A step too far?

A friend of mine asked me to make a scripture tote for her tween daughter (for Christmas). She didn't give me too much direction, just that she wanted her to have something fun. Translated in my mind meant 'sassy and blingy!' I'm a little worried that I took it just one step too far though...I'm on the fence about the blinged out handle.
I didn't have a pattern to follow, so what you see is just some crazy concoction that I worked out in my mind.
When I dropped the tote off to my friend a few days ago, I was a little worried. Hoping that she would like it. Success! She loved it (or at least didn't want to hurt my feelings!) And said that if her daughter wasn't enthralled with it, than she would keep it for herself.Changes for next time, if there is a next time...
*The ruffle needs to be skinnier, not so wide.
*The stiff craft-bond interfacing was tough to work with, use regular interfacing next time and the craft bond on JUST the bottom.
*To bling the handle or not to bling the handle? That is the question!

Frost Bite Quilt

Isn't this quilt adorable? (I can say that because I didn't make it! *wink*) My mom finished this quilt top a few months ago. For her Christmas gift she asked me to quilt it for her. It was my pleasure!The thread I used blended so well with the top of the quilt that it was actually really difficult to quilt. Not being able to see where I had already sewn posed quite the challenge, it was kind of like quilting blind. Although, a quick peak at the backside shows just how it was quilted...
I didn't get any direction from my mom on how she wanted it quilted, so I hope she likes what I came up with!

Girly Apron

I've been sewing like crazy around here and have lots of fun stuff to share over the next few days. This little number is in transit to my 5 year old niece in Utah. It's the little girl version of the 'flirty skirty apron'. I had a rough time getting a good picture of this little cutie, but I think you can get the idea.Does the main print look familiar? I call it a good use of left-overs! It's what's left of the material I used for this quilt!

Happy Holiday Crafting! Times almost up!

New Wave Quilt

When I saw this quilt back in March, I knew I just had to make it for somebody special. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law announced on Mother's Day that she was pregnant. Fast forward seven months, and here it is...
My take on Elizabeth Hartman's New Wave Quilt. I am happy with the outcome. It was dicey there for a while though. I was in love with all the prints, but had a tough time deciding whether to sash it with yellow or white. As you can see, I decided on yellow. I didn't love it at first, but after it was quilted and bound, I think it was a success.One of my new favorite things to do is piece a small portion of the back of a quilt, to give it a little character of it's own. I used scraps left from the front of the quilt to piece the back. The crazy thing with this back is that it can almost stand on it's own as a front...It's like two totally separate quilts in one. (Which I haven't decided is good or bad, there probably should be a little more continuity, but what's done is done!)
As you can see, I stitched in the ditch along the sashing lines with one line down the middle of the solid yellow, and then I did a pretty tight stipple through the hour-glass shapes. All in all, a success!Sweet Baby Ella was born just a few days before Thanksgiving. I didn't have the quilt finished and sent off quite in time for her arrival, but it found it's way there this week. Hopefully it can provide lots of years of warmth and love for my sweet new niece!

Hanukkah Treats

Our neighbor is celebrating Hanukkah with her family right now. I saw the ideas for these cookies in Family Fun Magazine (while at the Doctors office with my youngest ;) and though they would be a fun gift for her young family...
They were SUPER simple to make! Just snip off two corners of a Newton cookie (I used Strawberry vs. Fig, because I like the taste better), break a skinny pretzel in half and gently push the broken edge into the jelly part of the cookie on the opposite side of the point. Whip up a small batch of butter-cream icing, and pipe on the decor. Voila! (I googled the 'symbols on a dreidel' to help make sure the Hebrew letters on the cookies even half-way resembled a real dreidel.)

Place Mats

My good friend and neighbor asked me to make her a set of personalized place mats. She had a few simple requests, like brown for the main color, and the names in a color based on gender, but other than that she gave me artistic license! Here's what I came up with...There was six to do, and they actually took a little longer than I expected. Although, since I was being paid to make them (well, actually trading) I wanted them to look as professional as humanly possible.They are backed with fun prints, so just in case they don't want the name side up (or if it's just a little dirty ;) they can flip them over and still have a nice looking place mat. I used home decor material for the mats.This makes me excited to make some mats for my family now!

Tye-Die and Pouff Decor!

I was lucky enough to host the baby shower for one of my dear friends. (The last two posts were gifts for her and her soon to be!) This being her first child and first baby shower, I wanted the decor to be fun and visible, but not too over the top. The final product was perfectly fun!
Not meant to be the spotlight, but turned out to be was the tye-dye clothes line. My super cute teenage crafter friend (first introduced in this post) came over one night and we had a tye-dye party! Kayleigh is a pro at doing tye-dying, so she taught me some of her skilz. I think this new little baby girl is going to be the hippest gal around. We had such a fun time creating. I can't wait to try my hand at tye-dying again.
And the other baby shower stand by decor...Martha Stewart's pouf balls! These three big ones were over the center of the food table, and then there were a bunch of smaller ones hanging from the ceiling of the family room (as seen in the first photo.)

Matching diaper changing clutch

Sheesh! I didn't mean for there to be such a delay between postings, but life happens, please forgive me. On the flip side, I guess I was just having too much fun over the Thanksgiving holiday to even get online! This diaper/wipe/changing pad clutch was a companion piece to the quilt from the previous quilt post. I made it with left-over scraps from the quilt, and a few extra scraps from my stash. It's kind of crazy, but cute, and because it matches the quilt, it's extra adorable!I love the design of this little clutch. It fits nicely inside a diaper bag, and when you have a diaper to change, all you have to take with you to the bathroom is the clutch, vs. the whole diaper bag. There is a pocket for the changing pad, and another pocket for travel wipes and a couple diapers.
I'm pretty sure that these plush covered travel wipes cases are my new favorite baby gift. They are quick to whip up, and so adorable. It's way more fun to get wipes out of something so cute rather than a plastic bag! Because I know the mommy this one is for, and because I haven't gotten do do a lot of girly accessories lately I had to girlify it a little extra with the sweet little ribbon bow. A fun touch.

Crazy Nine-Patch Lattice Quilt

I've been super excited to post this project. It's been done for a while, but since it was a surprise for one of my awesome friends (soon to be new mommy!) I didn't want to spoil the surprise.

I'm kind of disappointed with my photos, because the pictures don't do the quilt justice, but it turned out absolutely adorable. The pattern is from Elizabeth Hartman (from the Oh, Fransson! blog). I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I love her quilts. They are so my flavor. Anywho, back to the quilt...

I had so much fun picking out material for this quilt. The color pallet is a little different than I have ever worked with before, and I LOVED IT!
One of my favorite things about Elizabeth's quilts is that she usually pieces the back too. It adds such a fun pop to a quilt. Something kind of a little unexpected!
I tried quilting this one in a new way. I felt like the lines and angles of the quilt were all super harsh, so I thought that by quilting little circles all over it would soften it up a bit. The effect was just what I was imagining. It used a TON of thread, like three spools, but I'll definitely do it again. It was fun to quilt it, and I think it should stand up to multiple washes. (Which is key for a baby quilt!)
And icing on the quilt. I got to watch Natalie open the gift. Most of my quilts get shipped off to family that lives half a country away, so actually seeing somebody enjoy what I gave them was kind of exciting. She loves it...and that is all that matters! Just two or three weeks and she'll have a beautiful baby girl to wrap up in that quilt!

Gathered Flower Purse

When I saw this purse and tutorial over at U create a few weeks ago, I knew I just HAD to make one!

So, here is my version of the Gathered Flower Purse...
and a little closerand even a bit closer shot of the flower.When I first saw the tutorial, I immediately knew that I wanted to make a 'fall version'. A houndstooth (is that spelling right?) pattern was what I first had in mind, but I couldn't find one I liked, so I ended up with this suiting material for the base of the bag. I used black pleather and jersey for the big ole' flower. I think the cute polka-dot interior of the bag is my favorite!
And because I just got back from an amazing week-long cruise with my family, here is a fun shot of me modeling my cute new purse!!

Grandpa's birthday gift

So this is a pretty random gift, but my son is going to give this to my dad, a.k.a Grandpa Milt, a.k.a. Golf Coach for his birthday.
I made myself a sassy little golf towel a while ago and am loving it. I think the personalized idea is a lot of fun. My dad helped Kyle with some things this summer and called him his golf coach. I thought he would get a kick out of his new golf towel.

The letters are appliqued and then blanket stitched. I added a fancy grommet to make it feel a little more polished than just a simple button hole, and picked up the little caribbeaner from a local mountain sports store.


Like I said, it's a pretty random gift, buy my dad is the kind of guy that is impossible to buy for. If nothing else, he'll get a chuckle out of it!

Teachin' some craftin'!

What is more fun than crafting? Teaching a few adorable teenage girls how to do it on their own! I've been telling Kourtni and Kayleigh for a while now that I'd love to show them how to make some of the fun stuff that they have seen me make. Kayleigh finally took me up on my offer. It was spirit week at her high school last week. These are the fun shirts we came up with for her and a couple of her friends. I can't take credit for the saying, Kayleigh came up with that. I just taught them how do to freezer paper stencils to paint their shirts. We also added some much needed 'bling' to complete the look!What a fun project! I had a great time working on it with the girls.

Happy Birthday Mom!

So, it's nothing too original, but for my mom's birthday last week she got this in the mail...
The pattern does not call for a strip of velcro on the inside, that was my addition. Grandma S is kind of obsessed with being able to close her purses/bags up!
The colors are not usually a pallet I would choose for myself, but the bag was for my awesome mom, not for me! The patterns and colors scream Grandma S!

In case you are not familiar with it, this pattern is Amy Butler's Birdie Sling. I'm in love with the pattern and bag. Back when I had Baby C, one was given to me as a gift for a diaper bag. I'm still using it. I've now made a couple of them as gifts for some of my favorite people. If you've never sewn a purse or bag before, this would be a great place to start. It is pretty basic. (Side note, just because it is basic does not mean it is cheap to make...after getting all the nice fabric there is a ton of interfacing, etc. to buy. It is worth it though.)

And of course I didn't take pictures, but I also included about a dozen various hand-made cards along with the bag for her to add to her stash.

Happy Monday!

Fall Quilt

So my mother-in-law finished this quilt top last fall. She promptly sent it my way and asked me to quilt it.I put it on my to-do list...and there it sat. For almost a whole year. Oops! Now that fall is officially on its way, I knew there could be no more procrastinating. Just this last week I got it basted, quilted, bound and sent back to Utah!

I had a really tough time deciding how to quilt this, which is a great part of the procrastination. I LOVE free-motion quilting, but the inspiration on how to go about this quilt kept alluding me. I finally had to just jump in. Here's what I decided to do...

I 'traced' each of the pumpkins and leaves on the panel and stippled the dark brown 'background'. Then I decided to straight line quilt through the blocks bordering the panel, and then stipple the far outside edges. It's a little crazy, but I think I'm happy with how it turned out.

I'm excited to hear what my mother-in-law's reaction is to it. She didn't give me any direction on how she'd like it quilted, so I just hope she's happy with it.

Since she's family and all, and since I had the top in my possession for so long, I decided to bind it for her too, so she could get a finished quilt in the mail.