Too much...

The worst part of not blogging consistently is trying to decide what to blog about when I do it, finally.
So much has happened since my last post -fun stuff, crafty stuff!
I guess since this is a "crafty" blog, I guess I should start there.
The craft of the week items went into the neighborhood Holiday Bazaar, and it was fun and I had enough left for gifts at the holidays

I made other things too: Canned tomatillo salsa -this past summer was an amazing one for our first crack at growing tomatillos, Halloween costumes (awesome Dalek & Shaun the Sheep), lots of sleep pants at Christmas.
Here is a snippet of a quilt I finished that my grandmother had given me the pieces to awhile back:

Some of the fabrics came from the scraps of dresses I had when I was little. I love how it turned out, and I was even able to find some fabric that tied it all together very nicely for the backing & binding.
Oooh! Did I mention my Big Shot conked out on me? It kindly waited until after my last holiday card class.
Here's a little before and after:

I disassembled, hubby WD40'd the bearings, I reassembled, and voila! Back in business! I was not ready to give it up that easy.
Okay, one last craft... I made these fun little pom-pom creatures for the kiddos Easter baskets. I used to make these in elementary school for our class to sell at the school craft fair. We called them Fuzzy Buddies.
Forgot how fun they were to make, and remembered all the googly eyes and Tacky Glue we went through making them.

Happy Crafting!

Christmas is coming...

12/20/2010
Thought I would take a break from cookie baking, etc. to post what will likely be my last blog of the year.
I just wanted to share a few things I've been working on, but as I mentioned before, I can't post many so I won't spoil any Christmas surprises.

(fade to new year)

Happy New Year everyone!!

I started getting this post ready some months back and got swallowed up by the holidays and the busy-ness of whatever rolled my way.

I've missed you!

Here are a couple of bags I made as Christmas gifts:

Gifts I made also included button bracelets, ornaments, tons of cookies and goodies, snuggies for the kids, and one for my brother-in-law that included a matching one for his rifle. That was a hoot to make and give.

Hubby was busy too and made some beautiful wooden puzzles.

The new year has just flown by so far, I once again volunteered to lead  a class auction art project (same teacher, different child this time). Again, I opted to do a quilt. This time, instead of having the kids draw on it, they got to design their own squares, which my helpers and I translated to fabric. It turned out amazing!! Here's a sneak peek:

I'm so excited to attend the auction and see how it does -every dollar counts for the schools in this economy!!

If you missed it the first time, here's a link to the first class quilt I did.



A Quilt for a Cause

So, a few months back (late November maybe?) I was asked to be my daughter's class auction project parent. Of course, I said Yes, but then I had to figure out what this class of 5-7yr olds would be up for. I thumbed through albums of projects past and saw all kinds of neat things, but it was the quilt idea that got me. I do enjoy quilting, but it is definitely one of those things I don't take much time to do...except stocking up on beautiful fabrics of course! I've got a few completed quilts (and a few more in progress) under my belt, and am surrounded by talented sewers/quilters in my family for support, so I sketched out a design/plan, and set to work. I cut out 6.5" squares of muslin and had the kids draw an assortment of sea creatures on them with fabric markers -the auction theme was "Under the Sea". The kids did great! As you can see they had freedom to create an individual environment for their creature...I didn't want them to have to work from a template, kids need to use their imaginations and creativity and it totally worked on this, every block has a story. :) Once those were done, I assembled the quilt with help from my friend KC, who also helped me find the fabulous background fabric (I just love this!). Then (this was the new and exciting part for me), I learned to use a long-arm quilting machine, and freehanded the quilting. It was awesome!! Thanks Liz!


Here is a close-up of my daughter's square. Her creature was a dolphin (the school mascot). I thought she did an amazing job, and look forward to seeing her illustrations progress in the future. The girl is an artist and crafter for sure, and has just about finished her first quilt!

So, when all was said and done, I did my very best to win the quilt back at the auction, none of us wanted to see it leave the house. However, I did not, but three wonderful things happened: the quilt went to a great home, raised a nice sum of money for the school, and made me realize how much I really enjoy quilting -a true treasure! I'm now working on a quilt for my son...Train themed. He's super excited and so am I. I'll attach pics of that as it progresses...