Holiday Gift Recap

It's that time of year when it seems as though everybody you know gets sick. I thought we might dodge the bullet at my house this year. *Sigh* Maybe that was just wishful thinking. What this really means is that I haven't been able to sew in days. I'm going to take this opportunity to show off some sewing projects I gave as gifts over the holidays.

First up is a paper-pieced throw pillow. My niece loves Twilight. I mean lurves! I had the brilliant idea to make her something that highlighted the four book covers from the series. I quickly realized that paper-piecing was the way to go and I completely lucked out and found that Cat Magraith had already made PP'd patterns for the books and they were free. Yep, free! I found the blocks on Fandom in Stitches.

So, it's confession time. Obviously, that is not the finished pillow, it's just the top. I don't think I ever photographed the completed pillow. :( I'll have to do that the next time I visit my niece. Next confession, I totally deviated from Cat's version of the block on the lower right (I think that's the cover for Breaking Dawn). Cat's block calls for PP and applique but I decided I needed a challenge wanted all the blocks PP'd, so I did up my own pattern for that one. Also, Cat's blocks finish out at 5" square but I sized mine up to 8". Last confession, this was my first foray into PP. It was so EASY and I love how the blocks turned out. Seriously, if you've never paper-pieced before you need to try it!

Moving on, the next crafty/sewing gifts I made were some library totes for the kids of some friends. The mom wanted bags with the kids' names on them. I was inspired by this pillow tutorial by Shruti from 13 Woodhouse Road. I used generic canvas bags from the craft store and a different variegated thread for each bag. 

Here is a close up.

These bags were super fun to make up and super fast and easy. For those of you who aren't used to FMQ, it's a great way to get comfortable with the technique and the motion of moving the fabric around under the needle. I think next time I'll make a pillow for myself like Shruti did. 

Okay, that's it for today. I hear some coughing in the background which is my cue. 

Have fun sewing!

- Sarah