We Need A Little Christmas...

I'm only doing my Teddy Bear tree this year after all those years of a Christmas tree in every room. sigh. I will get over it. The cutie pie grand babies will enjoy this one so much more, even if it is a bit old-fashioned and Grandma-like.

A few little Christmas quilts floating around, but not much else. It's childproof, that's for sure.

Organizing Buttons

Nothing earth-shattering here, but I did get my buttons all sorted and put into little jelly jars. No expense here, since I already had the jars in the pantry, scraps of fabric (who doesn't??), and some interfacing. I'm sure you could use cardboard or scrapbooking paper, but I just sandwiched some fusible heavy-weight interfacing between fabrics that matched the color of the buttons in the jars, pressed, then stuck them in the rings. As you can see, it was super easy. I did use pinking shears around the edge of the fabrics so it wouldn't fray. I like this clean, crisp look better than poofs of fabric sticking out of the lid.
I know how random this post is, but just had to stop and do some organizing. Drives me nuts when I have to dig for things...like a turquoise button among 500 other colors.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!

Pieced Quilt Tops

These are ready to be sandwiched together and quilted. I spent the weekend completing them, and now I've spent a good part of today just trying to decide how to quilt them. Two are made with mostly Batik fabrics and have some vines and flowers on them, so one of them will have some vine machine quilting on it for sure. I may quilt the patriotic (pinwheels on parade in red/cream/blue) one in the ditch, using my walking foot. The other one may end up having a swirly quilting pattern on it, but still trying to figure that one out. Any ideas? I am just no good at coming up with new designs, so I usually just end up with stippling or loop-d-loops. Quick and easy and my cop-out. Hopefully I can show some finished projects later this week!

I finally got "Mocha Mix" sent off to my brother in Arizona. Whew. Only three more to send off by next week (deadline set for self).

What I Accomplished

This is mostly what I worked on for the Friday Night Sew-in. My girls were not able to join me for this one, but I'm pretty sure they worked on some projects on their own, at long-distances. Except for Adrienne, who was en-route to Mexico to feed and shelter the poor (we love you Adri!).

FNSI

The Friday Night Sew-in is this Friday! Click on this button to get on board:

Audrey's Purse

Chevron Table Runner

This was such a simple little project, but it took a few days of working on it off and on to complete. Too many interruptions/distractions/ADD, I don't know. Excuses, really. But so glad I got it done.

Wish List

I'm sharing my wish list with my kids at this place. Maybe I can win something from my wish list. I doubt it, but what the heck, right? I love Connecting Threads...especially their Cotton Candy fabrics!

Giveaway Links

There are some nice giveaways...one at bjfromtheheart blog and one over here at sewinginthewendycity blog that looks pretty sweet. There will be more, so be sure and check them out!

Sewing Studio Before and After

Before:

Believe it or not, I didn't even stage any of this mess!! This is really how my sewing room used to look most of the time. Just so many projects going on it was hard to keep it organized. So, now here is the After:

I finally feel like I have a real sewing studio. And, yes, the room was certainly staged for these pictures. This room will never look this way again, I promise.

IMPORTANT NOTES

Adrienne's pillows were inspired by Pinterest, of course! One of the patterns can be found here. Other ideas are here. Some she just got creative with on her own. She's cool like that :) We really need to get that girl a blog of her own!
A linking party...just click on the linking button, go to that site, grab a button to put on your blog and leave a comment. For this linking party we are sharing our ideas for holiday crafts (something we've made), decorating, etc. If you need help grabbing a button or figuring out how to link up, I have learned a lot about that at Sew Many Ways. Click on this here title Sew Many Ways and it should take you right to Karen's site. Click on 'Blogging Tips'. When you link up there's a lot of inspiration being shared, plus usually some sort of give-away, but not always. It's just fun to share ideas and, for me, it gives me the motivation I need to get some projects done!

Linking Party

Uncommon is hosting a linking party, so every Wednesday you can post a holiday project or whatever (see site for more details). I love seeing everyone's inspirational ideas. So fun!

Little Girl Purses

My latest project. Pinterest-inspired, but not exactly like any pattern out there.

Adrienne's Pillows

Adrienne made these cute pillows for her sister's birthday's. Aren't they cute?!!

Julie's Quilt

This is the quilt I helped Adrienne put together for her sister-in-law, Julie, for Christmas:

She did all the hard stuff, like piecing and taking care of all the annoying little threads, etc.. I quilted and put on the binding; the fun part :)

Chalkboard

I made a chalkboard for a corner of the kitchen. I am disappointed in how it turned out:( I wanted the surface to be smooth, so started out with a smooth board, primed it, sanded it, then a couple coats of chalk paint (spray on, then used a roller) and the surface is still a little rough. I'm just going to pretend it's supposed to be that way because it's an "antique". But, it's not. Oh, well! It is large (3'x4') and I picked up the frame for $1.00 (!!) at a yard sale. Distressed it because that's the thing to do right now. Or like my son Jake would say, "everybody's doing it!"

Halloween Table Runners

I almost forgot to post this:

Halloween Table Runner

Better late than never, I guess. Cute little fabrics came from Pleasant Home's Etsy shop. She has lots of cute Halloween prints on sale now, so need to get yourself a few for next year!

Pinterest-Inspired

I am going to start blogging more about projects I have been inspired to make by visiting Pinterest. After all, we all owe the "non-pinners" an explanation of why we spend so much time pinning :)
This is a very simple fabric electrical cord cover. No kidding. You can do it like they do here, using fusible hemming tape. I do not have any just now, but it is a super-duper sweet product, so use it if you have it. I just turned the edges under about 1/2" and sewed, then stuffed the cord in.