Zig-Zagging my way on through....

Remember this quilt with the elf feet? You guys were so helpful, and I really appreciate it!

You see, I really felt like I HAD to put the lettering on it, but I didn't really want to. For one thing, it was going to take forever! So I'm glad I asked, because most of you guys didn't think the lettering was a good idea. So I left it off. And I'm so pleased with it!

I basted it first, and then went back and zig-zagged around each piece. This was a Bad Idea. I mean, it's going to work out fine, but I'm turning a whole basted quilt around in circles to get around each elf foot.... well, you can imagine.

But it's nearly quilted, and the binding is made, and so.... almost done! So I hope to have a finished picture up soon!

Christmas craft + toy = hours of entertainment!

I LOVE crafts that are cheap, easy, fun to do and provide my daughter something to play with. Can't get any better than that, right?

So start with a cookie sheet from the dollar store. Make sure it's a steel one, not aluminum. Magnets won't stick to aluminum.

Then I cut out a tree shape and Mod Podged it to the cookie sheet.

Then coat it with a thick layer of Mod Podge. I think this would look extra cool with the glitter Mod Podge, but I didn't have any on hand....

Now get out your scrapbook paper scraps, your buttons, rhinestones, and some magnet strips.

I cut out some to look like presents, and some to look like ornaments, and one for the star. I glued the paper to cardboard, then stuck magnets on the back and put a layer of mod podge on the top.
You can see the magnets on the back. Then I found my glitter glue (also from the dollar store) and embellished the ornaments and made ribbons on the presents. I glued rhinestone hearts to the buttons as well. Here it is, all ready for a little girl to play with!This was so easy to create, it was cheap, and it will store relatively flat when she's not playing with.

My daughter has really enjoyed it. I'm thinking of lots of variations for her to play with!

Reindeer Christmas Craft

Yesterday my older daughter asked to do a craft with handprints.

(Actually, first she used a magenta marker to coat her palms, got frustrated when they didn't make handprints, stomped around a little, THEN she asked to do a craft with handprints...... ahem... where were we?)

Oh yes, the craft with handprints. So here's what you'll need:

• a canvas big enough to accommodate your largest kiddo's foot + a few inches for antlers
• pom-poms for noses
• paint (background color + 2 colors of brown)
• a Sharpie marker
• pom-poms for eyes or googly eyes
• small jingle bells
• ribbon
• some sort of Christmas decoration-type stuff to fill space on your canvas. I used snowflake ornaments from the dollar store

Most of that stuff I had on hand or had in my dollar-store stash.

First, paint your canvas. I didn't bother with the edges since I was planning to put ribbon around the sides. Next, find your little ones. Paint one foot on each kiddo and stamp it. Then paint both hands and have them make "antlers" for their reindeer. It actually works better if it's a little haphazard, so don't worry if it's smudgy.
(Kind of looks like a mess here. But don't worry. It's all going in the right direction!)

Next, get out your Sharpie marker and outline. This gives some definition to your shape, and it gives you a chance to make your antlers really look like antlers.

Next we start gluing like crazy (hot glue worked well). I added:

• red pom-poms for noses
• eyes
• jingle bells on the antlers

Then get out the ribbon and glue it all around the edge. I added a big bow at the top, and since I have 2 little girls I put bows on both reindeer.

It still needed something, so I glued on some fluffy snowflakes from the dollar store.

There you go. A fun, easy, cheap Christmas project!

Giveaway Day!

I'm participating in the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day.

This time I'm giving away a charm pack:

It's a Moda wee play charm pack. You can see the entire line here. And 1 charm pack is enough to make this quilt, once you combine it with some solids! This is a line that is getting more difficult to find, and it's one of my favorites!

To enter, please leave a comment. Tell me where you are, and tell me about something you're crafting for the holidays! I'll leave the giveaway open until December 6th, and I'll choose a winner randomly. I'm happy to ship internationally.

Sign up as a follower and leave a second comment to enter again. Or if you're already a follower, go ahead and leave a second comment.

While you're here, if you'd like to sign up for my Christmas blocks swap, we still have room for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Scraps.... free to good home....

So I've been cutting out Christmas fabric... both for my elf feet quilt and for the Christmas swap!

And I have some scraps. Nothing big enough to be blocks. And I've promised myself that I won't keep things that I don't have a definite purpose for.

So..... I've got them packaged up and ready to mail out.

Now some are rectangularish, and some are longish strips (2" to 4" wide) and some are rather triangular and some have little remnants of Wonder Under on the ends.... they are rather like a box of chocolates.

So do you have a use for this rather odd assortment of rather cute Christmas scraps?

Leave me a comment and tell me what you'd use them for!

I'll pick a winner and get them in the mail this week to you!

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll

Hey everyone,

if you're in the states, then Happy Thanksgiving to you!

And if you are located somewhere else,

I hope you have a lovely Thankful Thursday.

And know that I am thankful for you!

(The turkey is courtesy of my sweet 3-year old)

opinion needed, please!

Hi friends,

I'm working on a wall hanging for Christmas. (inspired by this quilt) It's really important to me to get it done this week before I decorate for christmas, so I pushed this project in front of a few others I need to get done. But now I've run into a problem. Help!


Going to put this in my living room.

The high heels are mine, then next to me are some manly elf boots for Mr. WendyCity. Then below are little girl elf shoes for my girls. It's about 40" square.
I have the blocks made and edged in red. The rest is just laid out on top so you can see the choices......


Here's choice #1:

and here's choice #2--adding lettering across the middle. I'm not sure what color I'd do it in, maybe the blue snowflake print that's in my skirt, or maybe the white background? I could applique it, or I could monogram it..... monogramming might be easier.......

I'm not sure if I like the lettering since it kind of takes away from the quilt-ness of it.... but I like that it makes it personal to our family. Then again, it's already pretty tailored to our family....

Please weigh in. Lettering or no lettering? Applique or monogram? And what print or what color? Thanks friends!

Last call for Fall Swap and Christmas Swap!

Hey friends,
So it looks like we will have enough people to do both the fall swap and the Christmas swap. But there's still room! So tell your friends and your neighbors, your readers, your lurkers, and all your fellow quilters--you can still sign up by commenting on this post for the fall swap and on this post for the Christmas swap.

As before, I'll post the details on the fall one once we know how many participants there are.
W

after-the-fact SWAP update!

Oh boy this is fun! I have the halloween swap packages ready to go to the post office. Give me a minute as I work up the courage to stand in line with 2 toddlers.

Here's Annie's squares for the halloween swap:

Dig those spiders! Can you see their little crooked smiles? awfully cute.

And here's my squares:

And here they are without the little girl embellishment..... she was quite the helper today as I sorted out packages. But she couldn't imagine that I would want to take a picture without her in it!

Christmas blocks swap!

Oh, I'm so excited about this one! I've already started picking up fabrics on sale....

So who wants in on a Christmas swap so that we can all have glorious Christmas quilts NEXT YEAR? HOORAY!!

I think for this swap we will have plenty of people who want to participate. So I'll go ahead and post details------

The mailing date will be December 8. Christmas fabric is on sale lots of places now, and this way if you want to participate in both the Christmas swap and the fall one, you can economize on postage.

You'll send 16 5.5" squares of 4 different Christmas prints to me with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. (that's 64 square total) Each print will take slightly less than a third of a yard.

Please make sure all your fabric is 100% cotton, quilting quality Christmas prints with NO licensed characters (scooby doo, spongebob, etc.)

International participants are welcome, but please try to mail a little earlier than December 8 if you're shipping internationally.

In return you will receive 64 5.5" squares, hopefully with no repeats.

The swap is open to the first 15 people to sign up. To sign up, please comment on this post. If you want to sign up for the fall swap as well, comment on that post too.

Please, please please leave your e-mail address or comment and then send me an e-mail. It's important that I have a way to contact you.

Turkey Swap!

Ok. well, it's a little bit of a turkey title. I was starved for good ideas.....

So some of you have asked about a Thanksgiving swap. And I'm game if you are!
(there will definitely be a Christmas one as well. See my next post, ok?)

So... thanksgiving fabrics. How about we generalize this to fall? Fall colors and patterns?
I'm concerned that there won't be enough specifically Thanksgiving fabrics to go around.
So... oranges and greens, browns and deep reds and yellows. Leaves, pumpkins and plaids! hooray!

If you are interested in a Fall square swap, please leave a comment. The details will depend on how many people are interested on this one...... but it will involved blocks, probably in a 6" or 8" size. Mailing date will be around December 8th.

more swappy goodness

Here's a neat set that arrived from Jenny! I love those candy corns!

And this arrived from Edna in Canada. Check out the groovy spiderwebs!

I have one more package to pick up at the post office, and I'm planning to get by there today. Oh, and I need to take a picture of what I'm putting in too! And then it's time to split it all up and get it zooming back to you all.

And on a sidenote, I was thinking maybe smaller squares for the Christmas swap. Maybe 6"? What are your thoughts?