Tuesday, February 10, 2015

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

2 comments:

  1. I am really impressed by your projects! The Twilight-inspired paper-pieced pillow front is just perfect, but the names FMQ'ed on the bags is unbelieveable! I've had so much trouble trying to do names while FMQing, so I'd love to read about your tips or see a tutorial when everyone's feeling better.

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  2. Sarah, you just made some astonishing confessions there! I'm flabberghasted that those were your first PP attempts - they look perfect and amazing! And then you even went and redesigned a block to make it your own. It's wonderful! Love your bag doodling too!
    I hope your family is all feeling much better by now!

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