14 Days of Valentine Love

I got inspired to  do something special for the grandkids for Valentines Day this year.  Maybe it will become a tradition.  Who knows.  So I started with some chair-back envelopes.  I got the idea here, but I decided to make them out of fabric instead of felt.

Each day the kids will get one little gift from Grandpa and Grandma in their valentine envelope, including foaming hearts,

 marbled playdough with cookie cutters,

 shaving cream valentines they can swirl around with a Q-tip,

 shark  clothespins with magnets from Family Fun magazine,

 a printed Valentine I Spy sheet,

 a Valentine matching page,

 crayons and a "Math" sheet of counting, measuring, and graphing using candy hearts,

 "dachshund" pencil puppies,

 chocolate mint chex mix with valentines sprinkles,

 Valentine slime with glitter,

 Valentine bookmarks with fabric hearts,

 heart bracelets (with hearts drawn on sideways--oops),

 bags of S'more mix--teddy grahams, mini marshmallows, and Valentine M&Ms,

 and pop-up Valentine cards.

 This is what the pile of goodies looked like

and then into the box it went

 along with directions for the parents.

Oh, and there was one more present...an Ohio State Championship shirt for everyone!!!

New twist on crayon rolls

Needed to make some crayon rolls for a benefit.  I've never been satisfied with the closure on my crayon rolls.  These elastic hair ties don't last.  They get thin and lose their stretch.

The ribbon ties are too difficult for kids to use.

So I came up with this idea.  I used a few inches of 1/2 - 3/4 inch elastic and a strip of fabric twice as long.  I sewed the fabric into a tube, inserted the elastic, and sewed it in place.  I think it's a good improvement, but I'll need to hear the final say from some kid-testers!

Hope they work because I made a bunch!

Christmas Pillows

A friend asked if I could make some new pillow covers for her for Christmas.  Of course! 

For the first pillow I used wool felt, cut different sizes of circles, and added different kinds of embroidery stitches for fun.  I hand-sewed the circles on the background. I got the idea here.

My friend had some scraps left from some Christmas stockings she had made.  Because the pieces were so small, I had to do a pieced design.  I decided to make four wonky Christmas trees for this pillow.  I machine quilted around each tree and quilted some random stars.

And another felt design...found here.  This was definitely the quickest one to make.  I used fusible web and machine sewed around the edges.

After making the other scrap pillow, I was left with only tiny pieces. So I decided to make nine small blocks.  I cut different widths from the scraps.  After cutting squares of quilt batting a little larger than I needed, I sewed the scraps on, using a quilt-as-you-go method.  After each square was covered with fabric, I trimmed them to the right size and stitched them all together.

I REALLY wanted to keep each one of these pillows when it was finished, but it sure is fun to make them for a friend...and she loved them, too!

Little purses

 Two cute little purses for a friend's granddaughters.  They are reversible.

You can find a tutorial here.

Tiny Christmas Garland

I read today that it's only 1 month and 26 days until Christmas.  It's a good thing I finished this little cutie yesterday.

Pillow Finishes

Not sure why I like to make pillows so much.  Perhaps because they are quick and let me try out new patterns without making a huge time or money commitment.  Anyway, I LOVE to make pillows.

This one is paper-pieced and has a scrappy border around it.  I also put a little pizazz on the back.

I actually made these pillow tops quite a while ago but finally got around to making the pillows.  I borrowed the idea for each of the pillows from amazing bloggers I follow, but tried to add my touches to each.

 I love the colors and the pattern of this one.  I added a scrappy corded edge.

This was a new circle technique for me.  Each circle is appliqued on to the top.

 Love pom poms!

 This is the back with a little embroidered detail on the covered buttons.

And finally, this beauty.  I appliqued the circles onto the background squares by machine, leaving a raw edge on the circles.  Then each square was cut into fourths, mixed up, and pieced together.

Chalkboard-To-Go

I saw one of these at the fabric shop and had to see if I could make one.

 Open it up and, voila...a chalkboard made of chalkboard fabric.

 With elastic chalk holders...

 and a fabric eraser that attaches with velcro.

Mine is 9 x 20, but I think I would make it shorter, perhaps 18 instead of 20, next time.