Beatnik waist bag

From time to time I like to be pattern tester. I was lucky enough to get into the pattern tester group for Sara of Sew Sweetness. Her latest bag is called Beatnik waist bag. Check out the other versions of this bag on her site. It's always great to see how the others made their versions. I played with the color acent of red and orange which is featured on zippers as well. The fabric I used is called Fox Trails by Doohikey Designs (Riley Blake) and it's really cute and fun.

I was thinking about some kind of small bag for our walks or when we just going outside. This is perfect solution. There are many pockets. More than you would expect. Besides those flap pockets on front there is zipper pocket on the back and pocket divider which makes two small pockets inside the bag. Sara's instructions are easy to follow and understand.

Today is the last day of Sew Sweetness Bag Contest over at Sew Mama Sew so this seems as perfect timing and great opportunity to link up.

Christmas meeting

Later today I'm meeting up with my sewing buddies. So this week is all about getting ready for this event. Not only had we arranged to swap Christmas ornaments we are also exchanging Christmas cookies. At our last meeting I was joking about bringing Christmas cookies to go with the coffee. Joking only as I don't bake this early. I'm always the last minute person but those ladies thought it's good idea. We all bring some and exchange. There are 11 of us in total so you can image. These are pure evil cookies. Shortening and flour covered up with sugar. Pure evil I'm telling you :-)

All packed up. I'm not usually very good at fancy packing but look at this. I really outdid myself. Each of them has little note. I started with the usual Merry Christmas and ended up with World peace sort of :-) Little scrap of Cherry Christmas and a button equals all set.

Here's the ornament I made.

My fav part is this birdie in the window.

Big present at the back side.

Some of you might remember my trial of kaleidoscopes or the one block wonder blocks. Anyway you like it. Well those roses are not really my style so it's going to one of those sewing buddies. I found a good home for it. I went with very simple quilting and I'm quite please with the result.

The original fabric as perfect back side.

I have also finished the cat pillow. You could see the front panel on WiP and here's another sneak peak. I'll link that up with Le Challenge as I consider pink to be quite precious. Yeah, that's the theme for this month: precious.

Making Christmas list:

- Christmas theme wall hanging DONE
- Christmas ornament and cookies for local swap DONE
- winter/Christmas theme house pouch
- vinyl pouches as gifts 1 FINISHED
- pillow covers 2 FINISHED
- 241 tote pattern by FABRICS PICKED
- felted jewelry IN PROGRESS
- knitted socks DONE
- mug rugs with pocket on the back DONE (MADE 4)
- Christmas Robin wreath  DONE

Linking up with Making Christmas, TGIFF and Crazy mom quilts. I will also link up to Cushion for Christmas blog hop once the linky is open.

Mug rugs - Cherry Christmas scraps

Making Christmas stuff continues. I was able to finish 3 mug rugs I shared last week. I used the leftovers from the Lone star.

 There are some pockets on the back so I can put some postcard or Christmas card in.

I don't think I'll be making any more this year so I'm crossing this off my list as finished. I sent the first one I made to one of my bloggie friends. Yvonne commented on my post that she is sending her address for me to send it over. She was joking but I though what if I'll surprise her and asked for her address. I rather sent my stuff to those that appreciate it. She offered little swap between us and here's what I received. Cool hexie mug rug with some owls on top. We are both happy with our exchange as you can read in her post. Don't we just love hexies and owls :-)

I have adjusted my list a bit. Yeah I'm chicken out. I don't think I'll be able to make any more Christmas robin wreaths I planned so I'm fine with the one I made for myself. I also crossed the socks. One pair is OK. Right now I want and NEED to concentrate on the Christmas ornament as it's due on Friday. Also some pillow covers would be nice so I can link them into Cushion for Christmas Blog hop. Click on the picture below to learn more.

Making Christmas list:

- Christmas theme wall hanging DONE
- Christmas ornament for local swap IN PROGRESS
- winter/Christmas theme house pouch
- vinyl pouches as gifts 1 FINISHED
- pillow covers 1 IN PROGRESS
- 241 tote pattern by Noodlehead FABRICS PICKED
- felted jewelry IN PROGRESS
- knitted socks DONE
- mug rugs with pocket on the back DONE (MADE 4)
- Christmas Robin wreath  DONE

I'm not wasting any scraps out of Cherry Christmas line so I'm using those for my Christmas ornament as well. I'm making little house. Very similar to the one by retromama.

For the pillow cover I decided to try out some cats. I have used the basic block by Elizabeth Hartman. She currently hosts QAL called Catvent. Check it out as her cats are really quite cute.

I wouldn't mind more contrast. 

I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday and Making Christmas. You can also find the links in the side bar of my blog.

B side finished

Last night I was up to something easy. Straight line sewing sounds easy enough. I was expecting the electricity going off as the hurricane Xaver was passing by. So I got ready for bed and sewed in my PJ's. I do live in lower part of the country so it didn't get that bad and I was able to finish the B side. According to the news it didn't reach the speed of hurricane but it still caused some damage. It hit the other countries much harder so I hope everyone is safe and sound. It's still extra windy so there is no way of getting outdoor pictures.

The two sides go really well together. There are few fabrics that don't seem to fit but I'm learning to look at it as a whole. Not picking up on unmatching bits. I kind of tend to put the blues to the bottom.

But it looks just fine the other way round as well. The B side is bigger for the quilting purposes. It's going to the quilting pro and I'll share the outcome once available.

I took a picture of wavy binding I wrote about in my previous post. Not flat at all. Once I add the wood to the bottom with additonal weight it looks fine and have you noticed our wall is all white by now :-) It looks much better. If you missed my advent calendar post, check it out here.

Linking up with TGIFF and Crazy mom quilts.

Advent calendar

I have shared a bit about my advent calendar already but it deserves more than one pic. So if you ready to explore welcome aboard.

I finished it on Saturday and it wasn't looking too good. The binding was a bit wavy all around. Big disappointment but all my fault. I knew I better hand stitch the binding but I just wanted to try if I can get away with machine binding. I tried to rip off one side and hand stitch but it didn't help. The binding just seems a bit bigger. I should have pulled it tiny bit while stitching on. I didn't feel like binding redo so I just left it. On Sunday my girls were so eager to have their calendar so I just decided we'll have wavy binding and pretend it's all fine. Once we put the wrapped presents/sweets on it stretched and it looks fine. I'm not sure what it look like once all the sweets are eaten but we'll see.

I realized later on that the holes are not really needed. It can be just tied around.

I made the sleeve too big so I had to adjust it.

It's my first wall hanging so I should be a bit wiser next time I make any. I started this kind of advent calendar two years ago for my elder girl but this year I had to make it for both of them. I do not worry about fancy wrapping since the girls just don't care. The best part for them is to cut the string each day and rip off the paper. That's why I don't make any fabric bags. The only thing that bugs me is that we didn't manage to repaint the wall. We took the shelf off and it's not coming back but the painting is visible at the bottom and we really need to repaint it.

I used 3 jelly roll strips from each color. I placed each color in each position right, middle, left so they were evenly distributed. While creating the diamonds I concentrated on the red and it became the main motive. I used this well known tut. I'm making mug rugs from the leftover strips where you can see the color placement (the bottom one should be upside down).

For those mug rugs I'm combining two tuts I seen. I wanted to try some fusible fleese appliqué I seen over at Amy Made That! (you should check out her lovely snowflake pillow) and hexagon mini quilt tut by Modern Handcraft. I love those hexies!

My tiny trial before I attempt larger project.

I'll be adding pockets and binding.

Making Christmas list:
- Christmas theme wall hanging DONE
- Christmas ornaments for local swap
- winter/Christmas theme house pouch
- vinyl pouches as gifts 1 FINISHED
- pillow covers
- 241 tote pattern by Noodlehead FABRICS PICKED
- felted jewelry IN PROGRESS
- knitted socks 1 PAIR FINISHED
- mug rugs with pocket on the back 1 FINISHED and 3 IN PROGRESS
- Christmas Robin wreath by Kristy 1 FINISHED