For the Granddaughters

These are little beaded crochet amulet bags to wear around the neck.  They can hold all the magic, amulets, charms etc. a girl possesses...or maybe they will hold some spare change and/or a dollar bill and some chap stick.  Who knows? They are Christmas gifts for the two granddaughters.  

I also bead crocheted a couple of wrap bracelets with button closures for them. 

They are the ones who like to dress in black now. I would rather have made them in all sorts of colors but they aren't for me. 

And I finished crocheting another hat for the hat pile. 

This was goal #18

for Finish-A-Long 2016

I finished one in purple/gray for the other granddaughter quite some time ago. 

For My Flamingo Loving Sister

My sister  💕💕💕💕💕 flamingos.  She even takes a couple  of those plastic ones with her on vacations to stick out at her campsite.  On her birthday last year she received a pink bicycle that her friends had rigged up with a flamingo head at the handle bars and flamingo body on each side of the curve down from the handle bars. (I'm not describing it very well but it's hilarious especially with her on it with a flamingo hat on her head. )   So, I made her a couple of flamingo pillowcases for Christmas.   I'm not so sure my brother-in-law will enjoy laying his head on a flock of flamingos but he usually goes along with my sister's whims without complaint. 

And  these pillowcases were goal  #20 

for

Q4 Finish-A-Long 2016

I also embroidered a couple of flamingos on a flour sack dishtowel and crocheted a scrubbie and dishcloth to go with it. 

Now I can cross flamingo-lovin' Deb off my Christmas to-do list. 

A Hat. How About That!

I finished yet another hat for one of the granddaughters. The granddaughters love hats and will get quite a variety from this granny for Christmas. 

This was my goal #17 

for 

Q4 Finish-A-Long 2016

Grab Bags

I just completed two "Grab Bags" for Christmas gifts for the granddaughters.  They are pre-teens (one turned 12 on Halloween and the other will be 12 on Dec. 7) and suddenly have abandoned their somewhat Bohemian style for the Goth look. I think that style is called something else now but just the same the color black dominates in their clothing choices and accessories.  Maybe they played with too many of those hideous Monster High dolls after ditching Barbie a few years back. Who knows? I just go with the flow.   They are still the same giggly girls with good grades and good manners I've always known.  They just look a little less colorful. 

I made these Grab Bags from some glow in the dark skull fabric and used the free pattern at AllPeopleQuilt.  Hopefully they fit into their "style". 

For the lining I used some black cat fabric and made pockets out of some spiderweb and eyeball fabric.  Kind of creepy, I know. 

You close them up by putting the side with the longer handle through the shorter handle.  

Of course I had to label my work but didn't figure a "made for you with love by grandma" label would be too cool. So I made up my own label or is it my brand name? - "Cat's Meow"...get it? My name is Cathy (husband calls me Cat) and these Grab Bags made by me are definitely The Cat's Meow! (Corny, I know, but I think the girls will get it kick out of it). 

I experimented with making the labels. First I used 100% polyester twill tape but the ink smeared too much on them.  Then I found this 100% cotton twill tape and it worked a lot better. I was digging around for some pens in my scrap booking stuff and found this little cat stamp and decided to try it too for a little fun.  My ink pad was dried up so had to buy a new one but that's okay because I think I see more Cat's Meow labels in my future. 

These two Grab Bags were goals 24 and 25

for Q4 Finish-A-Long 2016. 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag

Bag It! at Elm' Street Quilts

When It Is Too Hot to Hand Quilt Sometimes I Crochet

My eleven year old granddaughters (soon to be 12) love hats. So for Christmas I thought I would crochet them up a bunch of different hats.   I had the girls look through the pattern book and pick out a favorite (but I didn't tell them I would actually make them their favs).   This was Kayla's favorite - bear cub beanie.   I previously posted a finish for Isabelle's choice called Pixie Hood. 

I'm going to make another one of these so each of the girls gets one. 

And I need to make another one of these so each girl gets one.  I like the granny squares around the rim but I didn't like making so many of those darned little things. 

They each get a Cabled Beanie. I'm shocked I actually made the cable turn out because I had a difficult time understanding the directions.  While the directions were fresh in my mind I decided to start right in on the second one. 

All of the patterns were found in this book. 

I supposed I had better make my grandson a couple of hats too.  I know he will be jealous of theirs!! 

Every Once in a While I Need a Quickie

Four reversible fabric bags I've made to use as gift wrap. 

I've made several chicken themed ones and mailed them off already. The bag can be used as a fabric grocery bag.  The contents of the chicken themed bags include at the least a chicken hot pad, chicken embroidered dish towel and crochet dish rag. 

The Super Heroes and Monster High bags will have gifts in them for the Grand Kids. 

Guess what the gifts are! 

I've made a few more pillowcases using the hot dog method.  One of the pizza themed ones will go to my youngest son who is 30.  I think his diet consists mostly of pizza so he probably really has pizza stains on the pillowcase he uses now.  There are just some things a mother doesn't really want to know. 

I've made everyone else's pillowcases throughout the year so the extra pizza and cookie cases will go into my gift stash box. You never know when you will need a quick gift. 

Whooping it up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finishing it up with Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Peeping into Cat House Windows

I'm making a large cat house quilt and have two buildings out of four completed. 

I made  Little Windows quilt blocks.  It was August's Block Lotto block. 

For some strange unknown reason I've always had a large stash of cat fabrics. 

And then I won some more from Sally at Objects of Design. 

I decided it was time to do something with the cats. 

"Cat Houses" with some tongue-in-cheek words of advice from mom on the back will go to my youngest -confirmed -bachelor- and- longtime - lover- of -cats son for Christmas. 

(No spoiler here. No one in my family even knows I have a blog. )

Ok, this is the bottom floor, rear windows. Get it? (Groan). 

This is kind of draped on my mountain of batting that needs to be pieced - my makeshift design wall for this until I make a molehill out of that mountain. 

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

Chickens and Chocolates

Yes, I'm hand quilting hotpads. 

I thought it would actually be easier than quilting on my DSM and look better if I did so.  The backing fabric is jewel toned chickens on black.  I'll probably add binding I will hand stitch down later today and get these finished off for Christmas gifts.

I made 7 -10 x 10.5 chicken blocks based on a pattern at Sew Inspired.

I've always loved the story of the Little Red Hen and I thought this block in different red fabrics might make a cute baby quilt to go along with a Little Red Hen book.   (Now on my to-do list). 

I've also stamped a few more dishtowels for embroidery.  These will go along with the chicken hotpads and a crochet dishcloth as Christmas gift sets.   

I was digging around in some boxes of fabric and was surprised to find I had so many chicken themed fabrics. I might have enough to make a couple of fabric grocery bags to add to the gift sets. 

And since last week I've hand quilted another section of my Crazy Cravings quilt.  I've been trying to make the big stitching with Fudge Brown #10 crochet thread blend in here and there throughout the quilt. 

I figure sewing on chocolate is better than sewing while eating chocolate. 

I'm going to take a short break again from hand quilting on this until I finish all my Christmas gifts. 

But I am anxious to get it finished up. 

Are you hand stitching today?

Join us for Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts. 

Zombies and Comics and Lots of Love, Oh My!

Zombie pillowcases for my granddaughters.  

For the July A Lovely Year of Finishes my name was drawn for a $10 gift certificate at Stitches N' Giggles.  I saw these zombie and contrasting zombie eyes fabrics and figured my granddaughters would like some zombie pillowcases for Christmas.  They seem to love those hideous Monster High dolls so I'm sure they will love these. Not sure how sweet their dreams will be though. 

For Christmas my grandson will get comic book character pillowcases.  One piece was a remnant.  The other fabric I purchased with a 40% off coupon.  My grandson is only five but since he turned about 3 years old we've had these big discussions on which comic book character would save the day in theoretical situations.  I think I know more than I ever wanted to know about characters and their super powers. 

And finally, a couple of pillowcases for my daughter and son-in-law for Christmas made from more sale fabric - 50% off. 

 A few years ago I made sets of holiday pillowcases and gave them to my son and his fiance for Christmas and now my daughter has requested the same.  So, for a start I've got Valentine's Day covered. 

Linking up to:

Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

Throwing in the Towel...

...a hotpad or two, a crocheted dishcloth and a refrigerator magnet and wrapping it all in a bow so I can get a bunch of these sets sent off to family and friends. 

I like to embroider on dishtowels and give them away every Christmas. 

And make my own hotpads, nice and thick and full of Insulbrite and an old terrycloth towel (chickens on the back and 16 patch on the front)  

I previously blogged about some dishtowels I embroidered with veggies and so made some veggie hotpads to go with those sets.  I had also bought some cute vintage looking veggie fabric for the backs of the hotpads but, for the life of me, couldn't find it when it came time to get these made. I had some of the jar fabric in my scraps so that's what I used. And then when I was finished I found the cute vintage looking veggie fabric I had intended to use. 

Sometimes I make quilt sandwiches of fabric scraps, Insulbrite and whatever (cotton batting, terrycloth, etc) to practice some freemotion stitching on my DSM. So, while I was making hotpads I decided to get these bound for some personal hotpads.   I practiced a couple of feathers which I never did use on any quilts, and some leaves which I did use on a couple of quilts...

...and some flowers which I've used on several quilts. 

Peace!

Manicure, Anyone?

I decided to make a little manicure set for my 8 year old granddaughters who love getting their nails polished.  I was inspired by an old manicure set of my husband's grandmother that sits on our dresser (and I've been meaning to fix for years).

Unlike their grandmother my granddaughters love fancy and glitz. So I dug through my box of fancy fabrics (collected back when I made fancy Barbie doll clothes) and made up a couple of crazy quilt blocks 6.5 x 8

. 

 Then I cut some fabric for the inside and some stiff interfacing 6.5x8 and basted the interfacing to the wrong side of the inside fabric.

I found some elastic at the store with places for buttonholes and some manicure set tools. 

Remembering there is a fold in the middle I laid out the tools, laid the elastic across the top of the tools stretching it a little and sewed on little buttons over the buttonholes. 

I then cut 2 lengths of ribbon about 10 inches long. (It didn't have to be that long but it gives little fingers more to work with when tying their manicure case closed. )  I based them over the elastic, keeping the ribbon to the inside. 

I removed the tools and with right sides together sewed around all side with a 1/4 inch seam, leaving about a 2 inch space at the bottom for turning. 

 Turn right side out and sew opening at the bottom shut with blind stitch.

 I sewed my "handmade by" tape on the bottom of the inside.

And then buttonhole stitched all around the outside edge. (Sorry for the dark, blurry pic. If I'm in the mood later I'll try to take a better one.)

And now my granddaughters have manicure sets that I hope last as long as the manicure set of my husband's grandmother.