One Yard Wonders - Farmers' Tote

Ha, my ploy of trying to reward myself with making Christmas presents for quilting those two tops didn't work. I got started on quilting the first top but got sidetracked by what else than a Christmas present!

Last December I bought the second installment of the One-yard-Wonders. It was already too late to make anything out of it for Christmas presents but I put it aside for the next year. So when I got bored quilting I pulled it out and looked through it again for some ideas. 

One thing that makes the selection of potential gifts a bit difficult is our new family gift giving rule of "you can't spend more than $15". So I have to rely mostly on my stash and buy only if absolutely necessary!

The first present out of the 'One-yard-Wonders' is the Farmers' Tote on page 212 (Woven Pile Fabrics section). The tote in the book is made out of a striped black and white corduroy. I liked the body it gave the bag and remembered that I had some black corduroy in my stash. With that in mind I knew right away that this bag is for my oldest sister! She loves the combination of black and red. I also had some beautiful marbled red fabric that I could use for the seam binding to give it a bit of colour!

5 hours later I have this beauty on my  table:

The flower was made after a pattern which I found in Amy Butler's stitches. I love the way it gives the bag a special touch!

The straps are supposed to be made out of webbing. I didn't want to wait for it if I should order any and made them out of the red fabric and some batting instead. They are soft yet substantial enough to hold whatever my sister will put in this bag! This bag is roomy! Knowing my sister, she will stuff it like a Thanksgiving turkey on her shopping excursions...  ;-)

So what are the downsides? The construction is straight forward. However it is really tiresome to bind the seams. Especially if you do it in the order the pattern asks you to do it. I bound the seams right after I basted the pleats. It just made more sense to me! Also, if you look at the picture you can see that the front/back pockets have a seam right in the middle. This makes sense since the pockets would otherwise be too flopsy on top to hold anything in. But this step is nowhere to be found in the instructions! I also don't like how the pleats don't really hold their shape because they aren't tacked down. I don't know if I am going to do that or leave them as it is... If I would make another one I would put some elastic band to solve this little dilemma. 

Overall, I am really pleased with how this bag turned out and I know that my sister is going to enjoy it! 

On to the next present or back to quilting... 

Take care,

Me

Not Much!

I am trying to stay focused and not go on too many detours on my quest to make some Christmas presents. I put away the books and told myself: "Finish those two quilts and as a reward you'll get to make a Christmas present!" It seems to be working because I made a backing and pin basted it! Now I need to quilt it :-)

Besides that not much is happening here. Pasha has been home sick for the last two days. Martin took off a couple of hours today to give her some company.

 

Hopefully she'll feel better in a couple of days!

 

Take care,

Me

What to do with a honey bun?

I had this honeybun in my stash for quite a while! I couldn't find the right project because the strips are only 1.5" wide. But as I flipped through this book to look for some ideas for Christmas I found this quilt. Perfect for my honeybun!!!

I immediately threw my Christmas present plans out of the window (sort of!) and got started. 

Here is finished top:

Hmmm, I have to trim that one corner :-)  The size is 60"x64". A bit bigger than the one in the book!

This is what I have left over.

Now what should I make out of this?

Take care,

Me

How to say thank you?!

At the end of September when my sewing machine was still in repairs, I told a friend of mine that I was feeling "withdrawal" symptoms. The next day she brought her sewing machine over and told me: "It's not fancy at all but maybe it will bring you some joy!" 

I didn't know what to say. This was just so thoughtful and wonderful of her... 

Well, fast forward to now and I am ready to bring it back to her. But how to say thank you? I racked my brain and remembered that she admired the table mats that I made for a friend of mine last Christmas. So I looked at my scraps to find some that suit her and here is what I came up with:

But how am I going to wrap this up? I don't have a box long and thin enough to fit these four place mats!

I tied a white ribbon (salvaged from another present a long time ago!) around each of them...

... and wrapped it in red tissue paper with some blue scrap paper and tied another ribbon around it! Pretty enough :-)

I hope she will enjoy them as much as I did when I used her sewing machine! :-)

Take care,

Me

A Day to do "Nothing"

What a wonderful day we had! We stayed in bed until 09.00. Had a leisurly breakfast with a relaxing petting session for Jake.

 

 I love to see the love Pasha and Jake share. As soon as Pasha is sitting on the ground, he comes running over to lay at her feet to be petted. And she never sends him away without lots of love!

 

We went to lunch at our favorite Italian restaurant, window shopped a bit, tea with Steffi, a movie (Breaking Dawn Part 1)... and I even got to pin a quilt top.

 

The pattern is from this book! Quick and easy! But I can't decide on how to quilt it. Any suggestions?

 

A day like yesterday is so rare! It's treasured by us all! 'Thank You' to all the veterans who made it possible with their service and sacrifices!

 

I hope you had a wonderful day as well!

 

Take Care,

Me

Long Overdue!

Last Easter I promised my sister to make her a windowseat cushion for her cat Bully. Bully is such a loving cat which literally throws himself at your feet in order to be petted! Isn't he cute!?

This weekend I finally found the time to make this long overdue window seat cushion.

I cut two pieces of orange fabric (yup, I know... ugly!... but it's an insert!) and tufted it to ensure the stuffing was all even inside it. 

Then I made a basic pillow cover in brown corduroy. I made a teensy weensy little mistake though. I must have cut the corduroy wrong because it ended up 8" too large.

But a quick cut later, I had the right sized cover and here it is:

I prefer the look of the ugly orange insert because somehow it turned quite pretty with those tufts... The brown corduroy cover makes it functional though. Steffi can take it off to wash it whenever she needs to. And with that cat she'll need to often :-)

If I get a picture of it being used by the Bullmeister, I will post it on here right away! :-)

Take care,

Me

It has begun!

On Thursday we had our first parent-teacher conference scheduled. The night before we were all in the car on the way home from work/school. 

Me: "Pasha, tomorrow morning is the parent-teacher conference. Do..."

Pasha (interrupting): "Please, be nicely dressed! And you Papi, be on your best behaviour! I don't want to be embarrassed by you two!"

Me: "Hmmm, isn't that normally my speech?! And, what do you mean 'embarrassed by us'?"

Martin: ... nothing but laughter...

And so it has begun! 

Take Care,

Me

What a Blast!

Thursday was my mom's last day with us! We went to Bollywood for some awesome lunch!

After that we shopped until we dropped! We started with finding some awesome shoe deals (50% off), went on to skirts, shirts and coats, and back to some shoes again. 

You don't want to know how much we spent combined on all our stuff ;-)

And to top it off, after shopping, my mom was able to finish quilting her top!

But pictures of the quilt will have to wait because she still has to finish the binding!

What are you up to?

Take care,

Me

Sewing with my Mom

My mom is here for the week! So we dug out her blocks (which she sewed up a few visits ago!) and went to work.

One hour later we had this:

It's lap sized and gorgeous!

Tomorrow we'll piece the back and sandwich it. With a bit of luck we'll have a completed quilt by Friday! I am definitely looking forward to out special sewing time...!

Take care,

Me

Halloween Crafting

We had these grand plans of carving pumpkins, some beautiful banners, a couple of black window silhouettes and of course some popcorn balls. But that didn't happen! Why? I don't know! Maybe because of the last-minute costume sewing, work, or life in general!?

 

Yesterday morning (45 minutes before having to leave for work!) Martin realized that we didn't carve the pumpkins. So he drew a quick face and started to carve away! Pasha even told him: "Good Job! LOL!" It's not pretty but it does it's job!

 

 

I had the day off to bake cupcakes and help out at school. I wanted to clean the guest bedroom (my mom is going to visit for a week!) and work off my chores list. Did that happen? Nope! I didn't get home until 15.45! I realized that I still needed to roast the pumpkin seeds and put out the halloween candy for the neighborhood kids who come by while we are out trick-or-treating on post!

 

I quickly grabbed this book and found a wonderful craft:

 

Searched for my orange paper, cut out some circles and voila

 

 

Some cute wrapped up candy that doubles as outdoor decoration with our carved pumpkin

 

But it was all for nothing! We didn't have one visitor while we were gone nor at any time after we got back! Dang it, I could have relaxed and cleaned the guest bedroom instead! But you know, if I wouldn't have had that out there... Karma would have kicked my butt and sent a dozen kids by with toiletpaper, eggs and ketchup!

 

Now I need to do some relaxing sewing tonight and maybe clean the guest bedroom! :-)

 

Take care,

Me