Busy, busy, busy!

And, here it is, the end of November!  This year is quickly spiraling toward its end, too.  It's been crazy busy here, and there's little hope of that changing before 2015.  Happily, part of the "busy" for me has been lots of time in the sewing room.  I am really working at making sewing  a part of the  weekly routine.  (I'd love for it to be daily, but that's just not going to happen right now.)  I SO enjoy going up to the sewing/craft/play room and just creating, even if I can only find 30 minutes to spend.  Lately, MonkeyNinja has been joining me, and that's really fun, too!  I will try to catch some pictures of her creations.  She is truly a multi-media artist!

Now, I said I've been sewing  often.  This is true.  The only thing is, very little of my sewing has been on things I "should" be doing.  Like the quilt I am making for my mom for Christmas, for example.  In June, I brought home some fabrics from her stash.  She has not been able to sew, due to vision loss, for many years.  Her stash and machine and all of her supplies have been sitting, waiting for someone to rescue them all this time.  I decided that she needed a quilt from some of her fabric.  What a perfect Christmas gift!  That was June.  This is November.  You know where this is going, right?  Uh huh.  One month 'til Christmas, and no quilt.  I do have a start on it.  Or at least I did.  But I'm just not loving it.  And since I'm not loving it, it's been easy to procrastinate.  I do think I have a very feasible plan B in mind, now, thought.  So I am hoping to pick up some steam with it over this five day break.

So, what HAVE I been sewing?

Mittens!

Since these are to be worn on stage, I could get away with a quick zig zag over the raw edge, and I didn't have to be too particular with the turning.  They will look adorable to those sitting in the audience, no matter how rough they look close up!

Lots and lots of mittens!  Twenty two pair.  That's 44 mittens.  That's 88 pieces.  That's a LOT of cutting.  And a lot of thumbs to stitch around.

These are costume pieces, not intended in any way, shape, or form to be used in the snow.  They will, however, be used in a Frozen medley performed by my SingAndDance and her performance troupe in their Holiday show in a few weeks.  The mittens will accompany an adorable snowman dress worn by each girl.  Thankfully, I had nothing to do with those adorable dresses!  The mittens were enough!  By the time the last pair was finished, I was really sick of that red and white chevron!  But, I am happy that my 10 required volunteer hours are fulfilled.  And I got to fulfill them by sewing, instead of scrubbing the rehearsal space!  HeeHeeHee!


Pouches!

Love these simple front-zip pouches and the bright modern colors that SingAndDance chose for her friends.  The ribbon zipper pulls are my favorite part!

Hands down, my favorite thing to sew lately!  So fun, so quick, so gratifying. 

This batch was created on a Friday night.  The Friday night before SingAndDance's birthday party.  These were gifts for her guests.  She had an "At Home Spa" themed party, which included Jamberry manicures for each of the girls.  We packed these pouches full of manicure supplies, extra Jamberry wraps, and a few other spa themed goodies.  They were pretty popular.  Have you tried Jamberries?  They are vinyl wraps for your nails that stay on for up to two weeks!  There are hundreds of really fun designs...even some that look like quilts!  I am not great at applying them yet, and it takes me longer than I really want to spend to put them on, so I don't wear them often, but the girls at the party sure had a good time with them! 

This is just a peek at how our mantel looks during much of November.  Both of my girls have birthdays in early November, so we celebrate them.  Only one gets a party each year, since two parties each year would break the bank and my patience!  This year was my older daughters turn.

Goodness, I like this pouch!

This pouch was made on a Saturday morning.  About two hours before I was meeting a friend for coffee.  It happened to be the day after her birthday, which I had forgotten until three hours before I was supposed to leave to meet her.  (BTW, are you noticing a pattern here?  Lots of my sewing has been kind of last minute, lately.  Oh well.)

This is just such a happy pouch.  The colors make me smile and it was fun to piece the patchwork together.  There's just a little bit of quilting, but it came out looking pretty professional.  My friend liked it a lot!  I'm so glad.  She is one of the most genuinely nice, nurturing and sweet people that I know, and it was fun to surprise her with something hand made. 

I think that pouches are going to be my go to birthday gift in 2015.  I don't always give gifts to friends on their birthdays, because of the expense, but also because I just never know what to buy.  And I don't actually enjoy shopping for things other than fabric. LOL.  But a hand made pouch is an economical and personal solution.  I have already made another for a different friend, and have gifted it to her already.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.  I will get one, though, because it's REALLY cute!

Next post, I will also share a link to the tutorial that I follow when I made the patchwork pouches.  I have to hunt a bit for it, so I'm not doing it right now.  It's a good one, though, and I want to make sure I give the author credit!

One last little tidbit.  I donated a quilt to a silent auction benefitting my favorite charity, recently.  It was fun and a bit weird to watch two ladies bid on it throughout the evening.  It didn't raise a TON of money, but it was a respectable amount, and every little bit helps.  Here's the label I made.  (I forgot to take a picture until we were actually AT the auction, so the lighting was poor.  I got lots of "looks" for opening the quilt up to take a picture, too!)

 

 

Whew!  Perhaps my goal for December should be to write several short posts instead of one really long one! Ha!

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and many hours of Happy Sewing!