Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and had a chance to spend the day with friends and family.

Our Thanksgiving was small this year. Just us, my mother and father-in-law, and two dear family friends who didn't have family to spend the holiday with. As usual, I spent the day being ill. It seems that every holiday, I spend most of my time laying in bed being sick. I missed out on Thanksgiving dinner (I had a small bit of mashed potatoes and a roll) but didn't have any of my favorite foods that I spend a year waiting for. The sweet potatoes were consumed within minutes, so I don't even have leftovers to enjoy. I suppose that is a great excuse to have a little Thanksgiving meal prepared later. Nonetheless, I am still very thankful for everything in my life. I may not have gotten the opportunity to sit down to a meal with my family yesterday, but I am lucky enough to have meals with my family every day. We are very blessed, indeed.

I haven't been very busy in the sewing room lately, although I really should be since Christmas is coming up! I have been making lists and deciding what to make for everyone, but that's about as far as I've gotten. I did get caught up on my bee blocks which I was stressing about, so that's good.

This is one of my two blocks for September. These were horribly late and in my rush to finish them, I forgot to get a photo of the second block.

And these are my two blocks for November. Both ladies from September and November wanted improv pieced blocks. They are not my favorite to make and I really struggle with them. But I think they turned out okay anyway.

I also purchased the 241 Tote pattern from noodle-head.com about a week ago and I made myself a pretty cute bag. The pattern was super easy, and she does a great job of explaining how everything goes together. She has several really awesome free tutorials on her blog too. You know, in case you're wanting to put together your own list of things to make for Christmas =)

This is the (almost) finished 241 tote that I made. I did finish it, but I accidentally deleted the pics I had on my computer of the finished product and I'm not quite up to taking more pictures right now.
I really love how it turned out and I have been using it everyday.

One For Me

The other day I posted a tutorial for a gardening bucket. After I made one for a mothers day gift, I decided I needed one for myself. This time I used Prince Charming fabric by Tula Pink (my fave!!!) and I made the ties longer so that I could wear the aprons if I chose to.

Here are the two aprons separately. You can see how much longer the ties are in this photo.

Here's how it looks when you're wearing one of the aprons. I think it's the perfect size for wearing when I do craft fairs too! Pardon the no make-up and ponytail pic. I wasn't planning on being in front of a camera today. But I did take a shower so that's a plus =)

And here are both aprons tied around the bucket. I can use them to store my gardening tools, gloves, etc.

I wonder if she'd wear a tiny apron?

Pillow!

I love Heather Ross fabrics, but I usually can't afford to buy any. A few days ago I found a pretty amazing deal at my LQS. I was browsing their sale fabrics and I found two Heather Ross prints from the West Hill collection! Of course I snatched some up...

Last week I had a special treat come to me in my mailbox. Miss Tula Pink has a new book and, being her #1 fan, I had to have it. There are 20 awesome projects in here (10 quilts and 10 smaller projects) and I have been dying to make something. *Sorry! I can't get my picture to turn!*

I decided to make the Vortex Euro Sham using my new Heather Ross fabric mixed in with a bit of Lizzy House.

This is the top after I got it all pieced together. I used a light peach perle cotton to hand quilt it.

And here is the finished pillow! I really love it. The colors of the fabrics go together really well, and it  matches my couch perfectly. I'm thinking though, that I need some bright colors in my life and I may need to make a ton of these to throw all over my living room in cheerful springy colors.

Getting Back to Work

I was out of town this last weekend (Yes. Again. It's getting ridiculous, isn't it?). I was house sitting for my in-laws while they went to Canada. Really I was just playing gardener for a few days, which I didn't mind one bit. The weather was perfect and it was a really relaxing weekend. I have been so behind on my sewing so I decided to bring my machine along and a few projects to work on.

The first thing I needed to finish was my little stack of trees. These are for the latest swap for the Misfit Quilters group. I really love how they turned out. I can't wait to get my trees in the mail to put my little quilt together! I used one of my favorite fabrics from the Sunkissed line by Sweetwater fabrics, and Kona snow for the background.

The next project that was overdue was for my friend, Sharon. She needed some people to help out making some blocks for a Project Linus quilt. She designed her own blocks with a tutorial here. These turned out really cute. I'm excited to see the entire quilt top to see how all of the donated blocks come together. Sharon has a fun blog that I really enjoy reading. Go check out all that's going on over at Craizee Corners.

I have been working on a sample quilt for the shop using Tula Pink's newest line Prince Charming. I got the quilting finished over the weekend and got the binding done last night. This was the first quilt I made using my new Bernina. The BSR foot made quilting this so much easier! It was a bit difficult to get used to, and I'm still learning, but I love it.

It is also almost time for the kids to go back to school. September 1st is the big day over here. I don't get why they'd start the school year on the Thursday before Labor day. They go for two days and then have a 3-day weekend... Anyway, I like to send gifts for the teachers with my kids on the first day. Apples are the usual thing and I'm unsure where that tradition started. I think I'll have to find out about that. I decided that teachers are probably sick to death of getting apples so I chose to make something else. Our school mascot is the Scottie Dog. I have been making these little guys for the kids to bring. I hope they are original enough to not be tossed in a drawer and forgot about until it's time to clean the desks out next June.

I am feeling pretty accomplished these last couple days, despite several hours of car travel and having a day job. I have two new quilts to list in the Etsy shop tomorrow too! Yay me! Now if I could always be this productive...

WIP Wednesday

Okay folks, this is my very first time participating in WIP Wednesday. I have a ton of projects going on. Some you may have seen and others you haven't.

First of all, I have my Farmer's Wife blocks 1-10 complete. Excuse my crummy camera phone photos. I was in a hurry to post this before I forgot to do it!

These blocks have really been a lot of fun so far, and a couple of them have been pretty challenging for me. Which is nice because that's why I joined the QAL in the first place.

I have also started doing the quilting on my camping quilt. I can't wait to have it finished and snuggle up with it around a campfire!

Lizze made me a darling zipper pouch and filled it with paper pieces for making hexagons. I am really into handwork lately and love having something I can take with me. I love these hexies so much, that I'm thinking of making my scrap vomit quilt out of them. That will be another long term project, for sure.

I have been wanting to make a king sized quilt for my bed for some time, but projects for myself often get pushed to the side. I plan to finally start working on my quilt sometime this summer. I have had 2 jelly rolls of Martinique by 3 sisters for over a year and it's about time I get to work. I have a pattern in mind, but am open to suggestions.

And the very last thing are these lovely half yards of Plume by Tula Pink. I got them for Lizze for her birthday (which was yesterday). And gave them to her, and she immediately gave them back. Apparently, if you sew, you should MAKE a present for your friends, not give them fabric to make their own. Ha! I have something in mind for these, but I need to get some yardage of some Kona solids.

I hope I did okay showing all of my WIP's for this Wednesday. It feels good to talk about them. I now have some accountability to finish them up!

Head over to the Freshly Pieced Blog to see all of the others linked up for WIP Wednesday. Some of my friends are hanging out over there. Go say hi!

Selina