Oh Deer...I kept your quilt for myself!

Remember when I made my sister the Lady Lattice quilt for Christmas? And then decided to keep it for myself because it goes so nicely in my living room?!? That meant I had very little time to crank out another quilt for her before Christmas. I had already finished her twin brother's quilt and couldn't give him his without one for her!

I bought a jelly roll and charm pack of Oh Deer by MoMo for Moda at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo last year.

It was a treat for me to make something for myself because I loved the prints and colors dearly (hehe. pun.) So I decided it would be a fair trade to make her an Oh Deer quilt instead of me since I had stolen her first one for myself!

This is the first time I had even bought a jelly roll (40 strips of 2.5"x44" of coordinating prints). In the words of my friend Alisa, jelly rolls are "juicy." They are soooo juicy! They feel great in your hands, are so fun to unwrap and a breeze to work with. I can feel a new addiction coming on...

Anyway, back to the quilt.

It was quick to make and I love how bright, busy and fun it is. I just sewed all but about 6 strips of the jellyroll together in a somewhat random order. Then I cut about 10 inches off one side. I sewed the squares of the charm pack into two rows and pieced that between the two striped pieces. I did the whole top in an afternoon. 

For the quilting I did a meandering pattern, trying not to have any cross overs. 

This quilt was well received by my sister. She called and told me that roommates and guests to her house have all commented on it and she really loves it. That makes me really, really happy and feel a little less guilty that I am sitting under the quilt I made for her first but kept!

Window Panes - Rain or Shine

I made both of my siblings quilts for Christmas this year. I am really happy with how they turned out. I named this pattern Window Panes...for obvious reasons. When I finished, I realized that was even more appropriate with the sunny yellow and cloudy gray color scheme.

A year or so ago, my brother mailed me fabric to make him some pillows. Whatever I had for leftovers, he said to just put in my stash. I knew I wanted to make him a quilt with the scraps. A couple of random charm packs and yardage from my stash later, the only fabric I ended up having to buy was the wider sashing between each "window."

My brother picked out the houndstooth, music note fabric, gingam and a few of the others. I'm so happy with the result but sad I forgot to get a picture of him with it on Christmas!

For the back I used another vintage sheet with gray and white stripes.

The binding and quilting are bright yellow and I quilted my trusty meandering bumble bee pattern. So relaxing to long arm this one!

The Return of the Ghastlies

I realize it's nearly May but I'm just now getting around to posting pics of some things I made for Christmas gifts. I made these for my mother-in-law.

Ghastlies Table Runner

Ghastlies Oven Mit (front & back)

Four Ghastlies Placemats 

What made me finally remember to post these? I bought several yards of the newest Ghastlies family print, Family Reunion, when I was on vacation earlier this month! YAY! I can't wait to get reacquainted with the family with some new projects!

My ninja bread men will kick your gingerbread men's butts

As I noted here this summer, I am a Pinterest addict. I am up to almost 1,000 pins. Ridiculous, I know, but I LOVE it and it is so inspiring. Anyway, last Christmas friends gave us ninja bread men cookie cutters. They are hilarious. We don't really like gingerbread cookies or sugar cookies but I knew I needed to make ninja bread men. Then I remembered making gingerbread ornaments when I was a kid that smelled wonderful but lasted from year to year, but I needed a recipe. Pinterest to the rescue!

The "dough" recipe is from Martha Stewart via Pinterest. It's just 1 c. cinnamon, 1/4 c. applesauce and 1/2 c. white glue. Poke holes with the end of a straw so you can string a ribbon through. Then either let it dry for 24 hours or put it in the oven at 200 degrees for around 2 hours or until it's dried out. I did have to use a bit more glue and applesauce than her recipe called for. 

The "frosting" is homemade puff paint, recipe courtesy Delaware County Moms via Pinterest. It's just equal parts flour, salt and water. You can add food coloring or paint if you want it to be colored.

I know you are jealous of my ninja bread men cookie cutters, but you can make ornaments with any cookie cutters or just shape the dough with your hands. We used the last little bit to make ninja stars to go on the tree too! Hilarious!

Simple custom wedding gift

I don't like to buy off wedding registries - especially for close friends and family. I know the bride and groom hand pick each item, but I like to put a little more thought and effort into a gift I'm giving. I prefer to make something custom for gifts as well.

I am a paper nerd. I love paper. I love how it feels in my hands, the saturated colors, the texture and pretty much everything about it. I love cutting and folding and working with paper in all manners. So, unsurprisingly, one of my favorite things about weddings is seeing the invitations. I've made custom gifts from invites before. One fun idea is to scan the invite, print it on a self-adhesive label and adhere it to a bottle of wine. Throw in two wine glasses and a corkscrew from the registry and a note for the couple to enjoy the wine on their first anniversary. But what if the couple aren't wine drinkers? Make the invite into pretty Christmas ornaments! It's super simple.

Cut the invite into narrow strips. Try to get each line of text onto a strip. You'll be able to read some of them later.

Curl the strips around a narrow pencil, taking care not to rub off the ink with your fingers. The heavier weight cardstock will hold the shape nicely.

Buy clear glass Christmas ornaments at a craft store and fill with the curled invite!

I love that you can still read some of the elements like the date, names and location. You can buy the bulbs individually or as a set. For this particular wedding, each piece of paper (and the envelope) were all different colors.

So I made one out of the accommodations card.

And one out of the envelope! I sent back the RSVP card, so I cheated and bought the right color of paper at a scrapbooking store to make a 4th ornament to complete the set. You can add fun things like glitter and charms too. I put gold, silver and bronze glitter into the balls.

It's quick, simple and very affordable. Throw in a couple of other Christmas related items or another handmade item and you'll have a memorable, custom wedding gift!

Pleasant surprise

I have been a fan of Cabin + Cub for a while now - both the blog and Etsy shop. Valerie has great woodburnings, retro collages, stationary and tags. I could close my eyes and point at anything in her shop and be happy to have it. Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened a gift from my best friend to find these two Cabin + Cub woodburned wall art panels. Imagine my friend's surprise when I told her I knew of and love Cabin + Cub. I'm not sure if great minds think alike - but ours definately do. Thank you Lindsay for getting me these, and thank you Valerie for making them.

Better to give than to receive

I have been wanting to post more photos of gifts we gave from Christmas because I was really happy with the items we picked out for everyone. Now that Christmas is over and I finally can post them, I realized I forgot to take pictures of a number of them. Oops! Here's a few though:

These adorable coasters were for my mom and came from Little Coaster Gnome on Etsy.

This isn't the exact witch ball I gave my mom, but it's close. Her's had purple in it too. The one I bought is hand blown by local artist. 

The general idea behind the witch ball is to keep bad or evil spirits from your home. There are strands of glass that sort of make a web on the inside, and when the ball is hung in a doorway or window, it traps the bad energy inside instead of letting it get in your home. I have a pretty red, purple and pink one hanging above my kitchen sink, in front of the window.

Another gift for my mom, again not the exact one. It's a red, blown glass hummingbird feeder with metal and glass decorative work. 

We don't get a lot of hummingbirds where we live, but down at my parents' lake house, there are quite a few. Hanging the feeders in the trees off the patio gets them fairly close and they are so interesting to watch.

My dad is a griller and gets really into his seasonings, so we got him the Steak Seasonings Gift Box from Penzey's.

Penzey's is a company out of Wisconsin that has stores in 24 states, but you can shop via their catalogue too. There is a store in Des Moines and it is so cool. The only thing they sell are spices (over 250 spices and seasonings!) and cook books. They have samples of each spice in jars so you can smell them. I could spend all day in there. This gift box, which has seasonings not just for steak but chicken, pork and fish too, includes a recipe book with recipes for each spice. It is packaged so nice with pretty bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and nutmeg. The recipe book even has recipes for those so you don't waste the pretty presentation pieces. They have gift sets for baking, salt-free diets and everything under the sun, or you can build your own set by picking each spice individually. Highly recommend Penzey's to the foodies out there or for gifts for those foodies.

Jim Shore "Wicked Ride" for my MIL. 

Jim Shore "Spellbound" which we got for my MIL last year.

We bought her the "Spellbound" witch for Christmas last year and "Wicked Ride" this year. Halloween was really the first thing I bonded with my mother-in-law on - it's our favorite holiday. I am not a huge Jim Shore fan, but I really do love his Halloween pieces.

There are a few more gifts we gave that I want to show you, but I have to find photos and a couple we haven't given yet, so those will come later.

Pretties

I got this very cute metal water bottle in my stocking from my parents. I think it's from Gordman's.

This beautiful pashmina came from my friend Michelle. It is super soft and warm for days like today, when it's snowing AGAIN!

 There are a couple more gifts I want to take photos of to show you but haven't had a chance yet. Anyone receive a really special gift this year?

Thank you!

Here are some more great gifts I got for Christmas. I must have been good this year! I promise to get some more gifts we gave posted here soon.

Vintage Glam - desert sunset crystal necklace from ERMoriginals on Etsy. It is so stunning in person.

Jack Skellington "head in hand" lamp. 

Wouldn't be Chrimstmas if I didn't receive some Halloween things! I got this book from my sister.

Cable knit scarf in mustard from my brother.

I got the Sookie Stackhouse series of books (1-8) from my in-laws.

Thanks so much to our family and friends who were so generous this year. We love everything!

The loot

As always, our friends and family spoiled us this year. Here are a few things I have had time to take photos of:

Bat coffee sleeve from my mother-in-law from BatGirl93 on Etsy.

Ampersands necklace from my mother-in-law from Isette on Etsy. 

Owl coasters from my in-laws from QueenBe on Etsy. 

Mittens and necklace, both from Target, from my sweetie. 

Necklace from my best friend.

There are lots more gifts, but I haven't had time to take pictures yet, but I will post them when I have time.

I went to Target this morning around 8:30 thinking I'd beat the return and Sunday morning rush and it really worked. I shopped for about half an hour and only saw one other customer. It was so nice and peaceful, but sort of creepy. When I checked out, the cashier asked me if I knew what was going on and why no one was in the store. I was the first customer she'd check out in the entire hour she'd been there.

While I was there I picked up a few necessities and two fun things. I bought the game Quelf, which I have heard is hilarious. We'll play it on New Year's Eve and I'll let you know if it's fun. The other non-necessity (depending on who you ask!) was a bottle of Seven Deadly Zins wine. We had it a while back at a bar and really loved it. It was on sale so it brought the price down into our normal price per bottle that I am willing to pay. Mmmm.

Gifts, gifts and more gifts

We had friends over last night and exchanged some gifts so I can finally post a few more here. These were all purchased on Etsy. I was really happy with all the gifts!

Ornaments/sun catchers and bookmarks made from computer mother boards from Debby Arem Designs

Mozzarella & Ricotta cheese making kit from Urban Cheesecraft. Yes, I am obsessed with this place!

Tiny leather bound journal necklace from Bandon Hill. 

Purple Rain black borosilicate glass pendant with purple dichroic window from Newman Glass.

Nerdy totes

I made these three totes for my friend who is a social media guru who loves Domo (the bottom tote). He seemed like he really liked them. The fabric on all three of these was a little weird. I think the Facebook dark blue was meant to outdoor fabric because its really waxy-like. The lighter blue for the Twitter bag was super stiff and hard to work with. The Domo tote is made from thick felt. I loved how they turned out but they were a pain! Totally worth it though. Thanks for stopping by tonight C&S.