A Day Late and a Dollar Short

This year I thought it would be great to make placemats for the Christmas season. I also found some super cute placemats at my local quilt store, The Quilt Patch. I worked diligently on these placemats while my 9 year old was awake, in order to hide the awesome American Girl Doll outfit I was making for her.

 

I was almost finished, but was blessed with the opportunity to spend some time with my sister, brother-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, parents and niece and nephew. Both my brother and sister live far away, so I put the placemats away and enjoyed the limited time I was able to share with them.

 

After all of the great visits with family, I spent the day after Christmas finishing my placemats. All eight are completed and ready to use.

 

For this pattern, called Mix It Up by QP Quilts&Co., The striped units were sewn together first. Then the units are sewn down with the sashing to the batting and the backing. These quilt as you go placemat patterns are addictive! There are so many options and they come together so quickly!

 

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not like the rest. My 17 year old daughter accompanied me to the quilt store to spend my Birthday money. While I was getting fabric cut, she insisted she wanted to have "The Grinch" in her placemat. Well, I thought, why not? So she has her own placemat, complete with "Grinch" fabric.

 

Today I went and spent my Christmas gift certificate at The Quilt Patch. Amazingly, I was a little more than a dollar short on the total. Good thing I saved my allowance before I went in. Wonder if I will start any of these projects over break, or will they have to wait, like all the rest?

 

Happy Sewing

Heather

 

Posted with Blogsy

American Girl Outfit

This outfit for an American Girl Doll started back in November. My husband and I escaped the children for the weekend in Chicago. Since we were there right before Thanksgiving, I thought this would be a great time to get the Christmas shopping started. We bought my 9 year old a pair of cowboy boots at the American Girl Store.

When we returned home, I thought the doll needed something to wear with her boots. I had already made some PJ pants for her doll from this same pattern, so just switched the fabric with some scrap denim I had laying around in a drawer. So the pants were born.

Well, you know the doll would need to have a shirt to wear with her pants, so I decided to make the shirt as well. I dug through my scraps, which is so much fun, to find something to make a shirt out of. My 9 year old's favorite color is purple, so I decided to make it purple. The only trouble I had with this shirt was that the casing for the elastic in the neckline was too narrow to allow the smallest safety pin to pass through. This meant that I had to rip out the stitches at the seams and then sew them back together after I pushed the elastic through.

After the shirt and the jeans, I thought what the heck, why not make the jacket too? I mean the jean was just a scrap, what did I have to lose? This jacket came out so well that my husband thought I might not let my daughter have it until she was 30. There were a few things that I was unsure about while making, but after repeatedly reading the directions figured out.

This project was easier than expected, but I don't think I will make another one for a few years.

Happy Sewing,

Heather

 

Posted with Blogsy

Vintage Coin Purse

This Christmas season has been filled with programs, family get togethers and other wonderful activities. After many nights spent sewing gifts for my family, I have finally been able to finish some of my own sewing projects. The first thing I wanted to make was one of the fabulous coin purses that have been circulating blog land for the last several months.

The last weekend before school was out for break, I was racking my brain for something cool to make for my children's teachers. They are such great people, I wanted to make them something special. After much searching and a little panicking, remembered the coin purse blog hop I looked at a little while back.

My favorite pattern was found on the Sew We Quilt blog. The pattern was purchased at Craftsy. These coin puses were easy to put together and turned out super cute. Don't you think?

All teachers have to carry their keys at all times, so I thought they could use a key fob too.

Back to today. For Christmas, my awesome 9 year old bought me a cute fat quarter from one of the local quilt stores. When I opened this gift, I decided it would be perfect for my very own change purse. So today I finally put my own together.

It turned out just as cool as the rest!

All of the hardware was purchased at Joann Fabrics. The fabric (other than for mine) was left over from other quilting projects.

Hmm... What to sew next?

Heather

 

Posted with Blogsy

Have You Ever Been Short of Fabric

I had so much fun putting together the Halloween placemats that I thought I could use the Christmas fabric I have in my stash to make another set. So out came my small pile of Christmas fabrics to audition for the part. I found the perfect pieces for the top, then had to scrounge for a piece large enough to make the backings of the placemats. The large piece was left over from a rug that I made several years ago.

First, I cut the backing, just to make sure I had the right amount. I was hoping to make six, since that is how many are in the family, but there was only enough for four. Now, onto the fabrics for the top. I had measured each piece carefully to make sure there was enough yardage to make the project. When I opened each piece, I quickly remembered that I had used these to back stockings, since there was a piece missing in the shape of a stocking. Oh My!! Strategically cutting and careful measuring, allowed me to get enough of the fabric for the centers and thin border. I was hoping to have enough to get the outer border since I had the right number of strips.

As you can see, there was only enough red wreath fabric to complete three of the placemats. Fortunately, there was a small piece of cream fabric with the same wreaths on it in my stash. This will become the placemat of honor. I am positive my children will fight over this one!

So, there was not quite enough fabric to make all of them exactly the same. So what! They are great and will be used often.

What will I sew this week? Not sure yet. Oh, my prep areas are mostly clean, which is a huge improvement over last week!

Happy Sewing

Heather

Posted with Blogsy

Tackling My Gremlins

There are gremlins in my sewing spaces. I know it couldn't have been me that made this gigantic mess! Maybe I could blame my children. So this is how my work surfaces get when I am spending almost all of my free time sewing. Who wants to spend time picking up, when creating the projects is so much more fun?

This is my cutting table. There is an overfull bin of fabrics that I have used on recent projects, perhaps I should sort out those scraps and put them away. The bin is so full the fabrics have seeped across the table to create several more piles of recently used scraps. If I put all of these away, it might be easier to cut projects out and lay them out when I am ready.

This is my staging area. There are new purchases that are waiting to be put away, projects in progress and other things that find their home here. Do you like my phone? My little one likes to sit with me, play with me or talk to me while I sew.

Even though this is a part of the creative process, I think we all know what I will be working on this week. This will get picked up this week or I may lose my sanity.

Happy Sewing

Heather

Posted with Blogsy

Midi Bag

Tonight is probably the slowest my week gets. The rest of the week is packed full of musical practice, conferences and a football game. So, I thought I would finish up the Midi bag I started this weekend.

This bag is so easy to put together. I think that is what makes it so fun for a busy mama, like myself to make during the week. After working all day and doing the necessary chores at home, my mind is not always at it's sharpest. That might explain me forgetting to leave an opening for turning in the lining. At least I caught it before I had assembled the whole bag!

 

Don't you just love the purple, gray, turquoise and black together?

The lining is my favorite fabric in this bag. It makes a nice light colored lining, which makes it easier to see inside the bag when digging for keys or chapstick.

Now to go dig through some more of my fabrics to find things to go with the other fabrics I purchased. Who am I kidding, it is time to go pack the lunches.

Happy Sewing

Heather

Posted with Blogsy

Super Simple Placemats

After work this evening, I decided to cut out the placemats that I wanted to make. They are quilt as you go, so I thought it might be possible to finish one in the time I had to spare.

Suggestion to self: look at the fabric yardages to try and remember which fabric is for each piece. This would allow me to avoid a panic attack over lack of fabric to finish the project. Lucky for me, I had some solid black left over from the binding of the t-shirt quilt I made this spring. Pretty sure these black fabrics are from the same bolt. I know they are from the same store. If you have ever tried to match solid black fabric, you know what I am talking about.

This placemat is so cute that I can't wait to put the other 3 together. The pattern I used is called Framed Seasons and is made by QP Quilts & Co. There is also a video tutorial here.

Happy Sewing

Heather

Posted with Blogsy