Some Christmas Progress... and crazy creatures

 I thought I'd share a bit of what I've been working on in preparation for Christmas. There is more, but to retain the element of surprise some things will have to wait to be revealed. 

 

 Small Patchwork Christmas stockings for teacher gifts made from the Sugar Wrap Stocking kit at Connecting Threads found here. It was a really quick project and happened to be on sale when I picked it up. I think I'm going to put small denomination gift cards in them.

 

A Color Pencil roll for a friend's daughter. I loved picking out all the colors from my stash, it was so quick to put together after that. I got the pattern from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts.

The  beginnings of a Mountain Laurel Dishcloth found here on Ravelry

Finally 3 crazy creatures for my three crazy boys, I was planning on making them for Christmas, but I got caught making them and gave them early, the boys are still carrying them around, dressing them and sleeping with them so it was totally worth it

I'm working on Christmas swap boxes for Little Miss Shabby's Christmas Swap.

The box must contain the following:

~Delicious Chocolate/Sweets

~A Heartfelt Handmade Item (just something small)

~Selection of Fabric Bits

~An Unexected Surprise

~A Christmas Card

And since my partner Cris shared a little sneak peek of what she is working on, I thought I'd do the same. I am mostly a quilter, but when I saw the project that I'm working on, I knew that this paper crafting project would be perfect. Don't worry, I'm sewing up a bit too :)

A Quick Update

I haven't been posting as much as I hoped, but I have been busy. Sewing costumes, knitting and piecing tops, and with a baby due the day after Christmas, I've been scrambling to prepare.

A few projects that I've completed recently:

A baby quilt for a friend's new little girl

A knitting needle roll for a craft swap
(tutorial found here: http://bit.ly/aO8UvV)

Looks like I need to get my camera out and get some more pictures of some of my projects. More to come.

Giveaway over at Jaybird Quilts

Jaybird Quilts is featuring The Quilt Shoppe in a really great giveaway. A Martinique Jelly Cake and a $20 gift certificate (a $90 value).

http://giveaways.jaybirdquilts.com/2010/06/sponsored-giveaway-featuring-quilt.html

Sister's Choice Completed

My friend's birthday was this weekend. Her husband asked if I would make a quilt for her several months back. Her favorite color is green. I think the greens blended nicely. I tried to stay in away from the yellow greens and more on the blue green side.



The back is pieced with all the fabric I had left over, including 3 left over sister's choice blocks I didn't use on the front. I machine quilted it with my walking foot across each block diagonally and then in the ditch. The final size was somewhere around 86"x 94". The first border is organic cotton and most of the natural as well. I bought a few yards of batik and other greens, but the majority is from my stash, which was mostly handed down to me by the lovely ladies in my quilting group.

Quilting for a Cause

Too long since my last post. I've been working on a few projects. This one for quiltsforkids.org. They send the kit with all the fabric and you just sew it up and quilt as desired. It's an easy and meaningful project for a good cause.

Also another big project that is completed, but I can't post until next week.

First Quilt Finish

I finally finished the first quilt I ever started. It was started about 3 years ago 2007. It had been calling to be finished for quite a while, as I have a hard time starting and not finishing, I now only have one UFO left... well, for now. This quilt was about half way done with paper templates cut out of card stock. Painstaking and time consuming, so glad I purchased a rotary cutter and a cutting mat before finishing. Still don't have my dream machine, seems to have been put aside for things like diapers, preschool and family vacations. So my $250 brother suffices.

None of the fabric was pre-washed so it got pretty puckery