Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet...

Give me something good to eat...



If you don't, I don't care...



I'll pull down your underwear!  



hehehe, are you familiar with this rhyme from childhood?




I taught it to my boys while I made them some new treat bags for Halloween this year.  I offered to buy them something to Trick-or-Treat with, but they wanted me to sew them something - they sure know their way to their Mama's heart :)

I found a video for my favorite Halloween song, hope you like it! :)



Happy Halloween everyone! :)

I'm linking up to You Flew Tuesday, Crazy Mom Quilts & Whoop Whoop Friday!

 

AMH patchwork tote

 

Remember that I told you I had one more thing that I entered into the Deerfield Fair?  Something that had not been on my blog yet?  Well, this little patchwork tote is it  :)

 



I used my AMH Innocent Crush fabrics for the exterior, so it matches my Triple Zip Pouch.  I made this to be a matching set on purpose, but only now that it is dark and I am sitting down to my computer am I realizing that I didn't get a picture of the two together.  {sigh}

You will just have to take my word for it that they make a cute couple :)



The pattern I used is one I have made several times, sometimes patchwork and sometimes with a solid exterior fabric.  You can check out my other totes here, here, and here.



The lining is AMH feathers from Field Study - I am so in love with this print :)



I made the tote mostly to see how long it would take.  That's a good reason, right?  :)

Right about now, curiosity is getting the better of you, isn't it?  You're dying to know.  I can tell.  ;)Okay, okay, I'll tell you - once the fabrics were cut, it took me six hours to completely finish the bag. 

My seam ripper saw some action during the making of this bag.  Silly me thought I didn't need to read the instructions because I've made this a time or two already.  It is doubtful that I learned anything from this experience.  {read instructions? and waste good sewing time?}

I'm linking up to You Flew Tuesday, Freemotion by the River and Fabric Tuesday!

tiny deer & Nerf darts

Last Christmas, I  bravely gifted my three sons with Nerf dart guns ;)    Son #3 bought himself extra ammo with a gift card a relative had given him, but he never opened up the package of extra darts.  Two days ago he told me he wasn't going to open it up until he had something to put his darts into so they wouldn't get lost.  Naturally, I offered to sew him something :)



I showed him several fabrics from my stash to choose from.  He said he wanted something that went with darts.

 



He chose three different colors of the Tiny Deer print from Momo's Oh Deer! fabric line, and he was very specific about what color went where :)

I used a red ribbon that has been hanging around for ages. 



I used the free lined drawstring bag tutorial over at In Color Order. 
Son #2 has already picked out fabric for his own little bag, and Son #1 would like one, too.
I just love a good excuse to sew for my boys :)

Linking up to these fine parties:  Freemotion by the River, Made by Me, Show and Tell Tuesday, You Flew, Fabric Tuesday, Link a finish Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF @ Charm About You and Submarine Sunday

wrapping 'paper'

I've got a little finish to show you

I bought a ballerina doll for my goddaughter, and wanted to wrap it up to give her. 

I can't remember exactly why I thought it would be easier to sew a bag than to run to the store for paper & wrap the gift, but I did. 

Or was it that I wanted an excuse to make the bag, thought it would be good for wrapping, and bought a doll to put inside it?  I can't remember which way it went :)

When I was finished, the bag was too small.   It only fit over the doll's head, which I thought was a bit too disturbing to give to my goddaughter that way, so the doll was delivered without wrapping  :)

I used older-than-the-hills stash fabric, and this great tutorial

My son let me use his glo-worm {his favorite toy} to 'stuff'' the bag for pictures :)

This is the picture he took himself - I think I should hire him to take all my photos :)
Anyway, now I have a bag & I don't know what to do with it.  I've been on a serious decluttering kick lately - anything that isn't nailed down is in danger of being pitched out :)

a finish & some progress

I made this tote bag for my Mom.  I didn't measure it, but it finishes somewhere around 16" H x 22" W x 4" D. 

Almost all of this fabric has been in my stash for years now, and it feels great to put it to use, especially since I think my Mom is going to love that cat print.

Ages ago, I saw a beautiful blue & white quilt and decided I just had to make one, too.  I bought 7 FQs and a yard of the cat print, and they have been sitting in my stash ever since.  Mostly because I wanted to make a large quilt, and needed more blue & white fabric.

I didn't have a large enough piece of fabric to make the lining, so I cut pieces of four FQs for the lining - I really love how it came out :)  The pocket is 12" square.

{I'm feeling so clever, turning the bag inside out to get pics of the lining :) }

here is the other inside pocket:

The only fabric I bought is the print for the handles and the bag bottom.
I'd really like to use up as much of my stash as possible, it doesn't make any sense to let fabric sit unused in my closet, and this bag moved 1 yard & 7 FQs out.  I think that is a good start :)

{I love how this print is supposed to imitate old china}
Even though I'm showing up to the party late, I'm going to link up at Lily's Quilts Small Blog meet-up.  Have a great Thursday!

*edited to add:  the pattern I used is called Quilt Camp Tote by Penny Sturges.  I did make a couple changes.  If you want to make this bag and want to know about my changes, e-mail me and we can chat.  I've made other versions of this bag - you can see them here, here, and here.

i'm going to do a little more linking, too. { because linking is fun :)}  check these out:

Crazy Mom Quilts    Amylouwho Sew & Tell    TGIFF

hello

I finally got around to some sewing - careful, don't fall out of your chair with surprise or anything :)

I must warn you, the pictures are terrible.  I took them on a dark & rainy day, and since this bit of fabric goodness was a gift, I really couldn't wait for the sun to shine.  I do hope you can forgive me.

I've made this tote bag a couple times now, and I adore this pattern.  The bag itself is quite large, and the pockets are huge.  Everything that went into this tote were materials I had on hand.  I even pieced together batting scraps to get the sizes I needed.  I always feel so clever when I do that :)

Looking at this bag in real life makes me want to squint :)  I've had this fabric for about eight years, and it came from my aunt's stash before that.  The lining is a solid pink that matches the pink flowers.

I went through six colors of thread - not intentionally, they kept running out, you know.  {so very satisfying to use up a bunch of spools}

The bag's outsides & lining are quilted in a meandering pattern.  After a couple hours of that {and an undisclosed amount of swearing} I decided to get a little more adventurous on the pockets.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures until the bag was finished, but here goes!

Well, I suppose you can see what I did here :)

Can you see the stitches on this one?  It was inspired by some lovely FMQ by Hoosier Tony.  Toni's stitches reminded me of a dandelion flower {one of my favorite flowers}, and I just had to give it a go :)

That's about it for the bag.  I filled it with some oatmeal cookies and sent it off to its new home.
It looks as if we will be snowed in tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have some significant progress on my DP QAL to share with you.  I hope you all are finding the time for more sewing than me :)

I'm going to bring this post on over to Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.  Hope to see you there!