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A Cotton + Steel Gift Package

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I've been slowly working on a Cotton and Steel star sampler quilt. You can see the progress on Instagram. I'm using the Cluck Cluck Sew July stars tutorial which ends up with a ton of little triangles from trimming. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away so I kept them all in a bin and decided to pull them out for a gift. I made a ton of tiny 1.5" finished half square triangles and put them together into a zipper pouch for a gift. I also used Cotton and Steel scraps to make a reusable coffee sleeve using this pattern. I had a hard time giving up ... Read More

Quilted Hogwarts iPad Sleeve

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My mom started reading the Harry Potter books earlier this year and is already finishing up Goblet of Fire. I wanted to make her something for Mother's Day and since I've already made her a pouch, tote bag, table runner, and a quilted basket, I was having a hard time coming up with something to make. I've seen these Harry Potter paper piecing patterns and thought it would be fun to make an iPad case with the Hogwarts crest. I went to Quilter's Quest and picked out fabrics. The Kona cotton in Coal is my current favorite gray to use, it's the same one I used for ... Read More

Pixel Heart Totes

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For Christmas I made pouches for all of Evie's teachers so I felt like I set a precedent that I needed to exceed for end of the year gifts. I made each of them a quilted pixel tote bag and I absolutely loved how they turned out. Because I am insane, I started these a couple weeks before the end of school while I was also prepping for our trip to Disney World. I also made myself a purse before we left. I kind of want to make an entire pixel heart quilt now, even though I know it would take forever. But it would be amazing. Between these and ... Read More

A Scrappy Quilted Tote Gift

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After I gave my sister the book shelf tote bag for Christmas my mom mentioned wanting a tote bag of her own for her birthday. I wanted to try out a new pattern though so I started looking through Pinterest and came across this scrappy quilted tote pattern from A Bright Corner. The pattern is a variation of Jedi Craft Girl's quilted tote bag tutorial but with a patchwork panel instead of one large piece. Jedi Craft Girl's zipper pouch tutorial is my favorite, so I was excited to try another one of her projects. This tote bag is fantastic for using scraps but the ... Read More

Make All the Baskets!

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Before Christmas I made a quilt-as-you-go thread catcher using a free tutorial from The Sewing Chick. The pattern is fantastic and I was so thrilled with how it turned out. The base of the thread catcher is canvas so it stands up nicely and has a nice structure. I'm extremely proud of how nicely that seam lines up. I love the binding along the top edge, it finishes the basket really nicely and is really easy to do. I made a couple more as Christmas gifts too. I made this one for my mom to match a quilted table runner I also made ... Read More

Pouches for Everyone!

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Pouches were one of the first things I started sewing when I got my machine and zippers terrified me for a really long time. I always had trouble with the way everything went together and always ended up putting the lining upside down and there was a lot of seam ripping. However, I am proud to say that after rapidly making 8 pouches for gifts, I can finally construct a lined zipper pouch on the first try. Late last year I split an order of zippers from ZipIt on Etsy with a friend. I got 12 of them thinking they would last me forever but I am already figuring out ... Read More

Bookshelf Tote Bag

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I made a lot of Christmas gifts this year, way more than I normally do. Part of the reason is because I can finish a lot more when I'm sewing than when I'm cross stitching. A made quite a few smaller gifts but this was one of the bigger ones I did and I am so proud of how it turned out. Please note: This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk*. This project comes from the book Fat Quarters: Small Fabrics, More Than 50 Big Ideas and I modified it a bit. For the bottom of the bag, instead of doing a thin bookshelf and then white again, I ... Read More

Simple Gift Idea – Mini Composition Books and Crayon Rolls

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I've been busily working on making Christmas gifts and unfortunately I can't show them off until after Christmas. But I did make some gifts that have already been given to their recipients. This is the first year I've sewn so many gifts and I love how fast it is compared to cross stitching! A few weeks ago some friends were in town and stopped by for a visit. I knew they were going to be doing a lot of driving so I wanted to put together some little gifts for them to take along. I used this mini composition book pattern from Angela Bowman and this crayon ... Read More