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

Walker Bags

Another of my sisters recently had a hip replacement-she is doing great but will need to walk with a walker for a while. So, I made her this handy walker bag. She loves it and says it makes it easy to take things with her from room to room-except she can't take a glass with anything in it-hmmmmmmm maybe I should have tried to add a cup holder to it!

I used this pattern from Quilting According to Annette . My plan for today is to make another one for my MIL.

Yes, the treadmill does get used for things other than modeling sewing projects-occasionally.

This was made from fabric from my stash, I have no idea what the names are. I believe the flowered was purchased on sale at JoAnn's and the pink was purchased for a wall hanging that never got made. I used a lighter pink for the inside, I believe that was left over from the Inspiration Quilt.

Get Well Soon!

I made this quilt for my sister who recently had some health issues. My machine decided it didn't like to quilt any more and I could NOT get the bobbin tension correct, I ended up ripping out the quilting on over half the quilt and re-doing it in straight lines. Therefore, instead of receiving the quilt in October as planned, she received it in mid-December. The top turned out beautifully, but I wasn't too pleased with the quilting-but she loves it and that's what matters! I used all flannels so it would be toasty warm this winter.

I used this pattern-Shoo Fly Bed quilt, but made it smaller for a lap size and added sashing in between the columns.

I embroidered words of inspiration and also "mother" "sister" etc. in each white center piece. I love this.

Lessons learned, flannel is tough to quilt, especially when you're in a warm climate! Also, solids show all your quilting flaws. Although they also show all the great things too.

I'm happy to add that sister L is doing great and has wowed her doctors with her speedy recovery!