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.)