Kid's Activity Bag

The tutorial for this bag was featured on the Sew Can She blog in November. (It's actually a Nancy Zieman tutorial.) There are so many items featured on that blog that I want to make but can't seem to find the time.  This little bag took me less than 2 hours to complete which is a nice change of pace from quilt making. It requires 4 fat quarters but I found most of this in my stash where I just had to cut off a fat quarter.  I love how sturdy the sides of the bag are from the heavy duty stabilizer.  I think it will be a great little bag for my granddaughter Chloe to carry her little people around in.  I sure hope she likes it.

Christmas Tree Skirt

I wanted to make a Christmas tree skirt for a few years now and I finally got to it.  During the holidays it always seems difficult to find time for stuff like this but I am learning to cut out the unimportant and concentrate on just the simple most important things.  The ability to say no has helped me say yes to some really fun things. 

So I found this tutorial on the Sew4Home site and it was really easy to follow. The step-by-step instructions were perfect. Here is the link to the tutorial. The only changes I made are instead of sateen ribbon I made my own bias tape with a cotton print and instead of muslin I used some old white prints I had.  I did have to sew them together to make a backing large enough, but since it is never going to be seen, I didn't think it would matter much how the pieces looked.  I used some whimsical prints and added rick-rack to the bottom edge too.

Jeff's New Quilt & Those Felt Balls

This post was supposed to be about the amazing quilt my daughter made for her dad.  Since I took the photo in a place that is not very well lit, it is hard to see the yellow letters on the quilt.  But is says 'We love our Green Bay Packers'.  And it's true, we do love them. She did an amazing job between the piecing, the applique and the hand quilting, it was definitely a labor of love that took a very long time to complete. My husband really does love it.

However, I noticed that I got a good shot of the felt balls that I strung up for the holiday.  I tried to just take a shot of them just hanging there but between the shadows they created and the bad angles from not having enough room to step back far enough, it was pretty impossible to get a good photo of them.  So here, you can sort of see the Christmasy colors strung up over the dining room doors.

Off Track Quilt

I finally finished the off track quilt. I used a wavy-stitch that I programmed into my machine which I hoped would be a good contrast to all the straight-line strips from the simple boxy pattern in the quilt.  I had a little trouble matching the backing fabric.  I didn't care what color the back was as long as it matched any of the colors in the Domestic Diva prints.  I ended up with pink as it was the closest solid color that matched. I think the wavy-line stitching looks really cool on the solid-colored back. Since this quilt is a gift, I had to hurry and sew the label on so I could shoot photos before the sun went down.  I didn't even take the time to trim the threads before the shots.  Once I got the photos, I trimmed the loose threads, placed it in tissue, put it in a box and wrapped it up and it's waiting under the Christmas tree for its new owner.

Wool Felt Balls

I ordered these little beauties from Etsy last week and they came in the mail today.  I couldn't wait to touch them and see the vibrant colors up close and in person.  They sure are pretty.  This weekend the red, green and white ones will become a garland on the fireplace mantel.  All I have to do is decide what to use to string them with.  Should it be twine or embroidery floss or maybe some perl cotton?  Not sure yet but it will be fun to figure it out.