Craft Day

This afternoon I brought out my portable sewing machine and whipped up a some gift bags with some fancy Christmas material.

These gifts are going to some very special people so I'm mailing them early to make sure they arrive in time for the holidays!

First I started with an assortment of these fun cookie cutters! My friend N. and I went shopping earlier this week and we picked out six sets of them.


We looked and looked for something to wrap them in and that's when I decided to make my own gift bag. So I stopped by the bargain bin at the fabric department and picked up a metre of this beautiful see-through Christmas material. Then I picked up a roll of gold ribbon to use as a drawstring.

So today I cut out the material using my rotary cutter and mat. ( If you've never had the chance to cut with one of these gadgets, you're really missing out. I use mine every time I sew.)


Then I sewed up the edges and finished the top edge making a pocket for the drawstring. So simple.


And since I wanted to keep the cookie cutters from getting all bent and out of shape while in transit, I wrapped them in some holiday tissue paper.




They slid right into the bag as if it was made for them..hee hee.

And Tada!! This was a simple project which took about an hour and a half to do 6 of them.



I hope you enjoyed your visit and I'd love to know what kind of Christmas crafts you might have in mind for this year.

Cheers,
Jessica

Show & Tell Friday - Quilting

Won't you join us for a little fun? We're having Show & Tell hosted by Kelli at There's No Place Like Home.

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About 5 years ago I hosted a "Quilt In A Weekend" event at my house.

Seven ladies from our church got together for a Friday and Saturday and cut, ironed and sewed to our hearts content.

Our instructor was a wonderful lady who lived about 4 hours away. She brought a team of 3 other ladies with her which worked out perfect because then there were more than one pair of teaching eyes and hands.

For preparation, the designs and materials were all selected beforehand.

Our first step was to practice our pattern on scrap material while getting used to the techniques that would be used on the final product.



As you can see from the picture below, I moved all my living room and dining room furniture to the sides and we set up 4 super large tables for our work surface.


We worked for about 5 hours on Friday and 12 hours (8-9) Saturday. We only stopped for our pot luck lunch (and of course, a coffee break or two). Sure it was a lot crammed into a short period of time, but it was well worth it. Our project was finished!

Here's the final outcome.......a quilt that fits on my queen size bed. It was a great experience, great fellowship and great fun.



As an aside, here's a beautiful quilt that I received as a gift for Christmas one year that was stitched by one of the ladies who helped at our weekend session. I can certainly appreciate all the detail that goes into a project like this.


What about you, what type of projects have you done in a class or group setting? I'd love to hear your ideas so I can plan something like this again.

Jessica

A Polar Fleece Baby Blanket

My friend Charlotte is having her first baby soon and I've been thinking about what I could give her to help welcome the new bundle of joy. Last week I headed out to check out all her registry items. Apparently the nursery theme is going to be the new Zanzibar jungle theme. Lots of safari animals!

In order to work within my budget I needed to be a bit creative, so during a trip to the fabric store I found some polar fleece on sale for $4/metre. I took a swatch home to see if it matched the colors in the jungle theme and it did. So I decided to make a polar fleece tie blanket. The fleece was plain and needed dressing up so I looked online a found a really cute giraffe pattern that I could use as an applique'.

I rounded up all the materials - green fleece, giraffe looking material, steam a seam to mount the applique...which totalled $12.00!! Perfect. Friday night I pulled out my rotary cutter and began the fun.

Now since I had never made one of these little blankets before I checked out some online instructions which overall were pretty simple.

By the way, I met my neighbor from across the street at the fabric store and she just happened to be making the same type of blankets for her family! I thought that was really neat.

I layed out the fleece and used my rotary cutter to trim the edges and make them even all the way around, cutting off the selvage as well.
(Click on any photo to see detail.)








Then I began cutting out the giraffes and tried to decide just how I wanted them placed. I chose to put three on each end, a papa giraffe, a mama giraffe, and a baby giraffe to represent their new family addition. Cute, I know.








Using the Steam A Seam I ironed on the giraffes and zigzagged around the edges to help keep them in place. I hurried a little so the edges are not as perfect as I would like, but this is where my Flylady training comes in and I just couldn't obsess about this.










Then I lined up the two pieces of fleece, wrong sides together and cut out 4 inch squares from each corner in order to make room when the tying began.








Next I began cutting 1 inch strips, 4 inches long with my rotary cutter to make a fringe all the way around. I just tied each top fringe to the bottom fringe in a square knot all the way around the blanket and I was finished!

I also wanted to add a few treats for the new mother-to-be. Recently I was browsing in a store that was closing out and I found this really sweet mug for moms. The message says...

"A mother's smile can brighten any moment,
and a simple hug can put joy in your day.
A mother's love will stay with you forever,
and touch your life in every way."

And since who doesn't love chocolate, I filled the mug with some awesome truffles and wrapped it up in cellophane and ribbon. We're also including a book for the dad on leadership and the whole gift is going in a lined basket, wrapped up in cellophane.










This was a fun activity and I can't wait to deliver these treats to the parents-to-be later this week! Aren't babies fun?

Blessings,
Jessica

Show & Tell Friday - An Apron for Lily

Come on over to Kelli's for this week's Show & Tell. Better yet, why don't you join in the fun? We'd love to have you.

This week I was doing a project that took me back in time - about 21 years. I was very young, newly married and my precious husband had just bought me a brand new sewing machine.

At that time the thought of sewing reminded me of my junior high class of home economics. One teacher, 20 girls, 5 machines! I can still picture the blousy type garment I made - I think it was the fact that I didn't sew the sleeves just right and they ended up looking like the wings of the biggest falcon you ever saw! Hideous...it was another remant for the goodwill pile.

One of my very first patterns that I ever bought after I was given that new machine was for a basic apron. How hard could it be? Well, my project began with several phone calls to my sister in law, Sandy. Finally, after trying to get her to interpret the pattern instructions over the telephone, she invited me over so that she could be more help. So I lugged all my stuff to her house and set up shop on her dining room table.

After about two more hours at her house, I was still just trying to cut out the material - she very wisely suggested that maybe she could take over so that I might be home before midnight! She was a very patient instructor but I was very painfully slow! I went home with a beautiful apron - made by Sandy.

Little did she know that those hours of instruction and patience would be borne out over the years and time after time my sewing projects improved more and more.

So, to make a long story short, this week I am putting together a gift box for my friend who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She has already had her first major surgery and will be starting chemo treatments in early February.

In her box I put a brand new fully lined apron which I made (in less than two hours!), a journal book and a small collection of personal note cards. I'll be slipping in a few chocolate delights as well.

This is the first apron that I have made fully lined and I just love it. I promised myself that all the ones I make for me in the future will be this way. Here are a few shots of the apron:

And here are the journal and note cards with the apron.

So I hope you enjoyed my Show & Tell today and ask that you might say a special prayer of courage for Lily. And as always, please leave me a comment to let me know you were here.

Blessings,
Jessica

Simple Christmas Curtains

For several months now I've been looking out my kitchen window that didn't have any window dressing at all. The curtains that used to be hanging there were worn and falling apart and to be honest, the style didn't really match the rest of the kitchen.

Like most people, it just wasn't in the budget to go buy new ones so I dug through my stash of material. I found some really cute Christmas bears that were left over from when I made aprons for my great-nieces a couple of years ago.

So, I began to measure and decided that they would be wide enough to just cover the window. I used my rotary cutter to make the panels. I just love how easy the cutter is to use compared to scissors!! Zip, zip and it's cut.

See the teddy bears!!! They're everwhere!

Then I pressed the edges to the proper seam allowances.
Ten lines of sewing and *poof*, they were done. All in all it took me just an hour and now I have a little touch of Christmas in my kitchen.


Here they are pulled closed for privacy.

I added a couple of tie backs for the daytime. Here they are pulled open so I can see all the snow in the daytime and watch Gus the Big White Dog play in the snow in the backyard. Believe me, we have lots! (2 feet +)

It was awfully nice of you to take the time to read about my little project. Now I just hope I'll be able to get some "new" curtains in the new year.