Bottle Gift Bags

I am such a good aunt.

When my niece and her husband go to friends for dinner and bring a bottle of wine he thinks that it should be done with style and grace and not a brown paper bag.

Periodically I get a call to please make a supply of these goodie bags. This time the call was for Christmas and for non Christmas fabrics bags.   

They really are very easy to spit out and they do make a dent in the stash so it's a win all the way around.

The only real extra that I do is to finish off the seam. I do like the look of a flat feld seam.

Since the bag only has the one seam down the back and across the bottom it really isn't much of an effort but I always feel better once it's done.

The pathetic part of this process is that I never make bags for my wine gifts, but I do make the wine.

Have a great week and if you are celebrating, have a great Turkey day.

Black Tie Boogie

Welcome to the Black Tie Boogie Hop.  I have the awesome responsibility of being the first up. I hope to do Mdm Samm and Vickie proud. Thanks to you both for yet another challenge to our creative abilities.

Several years ago I made this Chicken quilt for my niece for Easter.  Such a good kid, she knew exactly where it was when I needed it for these pictures.

Her mom, my sister, asked if, when I had some free time could I make her one too. Not exactly the same, well the same but smaller..  I tried out using less blocks but it didn’t work so instead I reduced the size of the chicks  and by then I was tired of chicks so up on the shelf they all went.  Jump a couple of years ahead and we have a hop for Chicks, who ever would have thought.  Ok so down from the shelf they came.  All of them together, none had wondered off which was a bit surprising since about every 5 or 6 months I keep tripping over 1 stray chicken  block in my sewing room and I keep putting it in a safe place and we all know what that means. 

So here they both are so you can see the size difference.   I actually like the smaller one.  I think Sissie plans on hanging it in her powder room for Spring.   I only think that because she already has a Halloween quilt and a Christmas quilt and an Any Time quilt for that spot already. So it’s a good bet that this one will end up there too.

Here's an up close picture of the chickens. The large chickens were hand appliqued and the small chickens were machine blanket stitched.  Those cute little legs  and feet were done with  black pigma pens on both.

So now we are up to THE FOWL I wanted to make the most.  I fell in love with the Chicken Pin Cushions during the Pin It Hop. The Pinterest listings for each blog hop is a wonderful place to use as a reference tool.    I found and used the tutorial created by Deonn over at Quiltscapes that can be found here. http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/cutting-corners/2012/03/02/spring-chickens/

I started with this trio.  I didn't have a plan for size or color so I spent a couple of hours just playing in the scrap drawer.

I found this neat plaid and thought I'd give it a try but I couldn't settle on a size I really favored.

Then I saw my Christmas Stash/Scraps.

So these guys are winter themed.

Then some Hanucah Chickens,

Then some Merry Christmas fowls

This was a really easy pin cushion to do. I made all of the seasonal birds in an afternoon. I also discovered that I like them in groups of 3, could you quess.

  

This group has decided to turn their backs on me. They have declared that they want a new home. They weren't up for the competition as to who was the cutest.

So if you leave a comment I will pick a couple of names to send these deserters to.

I hope you will take the time to visit each and every participant in this hop.  I am so sure that there will be loads of inspirational ideas.  And what we all need in mid November is more inspiration as we head into the holidays. Tee hee hee

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Here is a list of the rest of today’s players.

November 19

Selina Quilts (you are here)

Sew Peace To Peace

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
The Quilting Queen Online

http://marlarockscrafts.blogspot.com/

Baby Girl Shower Gift

This is a quilt from my tops stash.  This is for a baby shower for a pending baby girl.

Finished up last night.  Good thing since the shower is this afternoon.

Love that squiggle quilting. It is so fast and so fun for kid quilts.

I found this wonderful backing at the Hobby Lobby.

Aren't they the cutest collection of kitties.  I think I need to go back and get some more for my stash.

For the Boys

Wow the timing on this hop was wonderful.  I knew I needed a baby quilt or two for the late fall -  early winter but I didn’t have a clue if they would be for boys or girls or one of each. 

Turns out I need one of each.  By the time I heard about the second child being a girl it was too late I had already started to quilt my second boy quilt.  It’s OK she will get a lovely quilt from my stash of completed tops.

Before the pictures comes the Thank you’s.  As always a big thanks to Mdm Samm for her creative mind and her organizing skills and  a special thanks for this hops special Cheerleader   Amy over at  http://sewincrediblycrazy.blogspot.com/

Without each of these ladies this would be an empty post.

I’m going to start with an oldie but goodie Manly  quilt I made for MJ several years ago.  It is from a kit I got from Country Threads called BUNK HOUSE QUILT. 

It is definitely a MAN’S quilt. It is made from several different home spuns and is truly a  masculine looking quilt.  MJ is just over 6’3” so the length of this quilt was wonderful for him to snuggle under in the man cave while watching football and the like. 

 I did a simple cross hatch for the quilting keeping true to the basic style and functionality of the pattern.  OK so the snuggling while watching football is not what I was originally going for but there wasn’t a cowboy available, more the pity.

Next up is the first of the 2  baby boy quilts I made. This one using some novelty fabric of rockets  and some coordinating fabrics from my stash.  

I love this little boy quilt. I love that it’s so simple but bold,  bright and cheery.  I have done some squiggly quilting lines down and across.

I backed it with my buy of the year.  I got this fabric in green, blue and pink with and without flowers as it was being sold out at by LQS.   Think I got close to 15 yds in total at 40% off.

 Back in Aug/Sept I made some Anvil blocks for  Victoria Wolfe at  http://www.15minutesplay.com/    Victoria collects these blocks and makes quilts for Cancer patients with them.  She collects blocks from anyone who is willing to help.   You can find a tutorial for the block on her blog   

 I had never made this block before.  I fell in love with it.  While home recouping from the Gallbladder surgery I whipped out 2 tops in about a week and a half.  I’ll get around to posting them sometime. Anyway, I thought this block would make a great “boy” quilt.  

Last month a Hobby Lobby opened about 10 minutes from work.   It is amazing how much trouble you can get into in 40 minutes.  I wanted to find out how their fabrics were so I picked up the makings for this Anvil Block quilt top for my baby Boy quilt #2. 

Aren’t  these dinosaurs great?  I liked the quality of the dinosaur and dotted fabrics but the solid fabric left me wanting.   I also quilted this one with the squiggles down and across.  

I backed  and bound the quilt with the orange dot fabric.  Needed to expand it a tad so I added the white strips.

Last spring I went to a baby shower where we were asked to decorate baby tee’s and onesies. This idea in my opinion was way better than playing games.  They supplied lots of things to use as stencils, fusible bond and misc fat quarters to choose from.  The mom’s sister was stationed at an ironing board and matched up the pieces.  She ended up with about 15 “designer" onesies and about 15 tee shirts.

Running with that idea I am adding these to the quilted gift.

I was planning on doing 4 shirts.  I pulled the fabrics from my stash bonded the fusible and cut out the little guys.   Little Dino #4 was done on some terrific fabric that looked like confetti.   Honestly it looked like confetti, not like godzilla.  I could not have done this if I tried.

I'm gonna have to save this little guy for next years Halloween Hop.

I had a great time, as always participating in this hop.  I hope you are enjoying the fun and are absorbing all the great ideas for guy gifts included in last week’s postings and those coming this week.  Please stop by and visit the other hop participants up today, you won’t be sorry that you did.

Jane's Quilting

Pieces By Polly

how Art you

Selina Quilts  ( you are here)

Upcycled Fabric

BQuiltin Studio

In The Boon Docks

Gemini Stitches

Secretly Stitching

Happy Halloween

What a great day!


                                          READY

                                         
                                          SET

                                         GO

As you can see, Tink is our assistant in everything we do.  With her short stubby legs she needs to stand on an old end table to look out the door.

I tried to capture some sense of the crowd that we had. They came in groups. It was a light year. We used to run between 350 and 400. My guesstimate based on what I have left is that we only had 250 - 275 tricksters. You can see why we are such a prime location. These are townhouses so the doors are no more than 20 feet apart.

                               
                                          I had a great day, hope you did too.

Wicked Hop

                               

For this hop I specifically made 2 projects. I am adding several other wicked items I made for this Halloween season.  But first I want to Thank both Mdm. Samm and Wendy for organizing and cheering us along the way. Without your support we just wouldn't be having this Ghoulishly  fun event.

I have 2 friends with September birthdays so what better way to participate in this hop then by making them Wicked birthday presents.  Since they don't know each other and live 1500 miles apart I felt comfortable making them both the same gift.

                                          Not 1

                                         Not 2

                                          But 3, nesting baskets

                                         With a cool polka dot lining.

These wonderful Nesting Bowls are from the pattern by  Nova at www.acuppaandacatchup.com        

While I know I have made similar baskets without patterns in the past. The joy of using this pattern was that all of the math was clearly done for me. She offers measurements for  a 4,5,6,7,8 and 9  inch versions. As well as measurements and directions  if you wanted to add a detailed band in the middle or how to calculate different sizes.  I choose to make the 5,6 and 7 inch plain versions.

Don't they nest well together. I found both of these great seasonal fabrics at Joanns.

Next up I saw this cute tutorial for a set of quickie coasters by Beth over at Love Laugh Quilt.  While they are great on their own, I needed to make them Wicked, so I added some Bats and Black Cats.

Now onto my latest interest, Post Cards.  It started with Michelle's wool postcard patterns that I fell in love with  over at Raspberry Rabbits    http://theraspberryrabbits.blogspot.com/   So far I have finished 2 of them.  There are 5 Halloween patterns in the set.  I'll get to the others soon.

Then I participated in a Post Card swap for the Fall Season with Sheila over at http://sheilasquiltworld.blogspot.com/
For that swap I shrank down and slightly modified the latest FFF pattern by Kaaren Johnston at Painted Quilt.  I love how it turned out in it's 4 x 6 version.

Well that's it for me this go around.  I hope you have been visiting the other participants this week as well as the ladies I am hopping with today.  

Oh, I almost forgot.....I am going to have a give away of the set of Wicked Coasters.  If you are interested in a chance to win, just make a note in the comment. I'll send them anywhere.

Edit:

So I put this post to bed on Sunday evening.  Scheduled it for today, done.  Not so fast.  On Monday  my girl friend and I went looking for some smallish Halloween Candy sacks. She wasn’t fussy, they will be a token goodie bag for her collage age son and his roommates that she would fill with candy.  Couldn’t find anything in the size she was looking for so I volunteered to use some of my Halloween stash to make them.  Just your basically wicked Trick or Treat Sack.

                                                     These little guys measure in at 7x7x2

                                                         I made 4,  I’m really done this time.

                                        Please stop in and visit all of the other participants for today.

Tea Time Creations

Moosestash Quilting

More Stars in Comanche

Shape Moth

Selina Quilts   (this is me)

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Robin’s Fabric Nest

Craft Nurse Quilt

Quilt Doodle Designs

Just Quilt It