Little Bits of Christmas

So what I'm going to share today is really simple. It isn't quite a tutorial, but an idea born out of desperation last Christmas Eve. I had run out of gift tags as I was wrapping gifts, and with a billion other things left on my to-do list, I grabbed what I had on hand and made do. Except what I ended up with was really kind of fun, and I liked it well enough to do again this year. So here you go, my reckless invention - Quilted Gift Tags.

Start with some plain shipping tags. I happened to have red on hand, but they do come in a variety of colors. For this project, I used the 4 3/4" x 2 3/8" size.

 Now I took what was left from a quilted project . . .

 and cut it into 2" x 3 1/2" pieces.

 I was able to get several rectangles out of my one 'scrap.'

Just stitch around the edges of your quilted bits right onto the tags and voila! Add some baker's twine (I cut mine 12" long for each.) and you're all set. There's plenty of room on the back side to write your gift greeting.

I'm thinking this project is random enough to join in for Really Random Thursday. You agree?
Also linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

This and That

Quilting blogland seems a tad subdued, which isn't too surprising really, but still. Honestly, since the big rush of finishing presents and wrapping on Christmas Eve, I haven't been in the sewing room except to clean up the mess I'd made! Event-wise though, there's plenty going on - some wrapping up (no pun intended), and some gearing up for the new year.

The Ruby Star Wrapping Contest comes to a close Sunday night. Each entrant is allowed three entries, so I entered my Simple Drawsting Bag, the Melody-Didn't-Mean-to-Make-It Tote, and my lifesaver as far as wrapping went this Christmas - the Pillowcase Pouch. I was happy to see some of you bloggy friends had entered too.

And while on the topic of sustainable gift-wrap, look at these clever {and darling} gift-tags by amyinuk. Check out the tutorial on her blog, [Amy's] Crafty Shenanigans.

Now on to new challenges for the new year! Saw this today . . .

If you remember, last year's color was Tangerine Tango, and I had great fun creating Tangerisk.

When last year's challenge was announced, I had never even heard of Pantone's Color of the Year. And I definitely was not an 'orange' person. But I must say that after this last year, I love it, and have used it quite a bit. So we'll see if Emerald has the same affect on me. Not sure yet if I'll participate in the challenge or not, but I do want to at least try and incorporate some Emerald in my sewing . . . just because.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of personal challenges I'm looking forward to. One of those is venturing more into foundation paper piecing with Elizabeth of don't call me betsy and her block of the month club.

To start us off, Elizabeth gave us a practice block - and yikes, it's pretty impressive! I'll try to work on mine soon so you can see . . .There's an option of making either 12.5" blocks or 6.5" blocks, and I think I'll go with the 6.5". So there may or may not be a Lucky Stars quilt down the road - maybe some smaller star projects. We'll see.

AND I've been itching for a 'tv project', and I don't always have a quilt laying around to bind. So I up and joined hey porkchop's Woodland Sampler series. Are any of you joining in?

I'm sure there's plenty more goings on. I'd love to hear what you're planning on getting involved in or trying new in the next weeks and months . . .

Christmas Finish Postscript

There's no W.i.P. Wednesday this week, so I thought I'd tally up the Christmas finishes I haven't shared yet.

Ruby Star Wrapping Pillowcase Pouches - This pattern saved the day for me. Though I had planned on making oodles of fabric gift bags this year, I missed my goal by a long shot. But on Christmas Eve, when I finally got around to wrapping my gifts for my family, I realized that not only did I not have as many fabric bags as I had planned, but I also ran out of paper ones. Thank goodness pillowcase pouches are pretty quick! I think I even was working so quickly that I forgot to take pics of a couple.

Drawstring Bags - I could not not make one for daughter dear, the queen of fabric gift bags! It was The Artist Bag (16" tall x 14.5"), in blue and gray snowflake dots.

Infinity Scarf - I mentioned last week that this item wasn't very photo friendly, and truly, I was afraid the project was a fail. Even though the fabric was a lovely voile, I wasn't sure it draped well enough. But once my daughter-in-law-to-be slipped it on, I knew it was fine. It looked just darling on her.

(fabric was cut 11"x42"; shown here looped once)

Zakka Frame Purses - I made three for gifts, two with the pleats, and one without, just to try it. Unfortunately, I only managed to take a finished picture of one of them.

Frame Purse - For this little one, I actually drafted a pattern to fit my frame, and I love its unique shape.

And lastly, in addition to running out of gift bags, I also ran out of tags! On Christmas Eve! So I cut into a quilted scrap from the stocking I made recently, and quickly stitched up some tags.

I'll definitely be making some of these again!

For next W.i.P. Wednesday, I hope to also report on the couple of projects I did not get done!

Linking up with finish it up Friday.