Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Blog news and Christmas sewing!

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I've spent the last 9 days working on my blog. I decided to buy my domain name, and it is now officially all set up! Feel free to continue to visit my blogspot address if that's easier, it will simply redirect you to my domain now!


Yay, it works!!

And now, on to the good stuff!

This year for Christmas I decided to make zip pouches for everyone in our family. I even made pouches for the guys, and they all seem to genuinely like them!

For the men, I made simple solid colored pouches with some basic quilting on them. Inside each pouch I included a first aid kit and a travel bottle of ibuprofen.

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

I had a little more fun with the girly pouches! In these pouches I included a lip gloss and some tea.

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

For our parents I also made some quilted placemats. I dug into my Flea Market Fancy for these, and I'm so glad that I did! I love how they turned out, and it was so nice to use up some of my stash that I'd been holding onto for something special. I used a 1/2 yd of 10 different prints for these.

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

Each placemat is made in a different colorway with two different prints separated by a dark brown strip. I quilted the strips with dense, straight line quilting. I then quilted each colored print with a different free motion design.

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

Lastly, I stitched up this pillow for my step-dad's birthday. His birthday was actually a few weeks before Christmas, but I was behind on my sewing for the holidays, so I finished it up just in time to send off with the Christmas gifts!

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

My step-dad loves elephants. I thought this print was quite appropriate with the smaller elephant "kids" and the larger elephant adults. :)
To make the pillow a bit less juvenile, I paired the elephant print with a bit of the new Kona Iron (which is officially my fav kona color now!) and a dark blue shot cotton. Some straight line quilting finished the pillow off nicely!

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

On the back I used the elephant print and straight line quilting, and I finished the pillow with an invisible zipper.

Christmas 2012 Gifts!

My mom tells me that my step-dad loves his pillow, so I'm sure it has a place of honor in his favorite chair!

7 comments:

Chelsea said...

The blog looks great. I know what its like to get sucked into those redesigns and get nothing else done!

Debbie said...

Beautiful projects!! And I bought my domain name and really need to figure out how to put it to use! Do you have any resources your referenced in doing yours?

Charlotte said...

fantastic gifts! I love the manly pouches - men are so tricky to sew for!

SeeingStars said...

What nice projects you shared. I like the zipper bags b/c you can invest a little time and share something special with lots of loved ones. The placemats are terrific too. I'm sure your parents were thrilled to see such pretty colors and prints. :) And the elephant pillow is adorable.

Teje Karjalainen said...

Hi! Your new look is great! I love the header and it goes so well with your own photo! Wonderful projects, too!
I changed my blog also because I wanted to organize it better. Still I didn't buy my own domain name. My dew address is www.nerospost.wordpress.com
x Teje

Becky said...

Looks great! I really need to do that, but have so little skill in that area LOL. Love the elephants!!

Kirsten said...

The blog header looks fabulous! Love all of your pouches and I adore the elephant pillow!