How about some potholders?

Let's be brutally honest here....

Most of us have some pretty nasty potholders.

A little burned at the edges and covered in

*ew* old crusty spaghetti sauce or melted on cheese! (or both!)

Isn't it time for a fresh pair?

This is a pattern I've shared with you before and you can find the free download HERE.

I just love the sew4home website! So many cool free patterns.

Anyhoo....

this is super FTS (fun to sew) and they come

together fairly quickly.

I also love that you slide your hands inside these potholders

so I guess you'd actually have to call them oven mitts :)

And how about making some as Christmas gifties?

Make a few....you still have time!!!

I quilted these in a 1" grid pattern.

And I quilted these in 1" vertical stripes.

That's another thing I love about this pattern!

You can do whatever you like as far as the quilting goes!

How fun is that????

David's Quilt is done!

David's birthday party is tomorrow morning and I'm very happy to say that I'm done with his quilt and matching pillowcase :) I can't wait for him to see it. He's 4 years old and still gets excited about things like this and he picked out the fabric so I know he's going to be happy!

The fabric is 100% organic cotton from Robert Kaufman's "Ready Set Go" collection :)

I used size 8 Perle cotton in co-ordinating colors to hand quilt it.

I love the patterns it made on the backside :)

And of course, I stitched a little note onto the back so that David can always remember that Nana stitched lots of love into his quilt :)

Only 4 Saturdays until Christmas Eve!!!!

I almost had an anxiety attack when I typed the title today!

4 Saturdays????

I feel sooooo far behind. I need to get my planner out and go over my "to do" list!

I am happy to say that I finished this fun table topper for my Etsy shop this afternoon and I'll list in the next few days. I have a few more new items to list as well.

I realized that I enjoy the sewing , but I don't enjoy taking photos and resizing photos and listing items on Etsy....hmmmmmm

A few weeks ago I won 14 Christmas fat quarters and I was super happy to have them!

 I used 2 of them on this topper.

The white background actually has little dots and dashes that remind me of snowballs.

The red and white stripe seemed perfect for the binding :)

 I used solid red for the backing. Being new to quilting, I should have used red thread in the bobbin so that my wonky quilting wouldn't be so glaring on the backside.

I made a mental note for myself for next time :)

The pattern I used is called "Delightful" by Pieces of My Heart".

I used Christmas ribbon on the 3 ornaments

instead of using co-ordinating fabrics.



This is the f/q bundle I won!

Man I love the internet!!!

The rest of the fabrics for this topper came from my charm squares that I received from the Charming Christmas Swap. I "borrowed" my friend Amy's photo because I forgot to take a picture of mine. We received 56 different charms squares

 and I used all the pinks and teals and few co-ordinating pieces for this project.

Now what will I do with the rest????

This photo was "borrowed" from my friend Amy :)

Friday Night Sew In #7

Last night's FNSI was totally fun! I was able to chat online with my buddy Regena while we were both working on our sewing projects! Hanging out with her is always a blast! Her blog is loads of fun too! You should go check it out

 "The Distracted Domestic"

She's doing an apron giveaway challenge!

Go on over and check it out.....

I'll wait :)

She's fun, right?

So this is as far as I got last night.

I need to quilt this little table topper and bind it.

Maybe tomorrow after lunch I'll get a chance. We'll see :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Friday night!!!

I guess I needed stitches.....

I was a bit bummed that I wasn't as productive this last month as I would have liked to be.

But then I realized that I've been doing a lot of cross stitch

 for the holidays! That counts too right?

I just finished the "blessings abound" last night and it will be the focal point of a pillow for my couch.

I also completed 6 Christmas ornaments and a snowman that will also be used in a pillow.

I guess sometimes the stitching bug just hits me and my sewing machine has to be patient and wait it out. I'm almost done with the hand quilting on David's quilt and then I can bind it. Woo Hoo!

Clearly I'm not the lazy deadbeat I thought I was...

I just needed stitches :)

Preppin' for Friday Night!

I recently received my 56 charm squares from the "Charming Christmas Fabric Swap" and after sorting through them

 I realized that I had made 3 piles.

1. Fabrics that I loved :)

2. Fabrics that are cute, but not really my style

3. Fabrics that I would "gift" to someone else.

I'm pretty much a red and green girl when it comes to Christmas decor

The pinks and teals are very cute, but not really me.

So I rounded up all those fabrics and decided to make a

table topper for my Etsy shop. And since tomorrow night is the Friday Night Sew In,

it seems like a perfect time to do this project.

I laid out my fabrics and took a photo to remember my placement

and tomorrow I'll be ready to sew it all together!

This is the pattern I'm using.

It's called "Delightful" by Pieces of my Heart.

Wish me luck!!!!

Under Pressure....

So I finally decided how I wanted to quilt the Hepto-copter quilt.

 I got some great suggestions to machine quilt some

and hand quilt some.......

but I just love the look and feel of handquilting,

I seem to do my best work "under pressure" 

so true to form, I'm hand quilting the entire quilt.

It needs to be done by Friday night

because David's party is Saturday morning.

No problem....right?

I did manage to get the 6 large squares done last night

while the hubby snoozed on the couch. (poor guy has a cold)

I have a feeling that David will be happy with it.

Isn't he adorable?

And yes, Evie is standing in front of him.

And yes, she is only 4 months old.

I guess someone forgot to tell her

that 4 month old babies don't stand up :)

David's "Hepto"copter Quilt :)

My adorable grandson David is going to be 4 next week and his Mommy wanted to get him some new organic cotton bedding for his room. Most of what you can buy already made is pretty boring. I told my daughter that some of the top fabric designers are now offering organic cotton yardage. So I emailed her some options and after showing them to David, these are the prints he picked out! He loved the airplanes and "hepto"copters :) These prints are from the Robert Kaufman's "Ready, Set Go" collection. I added the solid orange organic cotton because orange is David's favorite color.

I didn't have a pattern for this quilt. I just drew up a sketch and did some math and it kind of "evolved" as I was going along. I made 9" blocks and added 3" sashing and then a 4" boarder. The finished size will be 42 x 54.  I'll be backing it and binding it in solid orange. Now it's quilt sandwich time and my problem is that I really want to hand quilt it, but can I finish it by Saturday? I guess I'd better get busy!!!

Guess who won the apron????

I just want to say "Thank You" to everyone who shared what they were thankful for.

 It really touched my heart to read them!

The winner is:

Teresa !

who wrote:

"You sound like you have truly been blessed.

I feel most blessed by the love of God and having a wonderful family to share my life with.

Teresa's Heartfelt Stitches"



Quick Tip for Tuesday :)

With the holidays quickly approaching I was contemplating buying new glasses, but I really don't have that in my budget right now.  My glasses looked like someone had used them and then just put them back in my cabinet. I tried scrubbing them and I even tried my secret weapon - the magic eraser - but nothing seemed to be working. The hard water and dishwasher detergent residue left them looking "less than appetizing". I'm embarrassed to say that one actually looked like someone had a nice tall glass of milk and didn't even wipe it off before storing in my cabinet.

 *EW*

 I should have taken "before" and "after" pictures so you could really get the full effect, but I'll be honest, I'd rather poke myself in the eye than share that horror with you!

So HOW in the world did I get these glasses to sparkle like new you ask?

I soaked them in a bucket of regular white vinegar.

I paid $2.79 for a gallon of  Target brand white vinegar and then after soaking them for about an hour or so I washed them with dish soap and warm water.

 I decided to leave the one glass that looked like it had milk in it soaking in the vinegar over night.

Now all my glasses are holiday ready

and my tea kettle is de-limed

and the tray under the water dispenser in my refrigerator door is bright and clean and free of hard water deposits........

"So Thankful" Apron Giveaway!

Can you believe that we are 7 Saturdays away from

Christmas Eve already!

This has been such a wonderful year for me personally and I have SO much to be grateful for!

I turned 50 this year. We welcomed 2 new baby girls into the family, just 6 weeks apart! It's going to be so much fun watching them grow up together! My mom just celebrated her 75th birthday in October. I've started on a journey of healing my Fibromyalgia through nutrition that has been crazy hard but has had truly amazing results so far. Just in this month alone 3 of my very favorite "boys" are celebrating their birthdays (one of them today.....Happy Birthday Elijah!!!) I have the most wonderful husband. He is truly my best friend. My family actually enjoys being together and we all love each other so much! We eat lunch together every Sunday after church.

My list could go on and on!

And I'm so thankful to all of you who read my blog !

 It's so much fun to read your comments! I appreciate you all so much!

I've made some truly wonderful friends through this blog

and I am thankful for each of them

and what they mean in my life :)

And so with a thankful heart I've decided to give away this apron to one lucky winner!

Giveaway Rules:

1. You must be a follower of this blog and let me know that in your comment.

2. Leave a comment telling me what you are grateful for this year.

That's it! Easy Peasy.

You only need to enter once

and the winner will be chose at random.

You have until Wednesday November 9th to enter.

The winner will be announced Thursday November 10th.

Oh Thank Heaven....for little girls :)

Can I just tell you how much I love sewing for little girls???

Don't get me wrong, I love sewing dinosaurs and fun boy stuff too, but I've been waiting 7 years to get a chance to make some girlie goodness :)

I made this corduroy jumper for Sofia. I needed eight 1" buttons and being cheap frugal like I am, I couldn't see myself paying $15.00 for fun buttons on  a dress she will grow out of in a few months.

So I was excited to find 1" buttons at M & L yardage in packages of 2 for .30 cents. The problem is that they were boring plain white buttons. So I decided to stack some cute red hearts on top of them to make them really stand out against the solid jumper. She has really cute tights with hearts on them that will match perfectly with this jumper.

 ("Nana" bought them for her before she was even born!)

Another cool thing about M & L yardage is that all their notions are 20% off everyday so I got all the buttons I needed for this jumper for only $3.72! Now that's more like it!!!

I'm making another one in the turquoise corduroy with the cherries on it for Evie.

Sofia :)

Evie :)