Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Holiday Sewing: Pillows for All, and to All a Good Night!

Happy Wednesday! For most of us, this is the last work day of the week [can I get a WOO!]. Also for most of us, it's WIP Wednesday ;)

I'm currently working on a pillow for myself and my two sisters.


For me: a present block in green, because I needed a pop of green on my couch. I'm very traditional when it comes to Christmas decorations, so you won't find any aqua or pink at my house as a main color. Not that I don't think it can look nice, but I like more traditional color schemes and motifs because it reminds me of my family.

I didn't use a pattern, I just made it up based on what size I wanted my pillow cover to be [18"]. Fabrics are a Cotton Couture solid that was on sale at Fat Quarter Shop for like $4/yd [!!!], Riley Blake La Creme red dots, and a Children at Play gingham. I started quilting last night, remembering my promise to myself to try new quilting designs.


For my younger sister Robyn: a gingerbread man! This was on her request. I used one man from the block from last year's Fat Quarter Shop Deck-ade the Halls quilt. This top is 16" once I added some borders. Fabrics are another Cotton Couture solid, two light green prints from the Basic Grey charm pack from yesterday's projects, and a light aqua snowflake print from Basic Grey's Jovial line. I've quilted the background of this guy with swirls.

My older sister Rachel is getting a snowflake-inspired pillow that hasn't been started yet. I really really hope I'll be able to pass these pillows out tomorrow, so I guess I better get to it!

Have a safe, delicious, and happy Thanksgiving!

*Linked with WIP Wednesday

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Holiday Sewing: Carepackages for Friends

Hi all!

This week I've got lots of holiday sewing to share. I just made a quilt that I can't share, which always bums me out, but I've been spending some time making some small holiday projects. that I CAN show off!

I have some really amazing friends who live scattered around the country. We really enjoy sending each other care packages throughout the year. I've recently fallen down on the job of just sending little cards and gifts. One of my friends, Kadi, just sent me this fantastic Halloween package that had candy, a Starbucks gift card, festive socks, Target coups, and some other little things. It was just so thoughtful and full of things that are absolutely me.

So my first order of business was a return package for her!


I had a Basic Grey charm pack [I cannot for the life of me remember the fabric line] from last year laying around. I cut it up into 2.5" squares and sewed 25 together into a hot pad. I normally make them with Insul-Brite, but I didn't have any, so I quilted the top onto a layer of batting, and then quilted the entire thing to another layer of batting and the backing fabric.


I rounded the corners and added some red pinstriped binding. The loop is a piece of the selvage!

Throw in a kitchen towel with some matching squares sewed onto it....


...and load a basket full of goodies.

I'm going to be sending this out on Friday so that it will arrive at the start of the Christmas season! I hope it will bring a smile to my sweet friend's face :)

Stay tuned for some upcoming posts of holiday pillows, advent calendars, and handmade Christmas presents!

*Linked with Fabric Tuesday

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Bowtie bonanza

Don't bonanzas sound like so much fun?!

I've spent all my free sewing time recently making these bowties.

I'm on course to finish this weekend, so I'll hopefully be able to share soon :)




*linked with WIP Wednesday

Monday, November 4, 2013

Holiday Sewing: It begins

You guys, I had the most productive weekend. I took several naps, I watched The Conjuring [zomg scariest movie ever, and I hate scary movies], ate Chinese food with a friend, went to see Ender's Game [great!], and...took down my Halloween decorations.

Which meant I had a naked pillow! Eep!

Fabric: literally the perfect weird orange shade from Kitschy Kitchen and the perfect rusty shot cotton, plus Lush Uptown of course

What's a girl to do but make a new pillow cover for the month of November?


This pillow cover conveniently coincides with the Sewing with Certainty series over at Quilty Habit! Ah, serendipity. As I was making this simple cover, I thought about how I really want to expand my FMQ skills. I'm brave every now and then and try a new design, but once I become comfortable with it I forget to continue on to a different design. So designs that I'm comfortable with [stippling, swirls, pebbles, back and forth lines] become the norm.

And if we don't push ourselves, how will we ever improve? [Ps, you can link up your goals over at Quilty Habit right here]


But baby steps, folks, which is why on this pillow, I went with a design that I feel comfortable with on the inner border, and instead just tackled how to transition through the corners. It's not perfect, but I'll take it. And I've made a promise to myself to continue the trend when I make my Christmas pillows in a few weeks. Because 24" pillow covers are the perfect practice size!

And then once I finished sewing the pillow, I thought to myself, "November is just a few short weeks away from December, so I better get my holiday sewing started," which led to a small army of these guys:


These are from the Santa gnoma panel from last year's Winterkist line. I still have a little more than a yard of the black print, not including the 20 gnomas that I cut out on Saturday. Plus 1/2 yard of the pink gnomas. They're backed in a red pin dot and stuffed with polyfill, then hand-stitched closed at the bottom. Sometimes I add a pocket on the back for an alternative to Elf on a Shelf -- which I love the concept, but find the actual elf to be really creepy.

Gnomas for all!

Happy Fabric Tuesday everyone :)

*Linked with Quilt Story