New Tote Bag Finished, A Simple Christmas Decoration

I finally ironed and cut up the fabric for a tote bag from the souvenir fabric from Hawaii.  I love this beautiful purple and pink flower print.  I bought the coordinating solid canvas after I came home knowing I wanted to use it as the bottom of the tote.  I have more of the print fabric left and there will be another bag or two made with this.

I bought some Christmas cards last year to put in frames for decorations this year.  I pulled this card out and found this 5" x 7" frame at Target this morning.  Now I have another Christmas decoration.  I have some others cards that I will be framing.

Little Girl Quilt Gifted

   So when my cousin's little girl turned one I made her a couple of gifts.  One gift was a quilt.  I bought a small quilt top from an ebay seller for $8.00.  I added the large pink rick rack to frame the inside of the top, I backed it with the pink daisy fabric in the picture below, did the quilting, and bound it with the pink daisy fabric.  It was a simple, fun project.

   This is the fabric I used for the back and binding:

      The second gift was a knitted toy.  I knit her a toy from the Big Book Of Knitted Monsters, by Rebecca Danger.  I can't find a picture of the finished monster and I don't remember which monster it actually was, but I do remember the pattern was easy to follow and it was a fun knit.

Floral Square QuiltTop Is Assembled

 

  After making all the little odds and ends that I finished in the last couple of weeks, I finally got this top together.  It's about 56" x 56", there are 100  5" floral squares framed by 1.5" green floral tone on tone fabric.  

 

I found that as random as I tried to be putting my squares together, I still had a problem putting the rows together.  I found these three pink blocks hanging out together.  I won't be taking any of this apart to separate them since this quilt is just for me.

   I've ordered the batting for this quilt and I'm going to start working on piecing my backing together in the next few days.  

Quick Project: Water Bottle Carrier

   This water bottle carrier will come in extra handy when I'm out and about.  I found this tutorial here.  Thank you Pink Chalk Studio.  This holds a 16.9 fl. oz. bottle of water.  That's a pretty standard size around here.

    The tutorial was really easy to follow and from fabric cutting to finish took about 2 1/2 hours.

      I used some pretty Laurel Burch cat fabric I had in my stash and I also had the Insul-Brite already as well.  I used the same fabric for both the lining and the outside to save me time.

     I did change up the strap.  I made my strap from fabric strips because I didn't have any twill tape or pretty ribbon like the blogger used.  To make my strap I cut two wof pieces 2 1/2" wide and sewed them together to make a long piece about 80" long.  I ironed the strip in half lenghthwise, then folded the long edges to the crease in the middle, then I folded it again making it about 3/4" wide.  I ironed it down, then I sewed it 3/8" from the edge.  I trimmed the length to about 58", then attached it just like she attached her ribbon strap.  It's very comfortable.

New Fun Fabrics Coming Out

 
   This is one of the fabrics from the Time With Friends line by Lynette Anderson.  Those doggies and kitties are super cute.  I love Lynette Anderson's designs.  I have her book, "It's Quilting Cats and Dogs" and although I haven't made anything from the book, I love looking at it and dreaming.

    This is Elizabeth by Tula Pink.  I pre-ordered a yard of this (this is the tart colorway) from an etsy store this morning.  So pretty and so pink.  It also comes in sky colorway and plum colorway.

Button, button, who's got the button?

  I do!   I do!

   Today I ordered buttons in bulk.  I ordered green buttons, red buttons, multicolored buttons, and heart shaped buttons.  I ordered buttons form Artist Supply Source and from Amazon.com.  I can't wait to get my buttons.  Here is the variety of green buttons I will be getting.  These are from Artist Supply Source.  I decided that I wanted green buttons to put in the center of my pink flowers so I can finish my wall decoration up.


  

  Here is one of the pink flowers (I have 16 of these little beauties) that will be enhanced with a green button in the very center.  So pretty.

Union Jack Block Is On The Wall

   I finally put this wall hanging up.  This block has been finished for about two weeks, but I have been looking for a dowel stick to use in the back for hanging and I was having trouble finding one that was longer than 12".  It's now on the wall in the bedroom and I love it.  I backed the block with solid pink and created my binding by folding the extra allowance of backing fabric to the front and machine sewed it on the front.  I have never done a binding like that before and it was hard to miter the corners, but with a little internet help I figured it out.

 

   I'm working on my Christmas quilt this weekend.  I should have pictures of something later today.

Pink Fluffy Afghan With Crab Stitch Border, Done.

     My pink granny square afghan is finished.  I've been working on this all week to get it done.  This afghan finished at about 6 feet square.  I used almost 9 skeins of the Petal Pink Red Heart Super Saver yarn.  I finished the afghan this afternoon and took this picture in artificial light so the color is off.  The color is actually just a  little darker (more pink less salmon).  In the picture you can see the three rounds of crab stitch I did on the border.  I have enough yarn left to make some granny square pillow covers.

   I'm going to start working on my Christmas quilt again.  I started working on the back first and now I don't know if I have enough fabric to make the back for the top I planned.  So things are kind of screwy with this project.  I should have some pictures by next weekend of something, I don't know what, but something.

    One other project I finished last week was the organization of  my knitting needles and crochet hooks.  I didn't realize I had so many fixed circular knitting needles and interchangeable needles/cords, what a stash.  I bought 2 shallow plastic boxes from Walmart and used one for the knitting needles and one for the crochet hooks.  The boxes work perfectly to keep my kitties out of my tools.








   

New Fabrics On The Way.

   I can't stop adding projects to my crafting to do list.  I'm always finding another pattern or some pretty fabric that has to be added to my list.  I just placed three different fabric orders in three days.   I'm starting to dig on the pre-cuts lately.  I bought that layer cake for my Christmas quilt and I just bought two sets of fat quarters.  I still buy yardage, but when I buy pre-cuts, there isn't a lot of leftover fabric, which can be a good thing, if you don't have a lot of space to store it.

   I bought these fat quarters, Roses and Chocolate by Moda from an etsy seller.  I fell in love with this line a couple of weeks ago, so I knew I was going to get some of this line at some point.

   I bought a couple of yards of this green backing fabric from Marshall's Dry Goods to go with the Roses and Chocolate fat quarters.  This is 108" backing fabric.

I found these fat quarters on sale.  This is Far Far Away by Heather Ross, purchased from an Etsy seller.  I may use this fabric to make a holder for my circular knitting needles.  My circular knitting needles need a home.

   I'm revising my crafting to do list, but it's hard to get things in the order I want to make them because I want to make everything RIGHT NOW.  

Pretty In Pink Quilt Finished

   

 I just finished hand sewing the binding on the back of the quilt and I'm calling it done.  It's not perfect, none of my projects are, but it's perfect for me.  This is the front and a close up of the back showing the blocks I pieced into the center of it.  My Bernina walking foot worked great. The stitching was easy and the stitches were very nice.

   Now on to other projects.  I have to do a few small ones before I start my Christmas quilt.  I have to make my ironing board cover, sewing machine covers, pillowcases for my bed, and the harness for the dog in blue.  I have more but I can't remember them all right now.  And I want to play with the embroidery machine next weekend.  Plenty of sewing and crafts to keep me busy in the new year.

    See you soon.

Waiting for Batting

   The Pretty In Pink quilt is patiently waiting for my batting and thread order, placed on Christmas Eve.  I hope to receive it next week.  In the meantime I made my binding and pieced the back together with some blocks to match the top of the quilt.  That's one of my favorite things to do, is to make the back interesting with pieces and colors used on the top.  So much fun.  I'm officially ready to get my batting and sandwich this baby for quilting.  I can't wait.

      I've been knitting on my hat and I'm about 5 rows away from the last 10 decrease rows.  I'll share a picture tomorrow of the hat with my two circular needles in it.  I split the stitches evenly on each circular needle, so each one gets 50 stitches.  It's an easy way to keep tract of your stitches that way.  The 10 decrease rows decrease by 10 stitches a row until you get to the last 20 stitches, then you just knit two stitches together for the last two rows.  At the end you have 5 stitches remaining then you weave the end of your yarn in those last 5 stitches to close up the top of your hat.    

Update On Pretty In Pink Quilt.

   I finished trimming and ironing the rows on Tuesday night and I just finished sewing the rows together.   Here it is.

       Next week I will iron and piece my already washed solid light pink backing/binding fabric.  I'm going to piece in some blocks from the tops across the back to give it some interest.

       I still have to buy a batt for this quilt project.  I'm going to do some on line shopping for that after the first of January.  My local stores do not carry Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting (my favorite) so I always have to buy them on-line.  I usually order from the Connecting Threads website.  They seem to have the best prices even with shipping charges.

Pretty In Pink Quilt Update

   All the 9 patch blocks are made.  I made 34 nine patch blocks using 3 inch strips for this quilt top.  They will be alternated with solid blocks of the white on white rose print fabric.  I love, love, love the green center on these.  I'm really glad I did that.  I still have to iron and cut the blocks for the solid blocks.  The 9 patch blocks have been ironed and trimmed.

First Strip Sets For The Pink Quilt

Here is a picture of my first strip sets for the pink and green irish chain quilt I'm making just for me.  The green will be the center block in each of the 9 patch blocks.  I love, love, love the white on white fabric, it has little roses on it.  That white on white fabric will be the solid blocks as well.

I'll post again when I've made some sewing progress on this one.