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.