Birthday gifts

Shoebox time again!

I have been saying all year that this year is flying past FASTER than ever. And now I KNOW I am right!

It's Shoebox Appeal time again.  Seems about three months since I was making items to put in my 2015 Shoebox. We have the service on 6th November when people bring their Shoeboxes to church and they are put at the front by the communion rail, creating a marvellous display of Christmas paper-wrapped shoeboxes. It is a wall of colour.

As usual I am filling my box with little gifts suitable for  2-4 years old girl.
I have made a patchwork tote bag, a little quilt for the teddy I bought and a knitted beanie.
Tomorrow I will go to the shops to buy the other items: toothbrush, soap, toothpaste, crayoning things, little gifts like a ball etc.  I love collecting them together and am always surprised how much can be fitted into a shoebox. There are strict rules about what the boxes can contain and after the service we have a team of ladies who go through each box, methodically checking that everything is "allowed". Next day they are taken to a local centre where they are all checked again by another team of people before they are loaded onto trucks to be despatched to various countries ready to be given to the children in time for Christmas.  It is a huge operation and everyone involved is a volunteer.

Sorry, somehow this photo has turned sideways and I don't know how to turn it around!

Off to read through the Shoebox list if "Allowed items".

Christening Gifts

Just finished two patchwork totes to hold the books of Bible stories I am giving as Christening presents to our neighbours' baby granddaughters, cousins Freya and Eadie who were born only a month apart.

 

 

And with the books that will be popped inside the bags:

 

 

When I bought the two books I wanted to get a different one for each baby, I didn't think about their dimensions being slightly different.  The blue book wouldn't fit into the same sized tote as the other book, so I had to make Freya's bag larger.  Hope their Mums don't think that's odd!

 

The photos were taken on a dismal grey day and the colours of the patchwork are not as bright as they are in real life.  However, they are ready for the Christening at the end of the month.

 

At last, I've made some Wonky Wishes blocks

Earlier in the year I made a few Wonky Wishes blocks as QAYG blocks for the Soy Amado Project.
I had seen them originally on Bonnie Hunter's blog (her pattern) and had watched her making them on one of her QuiltCams.

They really sang to me, hence the QAYG versions for Alison's project.

Since then I have been adding to my stash of 2.5" squares although I regularly deplete them by making patchwork totes for little girls!

Finally, yesterday I put a few Wonky Wishes blocks together.  They are intended for a 'boy' quilt, so I eliminated any 2.5" squares which included pink or mauve/purple. That immediately made a dent in the stash which says a lot about the colours I favour!

I love using scraps and find Bonnie's ideas so stimulating. Of course I also love stars!  I thought I had quite a mix of fabrics but found that really wasn't the case and struggled to get enough contrast and variety in the blocks.  So far I have completed these:

As long as you have a large supply of 2.5" squares, including a pile of neutrals for the centres and loads of small neutral scraps you an make these blocks very quickly, in a chain pattern, revolving two blocks at a time as Bonnie suggests.  I also used her 'webbing idea' which was new to me but easy to do, efficient to make as it eliminates the need to pin the rows together.

I took some photos of a block to show the method:

1.  All three rows "webbed"

2. Rows 1 & 2 sewn together:

Each of these blocks is actually a quarter of the finished block as you put 4 together to make a Wonky Wishes  block measuring 12.5" so I have a lot more to make. However this is an on-going project so when I run out of interesting and varied 2.5" squares I'll put it aside for a while until I build up my stash again.  Good fun though. I can recommend the block and the method Bonnie shows on her blog.  It's under her "Free patterns" tab.

As I said I cut, stash and use 2.5" scrap squares all the time and my stash is taking a hammering at present!

My lovely little granddaughter is forever at birthday parties so I suggested to my daughter that I could make patchwork totes for gifts, with the birthday girl's name appliqued on the front ( as long as the name was 4 or 5 letters long).  So I have made quite a few! 
The latest is for Emily - birthday coming up soon I believe:

The back:

 

Having a variety of squares already cut makes these projects so quick to make.

So another happy time sewing and a few more scraps used up!  I so enjoy using every last bit of fabric!

 

Two little totes - all finished

I wanted to make one more gift to pop into my Operation Christmas Child shoebox - a little patchwork tote.  At the same time I made another similar tote for my little granddaughter to give as a birthday party gift for her school friend Niamh.

For both bags I used 2.5" squares from my stash and laid them out in 5 rows of 4 squares.

I lined both with the same pale pastels striped fabric and used a bright pink with turquoise dots for the handles.  Both bags had squares of both fabrics in them so it did match up.
The bags finish at 7.5" x 9.5".  I appliqued Niamh's name on the front of her bag.

Here they are:

 

 

I hope both little girls will enjoy carrying their treasures around in them.

 

It is so useful having a stash of squares on hand - an idea I got from Bonnie Hunter's blog. 

Whenever I finish a project or I am just left with a small piece of fabric after I have been cutting out I cut it into useful sizes for my scraps stash:

 

These are the sizes I always cut scraps into:

 

SQUARES:



2", 2.5", 3", 4.5"

 

STRIPS:

1.25", 1.5", 2", 2.5"

 

Small scraps are put into my Crumb blocks tin.

 

Uneven shaped strips are kept in a bag ready to be used in Strip quilts.

 

So you see, nothing is wasted!

Little patchwork bags for little girls

This afternoon I finished the second of two patchwork tote bags I promised to make for my granddaughter to give as party gifts to her little friends.

As both 4 year olds have short names I was able to applique them onto the front of their bag.

I always have a stash of 2.5" squares, fusible webbing and suitable pieces of fabric for linings and handles so everything was to hand to make the bags.

Here they are:

 

 

 

Little granddaughter was very pleased with them.  Nice and colourful and just right to hold a 4 year old's treasures.

 

 

Another finish in time for Christmas

I managed to finish a Tote Bag for my little granddaughter as an extra present for Christmas.

I picked up some Beatrix Potter books and a set of the stories on CDs which I wanted to put into a hand made tote.  Nice and bright and jolly. Annalise already knows and loves Peter Rabbit and Mrs Tiggywinkle and now there are 7 more stories to add to her repertoire.

Here's the bag:

Front:

 

 

 

Back:

 

And the lining:

 

I have almost finished my sewing for this year.  One more Premature baby quilt I would like to bind and then I can tidy away my sewing room until next year.