Christmas Tree Party Invitation

My quilt group is having our annual Christmas party this week. I made the invitations for our party with the help of my friend Tina. You can catch some of Tina's cute projects at Needles-n-Notions. I found this cute idea when I was looking for ideas for gift tags to teach at my Relief Society craft night at church. I found this little Christmas tree idea from here and then I remembered that I made a tutorial on paper flowers a while ago. My tutorial shows you how to fold a circle to make the tree. Check out Abigail's Paper Flower tutorial right here to see how it's done.  I found the darling little gold glitter star brads from Michael's. I used Stampin' Up!'s Be of Good Cheer DSP for the tree. It has several sheets of nice green paper. Tina also helped me with cutting out all the circles on her cricut. Since she was cutting from 12" x 12" sheets of paper, the circles were just shy of 3" in diameter.  I love, love, love SU!'s new In Color gumball green. I used the 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon in gumball green and the red gingham is some old retired SU! ribbon. I was sad to see that gingham ribbon go. I'm hoping to get around to making a post on the gift tags that I ended up teaching but I'm currently working on a tutorial for a doll sleeping bag. I've been totally consumed with American Girl clothing patterns and tutorials. I'm making a sleeping bag and pillow for my friend who is going to give me a wii game that my boys want for Christmas. Oh, the joys of bartering! So, we shall see what gets done first!

November Card Swap

We had some darling Christmas cards at our Card Swap last month. The first time I participated in a November card swap , I made a fall card and quickly felt out of place because everyone makes a Christmas card. I learned my lesson and even though we didn't need to say it, November was to be a Christmas themed card. It's always fun to see what everyone comes up with and it gets you into the holiday spirit earlier in the season. This time, I decided to make my card using SU!'s Delightful Decorations stamp set, Contempo Christmas stamp set, ornament punch and the Be of Good Cheer DSP. I'm really bad about buying stuff and not using it right away. What can I say? I guess I'm a sucker for cuteness and an optimist at the same time!

Fabric Covered Composition Notebook Journal

I'm always on the lookout for good birthday gifts for friends. I came across this darling idea and had to give it a go. They're so simple and sweet. I ended up following two different tutorials to get the look and fit I wanted. Here's one, http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/projects-ideas/bags-pillows/covered-journals_1.html and the other http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2012/08/tutorial-journal-covers.html.  Here's another tutorial I thought was pretty cute http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2011/09/fabric-covered-composition-notebook.html.

It's so fun to give a special friend a special something that you made personally. And a journal cover is something they can use again and again.

 

On projects like this when I'm trying out someone else's tutorial, I typically end up giving my first prototype to my daughter. My daughter calls it her "writers workshop" book. They have writers workshop in kindergarten and she loves to write stories. So now she has something to enjoy writing in at home. This project could easily be made as a doodle book for a child or a sketch book for a quilter. You can use the graph paper notebooks which you can find at Staples. Here's a picture of her book. Recognize the fabric? It's the same fabric I used for the scripture bag in a previous post. It's not the best quality but I got it on the clearance rack on the Stampin' Up! website. Pictured above are the Candy Cane Christmas Designer fabric and the darling Sweet Stitches Designer fabric. Each fabric pack comes with three coordinating fat quarters for only $0.99!  Normally, their fabric packs sell for much more.  Check it out! http://www.stampinup.com/home/

LDS Scripture Bag Tutorial

 A few months ago, one of my good friend's daughter was baptized and I wanted to make a special something for her. This is not a very good picture of the scripture bag I gave her but it's the only one I had.

 I made another last week for another good friend and here's how it turned out. The turquoise bag is for a mini quad and the other two for a standard size quad. Here's the tutorial I followed: http://mycottoncreations.blogspot.com/2012/04/little-lds-scripture-tote-tutorial.html
I ended up adjusting the height of the bag because it seemed a little too tall. But the tutorial is awesome and very clear.

Quilted Kindle Cover

Last Christmas, I made a few of these quilted kindle covers. My sister-in-law asked me if I had a pattern for it and I finally decided to get busy with at least putting together some basic instructions.

Quilted Kindle Cover/Case                                                         

 by Jen Gibbs

Materials:

8 strips 2” x 6 ¼”

2 strips 3” x 6 ½”

2- 6 ½” x 9” Warm and Natural type batting

2-6 ½” x 9” fusible interfacing
2-6 ½” x9” coordinating fabric for lining

2- 6 ¼” x 3” fabric for flap

2- 6 ¼” x 3” fusible interfacing

Sew-on Velcro or closure of your choice, snaps or buttons would be cute.

Piece together the two outside covers. You’re going to sew the four strips together then attach the bottom piece for each side. Use ¼” seam allowance. Iron seams open after sewing.   Quilt to the warm and natural batting. I usually keep it simple and top stitch in the ditch along the bottom piece but you can quilt it however you’d like, really.

Iron the fusible interfacing to lining pieces.

Iron fusible interfacing to each flap. Sew together right sides together (RST) along sides and curved edge, leaving straight edge open entirely. Clip along corners, turn right side out. Press and top stitch if desired (gives it a finished look). This piece will get sewn into the layers.

Sew quilted outside to lining, RST to one pair and then sandwich the top flap in between the other pair, RST and raw edges together. The flap should be a little more than ¼” from each side of the lining & quilted piece and still flush with the raw edge.  Pin in place.  After you sew, set (quick iron) the seam and then open and press. Get a nice crease and top stitch along the edge. I usually try to do 1/8” finishing stitch.

Now you can make a little tab loop for a wristlet or keychain or whatever. Just cut 2” x 3” square. Press in half along the 2” side and then press each side in to the center crease to make you’re ½” strap. Top stitch along the edges. You can make the tap however long you like. I usually keep it to about ½” loop.

After you have your front and back pieces assembled, you’re going to open them up so that you can line up the outside layers RST and the lining layers RST. Pin the tab in place on whichever side you want. I tend to like my tab on the right. You’re opening is going to be along the bottom of the lining. So you will start and sew around. Stop when you have about a 3”-4” opening left.  You have to be slow and careful when you’re sewing around near the flap, partly because your foot might get stuck. It’s like sewing along a speed bump. You just have to ease the layers as you sew being careful not to actually sew into the flap…this is why you want to make sure that flap has a bit more than ¼” spacing from each raw edge. You can also adjust to a scant 1/4" seam allowance when sewing in these places.

Snip the corners so that when you turn it right side out, you’ll have nice points at the corners. You can slip stitch the opening by hand or by machine.

March Card Swap

We had the challenge this month to use a word on our card for this swap. I've had SU!'s So Very set for so long and never used it! But when it came down to put my card together, I was really struggling finding formats that I liked. Since I typically work best under pressure, I came up with my own design using colors that I love and it came together. I usually show my husband Mike my card before I go but I decided not to show him this time and thought I would test him to see if he could pick my card out amongst the cards. Well, to my dismay ;) he picked mine out third. Hmmm...I guess my style doesn't stand out to him as much as I thought. I'm assuming most husbands could really care less so I'm just grateful that Mike takes an interest and admires me (maybe I should say humors me) for my creativity! My daughter Aubrey also got to see the cards before going to bed. I made the mistake of not putting them away that night because in the morning, she decided to "write invitations" using all my cards! She wrote inside all of them and sealed them up in the envelopes. Fortunately, Mike took some calls for work from home that morning and was able to help me see the humor in the situation!

Parents' Night Out fundraiser

I love using my skills towards a good cause. Our school is having their Parents' Night Out this month and I offered to donate some baskets of goodies. I made a Quilted Clutch basket and a Mom and Me Flirty Apron Basket. In the Quilted Clutch basket, I included:

• $25 AmazonKindle Giftcards
• One quilted cover for a kindle
• One smartphone/blackberry clutch
• One earbud/bluetooth keychain clutch
• One makeup clutch with fabric pin

I found the cheapest baskets I could and made a cute little liner for them to jazz up the basket a bit. And then I made a tag listing the basket's contents and value. I hope it will drum up some money for the foundation!

Here are the links to the tutorials I used:

Pleated Makeup Clutch http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/04/27/pleated-pouch-tutorial/

Earbud/Bluetooth Clutch http://erinerickson.com/2011/11/circle-zip-earbud-pouch-tutorial/

Flower pin http://sew4home.com/projects/fabric-art-a-accents/568-tattered-flowers-for-embellishment

I made up the phone clutch and the quilted cover for the kindle so I need to get on it and get making some tutorials for those!

In the Mom and Me Flirty Apron basket, I made two sets of aprons. Each set has an adult apron with a cute flower pin and one child apron with a cute flower pin. I bagged the sets separately thinking that maybe they can auction them off separately. Again, I found a cheap basket and made a liner that matches the fabrics used in the aprons. These aprons turned out so cute that I'm going to try to get  a tutorial/pattern up soon. 

Mom and Me Flirty Aprons

I offered to donate some goods for a school fundraiser so I used my stash of fabric to come up with Mom and Me Flirty Aprons. My friend Holly and her cute daughter Brinna were my models. Do they sell those aprons or what? These were really fun and easy to make. I threw on a little flower pin for good measure.

Valentine Monster Mail Carriers

Last year, Connor and I made a cute little monster mail box out of a kleenex box. This year we're making these cute little guys with his whole class during art time tomorrow. I'm going to teach a quick lesson on 3D art and then we're going to be making a bunch of monster mail carriers.

Here's what you need to make a Valentine Monster Mail Carrier:

gluesticks
scissors
toothpicks

Small craft bag with handle 5.5" x 8.5" OR the larger size will work fine as well
*You can buy these in a pack of 13 at Michael's. I went with the primary colored bags for the class.

1.25" x 11" strips of colored cardstock for the arms and legs

approx. 2.5" wide hearts for the arms and feet

1.5" or larger circle punch for the whites of eyes

1" or 1 1/4"circle punch for the colored part of eyes

small heart punch for the pupils

wide oval punch for the nose

The flag is made with a 1 1/2" x 4 1/4" white strip of cardstock folded around a toothpick
*Flag ideas: Feed me Valentines, I eat Valentines, Greetings Valentine, "Oh Googlie-bear", "Schmoopsie", "uh, my friends call me Phlem", "You and me, me and you, both of us together", "can I borrow your odorant?", basically anything from Monsters Inc would be classic!

January Card Swap

My card was inspired by the darling card on page 8 of the Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Catalog. You can check out the other cute cards from the swap here.

Jen's Little Red Hen Pincushion

Yay! I'm so excited! My first real post on my craft blog. I've been working on this tutorial for a while now and just learned that I can't upload pdf files to blogger so I figured out how to work around that this morning. I wanted my little red hen to be my first post because this has been one of my favorite projects over the years. I've taught several friends and family members how to make them and figured that I may as well write a tutorial. They're fun to create and they make darling gifts for that special someone that enjoys sewing. Enjoy!

Click here for the pdf file of Jen's Little Red Hen Tutorial

I recommend downloading the original before printing because for some reason, the quality of the google document is poor. When the tutorial comes up, you should see a "download original" click in the top right corner.

What started it all...

When I graduated from Brigham Young University in 1998, my parents gave me a Brother sewing machine as a graduation gift. Little did I know how much I would be using that sewing machine in the years to come. I had little experience with sewing. Does 7th grade sewing class count? And my mom taught me to sew a few things in my teenage years. But it wasn't until my first son was born that I really got interested in making things. So I started with the basics, baby blankets, curtains, pillow cases, home decor pillow covers, shower curtains and then on to halloween costumes. My move towards quilting was a gradual process mostly inspired by my husband's mother. She is always making quilts for her children and grandchildren. It's her way of sewing a legacy of love for her children. It's really inspired me over the years. Then a little girl joined our family, and my sewing of cute little bags and aprons commenced! My little family has moved around quite a bit and it wasn't until we moved to San Diego, CA that I joined my very first quilt group. Last year, my friend Tina showed us how to make a darling quilted clutch. Learning to sew a zipper transcended my sewing skills and I've had a blast with making little clutches and bags ever since.