A little better

I decided I wasn't quite happy with how the first envelope pillow case turned out so I made another.  This is the one I gave to the neighbor girl for taking care of my cat.  She hugged it to herself with a huge smile on her face and said "THANK YOU!".  She is such a sweetie.  I found a few other cat prints I had, I like that this one doesn't have so much of the pink pattern in it.  These cases are great-and if you only use one or two pieces of fabric would be so quick.

My friend's daughter has joined FFA and wants to do a project where she makes and sells dog collar sleeves.  She will use the money to buy a sheep to raise for fair next summer.  I whipped up these two samples last night.  The top one is a horse print scrap-doesn't really work for this but it is just a sample/template.  These are very easy to make and don't use much fabric, I think we will be having a sewing day soon to make a bunch of these for her to sell at her school and to her family/friends.

Here are Colt and Minnie modeling them.  They are very nice and stay put because their collars run through them - no tying them on and having the dogs pull them off!  They don't seem to even notice they are wearing them.  I love these!  I think all my friend's dogs are going to get one this Christmas.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts-Finish it up Friday.  I have a fabric shopping trip (and dinner) planned with my cousin tonight and a weekend free to clean house and SEW!  I can't believe I'm gong to get started on Christmas gifts in October!  Woo Hoo!  I'm going to try real hard to actually get some cleaning in-perhaps early morning so I have the rest of the day to be creative.

Thank You and Congratulations

I had a fairly productive weekend including some fabric shopping AND sewing AND I have 2 finishes!  A congratulations gift and a thank you gift.

First up is the congratulations gift for my friend who is 7 months sober!  She is a huge MT Grizzly fan so I whipped up a fleece blanket for her.  I guess this is my new 'go to' gift, especially with winter coming.  I backed it in grey fleece.

Next up is a thank you gift for my little neighbor girl who helped to take care of my cat while I was out of town.  I made a patchwork envelope pillow for her.  It's very cute and I think I will be making more of these.  I used this tutorial from Texas Cottage.  I may whip one up with a couple of fat quarters of dog fabric I have, she loves my dogs and spends her own money for dog treats for them.

I started my Christmas list and even purchased some fabric to get started.  WOOT!  I hope I can keep up this momentum. I found some great patterns and I can't wait to get started-my list is long.  I am going to start with the great-nieces & nephews and work up to the "old folks"-which, unfortunately is MY generation in our family.

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New baby

We will soon be welcoming another new baby girl to our family.  My nephew and his wife are expecting in November.  They live 1200 miles away so I couldn't attend the shower, but I did make a few receiving blankets for her.  I usually make these blankets for all new babies in the family, they are quick and easy and new moms say they can never have enough.  I couldn't find any really sweet baby girl flannel, but I think they turned out pretty nice.

I just sew two pieces of flannel right sides together, leave a space to turn them right sides out and sew around the perimeter to close the gap and to give them a more finished look.  I do the same for the fleece blankets.

I sent this for the new big brother.  He and his dad are big Chicago Bears fans.  I think he will like it.

I need to quit taking pictures this way as they won't upload correctly.  Oh well, you get the idea.

Both these types of blankets are so quick and easy, and very warm!  I think I may be using fleece for Christmas gifts this year.  I thought maybe some hats or something.  

Next up-prayer squares for my grieving family.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts finish it up Friday.

Tough couple of weeks

My nephew suffered a head trauma a few weeks ago.  It went from his being released in a couple of days, to  needing surgery and perhaps some rehab, to his passing away.  It has been quite a blow to all of us, especially his parents and sisters.

When we thought it might 'just' be surgery and some rehab I threw together this fleece blanket.  He is (was) quite a Vikings fan.  I backed it with purple fleece.  Jo-Ann's was having a great sale, and I had a coupon so I was able to get the purple backing that I wanted rather than the wrong color that was on sale.

Adam was 6'5" tall so I used 3 1/2 yards front and back so it would be big enough to cover all of him.  I'm so sorry he isn't here to use it.  RIP sweet boy.

Triplet Quilts!

I finally finished quilts for three very special young ladies. Last November I took each girl for lunch and shopping and they each picked out the fabric and pattern they wanted.  I think they turned out pretty nice.  This is the one I just finished yesterday.  Each girl wanted their first initial-this is Tasha's.

She chose all zebra stripes, then a "pop" of color overlapping.  Her description was vague and I had a hard time figuring out a pattern-I created it myself in an Excel spreadsheet!   hmmmm it uploaded it sideways????

Here's the back, of course Josie has to help.  Again, it's sideways, not sure why.

Here's all three-delivered Thursday!

Due to being out of town for three months, too much work for 2 months, machine in the shop for 1 month, and a month of doing alterations & sewing projects for other people, oh yeah, I also made a quilt for charity last summer, it took me TEN months to finish these.  Not too bad when you think of it that way.  Many hints were dropped about how cold it was getting at night and they sure wished they had warmer blankets.  

Now that I updated my browser I can upload pictures of the the other two.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts "Finish it up Friday"-so glad to have this back!

Playing Hookey!

I have taken 2 days off over the last few weeks-to pick huckleberries! I picked about gallon each time-woo hoo. It's a good thing because those are the only 2 days I got to pick this year. These ought to hold me for while.

Aren't they beautiful!

Day 1 haul

Day 2-Yum

I'm even going to share some this year-I normally hoard them.  My jam was awful last year so I don't think I'm going to try that again-I tried to make some without all that sugar-it didn't turn out well.

Easy Birthday Gifts

Recently I wanted to send a few friends/family a small gift-something quick, inexpensive and easy to send through the mail-I decided a plastic bag holder is perfect. I love mine. I've made several over the last few months, but this week I made one for my sis who has a birthday coming up.

I just use 2 fat quarters, sandwich them with low-loft batting, quilt and sew up the long side. I then add elastic to the top and bottom and add a little loop to hang it. I've given several as gifts the last few months and everyone says "I've always wanted one but never get around to buying or making one". Of course now with using our own bags we probably don't have as many plastic bags, but I still seem to accumulate plenty of them.



I also made my MIL a walker bag. I made one for my sister recently and she really likes it and says she uses it all the time so I thought my MIL might like one too.

I used this tutorial from Quilting According to Annette, but sewed up the pocket to make it 2 pockets, one large enough to put a magazine and then a smaller one, maybe for glasses or something smaller. It's really easy and fast to make.

I made both of these items Sunday afternoon in just a few hours-it's taken me longer to get them wrapped and in the mail!

Edited to add I linked to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish if up Friday