WIP Wednesday--still working on Christmas here!

Yeap, that's right. I'm still working on Christmas gifts. My parents are driving here from Saskatchewan and that has given me a little bit of extra time to work on my Dad's and Sister-in-Law's gifts. Good thing too because my package of felt that I had ordered went MIA for a week and is the main material in my Dad's gift! But it did eventually arrive safe and sound.


Here is what I've been working on doing with it:

It's a little hard to see, but I think you can see the turtle I embroidered on the 1/8" thick felt with my sewing machine. I wish I had of had some of the thicker Aurifil threads that I just learned exist. Oh well, I'm really happy with how the turtle turned out and know my Dad will appreciate it. 

The lettering is much easier to see. I used my AccuQuilt Studio with my AccuCut alphabet dies and cut the same shape out of both the grey and the orange felt. I really like the look of the orange felt inserted where I've removed the grey felt. Next time though I'm going to go with a thinner felt, the grey became really difficult to cut. I did some random stitching over the letters to hold them in rather than trying to glue them like I originally had planned (the glue I was going to use isn't safe for me to use while breastfeeding). I tried to give it a watery, wavy feel. Not quite sure I achieved that, but I think it looks cool. It's time to sew the rest of the pieces together to finish off the laptop bag before they arrive tomorrow.


I was really surprised how easy the felt was to work with, even though it's so thick. The felt was ordered from a Canadian source, just a few kilometers from where we live (www.thefeltstore.com). Yay! I love buying from local suppliers, feels like I'm keeping jobs in my community.


 I had no issues with using my rotary cutter and one of my quilting rulers. I found it a lot easier to cut than I do quilting cottons. I can think of another project around a year ago where my husband probably would have been a lot happier if we had done that. Oh well, we have the knowledge to try the rotary cutter first now! 


And for that other Christmas project for my Sister-in-Law:

I think it's looking a lot better thanks to everyone's advice. I'm really surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. This style of snowmen really isn't my cup of tea, but I'm not totally hating the project. I'm really enjoying the process and seeing the simple line drawing come to life. There will be more hand embroidery projects in my future I think. If you're wondering why I set out to do something that I don't like, it's because my Sister-in-Law will love it. And by love it, I mean LOVE IT. 


I had a couple finishes this week. A pair of lounge pants made in interlock with a gambling print for my Uncle P. (Which my Mom loves because they say "hit me" on them.) I also finished my daughters Christmas stocking. Just in time too! I finished it the morning of the 25th before she woke up.

I can't wait to show you what I made for my Mom, but she actually reads my blog. So you'll have to wait to see it until after I give it to her.

WIP Wednesday on Friday this week--focus on place-mats

I'm terrible at getting motivated to remove pictures from our camera. I finally took some pictures of the place-mats I'm working on and copied them from the camera. But only because I had the camera out to take some really cute pictures of my little girl for facebook.


Place-mats are still in the works. I have two completed, one that needs the binding hand stitched, and one that is still totally lacking the binding. I probably won't get these done until I can get to fabricland and purchase the thread I need to complete this. 

Now why would I take the time to do this? Especially sewing the binding by hand? Well...I'm about to finish my first very-own-all-by-myself quilt and don't want the binding to look like it was done by a "newbie" quilter. :$ 


Plus, I absolutely hate the wretched place-mats my hubby and I picked out when he got the table for the condo. They are super cute, but cleaning them is nearly impossible because of all the ridges and I really want to reduce the amount of plastic in our lives. So out comes some fabric from my stash that was meant for pillows (until I found two really awesome pillows at Pier 1). Now we are going from this:

Looks good, but virtually impossible to keep clean

To this (I made the napkins back in January or February):

To simply throw it in the washing machine to clean :o)
...and it isn't plastic! Yay

It's a little bit matchy, matchy with the binding fabric being the same as the napkins. But I totally love all the colours in this Liz Claiborne fabric and I'm really glad I've put my clearance fabric purchases to good use. 

New project addition this week:

* A Tinkerbell skirt for my niece Hayley. It's her birthday gift so I better get a move on!

Still in the works:
* Brown Bear, Brown Bear quilt. I need to get embroidery needles for my machine (and some thread) so I can satin stitch around the letters in the border. This will be my first time doing this so cross your fingers. I'll be practicing on a scrap piece first.
* My Asian bargello quilt. Just plugging away at it slowly enjoying the process.
* Some clothing alterations for my husband and I.
* Felt circle curtains. I need to get a piece of doweling to hang them from.
* My machine pieced cathedral window piece from the quilting course my Mom and I took as her  Mother's Day gift.


I better finish something this weekend so I can start something else! :oP

WIP Wednesday, on Thursday :oP

Well, I now have 2 of 4 placemats bound and on the table. I made napkins that match the binding months ago, it's about time I get this finished. I just take forever finishing bindings by hand. I'm not sure what my hold up is it is pretty easy.


I have a couple more rows of my asian bargello quilt done. Don't mind the wave in fabric in the picture. There just happens to be something under it on my ironing board. I'm planning on quilting a large dragon in each of the corners, and a really large koi fish (*sp?) in the center. For the rest of the space, I was thinking a really basic Sashiko style stitch to not draw away from the rest of the quilting design, but kind of sticks to the theme of the fabrics. Because of the number of seems though, it may be too difficult to do by hand. I might have to look at having someone professionally quilt this one.

I'm also working on a Brown Bear quilt for a friend who is going to have her 4th child in December. We're planning on giving them the quilt and a new copy of the book as a gift. Since I plan on hand quilting it, I better get going on this one. It is going to take me a while! Pia decided she must help showcase the beauty of this quilt. I have to choose a colour to satin stitch around all the letters on the border with. . . uggg.

And last but not least. . . you should be seeing a completed Dr. Seuss crib sheet soon, very soon. Audrey is so fixated with her Peter Rabbit and Curious George sheets, I decided she needed a Dr. Seuss one too!