Folded edge pillowcase

I am not always sure what to give people for Christmas, and this year was no exception! I really wasn't sure what to get or make for my sister-in-law. After telling my sister, she suggested I make her some pillowcases, perfect!

I had made pillowcases before and loved how simple and beautiful they turned out. For this project my sister gave me two different fabrics that she wanted two sets of king size pillowcases made out of. The challenge for me was figuring out how to make both sets out of just one strip of fabric.
I ended up taking one of the pillowcases we had at home that were store bought and made them from that.



I basically folded a 23 x 86 piece of fabric, folded in half lengthwise and sewed down one side and across what became the bottom of the pillowcase. I then folded down the top to the inside of the case by 6 inches. Very simple but they ended up being really pretty.

close up of the top hem folded into the pillowcase

finished strawberry pillowcase set

both finished sets

look inside at the folded hem on the pink pillowcase

Thankfully my sister-in-law loved them!

Finished puppy quilt

Now that Christmas has passed and the handmade presents have been passed out and opened, let's look at the finished puppy quilt.

One of my favorite parts of finishing a quilt is the binding roll. I love how it looks and how it comes together, such an easy way to make any quilt look good! This fabric was perfect for the Spongebob quilt, it is called "Reef dots"! Yeah!

front of quilt

back of quilt, sorry it's blurry!

Check back tomorrow to see the other presents I made this Christmas!

Doggy quilt continued

I have always loved applique quilts, but am also intimidated by the process. Since I tried the Cricut and it didn't work for me, I decided to just cut it out by hand. I have often thought that since I know how to draw, it shouldn't be too hard to do this on my own.


I first drew a rough sketch of what I wanted the applique to look like.

I drew the bone on the back of the fabric onto the Steam-a-Seam 2 Lite. I wrote out the name, just to see how I wanted to fit that on there.

Both applique's completely cut out.

All ironed together

Sewing the applique onto the quilt, very slowly.

Mason sitting on my lap, hoping this quilt is for him!

Now I am almost finished, just have to bind the quilt! Yeah!!

Quilting with the Cricut

Anyone have a Cricut? I bought my Cricut from an infomercial a few years ago. In that infomercial they show you how to cut fabric out using the machine and using it for applique's on quilts. I recently decided to give it a try, again.

I say again, because when I originally tried cutting fabric with the Cricut, I had a horrible time! I looked on youtube.com and found a wonderful explanation by TheScrapReview.

One of the great tips from this video is to use Scotch Blue Painter's Tape. I ran out to Target, since I was doing Christmas shopping there anyway, and pick up some tape.

I am making a blanket for a friend of mine, well really for her dog. I met her at the local dog park, which has been an amazing place to meet some really great people. My friend loves to buy sweaters for all the little dogs, and furnished my Mason with a great winter wardrobe. I wanted to thank her for her generosity with a cute little quilt!

These are the accent colors. Very bright, I know, but they go great with the Spongebob fabric for the quilt.

Both colors now have the Steam-a-Seam 2 lite on the back.

The fabric is loaded in the Cricut ready to cut.

Well, after all of that I couldn't get it to work! Sometimes part of using the Cricut, it's really about trial and error. I think I need a new mat because it may not be sticky enough. I will try again.

Puppy helping me quilt.

Mason watching me quilt.

Sewing a doll

I have a few patterns for making dolls and wanted to try making one. I decided to use the Simplicity pattern, # 2809, I got from Joann's. What I really liked about this pattern is all the clothes you can make for the dolls and also cute little stuffed animals for the dolls to hold.

Right now I have the body, legs and head finished. I realized that I sewed the legs on crooked and need to take them out and redo them. Unfortunately the fabric I am using for the body, a cotton felt (got it from my sister, so not sure exactly what the felt mix it is) is kind of delicate and does not hold up well to being seam ripped and re-sewn! This has turned into a learning project!!

I am not sure if you have used Simplicity patterns before but I have found myself having to change some of the steps in this pattern that don't make sense or add more work to making this doll.
The pattern calls for you to sew the head closed, except for the opening for the neck, and then hand sew on the ears. I thought it would look better to sew the ears on from the inside of the head, which turned out so much better.
I think the clothes for this doll will be really cute and I am also going to make it a little quilt and pillow with pillow cases! So cute!!

Holiday Time!

The weekend after Thanksgiving is exactly the perfect time to put up the Christmas Tree! I look forward to decorating for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over. It's always hard to wait, but the time always arrives!
I wasn't able to find all of our christmas decoration boxes, so the tree isn't as full of trimmings as I would like, but hopefully this upcoming weekend we will dig the rest of the boxes out of the closet we use for storage!