Last of 2012's projects - sorta

 

 

The most fun gift I made this year has to be the dog toys.

I gave them as gifts to 6 dogs.  I have pictures of 5 of them. 

 

 

Here are some of the recipients enjoying them.

 

This is my Tink

 

Chuck

 

Ollie

 

Ollie again

 

 

Casey

 

Cooper

 

It is such fun seeing them being enjoyed. I have several more to give to friends who thought their dogs would enjoy them too.  I will work on them this weekend for delivery in the new year.

 

I also made 12 rice bag covers with some great seasonal flannel I found at JoAnns

 

 

 

I saw a video somewhere on a google search on making infinity scarves.  It suggested using Minkie.  I couldn't find real Minkie but did find a good substitute on sale at JoAnns. I think this is it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcdhXZkJFqw&list=UUWnhR7raxVFDHmDXqCIzuAw&index=3

 

 

 

 

These were really quick and easy to whip up and they were immediately modeled by their new owners once the wrapping paper was removed.  I actually made 2 more on request of my niece on the right in the picture. There is now a black one and a brown one in the mail.

 

Sorry for the fuzzies.  The picture was taken in very poor lighting and then cropped to get the best view of the scarves at the expense of my sister and nieces. So Sorry ladies.

 

 

 

Then I made 4 more sleds for a great way to give cash as a gift.  The cash is wrapped in the red or gold paper that's on top of the candy bar.

 

 

I also made an additional set of placemats using the same pattern as in my previous post but forgot to take a picture.

 

That about wraps up my year end doings.  I do have a couple of more gifts to make for friends I haven't yet seen for the 2012 Christmas season but I guess they will be the start of my 2013 projects and I will post them next week.

 

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.  Stay Safe.

 

Merry Christmas to All

 

Christmas wished from Tinkerbell and Selina

(Santa too)

 

Hope it is all you wanted it to be.

The giving has started

We started the Christmas giving season at work this week. I make hand made gifts for 2 of my frineds at work every year. In my last posting I showed the corduroy 3 zip pouch which went to my friend P.

 

I forgot to take the pictures of the first 2 of 4 placemats that I made for my friend J. The first 2 were finished on time to deliver on Tuesday.  These 2 were finished today for late delivery tomorrow

 

These were great placemats to make for the holidays. They are made from 4 fat quarters stacked together and shuffeled.  This is the pattern I used.  It shows 5 versions.

 

Here are a couple of more dog toys. I decorated them front and back.  The stick man is going to P. for her dog Chuck and the little guy went to MJ's bosses puppy.

 

There are eleven people in the office that P and I give gifts to. Of course I totally missed a phote of them.  They were very nice travel mugs that we filled with hot chocolate, candy canes, mints and those mini hersey bars that I posted about a couple of posts back.

 

This year we also have 3 temps that we wanted to give a small gift to.

I got this idea from  Freda over at:
http://imperamagna.blogspot.com/2012/12/sleigh-ride.html

They whipped up in no time at all once I found my glue gun.  Oh and the background for this picture is the back of the first of the placemats.

I still have a couple of small gifts to finish up yet and I really need to start the Christmas cards. Tomorrow is another day.

Very Productive Weekend

 

Some weekends are so much more productive than others.  This one was wonderful.

I still have several gifts to make before Christmas.  This idea I saw in my bloggy wonderings   I found here

http://aquilterstable.blogspot.com/2012/08/triple-zip-pouch-tutorial.html

 

Debbi has done a terrific tutorial for this 3 zip pouch.

 

Saturday between errands and a Christmas party I had a couple of hours all to myself. I had been wanting to make at least 2 of these for gifts so I thought I would get started.  I got this one finished in 2 hours and 10 minutes.  The tutorial was spot on.  No problem at all with any of the zippers.

 

 

After making the first one I determined that I would like it a little bit bigger and the person getting this one would need a strap.  I added an inch in width and an inch in the length.  I had no problems with these minor adjustments.

 

I lined this one with flannel because I had this brain storm that the bottom pocket would be a terrific place to put sun glasses.  If you can't see it in the photos this pouch is made of corduroy. The problem I did have with this pouch was the amount of fabric I was working with.  corduroy, fussible fleece and fannel made for a rather cumbersome piece to work on.   I plan on making one for me and I'm debating the fusible fleece.  Time will tell. That will be an after Christmas project.

 

Here is a shot of the 2 of them with the smaller one on top so you can see the size difference and the strap.

 

Another idea I picked up in the last week was for a gift for the dogs in my life.

I first saw it in one of the chain pet stores for around $12.  This morning I saw the same idea in my food store for $8.99.

 

These are the base of the doggie gift.  Granted, the ones I saw in the store were covered with cutesie animals.  The point is not the cutsie animal but the scrunchie sound of the plastic Bottle. So I'm recycling my water bottles.

 

This was my first attempt, I used a small bottle because I have 2 small dogs ont he list. OK not so cutesie. Good thing it's for the dog because it could really scare the poop out a small child.

 

This is try 2, a little less scary.  I am using left over corduroy for the base because it was there. The faces are from scraps from the floor where I missed the trash can. After all they are for the dogs afterall.

 

Most of the dogs I know are bigger and tough on toys so I'm actually toying with using an old pair of jeans.

 

                           This one is my third try,  much more cheery and seasonal to boot.

 

Tink liked the one with the pink collar. It took a few tries to get a picture with her not in motion.

 

So I guess it was a very successful attempt.  I will make seveal more this week.

 

 

She is so cute she doesn't need a cute toy.

 

I'm thinking of adding a cookie pocket to the back. So many ideas, so little time.

A pretty productive week

In addition to finally finishing the pin cushion for my Giveaway (see last post) I managed to make this 1600  quilt for my aunt Kat who lost pretty much everything to Sandy.

 

 

While she isn't a real aunt, she is one of those people you grow up around and love.  She is actually my real aunt Gert's little sister.

 

 

She is currently living with her daughter's family.  I'm hoping that this quilt made with love will give her a great start to getting her life back.

 

Next up is a small non quilted gift. I first saw this idea here

http://cathcarts.blogspot.com/2012/11/advent-ideas-wrapped-mini-chocolates.html

 

 

This is a great way to upgrade some Hersey mini Chocolates from ordinary to gift worthy.

I made mine using some double sided card stock that I picked up at Target's

 

 

This fuzzy picture is of the back. 

My niece saw this and decided it would make a great gift tag if we did a

 

TO:

 FROM:

 

 on plain cardstock instead of using printed card stock.

 

 

They are wrapped in bags from Wilton designed to hold chocolate covered pretzels. You get 20 bags in a package with ties.  I did several versions, 1 with 3 pieces, 1 with 4 pieces and 1 with 5 pieces as seen here. I apparently neglected to take a shot of them.  They all looked great. Once they were wrapped and tied I just trimmed the bag's down to a neat length. 

 

Thanks Judy for such a super idea.

 

 For anyone interested I cut the individule wraps at 1.5 x 3 inches and used double sided tape to attach it to itself.  I cut the backing strip at 2 by 3.5,4.75 or 6 inches depending on if I used 3,4 or 5 pieces of chocolate.  They are a pretty snug fit in the Wilton pretzel bag.

 

 

This weeks finish

Janita from the Girl Friend Gap was the winner of my Holiday Lane giveaway.  She has been waiting patiently for me to finish the promised pin cushion.

I finally finished it about 20 minutes ago. It wasn't like I didn't try to finish it in a more timely fashion but it took 3 starts before I came up with an acceptable version.

All it is is a square with a bow on top.  My problem is that I took the tutorial seriously the first 2 tries and I just could not come up with a fabric bow that looked like the picture here.  http://emilytaylordesign.com/pretty-parcel-pin-cushion-tutorial/

I'm not sure why it took me to try 3 before my brain kicked in and said just use a real ribbon. DUH!

 

 

 

Actually, if I do say so myself,  I like it better and it was so much easier to do.  Mine is about a 3 1/2 inch cube.

 

So Janita if you are reading this, your pincushion will go out in the morning mail.

A Small Christmas Gift Tutorial

Last December I wrote my first tutorial for a series sponsored by Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt.

http://www.sewwequilt.com/2011/12/comfort-and-joy-with-selinaand-her-rice.html

So many of my current followers are new this year and I thought it would be great to share this tutorial with one and all.

Rice bags are heating pads or ice packs how ever you choose to use them.  I've been making them for many years. I regularly hear from past recipients requesting new for themselves or additional bags for giving.

You can make 6 gifts in an hour and a half with 2 half yard cuts of fabric and 12 cups of rice. You really can't beat that.

I made them for all of my coworkers last year.





So please follow the link and try out this quicky gift. In the tutorial it mentioned that I was going to have a rice bag related giveaway. That was last year.


OK so I can do it again this year, but you need to leave a comment HERE not there.  I'll pick a name sometime after the 15th of Dec 2012.

Holiday Lane Giveaway winner

I am very sorry to be so late in posting the winner for my giveaway, was a bit under the weather this past week.  I am not a person who normally gets sick so I didn't know what to do with myself except sleep. The sleep probably helped in my recovery but really messed with work and projects.

Anyhow, I have a winner.  MJ acted as my random winner generator again.  Janita of  THE GIRL FRIEND GAP had such nice things to say:

Wow! you have out done yourself. Claping and applauding you:) It is beautiful! Thanks for sharing in the hop. I would love your little pincushion. Thank you for a chance. janita

Wasn't that sweet.

I have sent her an email requesting a mailing address. Hoping to hear from her soon. 

Once I got back to myself I did manage a couple of projects that I will photograph this week and post.

Holiday Lane Pillow Blog Hop

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my US visitors and welcome one and all to my day of the Holiday Lane Pillow Hop.  Special Thanks are in order for Madam Samm our head cheerleader and then for this hops fearless leader, Pauline.

This is a hop for a great holiday pillow designed by Jill Finley of http://jillilystudio.blogspot.com/. When I signed up I thought this would be a great gift, but once I thought it through I decided I wanted it for me, myself and I.

 

Well in our house I no longer decorate with pillows. You see, when we are not at home the assistant, Miss Tink sometimes tries her paw at interior design. She is big into rearranging pillows, either for her comfort (90 pounds of drooling dog on hand made pillow, not good) or relocating them ( generally to the floor, a little better but not much).

 

My compromise was to make a pillow “topper” for my bed. Ok, this was a good size pillow pattern but I have a King Size bed. I needed to make Holiday Lane into Holiday Boulevard. . I was true to the original pattern size for the houses and trees, I just needed more of them.

 

 

 

Lots more of them. In fact  I needed 15  houses and 8 trees.

 

 

When it came time to deck the houses out I realized I didn’t want to do any stitchery ( I hate to stitch through fusible bond by hand ). So I improvised.

 

 

 

 I just love my scrappy windows, they are bonded on. When I went to do the door knobs I thought I could use my hole punch to get little circles. Couldn’t find the hole punch but while I was searching for it I found really neat brads. They worked out so nicely.

 

 

 

All in all I love Holiday (Lane) Boulevard, it’s a wonderful place to celebrate the season.

 

OK so now I have a giveaway, anyone who comments will be eligible for my drawing. The giveaway is my version of the pincushion found here. http://emilytaylordesign.com/pretty-parcel-pin-cushion-tutorial/   Of course it's not done yet.  But I won't draw a name until Dec 1 so I have plenty of time.

 

 

Here is a list of the other bloggers participating today.  Please stop and vist with them.

 

Thursday November 22

Apple Avenue Quilting

Hill Valley Quilter

Judith Handmade Treasures

Celtic Thistle Stitches

Quilt Doodle Doodles

13 Woodhouse Road

Louzeekreativ

Tink's Mom

I Piece 2-Mary

Beaquilter

Ninis Patchwork

Hallbrook Designs

I know it’s Thanksgiving here, but I would like to take this time to wish all of my blogging friends and acquaintances following this Hop a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

 

Selina