I-Spy swap

Karen from Sew Many Ways hosted an I-Spy swap a while back, and I was so excited to get my bundle of squares in the mail. They're all so great, and will make a wonderful I-Spy quilt!

Not only did Karen host an excellent swap, she also sent a little gift in each swapper's return package. I have no idea where she found the time, but it was such a delightful surprise! I recognized the I-bolt sewing necklace from one of the many clever ideas from her Tool Time Tuesday posts, which I always look forward to reading. Thank you so much, Karen!

Are you guys all getting excited about the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day on Wednesday? I sure am. I may or may not be giving away some vintage linens - you'll just have to come back to find out. I just wish I could take the day off from work to visit all the other blogs to sign up for all the other giveaways!

Oh, and I almost forgot about the notebook cover giveaway! The lucky winner is #1 - Leslie of Fluff & Nonsense!! Yay! She already posted her awesome SMS giveaway - a layer cake of Wonderland by Momo. Go enter!

In other, less pleasant, news... I seem to have caught the flu. I don't know if it's THAT flu, because I don't feel that bad. Just off-and-on chills, aches, low fever and fatigue. You know, not horrible, but enough to keep me from doing anything productive, which sucks extra bad on a holiday weekend. All that free time - wasted!! Still, I'm counting my blessings that I don't feel worse - maybe all my years of getting flu shots have helped some. (Except for this year, due to the short supply - how ironic!) Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed (and my hands washed) that my husband and daughter don't catch it... At least they both had their shots this year (the seasonal one anyway). Knock on wood and all that.

Christmas ornaments

And now, on to the Christmas crafts! On a whim, I signed up for the FreshlyBlended annual ornament swap on Swap-bot. We have to send an ornament to 10 different people around the world. My partners are mostly in the states, but I did get 3 internationals - South Africa, England and Canada. Cool!

I was inspired by this ribbon ornament tutorial from 7 Layer Studio, and I knew I had all the basic supplies on hand (tons of ribbon - check! tons of scrapbooking paper - check!). I wanted to use something a little more fancy for the center, and I remembered these little organza flowers I had bought for my wedding (and never used - ha!). I sewed the velvet ribbons together by hand, but used the glue gun for the rest of the assembly.



They went together very quickly, but I still thought they looked a little blah.



So, I added some inking around the edges of the circles (just rubbing them with a small ink pad), and tiny dots of iridescent glitter in the scallops. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's there. :-)

Now I've just got to get busy packaging them up. That will take me as long as making the ornaments!

paper leaves swag

Here's a little Thanksgiving paper craft I did with my daughter last week...

I searched online for coloring pages of leaves and an acorn, and printed out some simple ones of similar scale. I taped them to some chipboard (just old cereal boxes), and cut around the pictures to make templates.



I picked out some fall-themed scrapbooking paper, and used the templates to trace the shapes onto the back, and cut them out.



Then the fun and messy part! I outlined the leaf shapes with a thin line of glue, and let Vada apply the glitter. It was a huge mess, and the house was sparkly for days!

Once the glitter was dry, I used an exacto knife to cut two small slits on the back of each shape. I used a tapestry needle to thread the shapes onto some narrow ribbon, which I had cut to the approximate length I wanted.

I made three separate pieces - one to go across, and two to hang down on the sides. I tried loops on the ends, and hung them from stocking holders on the fireplace. Voila!

When I put it up again next year, I might add some ribbons to the top part, to fill in the bare spots between the leaves.

felted sweater tree decorations

I haven't been getting too much sewing done, but I've been keeping my hands busing doing some crafty decorating. First up - remember this teeny tiny felted sweater?

It did indeed supply enough material to try this project. The trees were strangely addictive! I made the biggest two first, and then just kept at it until I had absolutely nothing left but a pile of tiny scraps. I didn't have any beads, so I used pompoms for the tops. I think they turned out pretty cute! They range in size from 7" to 2" high.

notebook covers - done!

I've been busily crafting all week, but it's a bunch of small projects all being done in parallel, so no grand finishes. I did finish up all my notebook covers a few days ago, after getting my order of pens in the mail (these Zebra Sasara gel pens are my favorite). Now they're all labeled for their intended recipients, and ready to be wrapped. Yay!

Of course, right after I finished hand-stitching all the openings, I saw this Moda Bakeshop tutorial. Their instructions made me realize that a small modification would have enabled me to eliminate the opening for turning, so no hand-sewing would be needed. Grrrrr... the engineer in me is annoyed! I'm thinking about revising my tutorial post to include the easier way of doing it.

Anyway... Remember my attempt #2 journal cover? I finally sewed the button on it. :-)



And it's up for grabs. Anybody want it? Yes, the journal is included! Leave me a comment - if there's more than one, I'll pick a number on Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

bag dispenser - yet another tutorial

I'm probably the last person in blogland to make a grocery bag dispenser. Actually, mine will be used to hold old newspaper bags (re-used for walking the dog), but same diff. I've had this on my list of things to do forever, and I finally whipped one up last night. It took me an hour, max. It's nothing fancy, but it'll be tucked away in a closet, so who cares. I loosely based this on the Make It and Love It tutorial, but added lining and made it more quick-and-dirty (just how I like my projects!). Here's how I did it:

Materials:

• Two pieces of fabric, about 20" x 25". (It turned out pretty big, so I bet even two FQs would work fine).
  
• Two pieces of 1/4" wide elastic, one about 12", one about 7".
  
• One piece of 1" wide ribbon.

I used a vintage bee fabric, which is a little heavier weight than normal quilting cotton. For the lining, I used some random light pink oxford cloth I had in my "yucky fabric" bin. :-)



Put right sides together and sew both short sides with a 1/4 " seam.



Turn it right side out, and iron the seam.



On both edges, edge stitch close to the seam, and then again about 3/8" away from the edge-stitching, to make a casing for the elastic. On each end, insert the elastic into the casing, and sew down the elastic at both openings. If you have directional fabric, the longer piece of elastic goes at the top, and the shorter piece goes at the bottom.

Next I did a french seam for the sides. Pin the side edges together, right sides out, and stitch a 1/4" seam.



If I was smart, I would have trimmed the loose threads hanging off the edges before I did the next step. But no, I was lazy, as usual. Turn the thing inside-out, finger press the seam, and sew again about 1/2" away from the edge to make your french seam.



Turn right side out. Since was lazy, I had a bunch of loose threads caught in the seam that I had to clip away. Oh well.



Fold over the edges of the ribbon by about 1/2", and stitch to the side of the bag near the top (where the larger piece of elastic is).

And there you go! Stuff with bags and hang in the closet. Enjoy a ever-so-slightly more organized house!

Give three kids a quilt

Rachel recently put out a call for quilts, and you know what a sucker I am for a good cause! This one is especially up my alley because the donation area is my old 'hood (Washington County, Oregon), and it's for young kids (and I happen to have a ton of novelty fabric). And most importantly, Rachel is happy to receive just tops and will quilt them up herself. Perfect!

I went back to my old favorite the Quick Strippie, and made three identical tops. It was a perfect pattern for these coordinating fabrics, because I had exactly enough of both prints, with just a bit left over. I also love that it's pretty gender-neutral.

Did you notice that it's another cat fabric? Yep, 5 yards down, and only about {mumble mumble couple hundred} left to go....

I suppose now is a good time to finally tell my "Best Estate Sale Ever" story.... So, last year, there was a Craigslist ad for a "quilter's dream estate sale", and it really was (for me, anyway - for other folks, it might be more like a nightmare!). I'm pretty sure the owner was one of those stereotypical crazy cat ladies - the proceeds for the sale were going to an animal shelter, all the carpet in the house was ripped out, and there were boxes upon boxes of brand new items (clothing, books and fabric) everywhere. I'm talking unopened boxes from Hancocks of Paducah! All the fabric was $1 per cut (ANY length!). I wound up buying about 300 yards of fabric for about $150. Before you get all jealous, you should know that this was mostly novelty fabrics, and mostly cat fabrics. I didn't get to the sale until nearly the end of the first day, and I still wonder about what I missed (greedy, I know!). Still, for me, it was perfect - I love to sew charity quilts, and this fabric will keep me supplied for a long, long, LONG time. And I hope the previous owner would appreciate that it's going to a good cause. Maybe not directly to the animals, but hopefully to the next generation of animal lovers.