Celine Pouches

Needing a couple more stocking stuffers, I decided to try a pouch from Fun with Flex Frames by Cocotte & Co Creations @cocotteandcocreations. I tried Pouch B, which finished at 5.25” x 5.25”. I thought it would be a good shape, as I was going out on a limb and substituting fabric with leather. Obviously I needed to make a few adjustments: 

• omit interfacing/fusible fleece
• 100/16 (or larger) needle
• cut casing 1" shorter and leave raw edges on ends
• use 3.0 stitch length to stitch the leather; 3.5 for top-stitching

Oh! And I embossed the leather with the initials of the recipients using my alphabet leather stamps.

I made two - one for each of the guitar-players in the family, slipping some new guitar picks in for each of them.

Fortunately, I had the right size of flex frames on hand. It was fun to change things up a little by using the leather, and I loved the result. Hope the recipients do too!

Dropcloth Advent Calendar | Days 15 - 24

Well, my Advent Calendar from Dropcloth @dropcloth continued to bring a spot of anticipation to my mornings. After starting with a bee theme, we've since seen a dessert theme, a mushroom theme, and now a quilt theme - oh joy!

15- Quilt washi

16- Tiny dollhouse quilt by @dropcloth

17- ✂️ sticker by @sarahhearts

Day 18 was the beginning of a celestial theme....

18- 💫 bobbin by @velvetguillotinellc

19- Sparkle 🧵 by @valdani

20- 🌖 👁️ stick and stitch by @dropcloth

21- Moon rocks 🍬 by @maevechocolate

I'm not sure about the 'theme' for these last several items, but the Frixion pen was definitely in preparation for the last couple of days.

22- Heat erasable 🖊️ by @frixion_global

23- Stick and stick exquisite corpse trading cards by @dropcloth. 

Trade with friends! Add your own with your pen!!

24- Word of the year patch by @dropcloth

So that's a wrap! I think my very favorite items were the threads and the samplers; but I also really enjoyed new-to-me chocolates(!) and Day One's bee hive thread bobbin! All told, it was a fun and useful mix of items and definitely a treat for the season.

Merry Christmas!

 

Dear friends, thanks for being here all through the year.

Wishing you a cozy day with plenty of joy this Christmas, 

a pause for rest, and a heart full of hope.

2025 Lined Drawstring Bag Sew Along

By now you probably know.... it's tradition! I'm talking about the Lined Drawstring Bag Sew Along hosted by Jeni Baker @jenib320. I've been participating as long as it's been held - 2020 or 2021? - and making Jeni's bag pattern long before that. It all started when my daughter Rachel @snippetsofsweetness began making these reusable gift bags years ago, the family (and friends!) liked them and grew to expect them, so I joined in the effort and started making them too. After family Christmas, Rachel and I return all the bags to the appropriate maker, so we each have our own hand-made stash to start with the next year. For birthdays, though, we seem to assume the gift bag is part of the gift. Go figure!

At any rate, before joining Jeni's sew along this year, I got out my Christmas bag stash to see how many and what sizes I had. Nearly 40! And that probably would have been enough. BUT. There's always the random present that no bag will fit, or some new fabrics to add to the collection. There's a variety of reasons to need to make just a few more.

Since it's always hard to guess what sizes will be needed, I just started making. Happily, I found a few partially-constructed bags in my Christmas fabric stash, so that's where I started (above). Left to right, there's an Artist bag with mini accent, a two-fabric DVD bag, and a Snack-size with mini accent.

Then, wouldn't you know it, one of my friends who always loves my handmades, asked for a few bags in a variety of sizes as her gift this year. So for her, I made an Artist bag and a Project bag, both with a mini accent; and one of Jeni's new Scrappy Color Blocked Lined Drawstring Bags in the snack size.

Then there was another Snack size bag with a mini accents for another friend's gift.

AND I just really needed to make some new bags for Rachel in blue Christmas-y fabric. It's all Deco Frost by Giucy Giuce. I made a trio, all the Artist bag size, in a variety of the fabrics and bag designs - (right to left below) a mini accent, a traditional, and a two-fabric variation.

Another friend got an Artist bag using the Peek-A-Boo Lining variation....

And finally, I tried Jeni's Leftover Quilt Block bag, which is a new size - 12" wide x 16.5" tall - the same width, but just a few inches taller than The Project Bag. Actually, the block I used - from the Block Studies Collective Star Brite prompt - was just 11" square, but the tutorial is easily adaptable, which is great.

Well, I think I outdid myself this year! Twelve new bags in all. Honestly, it never gets old.

Twinkling Triangles Pillow

After giving you an update on the making of all my Twinkling Triangle blocks, I kind of left you hanging, unless you saw the reveal on IG. The mystery design behind all the paper-pieced blocks was a modern tree!

I got the tree pieced, but then life intervened, and it took me a few days to continue on in my effort to make a holiday pillow cover. 

Once I'd used more background fabric to make the tree section more square-ish, I added mitered borders in two of the fabrics used in some of the blocks - Kona Glacier and RJR Fabrics' Skinny Stripe in Grove. 

Then on to quilting! Quick and fun was the requirement here, so I went for a vertical serpentine stitch, reminiscent of tinsel. I used Aurifil 50wt 5006 [Light Turquoise], which was pretty yet subtle over the tree, the background, and the borders. I went with a simple lapped backing because time was of the essence.

Putting my 24" cover on a 26" pillow form made it plenty puffy, so much that you can hardly see the borders in the photos. Let me just say, 24" is a big pillow! Below is the new Twinkling Triangles pillow with the 12" x 18" candle pillow cover I made earlier this month. 

Anyway, the Twinkling Triangles mystery sew along with Melanie @mellmeyer was an enjoyable addition to the season, that's for sure.

Quilt-Holder Ornaments

What is it about the holidays? When I saw Berene @happysewlucky post her quilt-holder bear recently, I suddenly wanted to make one too! Except I couldn't find any bears of the right variety, so when I happened upon some ornaments with their paws out in front, I was pretty sure I could adapt them just fine.

As Berene did, I used her HSL Tinies Christmas Pack pattern to make the very tiny quilts. Most were about 2"; the reindeer just a little larger. Here are the four cuties I made.

Fiddly as they were (tiny is not my first piecing-language!) they were so fun to make and to give.

Block Studies Collective | Star Bright

Another month, another challenge and bit of color exploration with Block Studies Collective and Tara Faughnan @tarafaughnan. The theme, Star Brite, was basically a chance to master y-seams. There were all sorts of star variations we could try, and I decided to go for the scrappy string piecing option.

I worked from stash this month, pulling solids as close as I could to Tara's selection, saving my favorite for the background. Thanks to two zoom meetings on the same day, I was able to completely piece my star. I sent a picture to my daughter Rachel @snippetsofsweetness, who thought it looked very springy, and perfect for a gift bag. Lightbulb! Jeni @incolororder had just posted a lined drawstring gift bag pattern for leftover 12.5" quilt blocks. Well my block wasn't actually leftover, but I still thought it sounded perfect to use this block to try Jeni's new bag variation.

My block was just 11", but it was easy to adjust the pattern to suit my block. I just made the accent 4.5" rather than 5" wide; thus the lining was cut 11" x 15".

So it may have taken me over four hours to piece that multi-colored star, but it only took about 30 to sew it into a bag. Can't beat that. I got to try out the y-seam challenge, and still have a finished project in record time.

Dropcloth Advent Calendar | Days 7 - 14

I've been totally enjoying my Advent Calendar from Dropcloth @dropcloth. Honestly, it's one of the first things I think about when I wake up in the morning! Where the first six days were all about bees, we've had a couple of new themes since. First there was desserts....

7-Pie Needle minder by @schandworks

8- Darning thread (perfect for embroidery) by @cloverusa

9- 🍰 sampler by @dropcloth [inspired by a very early sampler]

10- variegated thread by @lecien_cosmo

and then the theme switched to mushrooms!

11- 🍄‍🟫 bobbin by @velvetguillotinellc

12- 🍄 zipper pull by @commacraftco

13- 🍄 design by @dropcloth

14- vintage fabric and zipper [Rebecca gave us all the supplies needed to make a zipper pouch with the mushroom stitchery!]

So that's been fun. It's been nice knowing I can count on a sweet little surprise each day.

Luminaries II

Back in 2020, I made Luminaries, a 15" x 28" quilt representing seasonal paper lanterns with a candle inside. I really loved it, but so did a friend, so I went ahead and gifted it to him. Ever since, I've been thinking of making another one to keep. 

One issue was that I didn't have any more of the focus fabric, and I didn't even know what it was, as I'd only worked with a scrap for the first Luminaries. Luckily, I was able to figure out that it was Charley 
Harper Barkcloth Cactus Needles, and eventually found some to purchase on Etsy.

I actually made all the luminary blocks last fall, but never got too far. Fast forward to this November, and I had decided I wanted more of a table runner for this project. So I gathered all the bits and pieces, including varying amounts of Konas Storm, Navy, Indigo, and Windsor that I'd stashed away. I also went through my scraps to see what blues, blacks, and grays I could add to the mix. And then I began designing/creating on the design wall.

The initial arrangement of luminaries (above) fit on the wall, but by the time I added an extra 16" or so to each end, it was too long (about 82") to fit either on the wall or in my camera photo frame.

Then, of course, it was time to create a quilt back, and I was happy to use every scrap other than a few pieced luminaries, into these two panels. 

For quilting, I used several threads, Aurifil 40wt 5015 [Gold Yellow] for the accent stitching through the center; and for the sides of the runner, Aurifil 50wt 4241 [Very Dark Grey], 2692 [Black], 2784 [Dark Navy], and 40wt 2730 [Delft Blue]. Once trimmed and finished, it measures 20.5" x 80".

After making the Modern Madras Table Runner a while back, I chose to again use Quilters Dream Select batting and an envelope-style finish. The combo worked great with the first runner, but I think with the more dense piecing of the Luminaries top, it wasn't ideal. The Luminaries quilt sandwich didn't quilt as smoothly as the first, unfortunately; and I can't say I'm 100% happy with the end result.

That said, once it was pressed, it doesn't look too terrible on our dining table. It's very blue - perfect for Advent - and though it gave me some grief during quilting, it's usable; and for now, I'll be happy with that.