Emerging Talent

Daughter No. 2 decided to make a last minute gift for a friend. Seriously I wish I could think on the fly like this. All hand sewn and with no pattern ! I love it :)

A very "Tim Burton" look would'nt you say?

Finishing up Christmas

The last two Christmas presents are now done, finished after Christmas. My oldest daughter oohed and aahhed over this fabric everytime she saw it so I made her a throw pillow/cover. I had all sorts of ideas for the leftover half yard! BUT .... I gave it to her for her stash :)

i know where to find more ;)

The laptop case is for her boyfriend, they've been together for over a year so I figure he's good for homemade gifts :) the batik reminds me of the Nazca lines in peru, and I'M keeping the cast-offs from this. Now I'm off to finish a dog bed, which was supposed to be for Christmas but instead it will be "oh here! its January have a dog bed" and since its for OUR dog I think that will go over just fine.

Sweater and a Sidetrack

My daughter love's the british band Muse. But finding thier stuff here in the U.S. is not so easy, so this is my knock off version.

don't ya just love how the little tag on the sleeve makes it look official!

You know they say a picture is worth a thousand words. If you look real close you can see all the medicines I've been taking to stay functional. Instead of the "12 days of Christmas" I'm partaking in the "12 days of Sickness" I'm on day 8 and still going strong, fortunately my autopilot has craftiness mode (all other modes are temporarily out of service) and I was able to finish up some of my Christmas presents in the few coherent moments I have.

I still have 3 more presents to sew................and its Christmas Eve! not sure if I will make it sniffle sneeze cough moan

Hello Kitty

Child no.3 is getting Hello Kitty pj's for Christmas. I could only talk myself into paying for the bottoms, thinking I could be thrifty with the top. And would'nt it be just my luck that Old Navy had long sleeve shirts on sale for $3.oo in the mens department (men's small should fit #3 just nicely)

A little freezer paper

some black paint

and a little pink :) being cheap is kinda fun :)

Stuff

All the blog hoppin' I did during SewMamaSew.com give-a-way week inspired me to have a little fun. Seriously who does'nt love Mac-n-cheese! I think I will have to do some more of this "thread playing" later :)

What seemed to be the hottest item this year is the "Mug Rug" coffee goes on one end a treat on the other, I think this would be cute with a cupcake stitched on. I believe I know what I'm makeing for simple Christmas presents next year.

And a simple Batik pillowcase for a Christmas present. For those of you in the Non-sewing world (Mom, I know you'll ask) Batiks are a type of dyed fabric. Okay enough playing around, I have to get Christmas presents done!

Hooray!

Hooray! its finished. I had put it at the bottom of the pile because of all of the Christmas sewing I'm doing. BUT then SewMamaSew announced that December 13th would be a Give-away-day! I promised myself that I would finish the projects that I was making from my last give-a-way loot before I participated again. Lets just say that the binding magically appeared on this quilt. Loot used, let the give-aways begin! If you've never participated then you need to hop on over to sewmamasew.com right now and read all about it! Hours and hours of Blog-hoppin fun.

authentic

I was suppost to be spending the day quilting. BUTT (and I feel like one) I got ready to make my quilt sandwich and realized I didn't have the batting!!! How on earth do you forget something like that. Its like planning a picnic with no food! UGH ....

So instead I decided to use my little swatch of "Pure" fabric by Moda and make a pillow for a gift. The print has such wonderful words as - Original - Authentic -Simple and Real so I decided to magnify my favorites. Just wainting for it to dry so I can stitch it up.

November in Pictures

Picking LOTS of Rose hips

Quilting

(still no binding)

Christmas pillowcases

with zippers!

making a complete mess

of my sewing corner

cute fabric for a

secret project (shhh...)

Getting a basketful

of auction goodies

and secretly hoping

for some of this

No-Sew T-Shirt Scarf

Seriously NO sewing what-sew-ever :) Same scarf 2 different looks. My oldest daughter works at a trendy clothing store and has a similar scarf that cost mucho $$, I found an ugly t-shirt on the clearence rack and decided to give it a try for less $$.

1. Did I mention ugly? I dont know who designed this t-shirt but it was the most mis-shaped shirt that I had ever seen. ENTER cheap experiment. (thanks mis-shaped-ugly-t-shirt-designer)

2. Cut off bottom edge and top

3. Re-fold the middle piece so the seams meet. Cut from the edge up to 1 inch from seams.

4. When your done making all those snips grab the shirt by the seams (one in each hand, kind of like one of those rubber exercise bands) and stretch gentley. This will make the cut strips roll around the edges and give it a finished look.

That was easy wasnt it!

okay, now I have to get back to work and do some serious sewing. Wait till you see what I'm finally finishing. Its been a long time coming.

Chemo Caps

Hot off the machine, these hats are headed to the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa FL.

I made some for my Dad (here+here) and he always has one on his noggin. The nurses at the hospital admired them and asked if I would make some to share with other chemo patients. Of coarse I am a huge fan of "Pay it forward" and since my Dad has been sick and some 1000 + miles away there's not much I can do to help, so I JUMPED at the chance to give back in some way.

So if you see a bunch of bald men with really great hats in Florida, you know where they came from ;)

Keychains

One more thing checked off my list of ORGANIZE.DOWNSIZE.CLEANUP.SPICEUP.

No more wondering which key goes to what.

Oh For the Love of Chickens!

Finally, I had some spare time to make something out of the "Lil Plain Jane" fabric that I won at the last sewmamasew.com give-a-way.
I love chickens and I love fabric, so it only made sense that the two should be together.

What is it you ask? hmmmmm, I've asked myself the same thing..........a wall hanging!? ya sure thats it. Too small to be anything else. What am I going to do with it you ask? Well I thought about painting an entire room red and white just so I could hang this in it. Where I would lock the door and no-one would be allowed in except maybe a pizza delivery guy, oh and my mother cuz she's that special.

But, I have no idea what I am going to do with it. I thought about maybe auctioning it off at my son's senior auction for school this fall. That is if I can pry it away from my youngest who would really love me to just give it to her

Experiment

Its been very hot and sticky around here, so this strappy top that my cousin gave me got to budge to the front of the line at my sewing desk. The main problem was that it was too wide for me so I took it in on the sides. Then I used the trimmed off scraps to make a ruffle for the front.

I cut the scraps in strips. No measureing just guessing. Stuck the little bugger under my machine on a baste length stitch and then scrunched it up to make a ruffle.

I Hand stitch the ruffle on and now a have a cute new top

Headboard Re-make

Blogland is harmful to my free-time. As if I dont already have a wish list of things to sew. Now I have a wishlist of things to build. I found My Re-purposed Life which is amazing. This lady can transform anything. You should check out her blog. My power tools were begging me to visit them. so heres what I did.

I found this old headboard at the local thrift store. I removed the thin paneling piece in the back and the pegs sticking off the top.

took some extra wood I had laying around (also repurposed from an old cabinet) and sanded it down roughly and cut to fit my headboard. I added layers around the top "Mantel" to trim it out.

put some scraps in the inside to hold shelves

lots more sanding to rough it up and make all the different wood tones blend

you wouldnt guess that there were two different types of wood and stain at the beggining.

nice primitive-rustic look. My fave

There it is, my new Faux fireplace-shelf-mantle. Now I have to make a screen for the front to hide all of those ugly electronics.