Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cute stockings!

Alright I'm going to try walk you through this cute idea I had on Sunday.  I was looking through the December issue of healthy cooking magazine and once I looked over all the recipes, I went back through the magazine and started looking at the gift ideas.  On one of the pages I see this really cute little stocking that holds flatware, very cute for the Christmas table.  I thought right away that would be really cute for the kids to sew.  But before I could let them make some I needed to know how to do it myself.  I found the stocking flatware holders online and looked at the dimensions so I could try and sketch one myself.  I am certainly not in anyway an artist but thought I can handle drawing a sock.
Here's a look at my stocking sketch.


I then cut out my cute little stocking


I took a small piece of nice red and gold fabric folded it in half with right sides together and traced around my pattern.  Once I had my pattern on the wrong side of the fabric I cut it out.  I also cut out 2 3 inch by 1.5 inch strip of contrasting fabric.


I turned under the edges on the contrasting strip of fabric probably about 1/8 inch and then ironed the small strips in half.  I put the small strips on each side of the stocking and topstitched.  Then I sewed the stocking together.  Very quick and easy project.  


Hopefully all of that makes sense.  If not just let me know, we will be making quite a few more so I can take pictures of every step if that would help.  Overall a cute, easy project!

Happy Quilting
CDC

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Christmas in progress!

I mentioned fabric shopping yesterday, so today I got to work.  Okay I didn't spend that much time in the sewing room.  We cleaned some around the house this morning.  Since the weather is suppose to be bad tomorrow I figure that is a good day to put up some of the inside Christmas decorations, so today we cleaned to help make that a bit easier tomorrow.  We got new Christmas lights for outside and the tree.  I tried to go with white lights the past few years but I can't help it I love color so new LED colors lights it is!!

Once in the sewing room I got to work.  A good bit of time is spent ironing just to get to redo much of it the next day ;)  I have quite a few gifts I plan to sew so I figure I have to get started. 




That is a  look at some of the fabric I will be using to make some cute coasters!


And there you can see some of the finished ones!

Overall I think I'm off to a great start.  Tomorrow girl 1 has Russian class in the morning, then we will put up some of the Christmas decorations and hopefully after that I'll get back in the sewing room. 
Happy Quilting
CDC

Friday, November 25, 2011

Hope everyone in the USA had a great Thanksgiving!

Yesterday we had a busy day cooking.  I don't do the big part of the meal, Turkey, but I do try and add some tasty sides and desserts.  I made wild rice and bacon stuffing, holiday salad and apple cake.   As you can see I certainly love checking out others blogs, not just crafting and quilting but many other things as well.  My sister made a wonderful pumpkin pie and quite yummy peanut butter fudge.  I loved all of the things we made and while I'm not sure every member of the family did, there was plenty of food for all.  It is certainly nice watching the kids play with other kids in the family.  Those relationships have been fun to watch grow.

I have been getting back into the sewing room.   I am trying to have a less plastic Christmas.  I don't see any chance the house will be completely void of plastic, it has been fun thinking of ways to reduce it.  I am making many gifts so my black Friday shopping included two of my favorite local quilt shops!  I am working on those gifts and well as a new quilt "top" which I will use for the back of topsy turvy nine patch.  

I hope everyone had a great start to the Holiday season!  If you have any fun sewing gift ideas in mind I would love to hear about them.

Happy Quilting
CDC

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Time flys




When your having fun.  It has been a busy time around the house.  Not much sewing has been happening.  While that is sad, homework is getting done and playing with friends has filled up much of my time recently.  My dad has been out visit.  It was a nice peaceful visit.  I did sew a few quick projects and have many ideas running through my head.  I really want to finish a few quilts before I start something new so I'm trying to hold off. These are a couple of to go cup sleeves that I have made recently.  These are fun and reversible.  They are super quick to make.  I gave them to a couple of members of my quilting bee. 


One more quick project I made with the girls are a couple of heart shaped pillows.  I didn't take any pictures of these yet but it was a fun rainy day project and both girls really do love getting to sew.  
Halloween was great fun this year.  The weather was a bit warmer than last year, still light coats were needed.  A few kids for the neighborhood joined us and everyone seemed to have a blast.  The only hard part about this Halloween is trick or treating starts a 5:00 and I barely make it home from work by 5:00 so we had them play Just Dance Kids for a bit to try and let most everyone get home work before starting to knock on their doors.


And here you can see everyone ready to go.


Happy Quilting 
CDC