Sugar/tea wallet

For Christmas I try to make at least one item to give family and friends. Last year I made fabric tissue covers. This year I had to think of a new idea that would be easy to make. While on vacation some of my family members love Splenda and would carry the packets in plastic baggies and that was too tacky! Now they will carry it in style!
I could not find a pattern that did not have a button/snap/Velcro but decided to make this. It is so easy and if I get motivated to make a tute for it.The other fabric on the front is where the flap goes. It holds the flap down and I have not had any sugar packets leave. It was originally just to hold sugar packets but it did fit a tea bag.

quilts and more quilts

Lots of craft projects has been made since my last update. 

My first hedgehog, Ace, passed away from health reasons in December. 

Also in December we adopted another Manchester Terrier named Charlie. Ted and Charlie are about the same age and act like they are both brothers. Charlie has had some issues around the house with chewing. We are starting to train him and he is learning sit this week.

Finished my first quilt in November, I was glad I had it early because the baby came 6 weeks early. I do not think I will ever free quilt the top.

I have 99% of my New Wave quilt finished! I just have to hand stitch the binding around it. I just followed the small strips to quilt the top. Did not want to spend too much time on this quilt.

I have started a new quilt from the website P.S. I Quilt. They are having a quilt along and it is around the third week of it. I have all of my strips cut out and almost have them all sewed together. This weekend I will cut them out and sew them in the final block pattern. I know I am crazy to start this quilt but having a lot of fun making it.

Fabric is Seaglass by Fabric Cenral

Buttercup Yellow for the solid

 

I am also doing a Crafster swap of Alice in Wonderland. We get our partners tonight/tomorrow. I am excited to start crafting in that theme. 

 

1st Quilt Ever Series Day 3

This is my third day working on the 1st Quilt Ever Series.
I am back at my house and went to Joann's for the rest of the supplies. I have finished the quilt top and it looks so good. I am happy with my fabric selection. I found the perfect boarder and back for the quilt.

Quilt front without boarder

Quilt front finished!

Back of quilt!

I hope to have this mostly finish today!

New curtains

Granny picked out this fabric for her beach themed bathroom and I just finished them. She is on vacation and will be a good surprise when she gets home.

1st Quilt Ever Series Day 2

Last night I had some issues with the tension with this machine but slowly I figured it out! This is a great machine but I so miss my machine! I love having the automatic thread cutter!
Last night I had about half of the 9 squares sewed together and finished them up this morning. Some do not line up but are close enough.

First rows done and organized

All of the 9 squares finished!

I then cut the 9 square into the 4 squares. Once I had all squares cut out it seemed I only had 4 different designs in the middle so there is once place in the quilt that will have 2 of the same colors touching on the side. Make sure when you are sewing the 9 squres to have different fabrics in the middle square.

This is the final layout showing a side view

This was the hardest part of the quilt

Ted and I needed a break from sewing so we took a walk down to the beach.

Ted does not like the water but I think if we go swimming he would soon join in.

 

Here is all of the rows sewed together!

Sorry for the bad photos. I will take a better picture when I am done! This is going by a lot faster than I expected. I will be buying the supplies to finish the quilt this weekend because Joann's is having a good weekend sale and offering if you spend $50 you get $10 back on your next purchase! It makes me feel like I am going to Kohls.

1st Quilt Ever Series

I am making is a disappearing nine patch quilt. I first saw it on Craftster and she had the link for Obsessively Stitching. I have seen this done in a quilting magazine before but decided to try it this week. One of our good friends is having a baby in December and wanted to make one for her. She finds out what the sex of the baby is this Friday but decided to get the supplies for a boy. If she is having a girl I will get more fabric this weekend. I like to stock pile homemade baby gifts.

I was going to make it out of the fat quarters and thought they were on sale at Joann's this week but the sale starts on Friday.
These pictures are from my cellphone. I did bring my camera but I do not think I brought the card reader. It is nice being able to upload from the cell phone without the computer.

Picture of the fabric selection.

Fabric cut out and paired up

Craft Hope Project 9

I am visiting my family for the week and take care of my granddad who had a knee replacement a week ago so I decided to do some craft projects while I was down here in the original activity room.
Craft Hope started project 9 before I was down and I have already made one pillowcase for them. I have the supplies to make more also. For the girls I have watermelon fabric with a hot pink sleeve. The boy fabric is a frog material.

Maryy Dress

I have had this great sewing machine for months and only have repaired clothes and made hedgehog bags. I have been looking for a dress for the brunch before the wedding but have not seen anything that really screams out to me. I found this dress on Burda Style and it was my favorite price of free. I made D take me to Joann's 30 minutes before they closed Tuesday  and we quickly picked out these two fabrics. It reminded me of the wedding colors and I knew D wanted to leave as soon as possible. It only took me around 8 hours to complete this dress. I took my time and did it right so one can find a mistake. I had a lot of issues with the pattern size and had to make it smaller while making it. I have never done an invisible zipper before and did not iron down the zipper like the instructions said so I had to take out the zipper to redo it. Then I sewed the zipper so it did not line up right.
I was surprised how easy it was to make, and next time I made a dress like this I will not make as many mistakes. I wanted it strapless but I was having some issues keeping it up in the back so I added the straps at the end. I made them cross in the back but also can not be crossed because of the buttons.
I am never a big fan of cotton dresses becuase they never fit right. Becuase I could make it fit me it turned great. If I do not wear it to the brunch I know I will wear it on the honeymoon.

Charlie grocery bag

I have been wanting to make fabric grocery bags for a while and found this great pattern on burdastyle.com. It is a free pattern but you do have to have an account to view it. The instructions were not that good but I looked at the comments and used my common purse making skills to complete it. I liked this pattern becuase it had a pouch were you can keep it folded up when not using it. The picture below shows it folded up.
Here is the picture of hanging. The back of the bag is just a brown peice of material.


My only complaint is surging around the edges. I am just not good at serging on a curve and cutting off 5/8'' at the same time. I am going to fold it in and sew around to make it look better and last longer. It seems a little big but was great on my trip to Target today.
I am going to make more with an apple and pear material I got.

Knit dress update

I finished the dress a week ago. I got mixed up with the pattern and forgot to put the pockets in and the tie in the back when I was sewing up the sides.
The neck did not turn out how I liked it so I am debating on ripping it out and trying not to stretch it out when sewing. I am going to try to wear it with a tank top under it before ripping out. I did not use the recommended fabric and knew it may end up not right.
Here is the finish product.

Knit dress

I got a great knit dress at Macy's a few weeks ago. Luckily it was on sale but still was more than I wanted to pay. I found a New Look pattern at Jo-Ann's. I am going to make the pink dress she is

I had a hard time finding a printed knit fabric that was not too expensive but did find one in clearance.It has bright colored shells with a hint of glitter on the white part. Who knows how long the glitter will last. The background is a blue purple color.

I hope this dress turns out good becuase I would want more of these.