Wedding Gift

We have a wedding reception to attend this week and I asked my husband what we should give the young couple.
 Options were:
 A: Our usual game night package, which is a large plastic bowl, 4 small plastic bowls, 4 plastic cups, a game (usually Rack-O), a box of microwave popcorn and a tub of KoolAid mix.
  OR
B: A set of Stay Put Kitchen Towels. I was torn because I know this family is super into playing games as a family. But my husband picked the towels. So darn it! I had to shop for fabric ;) LOL

Honestly, we only know the parents, not either of the newlyweds. Their registry was no help with colors at all. So I got  fabrics that I thought would be fun cheerful kitchen accessories.(I think I am actually going to stock up on these fabrics and make some sets of 2 towels and 2 hot pads for future gifts, because I LOVE them! Especially that Marigold polka-dot. It is a really awesome yellow in person.)

I am also making a little card with a "how to use" tutorial.  Mostly because everyone I have given these to were puzzled about what they were and how to use them at first.

Here are the towels before ribbons were added. (They lay much better without the ribbons for photos.)

Stay Put Kitchen Towel (A "how to use" tutorial)

With smaller fabric strip on top,
tie the two ribbons on one side of the towel around the handle of the oven.

Then tie the two ribbons on the other side of the towel around the handle of the oven.

The smaller strip of fabric should be in the back. These towels can be used in bathrooms as well.

 

A couple of projects

My son came home after school on Monday with the request that we get his teacher a birthday gift. Her birthday was that day so he was feeling urgency to get it done.

He wanted initially to go purchase something and I didn't really feel like wandering around the store looking for an appropriate gift. So since I knew she liked tea, (as in really really likes tea and makes it during class all the time) I thought I could whip together a mug rug and send that. I let my son pick out some charms to use. Then he left for scouts and I sewed it up. I didn't bind it, just quilted one side to the batting, sewed the 2 sides right sides together and turned them right side out. I quilted the other side in a couple of places to secure it. It is a little cockeyed because while I sewed the seams straight, I had cut the fabric crooked. :) Oh well.

 We ended up at the store anyway, to supplement the mug rug with some tea and a stirring spoon and my son bought her a chocolate bar with his allowance.
He picked a card from my stash and wrote her a note and I packaged it up in a cello bag with a topper that matched the card.
He was very pleased with it, although he nearly left without it the next morning, which would have been slightly annoying after the rush rush rush to get it done.
And she seemed to like it.


I have also been itching to get a case made for my tablet. It is hard to find cases for the Nexus 7, which is what I have. I perused tutorials for a few days and decided to just create my own using bits and parts of other people's tutes. It fit the tablet perfectly, just needs a couple of tweaks to make it just right. is I meant to make a long strap to close it that wold also hold it open and upright. But I totally forgot and just attached Velcro to the overlap. There is not enough Velcro and the overlap needs to be about an  inch bigger so it won't pop up. Also, there's pocket where I inserted cardboard to make it stiff for standing up and also for holding it like a book. Well that pocket is just about 1/8 inch too big and too close to the other pocket. It gets folded up when it is closed. You can kind of see where it gets pinched in the photo. Also, 2 of the elastics need to be a smidge shorter. They cover the power button and if it is turned the other way, it covers part of the screen that I need to be able to touch.

That said, for a project with no real pattern, the fact that I got that close to what I intended amazes me. I'm not so hot with math. :)

Mother's Day Cards

Mother's Day is right around the corner and I wanted to make the cards for my moms this year. I think we have purchased cute or funny cards the last couple of years.

I had all the supplies except stamps and ink out already, since my son had to do a family history project board. He used a bunch of my scrapbook supplies to decorate it.

Seeing all those lovely colors and embellishments gave me the itch to get stamping so I pulled some stamp sets out last night and got busy.
 I often forget how fun stamping is! Here are the 2 cards I made.

 I might just do some more today.
Have a good one!

 

Giveaway Winner!

We have a winner!

 I chose the winner with a bucket of entries and a 3 year old helper. :)

 Littlest Miss chose Suzie H out of the basket. Congratulations! I will be contacting you via email to get your mailing info. Thanks everyone for entering and giving feedback!


 

WIP update

**Go HERE for the giveaway post.**

It has been a while since I posted anything about Works In Progress. I am not linking up anywhere, this is just for fun.

I haven't made a lot of progress on any of these since February.
 Yesterday I decided to get some stuff moving forward.

The Baby 2 quilt needed to get off the back of the chair in my bedroom and get done so I could put it away. The baby turned out to be a girl and this quilt leaned heavily in the male direction. So I wanted to finish the top and pack it up so I can focus on doing a girl quilt. I have fabric chosen, just need to click the purchase button. :)

Dots 'n Tots Quilt Pattern by Debbie Taylor (It's Sew Emma Little P). Print fabric is Going Coastal and Shore Thing, both by Emily Herrick for Michael Miller fabrics. I added the extra little stripe in the center corners.

 

 

Beginners Quilt Along sampler quilt.

I have more sashing and borders to add to these blocks before I can quilt it. It is pieced in four rows of three blocks at the moment. I haven't ever sewn blocks together in rows and then added the cornerstone-ed sashing. I usually do it block by block. I hope it lines up okay.

My current WIP/UFO list

To Start:
Beach Blanket
Come What May
Coins
Crayons Box
FQS BOM
Halloween
Sewing Machine Cover
Teal and Brown Sleepytime
T-Shirt gift quilt


Finish Piecing:
Lavender Sampler
Alford BOM
Doll Quilts
Hot Wheels
MOTP QA
Supernova
Tree Skirt quilt


To Quilt:
Baby Quilt
Baby 2
Bliss
Candy Land
Log Cabin Topper
Neutral Mediterranean
Sliced Coins
Spools Table Runner
Very Hungry Caterpillar



In other sewing news, my husband surprised me with a tablet for my birthday last month and I needed a stand for it to rest on while I was cooking and sewing. I found a tutorial here, that looked simple enough. I made it even simpler by not cutting out her pattern pieces, but instead used my sour cream pouch tutorial and just added the extra stitching across the bottom and filled it in the same places as she showed in her photos. It works great!