Crafty Christmas

In December, despite recovering from surgery and having 9 extra house guests, I did still manage to turn out a few Christmas craft projects.

Remember the doll quilt I submitted for the blogger's quilt festival? Well, I finished the bedding and painted the bed to match and also completed a second for Kristie's beautiful daughters. (Kristie is not only an amazing friend but a crafting Goddess). This was by far the largest gift project I have taken on to date but also the most rewarding! I must say quilting does not come easily to me and I hope nobody is looking to closely at my pitiful binding! Hopefully (fingers crossed), practise will make perfect.

The second doll quilt...

 The completed beds...these were made to match each girls room but also incorporate their favourite colours. My favourite are the pillows.

 

Before these were delivered via my mother's suitcase they were rigorously tested (and jumped on) by Littlest Boy!

I gifted two HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS felt banners to the kids classrooms. The kids loved these and it was actually their suggestion to make them after they had birthday parties for Jesus at school. I also made a few tartan tablecloths for Middle Child's teacher to cover the tables for the Scotland classroom transformation. This came about one day after school when the teacher asked me if I had any that I could lend her. I thought about it and then said no, but I would be happy to whip some up for her. Who are we kidding?? I am not capable of whipping anything up but I was happy to help, she is such a deserving woman!

Banners have become a bit of an obsession with me as of late and this is one I made for Paper Pal Al for Christmas.

  

For the teachers, Baba helped me make homemade peppermint bark which I placed inside a ceramic gingerbread house along with a SEND A CHILD TO SCHOOL Samaritan's Purse charitable gift note.

  

The children at school received giant suckers with handmade labels that represented my kids...I'm sure most parents were wondering why a dentist would be handing these out!

Last but not least, I designed pins for my OCD friend from shrink plastic to match her blog world identity...can't wait to see them in your awesome tutorials!

quilt festival = fun

Hello fellow festals! This is my first time participating in Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival since this is my first ever quilt! Fortunately, it is a doll quilt and it was the perfect introduction into the wonderful world of quilting. Creating my first quilt was extremely FRUSTRATING (binding issues) and EXHILARATING (opening the dryer to find "puckery goodness") all at the same time!

I was introduced to quilting by my bosom buddy and crafting soulmate Kristie. She made me the most beautiful quilt for my birthday, seen here and here and told me if I can sew a straight line then I too can quilt. Turns out sewing a straight line is a lot harder than it looks but I must say, I am tickled with the outcome! See for yourself...

  

Kristie and I usually craft all gifts for birthdays, Christmas, and of course, just because gifts. My children and I have been the recipient of so much crafty coolness that that is a separate post in and of itself! This quilt happens to be for Kristie's youngest daughter, whose favourite colour is orange but also has a purple and green bedroom.
I came across this great tutorial on Sew Mama Sew and knew I absolutely had to make it....

Selecting the fabrics was the favourite part of the process for me. I love fabric...I am a terrible sewer but I LOVE, LOVE FABRIC! I played with my 3.5 square charms for some time until I had the perfect combo....and then I pieced them together. I stitched in the ditch and this is where I discovered sewing a straight line is not as easy as it looks! From this I learned I definitely need a 1/4" foot....and a walking foot for that matter...

To add my personal touch I embellished the quilt with a little hand embroidery, and then basted it all together. After doing a lot of reading I decided to use adhesive spray to baste. This worked great...even on the first try...yeah!

The binding just about did me in...you are looking at the back of the quilt with the binding attached (I am a lazy sewer and decided to machine bind the quilt). This part was OK...it was figuring out what to do with the two ends of binding that caused me to shed more than a few tears. I think I also watched 50 YouTube videos on this topic that did not help! I finally stumbled across this tutorial that FINALLY made it make sense.





I cut the binding too short three times and had to add more to one of the tail pieces. This is painfully obvious on the right side of this picture....where it boughs out is where the two end pieces joined.
Not pretty. . . but then probably not noticeable to the four year old this is going to!



Even though when I look at this quilt all I see are the flaws, overall I am pleased and I cannot wait to jump into my next for Kristie's middle child!

HAPPY QUILTING EVERYONE and I must say I am uber impressed and inspired by your quilts!!

BTY - This is the bed that will accompany the quilts. It has yet to be painted purple...check back for the completed project including matching sheets and pillow.