Secret Sewing part 1

Hello there!

Did you have a good Christmas? Ours was wonderful!  I even managed to get all but one of my gifts sewn~ and I have a little time on that one as we aren't getting together with our DD until after the new year. ;-)

I am going to divide my Christmas sewing into two posts. The first will be the bagmaking part of my gifts and tomorrow or the next day, I will do the quilting/sewing projects.

I made this bag for my DDIL.  She loves Harry Potter, so it was a no-brainer on my part to find some HP fabric.  

 

I made this over the summer and blogged about it HERE

I am happy to report, she loves it! :-)

I made this set for my Mom~

 

The handbag is smaller than most. The pattern is by Toriska and is called the Sweet Sunday Bag.

There are a number of variations to the pattern. My favorite part is the large outside pockets!

 

 

I also made a wallet to go along with the bag. This pattern is by Uniquely Michelle and is called the Kristine ID wallet. I see more of these in my future! ;-) Sorry~ I didn't take any photos of the wallet other than the one with the bag. Oops!

I also gifted all of these bags~

You can read more about them HERE

That is all for today~

I'll be back soon!

Until then..

Happy Stitchin'!!

Something Fun!

Hey everyone, check this out!~ 

Henry Glass Blog

The threads are flying at my house! LOL

Until next time~

Happy stitchin'!!

Still Sewing Here!

Wow! There is just sooo much I can't show you yet!

I am trying to remember to take pix so that after Christmas I can do a long post~ or maybe two. ;-)

In the meantime I  have done a little more pattern testing. :-)

Nancy from  Designz by Nancy Stroop will be coming out with a new pattern soon~

It is a set of five zippered pouches. The set can be divided any way you like, make one, two, or all of them!

I chose to do all of them since I couldn't decide on one! LOL

 Sorry my pix are a little dark~ we have had some cold and foggy days and really need some sun!

I chose to machine quilt the fabric for all the bags. 

I also added an inside pocket on the smallest one, and a couple have zip tabs on the side.

Just for fun. ;-)

I don't think the recipient reads my blog, or maybe she does!

Time will tell! :-)

I must get back to work!

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

Looking Back~

I was flipping through my files looking for a pattern and realized I never showed y'all this cute bag!

I was lucky enough to pattern test the Half Note Bag by Barbara Davis of Musical Bags.

 It is the perfect size when you just want to take your wallet and phone and head out the door!

I machine quilted my outside fabric with a double needle and love the texture!

The inside has both a zip pocket and a patch pocket on the opposite side. The top zips closed for extra security.

You can find the pattern on Barbara's Etsy page HERE :-)

Until next time~

happy Stitchin'!!

Sewing Like Mad!

Are you making gifts for Christmas?

Suddenly sewing like crazy? (Please say yes so I don't feel so alone! LOL)

I finished 2 gifts I want to get in the mail this week so the kiddoes have time to enjoy them.~

I purchased the shirts and added the embroidery designs.

I made the skirt and stretchy pants.  I have to just guess at sizing as the kids live so far away!

I also made this pillowcase for DGD. The front is a feed sack towel from Wal-Mart~ when I saw the design I knew it was meant to be for one of the kids. A friend shared a photo of the one she made on Instagram and I had to do the same! LOL

I'm sorry if my photos are a little washed out~ I was trying to compensate for our gray and rainy day here and it looks like I took it a bit too far. :-/  I sure wish I had a program that just did it for me with no guessing! LOL

Until next time~

and more projects completed (I hope)!!

Happy stitchin'!

A Finish- Delivered!

This was one of my secret sewing projects over the past few weeks.

Some friends and I got together and made a 'friendship quilt' for one of our friends who is dealing with some health issues for both herself and her dear hubby. We wanted her to have our hugs near at hand since we live too far away to do them in person. ;-)

We chose a block from Quilters Cache~ The Dandy Quilt

And set about making blocks in both a positive and negative colorway, reversing the color

placement in the negative block. Everyone sent their blocks to me and I assembled and quilted.

I thought the quilting would do me in as my thread kept breaking and I couldn't figure out why!  I eventually got 'er done!

Everyone also sent a 2½ inch strip of their main fabric for a scrappy binding.

I always hand sew bindings down, so that took a few nights in my easy chair. ;-) 

Any extra blocks went on the back with a great embroidered label one of the gals did on her machine.

 I am so happy to have this quilt in the hands of its new owner!

That's all for today~ back to my machine for some more 'secret sewing'! :-)

Untl next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

My Friends 'Get' Me!

LOL Isn't it a great feeling when your friends get you? :-)

Yesterday was my birthday and I got some amazing mail!

One of my girlfriends (no blog) and I always gush over the Buttermilk Basin and Primitive Gatherings designs. She is a great cross-stitcher, and I have convinced her that hand embroidery is pretty fun too. ;-)

She sent me this wonderful mini hanging, and ornament along with honey from her own bees!

Yes, she is also a bee keeper. :-)

My photo really doesn't do either of them justice! It is a gray and rainy day here. 

The hanging pattern is from Buttermilk Basin and the ornament from Prim. Gatherings.  Just last week we had been talking about all the Ball jars you now see with mini scenes in them. LOL

Another friend who doesn't blog knows my love of scraps. ;-)  She found a great little bag of Ricky Tims hand dyed fabrics  and sent it to me. The colors are really intense, again my fault for the bad photo! ;-)

I have started pressing them and they are all a nice size~ 10" x 10" or larger. Now to decide what to do with them!! :-)

I have been working on a few things I still can't show you, and just today I realized Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!! :-o  How did that happen??!! I really need to buckle down and work on my Christmas sewing!  How about you?  Are you Christmas sewing too?

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!