered then from Fancyweaver. I know it's not a USA based company but the price was right, they were easy to work with and the labels look great. They are end fold labels but just long enough I can unfold them and tuck it into a corner of a quilt.

Here is another one of my hand embroidered quilt labels.

On a side note these pictures were taken in my grandmothers back yard, the backyard of the same house I learned to sew in. She has two perfect trees that I stretched a piece of rope between to take quilt pictures. I say I but you would not catch my butt climbing a ladder up that tree. Its my husband that does all the heavy lifting while I stand safely on the ground directing.

So tell me, why do you sew?