The perfect gift

The Noodlehead Gathered Clutch must be my idea of the perfect gift because I just keep making 'em! They are quick, easy, practical and cute, and I never get tired of making them. What's not to love?

These are for the boys' teachers.

Bright pink and bright green are Little Bear's Kindergarten teacher's favorite colors. I dug deep in the stash to find this perfect fabric from Michael Miller with bright green and pink stripes. It was meant to be!

Big Bear's teacher has a passion for math and science, so this print from Timeless Treasures seemed like a great fit. And I figured one can't go wrong with blue accents.

It has been awhile since I've made any of these and I forgot the topstitching on either side of the zipper-- fortunately, it is not a critical mistake. Phew! But other than that, they went together beautifully. And I finished the gifts off by including a gift card to a favorite restaurant. These ladies definitely deserve a couple of glasses of wine nice meal. :)

Evening clutch

Another day, another Noodlehead Gathered Clutch! I'm thinking that should be my new motto. I do seem to make a lot of these. Truly, this design is awesomesauce fun!

This time around I went with a faux suede-textured fabric (leftover from a Halloween costume made a few years ago) for the outer and some pretty metallic burgundy cotton for the accents.

I also decided to add a bit of frill with a fabric flower pin. I purchased the "Gathered Petal Flowers" downloadable pattern from M.E.H. Designs on Etsy. The pattern is straightforward, but is not particularly detailed and assumes some sewing knowledge, and it kind of leaves a lot to the imagination in terms of finishing. While I'm not sure I would recommend the pattern, I gotta say-- it did result in a pretty spiffy looking flower. I made the flower entirely by hand and it ended up taking me close to an hour-and-a-half to complete (about twice as long as constructing the actual pouch did). But it was definitely worth it-- I think it totally takes this clutch to another level.

So fancy!

Holiday gifting

I hope you have been having a happy holiday season! It has been a crazy couple of weeks here. How do the holidays manage to slip by so quickly??? I haven't done a lot of crafting lately, but I did manage a couple of things.

Noodlehead Gathered Clutch teacher gift:

Love this pattern!

And another:

I can't seem to stop making them.

Emmeline Apron hostess gift:

Having recently made one of these, this one went together very quickly (even the hand-stitching part!). My only complaint this time around has to do with the fabrics. I initially bought some American Made Brand solid in brick for the accent (straps, ties, etc.). But when I went to prewash it, there was bleeding. So I washed again. And again. After the fifth time (and it was still bleeding), I decided to go get some Kona. I've never had a problem with Kona solids bleeding, but sure enough-- when I went to prewash the Kona burgundy, it bled. And bled. And so on. Gah!

Finally, I took the time to do a little research and learned about Retayne. It is a wash additive that works to set colors and prevent bleeding. I ran to my LQS and picked up a small bottle. I used a couple of teaspoons in a load with both fabrics. After a dry cycle, I washed them both again with just a little detergent. The color catcher came out white. It worked!!!! This stuff is chemical magic! Suffice to say-- after the bleeding stopped, the project went very smoothly. And my friend loved it!

Iron-on transfer sweatshirt:

Big Bear's favorite video game of late is Rogue Legacy. It is an indie game made by a small company. Unfortunately, because they are so small, they don't sell any cool game-related swag. So I created my own and gave it to my son for Christmas. I purchased a plain navy sweatshirt (it was a 50/50 poly/cotton blend), and then used Avery Dark Fabric Iron-On Transfer Sheets to print out the game title logo. I just followed the instructions with the sheets, and it worked great! My only complaint is that the colors in the transfer definitely dimmed and yellowed a bit in the ironing process. But it still looks okay. And he LOVES it. He has been wearing his new sweatshirt every day. Yay!!!

In addition to the above, I also gave my boys new pillowcases and gifted the "Serenitea Quilt" to my mother-in-law.

The projects were all pretty low-stress (excepting the apron... bleeding fabric stresses me out) and I gave myself plenty of time to get them finished (excepting the apron... finished a couple of hours before the event). (Of course, what kind of holiday would it be if there was no stressed-out crafting going on???) Overall, it was a good season for crafty gift giving!

On the design wall...

Last night I finished a couple more blocks in the Sea Breeze Quilts "Chocolate Marshmallow Sampler" quilt-along.

This brings me to five total. One more block, and I'll be caught up.

However, my immediate plan is to work on a couple more gathered clutches for teacher gifts. I have two more cut out and ready to sew. Now that it is December, I find myself suddenly feeling holiday pressure. So I wanna get these off my plate!

Weekend sewing

It was a rather productive weekend! First up:

Another Noodlehead Gathered Clutch! I was not totally diggin' the contrast/strap fabric, but I had already cut it and didn't want it to go to waste. So I decided to try some fancy machine stitching on there to give it a little more oomph. I think it ended up being a really nice detail.

Having made this clutch five times now, I think it is pretty evident that I LOVE this pattern. I also have two more all cut and ready to assemble that I plan to give as gifts this Christmas along with this one.

Over the last week, I managed to get borders sewn onto three projects-- so that's three quilt tops complete! Woo! That meant it was time to start getting backings ready. This weekend, I put together one for my Heather Spence Designs Fall 2013 Mystery Quilt:

It took way longer than it probably should have. But, I successfully put it together using stash and I am actually quite happy with the result. So I guess that makes it worth the time. Now I just need to get it basted...

Small sewing

I just pin basted a big quilt and am not ready to dive in on quilting it at the moment, so I've been working on some smaller projects lately. Like these pillowcases:

One for me, and a couple for my boys. I actually bought the pink fabrics to make this pillowcase 3 years ago. It has taken me this long to get it done. But at least I finally got there! I'm planning on giving the Hot Wheels ones to the boys as a Christmas gift. Another Christmas gift made not-at-the-last-minute-- woo hoo!

After toting around my new Mail Sack around and about, I determined I needed something smaller in which to put my phone/keys/cards. The bag is so huge, I was finding that those smaller things became very difficult to access. Essentially, it was the perfect excuse to make a Noodlehead Gathered Clutch for me!

I used the same fabrics for the clutch as I did in my bag. This is my fourth make of this design, and it just doesn't get old. Love it!

Happy little shark!

After carrying this for a couple of days, I have to say, that divider pocket feature is a winner. I am finding it very useful because I can put my phone on one side and my keys on the other, preventing any scratches.

Small projects for the win!

A couple more clutches...

At the beginning of this year, I signed up for one of those "Pay-It-Forward" gigs on Facebook wherein I committed to send out a friendly surprise sometime within the calendar year to peeps who agreed to do the same for others. Two people agreed. As I had so much fun making the Noodlehead Gathered Clutch for my son's teacher, I went ahead and made a couple more for my pay-it-forward friends.

I purchased the swivel clasp hardware from Etsy seller, BeingBags. I gotta say-- the prices are reasonable, the shipping was fast (and free!), and the hardware is solid. I definitely recommend this shop!

Bonus: All the fabrics are from my stash. Yay!

Also, I cannot recommend the Noodlehead Gathered Clutch pattern enough! The clutch is a great design, the instructions are easy to follow, it is quick to put together, and it offers a fun way to use up scraps or small cuts of fabric.

I plan to mail these out this week-- hopefully my friends will enjoy them!

End of Year Teacher Gift

Stuff is still being stitched here in Crafty Musings land. I may have failed to post in time for the Sew Sweetness Jaybird Quilts sew along June 13 deadline, but I have been working on the quilt. In fact, I'm in the process of quilting it. Woo! And I have two other projects that are all quilted up and just waiting for binding. So, yes, stuff is happening-- I'm just a bad blogger. :(

Anyway, one of my recent projects was an end-of-year gift for Big Bear's 1st grade teacher:

This is the Noodlehead Gathered Clutch. There is a free tutorial for the main body of the clutch, but I actually went ahead and purchased the pattern so I could also easily add the strap, inner divider, and card pockets. And knowing that my purchase is also supporting a fabulous independent blogger/designer made this purchase an excellent value, indeed!

I used fabrics from my stash. The outer main body is an oh-so-pretty Lila Tueller floral print and the accent is from Julie Paschkis's "Folklorica" collection a few years ago. Really, this little clutch is a great scrap buster because it only requires small amounts of each fabric. I was easily able to do the main body with just a fat-eighth cut.

The pattern went together without a hitch. I was especially appreciative of the detailed instructions for cutting a zipper to size. I think this is the first time I really "got" the whole zipper tab thing right. (*Finally.*)

The inside is pretty and practical!

Big Bear presented it to his teacher on the last day and reported back to me that she loved it. Yay!