Now normally I would put on something cute and try to get a nice picture taken so that the scale of the bag would be easier to see, but I had already taken off my church clothes and didn’t have the energy to change back.  The last few Sundays my husband and I have been teaching children’s church to 4-5 year olds.  We’ve been involved in it for a while and I love it!  We sing, we act out stories, craft and have an great time, but I find I’m drained for the rest of the day.  Whew!  So there ya go – I’m tired, but happy.

The interior – plenty of room for everything baby needs with a little room left over for mom’s things.

This was made with my pattern here and I’ve listed it in the shop here.

It’s been years since I’ve made these fabric patchwork cards.  They’re still super fun to make.  Tutorial is here (from 2006 – seriously can’t believe I’ve been blogging that long!).  It was a good time to make them because I still have some thank you notes to write from Christmas gifts.  Shameful, I know, for having waited this long.

I went through my stash and pulled out everything that was bluish or greenish without flowers.  Then I threw in a dash of orange (pun intended).  Funny, ‘cuz looking at it here it doesn’t look particularly boyish.  I built the quilt mainly around Sarah Jane’s Children at Play.

Love this line of fabric!  Lots of rockets, paper airplanes, and stripes for boys and hopscotch, florals, and gingham for girls.

The back was much easier to put together.  If you look closely you can see where I didn’t have the backing pulled tightly enough during quilting.  But thankfully the wrinkling process is very forgiving.

I have another hexagon project in mind – one that will definitely be easier.

 And each loaf needed it’s own bread wrap so a little last minute sewing was in order.

We love this bread recipe.  It’s dense and heavy and makes great toast.

My favorite gift-wrapping  job this year?  A tomato container that held my mil’s gift of sewing accessories.

Tomorrow we celebrate with good food and good company.  I wish you all blessings this Christmas!

Oh, and someone else is feeling festive over here.

Merry Christmas!

Three favorite colors: pink, yellow, purple.

Three quilted cushions for Christmas.

Well, three plus one, actually.  I went a little overboard with the pink quilting and had enough for an extra one.  It’s in the shop.

All fabric was from my stash.  I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t have enough for the purple one, but I shouldn’t have been.  There is still plenty of purplish fabric in the stash even though I don’t remember ever specifically shopping for purple fabric.

Before…

After…

I love the transformation of fabric.

And I love quilting.

Then over Thanksgiving we dog sat a little dachshund and he didn’t have any toys, poor boy.  On top of that, our dog’s toys were about the size of this little guy’s head – way too big for him.  Here he is, posing with my latest project – isn’t he cute?

So I gave him a little wool ball and he loved it!  The good news is that he can’t tear it apart.  For the most part he just runs around with it, but catching a shot of a running dog is impossible for me so here he is mouthing it.  Any loose fuzzies can be trimmed off so he doesn’t ingest any.

He’s a cutie. I love our big, burly, 100-lb lab, but I can see the advantages of a little dog (like how he doesn’t knock me over when we’re playing).

These guys are 1 1/2″ tall.

My biggest beef with melting crayons is the process of peeling the paper off.  It’s a pain.  It makes my  hands hurt for days and it’s really not worth all the hassle.  That’s why my kids help me.  But I don’t feel good about making their hands work so hard either so I came up with a solution.  I cut through the paper on my paper cutter…

and the boys peel the paper off.

The cutting can be a bit tricky and takes a little getting used to.  In fact, I don’t let my kids do it (except for taking these pictures) because of the potential for cutting your finger.  I have another paper cutter that doesn’t hold the crayon well and I’ve given myself a nice injury before using that one.  If you want to try it, make sure you tape a little piece of foam or cardstock to the base to keep the crayon from sliding while cutting.

Instructions for crayon melting are here.

For me, seeing the new products is just part of the fun.  Here are some of the things that caught my eye.

COLOR INSPIRATION

Moda Fabrics, A Stitch in Color, by Malka Dubrawsky

Robert Kauffman Fabrics

Art Gallery Fabrics, Modernology, by Pat Bravo

Windham Fabrics, Echo, by Lotta Jansdotter

DESIGN INSPIRATION

Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell

While I loved this fabric, the wooden walls on this booth made me want to put wooden walls in my own home someplace.

Anna Griffin Fabrics, Kitchy Kitchen, by Maude Asbury

I’m not a big veggie fabric person, but the veggies on the top print were done beautifully.  Love the ladder.  I want one for my living room.

Michael Miller Fabrics

Michael Miller’s booth display is always over-the-top fun.

PROJECT INSPIRATION

Such Designs Sewing Patterns by Carrie Bloomston

Carrie Bloomston’s booth and patterns stood out to me as super creative and sweet – just my kind of projects.  Check out her designs here and you’ll fall in love with them just like I did!

Cloud 9 Fabrics

No little girls in my house, but if there were, we’d have one of these. What a fun idea!  Love the curtains in the windows!

WRAP UP

Quilt Market is inspiring every year and this year did not disappoint.  Hopefully a little bit of the inspiration I found can inspire you as well!

This experience has taught me that I prefer sewing to spray painting, but the kids loved them.   When I heard some kids say, “Look!  Lego heads!  Cool!”  the little kid in me had to smile.  A nice bonus is that brickheads are easy to spot in a crowd.

And now they look pretty cool up in the toy room.

Cad Bane has been trapped on a planet of giant brick mountains.
But worse, he has lost his hat…

**I have a feeling that last statement just got my blog banned from a certain large country in the Far East**

Anyway, I mention her here because not only was she strong and brave woman of faith, but she was also a seamstress and the daughter of a seamstress.  She passed away when I was in 2nd grade so my memories of her are few, but now as a mom who sews to maintain my sanity, I find myself wondering if she and I would have had much in common.  Our conversations might go something like this,

Me:  “Grandma, how did you find the strength to take care of all your children after Grandpa passed away?”

Grandma:  “Well, dear, God gives you strength when you feel you have no more.”

Me:  “I don’t know if I could have done what you did.  It seems so incredibly hard to have 3 kids and a dog.  I don’t know if I could manage 8.”

Grandma:  “Well, dear, you are rather wimpy in that you have 2 cars, a house and an easy life.  Perhaps you are too soft to handle the kinds of pressures I had to deal with.”

JUST KIDDING.  I know she wouldn’t say that, but then again, she might have thought it because I think it about myself ALL the time.

Yep, these really are pictures of my Grandma.  In fact, the littlest one in the chair and hat is my dad!  Such a cutie.  I wish I had a picture of her sitting at the sewing machine.  I wore several dresses that she made for me.  The only picture I could find was one of my sister wearing a dress she made.  So sweet!

I’m honored to have this kind of history in my family.  Grandmothers on both sides who sewed and a mom that taught me to sew when I was young enough to get my finger stuck under the needle on the sewing machine.  That’s something you don’t quickly forget.