Epiphanies

Yesterday, as I was driving my massive 2.5 hour commute home from class, I had an epiphany.  Despite loud, upbeat music to motivate me on my drive, five hours round-trip still gives me a lot of time to think.  An unfinished project randomly jumped to mind. I began this project a couple of years ago, but lost interest in it as I was trying to complete revisions on my Masters thesis. Once I'd lost interest it was very hard to get back into it.  It somehow didn't fit the intention for beginning it anymore and every time I thought of it in a re-purposed manner it didn't quite fit that either. But yesterday, I knew exactly what the purpose of this project is meant to be!!  The more I think about this change in purpose, the more I am committed to it.  That's a good sign, no? 

I'll post pictures when it's complete.

Oh. My. Word.

I had an early lunch with a girlfriend this morning in the same shopping area as the quilting store.  So, I thought I'd stop in and browse before heading home.  I knew it would empty my wallet, but I went anyway. ;)

Imagine my surprise when I suddenly found myself in another room full of fabric!  It only took me a second to realize that over the course of the last couple of months of absentee-ism the store had expanded and nearly doubled their space!  They had a bus tour when I arrived and with the crowd it wasn't obvious at first, but I'm thrilled with the expanded space!  I enjoyed shopping and picked up a few things.

First, I grabbed this little book.  I LOVE charm packs and I'm always looking for cute projects I can use them in.  I liked this book because not only were the patterns cute, but they were also easy to expand into bigger blankets. 

  

Then this project.  When my parents visited in May, my mom and I had gone to the store and noticed the purse/wallet clasps, but neither of us picked one up.  But this time, they had a physical example of this pouch and I loved that there were so many pockets and a zippered section for coins.  I initially picked out some green and orange fabric, but saw these and knew they were much more my style.

A closer look at the pattern picture.  It's cute, no?

And the various fat quarters I picked up.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but the green dots next to the hockey players is little frogs - very cute.  And the one on the other side of the player is more muted than it appears here.  I loved the chickens and the chicken wire prints!

Finally, a few holiday prints.  I'm more about cute Halloween than realistic or gorey - just not my style.  I'll post pictures of the new sewing room layout tomorrow.

So many secrets this time of year...

This time of year is particularly difficult for blog posts.  But luckily, I have lots of "help" in the sewing room!  This snuggle bug doesn't understand why I'm not constantly petting him instead of working with that silly fabric!  I can't even take pictures without him getting in the way.   I do love him, though!

 

What a poser. ;o)

 

Virtually everything I'm working on can't really be revealed at this point because they're all Christmas presents!  So, I'll be a little creative in order to post SOMEthing.

This is something I am marking for some reason.

 

These are some fabrics I really like.

 

This is also marked for some reason...

 

I wonder what's going on here.

Not to worry.  I am taking lots of photos of the process and will post after the holidays the final products.   Needless to say, I've met some challenges.  But I am enjoying myself.  That's all that matters... right?

Last Year's Christmas Projects...

Last year, my youngest sister had asked that I make quilted Christmas stockings for her family. My mother-in-law (MIL) had made me one like my spouse's the first Christmas we'd been married. So, I created my own template which combined her style and measurements.

It was harder than I thought to pick out the appropriate fabrics. I wanted to choose fun fabrics, especially for the kids, but also considering that the kids will be aging and I wanted them to be comfortable with the stockings for as long as they live - so nothing too childish. I'm not sure that makes sense in type, but it does in my head. Once I'd picked out the fabric combinations, I cut a few strips in each of the four fabrics in varying widths. Then I chose a piece of cross-stitch fabric in a coordinating color (As you can see below, Holly's fabrics looked better with cream, while Hayden's looked better with white) and a coordinating color of cross-stitch floss to create their names for the top. I then laid out the strips and name plate to create the best, most aesthetically pleasing layout. After sewing and quilting the stockings, I hand-sewed some ribbons bows at the top to provide a loop for the stockings to hang from and for the kids, I added a jingle bell or two. They turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself.

I liked the process so much, I thought it would also be nice to make my parents stockings as well. The stockings were such a hit that the rest of the family (except one brother and his wife) have requested Christmas stockings for themselves as well.

In addition, several of last year's presents were quilted. Every year, my siblings and I draw names and last year I drew one of my middle sisters. She had asked for a cookbook, and we bought a really nice kitchen knife to compliment it (after all, every good cook deserves a really nice kitchen knife, right?). After some thought, I wanted to add a scented trivet to the package. So, I chose the fabrics and began work. The only change I would make, should I do this again, is that I would account for changing scent packets in the future. But not bad for a first try.

The top (above) and the back (below).

One of my favorite projects last year was this wall quilt I made for my husband. He had a Jimmy Buffett concert t-shirt that was becoming quite tattered. A couple years prior, he had expressed an interest in preserving the t-shirt and I'd put it away until I could work on it. Last Christmas presented the perfect time to create this wall quilt. He was teaching and I was unemployed so I had large chunks of my day when I could secretly work on his present without him becoming suspicious. When I cut out the salvaged pieces of the t-shirt, one was larger than the other (and there was no way around it!). I compensated with the inner border - I love the way the blues play off each other. The outer border is a fabric of jungle greens which complimented both the t-shirt pieces and the inner border. The whole thing was backed and bound by black fabric. He was quite surprised and pleased with the results!

This provides just a taste of what will be appearing on this blog. We have since purchased a better camera, so photos in the future will be brighter and clearer. I also recently finished my Master's program and have a little more time to work on projects. In the coming weeks, I will have posts on this year's gift projects as well as those for baby showers and additions to our wall quilt selections.