Christmas, here and gone

This year my Christmas was a little bit different, I worked Dec. 23-25 so it was a bit quite quieter than usual.  Just wanted to share a couple little gift bags that I made before then, but didn't get to post.

The first bag is made from leftovers from my Starry Eyed Quilt.  It holds a DVD perfectly.

This little one is just the perfect size to hold a couple little nail polishes.  I made it for my sister.

I made both of these from Jeni's pattern for drawstring bags.  I had to buy it, because I just love making these.  Can't get enough!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, joyful Christmas full of love!

Quilterrific!

I have finished FMQ on my Starry Eyed quilt.  I'm so close to being done as I have sewn on the binding, but I decided that I wanted to hand stitch this one on that back and that takes me aaages.  So, hopefully I can finish it before the end of the year!

I'm saving a picture of the whole thing until I'm done with the binding.  I feel like this time around the stippling went far better than my last quilt.  And I don't think there is a single pucker--this is very exciting for me!!!  

Halfway point

I've quilted half so far, it's going quite well! Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow. And I think I'll keep it out past Christmas. It can be my winter quilt!
Hopefully everyone is having good luck finishing their Christmas sewing!

Fun Stuff

So I've been "slaving" away on my Starry Eyed quilt for long enough, I thought I'd do a few little fun projects.  There's something wonderful about starting and finishing something on the same day!!

First off, I did the top for a table topper destined to be a wedding gifts for friends of mine.  Although I'm sure it's not original, I did come up with the design myself.  I like it, so I'm hoping they intended couple will too!

I picked up these two fabrics at a quilt shop that is sort of close to where I live.  I love that green!!  It was hard to capture the true colour--I'd say it's a bit richer than it looks here.  Now I just need to find the appropriate backing and binding for it.

After this, I decided that I needed to hop on the bandwagon, so to speak, and make a drawstring bag from Jeni's tutorial over at In Color Order.  It was so easy, quick, and turned out lovely.  I believe that I now must buy her pattern for the many sized bags.  I'm thinking Christmas gift wrapping...

Since it was my first time making something like this, I steered clear of my oh-so-favourite fabrics in case things went wrong--which they almost did!  I actually sewed the bag shut.  Oh mylanta did I feel dumb.  But, that's what stitch rippers are for.  Other than my little mishap, it actually went really well.

I used the moda tie from my hometown FQ bundle and it worked smashingly.  In order to get more they'll either have to start selling it alone, or I'll have to start buying more FQ bundles. Hmmm.  Anyways, I hope everyone is having a wonderful time getting ready for Christmas!

I'm off to quilt the pants off of my Starry Eyed Sandwich!

Linked to Manic Monday at SewHappyGeek and Finish it up Friday with crazymomquilts:

Pay it Forward

I've finished hand quilting the stars!  Now, to FMQ the rest of this thing!

So, I've been lucky enough to be included in Vicki @ Hitch and Thread's Pay it Forward Handmade Movement.

It sounded like a fun thing to do, so I decided to participate. The concept is easy. If you find a Pay It Forward post AND you blog too AND you are one of the first three commenter's on the blog post that tells you about Pay It Forward, the blog owner will make something especially for you.


Here are the details:

1. Important! You have to have a blog.

2. I will make a little something for the first 3 blog owners who comment on this post. It will be a surprise and I will make it and send it to you some time during the next 365 days after you have commented.  (just don't expect it for Christmas!)

3. Make sure you let me know your email address, or that you arent a no-reply blogger so that I can get your contact details.

4. To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something to 3 readers of your blog. It doesn't matter what you give, as long as it is handmade by you!

5. Once you comment here, you need to post about your Pay It Forward on your blog(within 48hrs) to keep the fun going! *you can just copy the rules from me and please include the Pay It Forward badge in your post. Also, feel free to join the Flickr group to see what else is being sent!

6. Follow my blog - I'd like that but you don't have to :)


To finish the post, my sewing buddies:

Sampler[ish]

Also, WIP Wednesday.  Although there's nowhere to link this month, I figured that I may as well do it since I did make progress.

A few days ago I made a disappearing 9-patch quilt top from a flannel layer cake I have from Connecting Threads.  They only send as many pieces as there are fabrics in the line, so I didn't have enough to make a good top.

So, I decided to just make it  a  baby quilt and sewed it in half with some batting and flipped it inside out and...ta-da!  Insta-quilt.  It will go to friends of mine who had a baby girl.

Front!

Back!

I did all of the large squares in the same pattern, with a walking foot.  So, because pictures are fun and words are not coming very well to me at the time, I will show close ups of my quilting.  Most are just ones I've seen here and there, but I did get H20 from the Free Motion Quilting Project.

This one is hard to see, but there are little figure 8s,
except where I screwed up!

I did hand quilt two more stars after finishing the quilt.  The two rows of rectangles have two flowers in each patch, each flower is different.  I thought that if I was to take pictures of them things would have gone far too far.

It was really good practice to try out different styles and just do some FMQ.  Fortunately it is acceptable enough to give away so I don't need to make a new quilt!

I'll be linking up to Sew & Tell with amylouwho and Finish it up Friday over at crazymomquilts.

Handy

Today I saw a marked increase in my ability as far as hand quilting. It only took me about 35 min a star instead of an hour. But now my poor finger hurts. I do wear a thimble, but if I put one on my index I lack the control I need. So I only did two. But I made spiced pecans :-).

Just a thought. I love reading blogs. I follow quite a few, but I read every single one. It takes me a long time some days (Wednesday!) but I enjoy it. So, to all you quilty bloggers, thanks!

Small Blog Meet

I missed last month, so I'm going to cheat a bit and do for October and November.  Starting shift work has  taken a lot of adjusting on my part.  And I'm still trying to get myself in order.  Anyways, I suppose I'll say something about myself.

I'm 23, I am a registered nurse, I have a boyfriend I love more than anything, two boxers that I love sometimes (other times I clean up garbage they tear apart and spread around), and a cat that lives in the heated barn because she supposed to grow up to kill mice and stresses out my dogs.  I live on a farm in rural Saskatchewan, and I love to quilt!

Despite the fact that I'm going to include two months, it's not like I have a million things done.  So here goes!

Click on it to see it in full sized glory.

I saw someone else do this, so I agree that a collage is a great way to go.  Don't let it fool you though, there is one pillow, two quilts, and an ironing board cover on there, not the nine finishes it would lead you to hope for.  The corresponding posts for all of these can be found under the heading finishes on the right hand bar of my blog.  I would link to them all but I think that the picture took all of my creative energy.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you like what you see.  Be sure to check out the great stuff everyone else is making with the links at the top of the post!