Some crafting catch up

I have done a little crafting lately, both sewing and paper crafting. Now that my home is more livable, I feel okay spending more time on my hobbies.

I have been using Instagram a lot to share project I have been working on. I forget to post things on Flickr these days.

December:

I wanted to make a gift for my fabulous Grandma for Christmas. I thought the Open Wide zipper bag from Noodlehead would be perfect since she travels a lot. She also likes southwest stuff and I had some fabric I bought a while back that was just right.



Then I could not find my toiletry bag when I was packing so I took a moment (ha!) and made one for myself, in a larger size. I love it!

While in Utah, I made a port pillow. My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in November. He was getting chemo and radiation in December and had a port* in his chest. They can be very uncomfortable, especially when wearing a seat belt. My dad apparently frequently removed his seat belt when going to his appointments because of this. I found a couple of tutorials (here and here) for port pillows and made him one (as well as a couple more to donate to the chemo center). He used it while I was there and told me it helped.
These are made with charm squares and finish up about 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".



I also finished the baby quilt that our Young Women had tied for a baby in our ward. I had made the top a while ago. I donated it to the group along with binding. They tied it at church one Sunday during their lesson. Then I brought it to my mom's during Christmas break to trim and bind it.

 



 January:
More cord wraps. Some really big ones for extension cords and some regular ones for regular cords and a couple of short ones for my earbuds and charging cords.


February:
 Valentines!
I have been following a Stampin' Up! gal on YouTube, Wendy Cranford and she made a really cute little candy bar pocket for a valentine. I made one like hers which was not great, and then went my own way a bit with them color-wise.


Blue for my boys.

 
Pink for my girls, some teachers and the gals I Visit Teach.

 And throughout January and February I have been alternating quilting on the robot baby quilt and piecing this Trip Around the World quilt I started at a historical textiles class given by Leah Zieber at Fat Quarters Quilt Shop. I used fabrics from a fat quarter stack I had of Tidbits by Kari Ramsay for Henry Glass.  It was really hard to do the strips. I could not keep them straight, even using my walking foot and marking my machine with a tape guide and pinning the heck out of them and starching the heck out of them.
That said, I still like how it turned out. Very pretty.

 And that is my 3 month summary!
Have a great day!

 * Implantable ports or port-a-cath. A catheter connected to a port is surgically inserted (tunneled) under the skin of the chest, or sometimes the upper arm, by a surgeon or radiologist. You will receive either local anesthesia or be consciously sedated. Unlike the other two types of catheters, a port sits entirely underneath the skin. You may be able to see and/or feel a small bump in your chest or arm, but you won’t see the tip of the catheter outside the body. Before each “access” or needle insertion, the skin over the port may be numbed using a cream. When treatment is given, the skin is cleansed and a special needle is inserted through the skin into the rubber seal. This allows blood to be drawn or treatment to be given into the catheter that is connected to the port. (http://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/how-cancer-treated/chemotherapy/catheters-and-ports-cancer-treatment)

 

Toiletry Pouch

I discovered I needed a new pouch for toiletries to keep in my bathroom and for traveling this coming week and having seen a few of Noodlehead's Open Wide zippered pouches popping up around the Internet, I thought it might work well for what I needed.

I made the medium sized one. As per my usual I had a couple of hiccups with the instructions, like the vague instructions about hiding the zipper in the middle before stitching around the pieces, and bending the zipper 90 degrees. I never did figure that one out. But since I have experience with zipper pouches I got it done with only minor stitch ripping.

And now I have a cute new bag.

Measures about 10" x 7"

 

Sewing and sick

We had a really nice Thanksgiving yesterday. It was just us, so pretty mellow and quiet, other than my son being really sick with a cold or something. I have a yummy recipe to share, but I am saving that for Tasty Tuesday. And I also have a great new blog to share, but unless you are super smart and figure out that I posted the link somewhere on the sidebar, you will have to wait for Tuesday for that too.

For now, here is more sewing from earlier this week.

I made the 3 kids with an iPod shuffle a little tiny drawstring bag to keep them in using the pattern from In Color Order - the full pattern, not the free tutorial. It is well worth the money I paid to get all the sizes. Thanks to Susan for sending me the link to it.

This one was my test to see if it would be the right size. It was perfect. I just used leftover fabric from the ruffle quilt block I made with fabrics from Jo-Ann's. My daughter liked it fine so she took that one.


 The 2 on the left were made with fabrics chosen by the boys.

I made my older son a wallet too (matching his pouch). He requested one after seeing my younger son's version. I made this one with 6 inch wide fabric rather than 5 1/4 and the zipper pocket is much easier to use. I am not loving the raw edges of the zipper sticking out, but I have not figured out a way to change that yet.



I tried to sew today during the Black Friday Sew In with a bunch of podcasters and other quilters, but I felt sick all day. And I don't have a Twitter account which takes some of the fun out of it, since I can't chat or follow along.  But, I got some scarves cut, just no actual sewing.

And having sick family has been a total bummer because one of my dearest friends, who I have not seen for 8 years, is in town visiting her parents and we were supposed to get our families together for lunch today. But my son has been sick and then I got sick as did my husband so we had to put it off until Tuesday. I just pray that we are all well then so I can see her. I haven't ever met any of her children and she has met only 2 out of 4 of mine.

This is a hat my daughter made as a gift for one of her cousins. Knitting and crocheting are still beyond me. :) She, on the other hand, has managed to excel at every craft she tries. She is into beading and yarn projects these days, which is good because we just have one sewing machine (which technically belongs to her). I'll have to post photos of the earrings she made for her cousins too.




Well, that is all for tonight. I am going to make some hot chocolate and curl up in bed with a book or maybe some Sudoku and a podcast or 2. :)
Have a great weekend!

This and that

My son requested a wallet so I made this for him tonight.
I made one of these for myself a while back and forgot that I wanted it to be just a bit wider. It is a little awkward to get coins out without just dumping them. The zipper needs to be a little longer to work well. Not much, maybe 1/2 an inch.

 I also completed 2 more infinity scarves with some Little Black Dress from Basicgrey for Moda. These will be gifts for family and teachers.










 

Pay It Forward Handmade finishes.

Over the last few months I have been working on my Pay It Forward Handmade gifts. I have talked about all of them here on the blog as I completed them, but never said what they were for really.
I sent 2 Stay Put  Kitchen Towels, 1 Strippy Charm Pouch, 1 stationary holder, with 4 cards and envelopes, and 2 Kara Chocolates Mint Truffles (I did not make these) :).

There is a  Flickr group for Pay It Forward Handmade where you can see other items that have been sent out if you are interested. It was fun making these for the ladies who signed up with me and I hope they enjoy them!

FNSI... some progress!

 If you are visiting from the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop and you would like to enter my giveaway, Click HERE.

Yesterday was Friday Night Sew In. I had two projects to work on, the zipper pouch and the quilt for my Dad. I got to work early because I wasn't sure what my evening schedule would be. So it was partly Friday afternoon sew in for me.

The zipper pouch was smooth sailing! Woohoo! And I found a great little tip in my files that made the zipper much easier. Don't use pins, use Lapel Stick. LOVE that stuff. I do wish they had a fine tip stick, which I sent them an email about. But really, I love it.

It is hopefully going in the mail tomorrow.

Once the kids were in bed I jumped in again.
The quilt. Hmmm. Not such a success.
I finalized a plan on paper. Did the math. Cut the fabric. Laid it out. YUCK! Re-arranged, and re-arranged some more. Still nothing. Then I finally got something that kind of works, but there is not enough fabric to complete the pattern AND my camera battery died. AND I can't find the charger.
 *sigh*. So I am stalled out.
  Here are the photos I got before the battery ran out of juice.

All cut and ready to jump in and make a great quilt!

Round 1 (the plan), not so great.

Round 2, no yellow blocks, UGH!!

But on a positive note, it is progress!

A little bag

I have had on my to-do list, some little zippy bags for gifts. I finally got around to doing a couple.
Yesterday I remembered I had 2 little rolls of 1 1/2 inch Aviary  by 3 Sisters for Moda. I got a pattern from the Moda Bake Shop, The Strippy Charm Pouch by Kim Sherrod (link is no lager valid) that I have been wanting to try for a while.
The pattern calls for cutting charm squares into 5"x 1 3/4" strips, so I just used 10 strips instead of 7 and trimmed it down to the right size. It worked fine. I had some large scraps left over from a quilt my daughter made that I used for the lining, bottom and handles.

I finished this one at about 11:45 last night. I have one more ready to assemble today and then I can get them in the mail.

I had a little bit of trouble with the interfacing. I don't know what the problem is exactly, except with my old iron, I never had any trouble getting it to fuse, but with my new iron I can not get it to fuse everywhere. I need to find the ironing mat I have to see if it will help.

Have a great day!

This is such a cute heart pouch you will DIE!

Erin at Schlosser Designs has done it again!! Cute Wonky heart pouches!!
LOOK HOW CUTE!!!

http://www.schlosserdesigns.com/2012/01/tutorial-tuesday-cupids-arrow-heart-pouch/

AND FREE!!

New vinyl zipper pouch tutorial!

Erin Schlosser at Schlosser Designs has just posted her tutorial for today and it is a great one!
She uses fabric and clear vinyl to make a cute zipper pouch.

Vinyl Covered Zipper Pouch from Schlosser Designs! (link no longer valid)

You can see the tutorial HERE.

Zippered Clutch pattern available!

Remember this? 

 

 

and this?









Well the pattern is now up for sale HERE (click the image below)

 

http://store.schlosserdesigns.com/product/floral-clutch

or copy and paste this url into your browser:
http://store.schlosserdesigns.com/category/sewing-patterns

The Zippy Purse Swap project

In March, I joined the Zippy Purse Swap. I made a little clutch for my partner using my friend Erin's pattern that I tested for her back in November.

This was my test clutch (way back when) and it was my first zipper. I do not have a zipper foot, but that ended up being only a minor inconvenience. She had great instructions and I loved how my purse turned out (Except for the flower which I made incorrectly and sewed on poorly and too far down.) I don't care for that fabric any more (just call me Fickle Freddie) but I still use the clutch for my ladies items and other things that need to be in my purse.

Since I liked the pattern so much, and was familiar with it, it was a no brainer to repeat it for the swap.
My partner said she LOVES Yellow and Gray.
Easy! My daughter had just bought some pretty yellow and gray fabric, called Eclipse by Exclusively Quilters at The Quilt Asylum to make a skirt for her American girl doll.  I went and got some more and made this:

The flower I made was a new technique for me, found HERE. I just covered it with a button instead of doing the swirly stitching in the center. (Cute pillow and quilt set right!?!)
And there is my Zippy Purse swap clutch.
I filled it with travel size items, like Bandaids, tiny disposable toothbrushes (whose name escapes me), Shout wipes, things like that. I hope she likes it!