Ahoy Matey!

My BFF coworker asked me to make some goodies for her little boy. (Who, by the way, will be in an arranged marriage with my daughter in 25 years...just kidding!) How could I say no when it meant I got to work with these awesome pirate themed fabrics from Alexander Henry's Monkey's Bizness line.

She wanted 2 big boy pillow cases and 2 big boy blankets and it has taken me FOREVER to get this gift set close to complete. And I'm still not done. I have one blanket to go... Soon, I promise!

Here are the adorable pillowcases with her boy's name appliqued on the ends. Cute, right?

Bag Lady

Over the holidays, I discovered how easy it is to make drawstring bags- I mean, SUPER easy- so they are my newest go-to project.

I made these cute bags for my co-workers. I love this beautiful blue circle fabric (which I am trying to find other projects for as well)! One has blue fabric inside and one has gray. 

The only other difference is that one has little phrases on the twill tape handles. (On a side note, I went to the Road to California quilt show back in January and found a booth with the best twill tape. I kinda went wild...)

Holiday Round Up

I always seem to get backlogged with sewing projects at the end of the year. I love that most people are so happy to get a handmade gift that they don't mind if its a week (ok, 4 weeks) late.

This year, I made a Christmas table runner for Aunt Sally- she is really big on decorating for the holidays so I thought she'd really appreciate this. Maybe next year, we'll see it on her dining room table.

For Aunt Pat, I made this drawstring bag. The fabric is Winterkist by Happy Zombie. I am so in love with these Santa Gnomes! Pat is a gnome collector so as soon as Winterkist came out, I knew that I had to make her something cute. She loved it!

Finally, these hot pads were for the December hot pad swap at the LA Modern Quilt Guild. I completely forgot about the swap until the night before when I randomly found a slip of paper with my partner's name on it- then it dawned on me. So I whipped these little babies up- simple strips on the front, one piece on the back.

Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

Ok, so I'm not going to do a lame countdown or year in review like everyone else & their dog... However, I have been extremely lax in posting my projects over the last few weeks (ok, months- thanks Liv!) so I am taking this opportunity to catch up on posting all the projects I haven't had time to blog about!

Without further ado...

Baby Goodies

My first commissioned work- yay for making money doing what you love!

I've sold a couple of these babies as well!

Garments

Liv's super cute Halloween costume- I made the Yoda robe,
cane & hands/feet. (Those awesome ears are from a seller on Etsy)

Gifts

Birthday gift for a friend's son 

Birthday gift for a friend's son

Xmas gift for my niece & her husband

Xmas gift for my brother

Xmas gifts for my great nieces (how am I this old?)

Xmas gifts for my great nephews

Quilts

Still unfinished...but will eventually go to my nephew
(who just turned 21!). He chose the fabrics himself- thus, the skulls.

Crafty Goals for 2013

Finally make a quilt for Liv

Make at least a quilt a month (including ones for my mother-in-law & hubby)

Attend several sewing/quilting workshops & classes (maybe lots?) 

Design at least one (quilt or garment) pattern from scratch

Open an Etsy shop

Blog & Tweet on the regular

Say Yes to the Pillowcase Dress!

One of the best parts of having a baby girl is dressing her in cute clothes. I have never been a girly girl so the fact that I feel this way was kind of a surprise. In fact, I have spent about 98% of my life in jeans & t-shirts but... baby girl dresses are just too adorable to pass up! When you fancy yourself a sewer (ok, someone who knows how to use a sewing machine), you can find a lot of girl clothes to make.

I fell in love with pillowcase dresses a while back. They are really easy to make, look super cute on tiny girls and best of all, they transition to fun tops as your little girl grows. I knew they were the perfect choice when I was inspired to make matching dresses for my baby and her sweet cousins. I found a fabric line I love- Anchors Away by Dear Stella which is playful, fun and unisex enough that it can be used for other projects.

It was a great choice. The girls liked their dresses and their mom & I even decided to get professional pics taken while the girls are wearing these! Another win for auntie (& mommy)!

What's the Time? Wine Time!

So Monday was the 3rd Anniversary of the LA Modern Quilt Guild. Just like last year, one of the things we did to celebrate is a swap. Swaps are always so fun because you not only get to be creative, you also get something creative in return!

This year, my swap partner was this really talented quilter who also makes amazing tote bags & pillows so I was kind of intimidated. I wasn't quite sure what to make for her. Most of the fabric scraps she gave me were patterns I wouldn't normally work with so I wasn't immediately inspired. After a while searching on Pinterest for inspiration, I found the perfect project- a quilted wine tote! (My swap partner had even mentioned at a previous meeting how wine helped make free motion quilting so much easier...ha ha ha!)

I found a great tutorial here and was able to whip this easy project up in a couple of hours. It's easy enough for a last minute gift and perfect for a dinner party host (or for any wine-loving quilter who's shutting in for the weekend to FMQ)!

For My New Favorite Cousin, Part 2

As planned, I have finally finished the rest of the goodies for my new baby cousin, arriving soon. Fabrics for all the gifts are from the Little One Organic line by Katie Hennagir for Robert Kaufman.

First, a look at the baby quilt....

The quilt top is a pattern called Charm Squares Baby Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman of the awesome blog Oh Fransson! You can find a downloadable pattern here. The back is my own design- just 3 floating log cabin blocks. I did machine binding on this and it turned out really well. (It helps that the back is white since I used white thread.) It saved so much time. I was actually able to knock out this whole quilt, from cutting to binding, in just a few hours.

Next, a couple of onesies with tie applique. These turned out SO cute!

Finally, this is a soft block from one of the panels in the line. It has 4 sides with text & I used the stripes & dots for the other 2 sides. This is the medium block (each side is 5"x5"). There is also a small block (4"x4") and a large block (8"x8"). I added ribbons on some of the seams and a bell inside so it makes noise. 

I am mailing everything off tomorrow. Can't wait to hear what mom, dad & baby think!