Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop

You may have seen this button on my sidebar,

well its time to tell you all about it!

I've joined the Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop

that begins Oct.1st!

We will be making fall themed blocks.

Below is a list of all the talented bloggers

who will be posting on Oct 1st.

The theme is "fall".

You know how I love fall!!!

I can't show you what I've been working on

until it's my day to post.

So make sure you come back 

on Wednesday October 10th 

to see my blocks and also for a giveaway!

In the meantime,

hop on over to the blogs listed below

on Monday morning

and be amazed by the talent!!!!

Day 1	Fuzzy Hat Quiter
	The Cuddle Quilter
	Quilts My Way
	Country Cabin Thoughts and Crafts
	Dream quilt create
	Why-Knot-Kwilt
	Needled Mom
	On the Go Quilting
	Sunshine Girl
	Pam Pereira – on That Other Blog
	Meadowbrook

Home is where your family is :)

It feels so good to have another project finished!

You may remember that back in January

I joined the Tiny Houses from Scraps QAL.

The idea was to make 365 tiny houses from scraps

by hand, 

one each day.

Clearly that didn't happen.

I made 12.......

actually 14 but the first 2 were beyond wonky

so they didn't stand a chance of being on my quilt.

One night while I was trying to sleep

the idea for this design came to me.

I used one little house for each month of the year

and embroidered the names of each family member

and their birthdays in each month.

I couldn't resist using Christmas fabric for the December house :)

I used perle cotton floss to hand quilt around the blocks and 

I made hearts in each of the 4 corners.

I appliqued "Home" and "Family" using a blanket stitch 

around each letter

and giant red rick rack to frame it out.

(I'll admit I have a slight obsession with rick rack)

I backed it in soft yellow Kona 

because it's going to hang on the wall

and I didn't see the point in a snazzy backing.

Now that it's done

I'm trying to decide if I want to paint my living room walls

before I hang this above the couch..........

I'm sure my hubby will be THRILLED 

to hear about my plans!

Monsterously Cute

The Tooth Fairy Monster Pillow is complete!

Isn't he adorable?

I'm going to let the boys give him a name.

My oldest grandson, Elijah has lost a few teeth already,

and the second oldest, Caleb has

a "wiggler" right in front.

This fun pillow will arrive

just in time for that one :)

(Papa offered to help him remove it

with pliers, but oddly enough Caleb declined)

I'm always so excited to find

awesome free tutorials online

from super talented people!

I found this tutorial by Suzanne over at

Justanotherhangup.blogspot.com

If you've never seen her blog 

you really NEED to!

She's super talented

and obviously very generous to share this tute with us :)

Also just a quick note:

If you haven't already figured it out,

I loves me some free tutorials.

So as part of the upcoming 

Handcrafted Holiday Sew & Stitch Along

I will also be giving out prizes randomly each week

to those of you who share free tutorials

that you have either found online, or wrote yourselves.

I'm so excited to share all the cool info

and all the wonderful sponsors......

but I'll be patient a few more days!

Are you already planning what you'll be working on?

Remember that this will be open

to Sewing, quilting, crochet and cross stitch

so grab the button and tell your friends!

The fun starts Oct. 1st :)

FNSI results

I have to be honest......

This month's Friday Night "Sew" In

was more like a Friday Night 

"Choose Your Fabric,

Cut it out and Fuse it " In :)

I'm working on this adorable tooth pillow

for my grands

and it took me f o r e v e r

to decide on the fabrics.

I finally made my selections

and cut the pieces, fused them

 and started the hand stitching.

(that counts for sewing right?)

But that's pretty much all I got done.

Hopefully by Monday I'll have it completed

and I'll share the link to the free tutorial as well.

Autumn Blessings

Can you tell I'm in an "Autumn" mood?

I just finished these two little charts

and quickly made little pillows

to display in my living room.

My son is already giving me a hard time about

all the tiny pillows I have on my curio cabinet.

I explained to him that I will change them out with each season.

Makes sense right?

Boys....what do they know?

This is Autumn Blessings by Plum Street Samplers.

It's a free download and you can find it HERE.

I fell in love with it immediately :)

She's got other darling freebies on her sight as well!

( I love me some free stuff )

This is "Just a Little Autumn" by Sandra Dering.

It's also a free chart, but I just can't find the link back :(

And since I was out driving around running errands,

I just happened to drive right past 

one of my favorite thrift stores.

They always have a great selection of unused patterns.

I mean I was right there....

it would be foolish not to go inside....right?

I got 4 Halloween costume patterns,

4 doll clothes patterns,

and 4 childrens jammies in different sizes.

I love to make new jammies for the grands for Christmas :)

Who doesn't love snuggly new flannel jammies????

Now all I have to do is wait for Joann's to 

put their flannel on sale for $1.99 a yard 

and I'm good to go!!!

Little Mommas

I finished the doll beds for my little Mommas, Sofie and Evie :)

They are both just getting to the age where they

are lovin' baby dolls!

The doll in the photo is Louisa, one of my Kathe Kruse dolls.

She was given to me by my grandparents for my 10th birthday.

She has traveled to Europe and back with me :)

I love my granddaughters with all my heart

 but Louisa and her little sister Lisel,

will NOT be played with.......

not just yet anyways :)

For these doll beds I used Butterick 6661 from 1984.

It's a pattern I used for my daughter when she was a little girl.

You can still find it on ebay.

I used fusible fleece to strengthen the outside fabric

and craft bond to strengthen the lining fabric.

It made the sides "stand" better.

I also made little patchwork quilts for the inside

out of some of the girlie flannel remnants I continue

to buy and hoard :)

Now that these are done,

it's time to start on the babies that will sleep

in these beds.

I found a darling pattern on etsy 

and I can't wait to get started!

Table for Two :)

A few weeks ago I made a fun reversible apron

for a new bride-to-be.

Now the wedding day is almost here

and I thought it would be fun to make 

matching placemats for their kitchen.

Now that I look at them

I want a pair of fun placemats for the hubs and me.........

but that's a project for another day.

I had fun making these.

I used a blanket stitch around the hearts 

and machine stitched around the lettering.

I hope they like them  :)

IHSW results :)

"Just a Little Autumn" by Sandra Dering stitched on 18ct Aida and
I'm just starting on "Autumn Blessings" by Plum Street Samplers.

I have to admit, 

I've been so focused on Christmas 

that I almost missed the fact that fall is favorite time of year!

So this weekend I stitched some Autumn themed

charts to get into the fall spirit :)

The weather here has been over 100 degrees

this past week and that is definitely

NOT much like fall weather,

but I'm determined to pretend it's fall!

This week I'll be baking pumpkin muffins 

and busting out my pumpkin scented candles :)

A Finish and A WIP

"Son of Chickens" by Prarie Moon stitched on 30 ct Lugana.

I finally finished my lovely rooster.

I have to say that I love love love him!

He's going to become a pillow for my sofa.

I'm certainly NOT in any hurry to stitch 

on black again any time soon.

It's so difficult to see what you are doing

even with my Ott Lite.

But I'm glad he's done and I love the black background :)

Now on to the WIP.....

Back in 1985 (wholly cakeballs I'm old!) 

 I made a doll carrier for my daughter

to schlep her cabbage patch dolls around in.

I'm so glad I kept the pattern all these years!

I'm only 1/2 done with this one 

and I'm making a tiny quilt for it,

 doing the hand quilting at night while the hubs watches TV.

I still need the cardboard for the bag bottom

but luckily for me, the hubs has that covered.

He installed a water heater the other day 

and bringing the box home for me :)

Having 2 granddaughters has brought back so 

many wonderful memories to me.

My daughter and her cousin are 1 year and 1 day apart

and I would sew for the both of them all the time.

They had matching outfits and so did their dolls :)

Now I have Sofie and Evie to sew for 

and I'm SO enjoying it!

Since they both walking now

and both recently learned to say "baby"

it seems like they will be ready

 to have doll carriers for Christmas :)

I can't wait to finish them both up!

The second one is cut and ready to start sewing.

This one should be done in another day or so.

Once these are done,

I'll have to get started on making the dolls :)

I found the cutest pattern on etsy.

Can't wait to show you!

Happy sewing everyone!!!

It was all about the fabric......

A week ago my sweet friend Cherise sent me an email

telling me about the coupon code that Spoonflower

had offered for a free fat quarter of fabric.

(I have the most awesome friends!!!)

So I hurried over there and ordered this super fun fabric

with the old school tattoo style print!

When it arrived I knew I had to make something

for myself, but I wasn't sure just what to make.

Since we have a sewing event coming up at our church

on Sept 22nd,  (if you're in the area, you should join us!)

I thought it would be nice to have 

a zipper bag to carry my rotary cutter and scissors in.

I used Simplicity 9949 view I.

I made it 2" wider to accommodate the length of my scissors.

I have to say that this pattern

 was definitely NOT FTS (fun to sew)

I seriously wanted to cut this bag to pieces

 and throw it in my scrap bin......

But the adorable fabric saved it.

Sometimes it's all about the fabric :)

So I persevered.

It took me most of the day to make this one little bag.

I ended up spending WAY too much time

 with my seam ripper *ugh*

And I ended up finishing the binding by hand.

The one good thing that happened was the 2 end pieces

looked like I fussy cut them,

when in fact it was just a happy accident

that the print lined up perfectly on both sides!

So now I have a fun little bag that will be put to good use,

and I know to NEVER use that bag pattern again :)

Have you ever used a pattern that you hated?

Getting a head start :)

I'm getting so excited about all the great prizes 

that are coming together for the

  Handmade Holiday Sew & Stitch Along!

So many awesome sponsors!

I can't wait to tell you guys about it all.

But.....

you'll have to wait a bit longer.

Are you telling your friends about it?

Remember, the more the merrier!

In the meantime I got a head start on my Christmas gift sewing.

I made this caddy using this fantastic free tutorial:

Sewing Caddy Tutorial by GinaBean Handmade 

I've used this tutorial once before and you can see it here.

This set is for my mom.

(luckily she doesn't have a computer :)

Mine is red (shocker I know) and I use it everyday 

to hold my cross stitch supplies.

I also made a matching pincushion and thread catcher.

You can find the free tutorial :

Weighted Pincushion Organizer by Sew, Mama, Sew

I received one of these very cool sets from my dear friend Denise

for my birthday this year and I love love love it!!!

I just love all the wonderful tutorials that can be found online.

Keep your eye out for some fun tutes to share

during our Sew & Stitch Along in October.

You'll have a chance to win an additional

prize each week by sharing online tutorials,

but I'll have all those details coming soon!

In the meantime,

tell me what you are planning of making as gifts.

I'd love to hear from you!

Blog Hop Winners are.........

First I'd like to say "THANK YOU" to everyone

who played along!

I was overwhelmed by the response!!!

It was so much fun to read about 

what the "bers" mean to you all :)

I've had some issues with my computer 

and not all the comments

have made it through to my email.

They are all here on my blog,

but I couldn't respond to you.

So if you didn't hear back from me,

I'm so sorry.

And you may be wondering why my blog post 

says "winners" and not "winner".

Well that's because I've decided 

that since I now have over 700 followers (what the heck?)

that I wanted to choose a second winner

who will also receive a fun giftie from me :)

And now for the winner of the blog hop.....

drum-roll please:

Marsha Cooper

who wrote:

"the first BER's are fall, which I love.
The last one you have to love for the celebration of Christmas."


And the winner of the surprise package from me is:

jmniffer

who wrote:

"I like the bers for football. I get some great crafting time in while watching/listening to the games. Thanks for the chance at your giveaway."

If you ladies would kindly email me with your names & addresses

I will ship your goodies out to you.

Congrats!!!

Let the fun begin!!!

Well it's finally here!

The first official day of the "bers" :)

Only 16 Saturdays left until Christmas!!!

Are you working on Christmas gifties yet?

Those of you who have been reading my blog

for a while know that I hate to pay full price.

So I have some great news to share!

Purses and totes make wonderful gifts,

so you might want to check out Michelle Patterns.

Just click the link on my right hand sidebar.

She's having a sale this weekend for 20% off using

coupon code "laborday" at checkout.

I've made several of her bags 

and her patterns are totally FTS (fun to sew)

You can see them HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE

I'll be making some more very soon :)

Now on to my work in progress.

I have the 12 months blocks hand quilted

in red perle cotton.

Now I have to decide how I want to quilt the rest of it.

Decisions, decisions..... 

I also started cutting some of my scrap fabrics into 2 1/2" squares

so that I can make some Great Granny Square blocks.

I've seen them all over the internet 

and I know I'm a little late to be jumping on that train,

 but I'm smitten now 

and I really want to give them a whirl :)

(I blame Pinterest)

I've also done a bit more stitching on my rooster. 

He's not as far along as I would like,

but I've been hand quilting at night

instead of cross stitching.

 

I hope you all find some time in this long holiday weekend

for some crafty goodness!