Happy 2011!

Well, after five different Christmas celebrations this year, with various branches of our family, hubby and I are pooped!  We had a great time, but have definitely enjoyed a couple of days of relaxing and practicing the art of doing nothing.  With how busy we were during the months of November and December, I didn't have time to make as many hand made gifts as I had initially hoped, but I'm really pleased with how my two gifts turned out.

First up was a handmade gift for my hubby.  While he's always more than willing to give me his opinion (when I ask) on which color combination or block pattern looks better for a work-in-progress, and has even been willing to accompany me to a quilt show or two, quilting is just not really his thing.  He has been known, however, to enjoy the occasional video game and really gets a kick out of "vintage" Nintendo stuff from when we were kids.  A couple of years ago, he realized that since the 8-bit images from the original Nintendo games that he loved as a kid were nothing more than a series of colored boxes ....

... that they would translate REALLY well into a quilt pattern.  So, he decided that I was going to make him a Mario pillow and promptly dragged me off to JoAnn's (I KNOW!!!!) to get some solid-colored fabric so that I could get started.  Unfortunately, we purchased some fabric on sale that shrunk when ironed - even after pre-washing - which made the task of sewing together 256 squares into a 1" grid really unpleasant and impractical ... and the project was shelved.

I began playing around with the idea of the pillow again, after I stumbled across a tutorial by Elizabeth from Oh! Fransson on Sew, Mama, Sew's website.  Elizabeth started by drawing a grid on a square of super lightweight fusible interface, and then used the lines as guides to place her individual squares.  She ironed them in place and the seamed the back, and voila! ... she made a perfect mini-quilt without having to individual piece together a bunch of tiny squares.  (Check out the tutorial for some great pictures and more complete directions)

I tried her method with some higher-quality solid fabric for my pillow and was absolutely thrilled with the result!!  The grid on the front was so precise and the whole pillow front was done in less than two hours!!

Hubby was thrilled with it too!  He's dubbed it his video-game pillow and has already asked for a second one (specifically the green 1-UP mushroom) to take into his office at work.

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My second handmade gift this year was for my mom, aka "my fabric-shopping partner in crime."  Over the summer we took an embroidery class at one of our local quilt shops (which sadly went out of business this month.  I'm so bummed!!).  I knew after we finished the class that I wanted to make her a Christmas quilt that incorporated embroidery.

Every Christmas, my mom has this great collection of snowmen that she displays on the wall behind the kitchen table, so I decided to make her a quilt that matched.  I used Bird Brain Designs' Redwork Snowmen pattern ....

... along with Mom's favorite snowman fabric line, Makin' New Friends by Deb Strain for Moda, and Carrie Nelson's (Miss Rosie's Quilt Co) Hot Cross Schnibbles pattern ...

So sorry for the crummy picture quality!  We've had weeks of rain in Sacramento, so it was hard to get pictures with decent lighting.  Here are some close-ups of the Snow-Peeps ...

Mom loved her quilt, and it's now happily living on the back of the living room sofa ... just waiting for someone to come by and take advantage of the dreary weather with a good book!

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So, with those two finishes, I'd like to present the FINAL status of my 2010 stash.

Purchased: 3.0 yards for the Mario Pillow

Used: 6.12 yards as follows:

• 3.58 yards for Mom's Snowman quilt
• 0.75 yard for three new mug rugs to be listed in the Etsy shop soon ...
• 0.69 yard for the Mario pillow
• 1.10 yards for the December Le Petite project

Grand Total for 2010: +90.78 yards

A bit higher than I had hoped ... but as of today, the numbers all roll back to 0.  Let's see if I can start the next update off with a negative number!!

Holiday Crafts

Every year my hubby's office hosts a Holiday handmade gift fair, where employees (or their families) donate handmade gifts that are sold at the fair, and then all the proceeds are used to purchase Christmas gifts for the homeless or foster kids in need.

I had originally planned on just donating this winter table runner ...

... but when I came across Jennifer's (from That Girl, That Quilt) tutorial over at Stash Manicure for a Mug Rug with a tea pocket, I decided to give to make a couple of extra gifts to donate as well.

I've been seeing these "mug rugs" around blogland for awhile now, and after making two of them, I understand why they're so popular!  I mean, what's not to love about using those scraps from your favorite projects (that probably were too small to save for anything "practical" but were too beautiful to throw away) to make such cute little mini-quilt-coasters that can be completely finished in an hour flat!!  Plus, I'm finding that it's a great way to use batting scraps too!  I always feel so wasteful throwing away all my quilt sandwich trimmings, so I love having a new use for them.

Besides working on these three little holiday projects, not a whole lot of sewing has been going on in my little crafting room.  I did, however, take advantage of some crazy good "Black Friday" sales going on over at Connecting Threads and Burgundy Buttons.  I guess I went a little overboard ... as in 26 yards, plus a jelly roll, plus a layer cake ...

It's a beautiful sight to me, but hubby wanted to know if I actually was planning on using any of the fabric I already have.  I guess they just don't understand. :)  Needless to say, however, my stash for the year is WAY out of control.  I think it's best just to accept them and get ready to do much better in 2011!

Since I did have some small finishes this week, here is my current stash update:

Stash Update: November 4th - December 9th:
Used: 1.5 yards ... whoop-dee-doo.
Bought: 34.34 yards ... yikes!  (biggest purchase of the year, btw)
YTD: +93.9 yards

Happy New Year

After two months of homework and finals, a week of Christmas festivities with friends and family, and a week of relaxing with my hubby and our two rug rats, I’m starting to feel ready to welcome in the new year … even if I’m a few days late.

This year’s handmade cadeaux de l'année were Amy Butler “Birdie Slings”.  The four pictured below were for my mom, and my three sisters-in-law.  There were five total, but the fifth sling was was shipped down south early, thus missing the obligatory Dec. 23rd group pictures.

If you don’t have this pattern already, I recommend getting it – it’s available through Amazon.com and number of other online quilt shops.  The bag is so handy, great to use while traveling, stylish, and easy to make all at the same time.  It also can be put together in a weekend, which makes it a quick, fun project!

The other handmade Christmas gift this year was a rather large quilt for my grandma, made from Moda’s Glace line – my absolute favorite Moda collection for Christmas 2009.  The quilt was made from a single layer cake, along with a ½ yard of a print from the collection for borders and binding, and some fabric I just happened to chance upon that looked like it was MADE to go with this collection.  I used a triangular pattern for the body of the quilt – which was frustrating for me since no matter how hard I try, they never line up like they’re supposed to – but all in all, I was pleased with how it turned out. … and Granny?  She loved it and even cried a little when I gave it to her.  It was just a very small way of saying thanks for all the blankets she’s made us over the years.

Speaking of my Granny, I will be continuing to carry her beautiful hand-knit scarves in my etsy store through the end of the cold weather season.  I’ll be uploading the remaining lists this week, but please keep checking back, as she has another shipment she is sending my way in a couple of weeks.

Other than that, crafting at my house has been a little on the slow side.  I’m still working on knitting socks.   On one of my lunch-time forays to JoAnns, I came across this book:

This book is really great.  It has flip pages for different cuffs, bodies, heels, and toes, and you put them together however you like - kind of like the “choose-your-own-adventure” books they had when we were kids.  

I officially finished my first PAIR of socks back in October. I’m not the greatest knitter, so I found the project a little frustrating at times and starting the second sock at the right place in the yarn so that the striping stayed the same was a bit of a challenge, but I was so happy to have them finished – and my mom was so happy to receive them as a Christmas gift!

I found my latest sock project on Ravelry.com.  My user name is “poplun” if you’d like to find me.  The pattern’s name is “Nine-to-Five” and is supposed to yield beautifully cabled socks, as pictured here in the author Nicole Hindes' blog:

However, after finishing the first sock and turning it right-side out, I realized that the stitch I thought was a “knit” stitch is actually what is really called knitting through the back stitch, which makes cables look more like neat little yarn tangles.  The finished sock doesn’t look bad … it just doesn’t look like I expected it too. I am going to persevere, however, and finish the second sock still knitting the wrong way, but I’m probably going to hit JoAnn’s big yarn sale this week, to pick up a new color for a pair of socks made the right way.