A {Sewing} Year in Review - 2011

While I didn't meet all of my 2011 sewing goals, I did work on a lot of fun projects this year!



Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!

Project Life Week 50 & 51

December 11 - December 24



Gingerbread House fun!
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Making good progress on this quilt... half of the blocks are pieced
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Another holiday bag
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My Secret Santa Swap package arrived!
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I took a crochet class tonight
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The elf hanging out in the tree with a new puzzle for Megan
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Installing the 2012 officers for Houston Modern Quilt Guild
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A new skirt for Megan
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Ariel made a special appearance at Megan's birthday party
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Wrapping Christmas and birthday presents
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A few more bags for teacher gifts
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Santa made a visit to the school Christmas party
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A little Christmas gift to myself
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Couldn't find our book, so iPad to the rescue
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Merry Christmas

Birthday Party

We had Megan's birthday party this week at her pre-school. Can't believe my baby girl is about to turn 4 years old!


She loved the new outfit Mommy made for her party. As much as I tried to keep it a secret, she knew I was up to something in my sewing room Sunday afternoon.



She was surprised when Ariel arrived though!



Ariel read a story, gave the kids rub-on tattoos, and showed them a dance





A quick birthday hug...



...And then it was on to cake and presents



Such a fun afternoon!

Crochet

Thursaday night I took the Crochet 101 class at my local JoAnn store. The class was $35 and came with a kit.



The color of that skein is not off from bad lighting... the kits actually came with "Pea Green" yarn.

After 2.5 hours, this is what I was able to finish:



After 2 tries with the Pea Green yarn, and lots of skipped stitches, I switched to a slightly variegated yarn the instructor had in hopes that I could see the loops better.

Was it the best class I've ever taken? No... the instructor's directions were different than the step-by-step guide that came in our kit (and different than other on-line instructions I've checked out since then.) But signing up for the class, and spending the money for it, forced me to make the time to finally give crochet a try.

Between my new book (thanks to a 50% off coupon), new variegated thread, some on-line instructions, and my mom's help when she comes home for Christmas next weekend I'm determined to get the hang of this!

Giveaway Day Winner!!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway! I love reading the fabric picks!


Random.org picked a winner:





Valerie - I'll be in touch shortly.

Secret Santa Swap

I love Secret Santa swaps, so when I saw that Amy was hosting one on Twitter (#SSSwap) I jumpped in! This one was low stress... there was a dollar limit, and the gift didn't have to include a hand-made item... I knew I could squeeze that into the busy holiday season!

My super fantastic package from Elena arrived last night.





Home baked bread, embroidery hoops (perfect for my new sewing area!!), a little clutch (perfect for holding my phone, chapstick, and a debit card!!), some fabric, embroidery floss, cute little thread spool push pins, and the most adorable berry basket.







I love everthing!!


And here's a little peek at what I sent to my partner. Of course I ended up making something... and probably changed my mind 4 times before I made a final decision. Joan's favorite fabrics are French General, so I hope my final decision was spot on for her.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

It's that time again... Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!!

Up for grabs - 2 yards of fabric or 2 charm packs from my shop.



To enter, leave me a comment with which fabric from my shop you'd pick if you're the winner.

Entries will close 7pm (Central) Friday December 16th. I'll draw a winner and everything will be ready to mail out Monday.


Good Luck!!

Project Life Week 49

December 4 - December 10



Finally decided what to make my #ssswap partner
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Adding these to the gift bags for Megan's party
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Working on the Scrap Vomit quilt
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Our silly little elf got caught playing in my fabric scraps.
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Pick A Bunch quilt
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Holiday pot luck... I've never seen so much food!
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Fun party at Pump It Up!
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Scraps

So what do you do with your scraps?



Earlier this year I bought this storage unit at Target and I LOVE it!! (Okay - truth be told I do wish I had bought the 9-cubby version... that red/pink bin is getting a little full.) It is perfect for holding all those little bits and pieces.



But now I need to figure out what to do with bigger scraps.



See, I love working with fat quarter bundles... as much as I'd love to be able to pull together a selection of fabrics from different collections for my projects, in reality my sewing time is so limited that pre-coordinated bundles are the way to go for me.



But I'm finding that after a project I usually have a good bit of the bunde left over. And now I'm trying to decide what to do... keep them all together to make a second (or third) quilt from... swap them with someone and add something new to the stash... or split the set up and stash it away in my scrap bin?

Pick A Bunch Quilt

Remember this quilt I made over the summer... well it came back from the quilter last week!



The quilting is just wonderful! Really glad I went with someone else quilting it... it wouldn't have turned out even a fraction this great in my hands on mom's long arm machine.



I really had no idea what I wanted to use for the binding. But then I saw all the left over backing I just couldn't justify spending additional money to buy another fabric for the binding. And you know what... I love how it turned out!



Here's to some summer flowers warming up a cold winter!

Project Life Week 48

November 27 - December 3



Megan's 2011 ornament
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November do. Good Stitches blocks
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Tried using the serger on the binding before hand-stitching to the back.
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Working on something special
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Some of my Black Friday shopping has arrived
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My sweet kitty Krystal
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Our elf brought Megan a gift card so she could get some cookies.
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