Linky parties, Christmas gifts and trying new things :)

Needed a break - and took it :D 'nuff said :) I wasn't doing as much sewing as I normally do, but I managed to get some small items finished. It was the photography that bogged me down - it really is a huge job, isn't it? Now I have stacks of small projects on my sewing table downstairs and no place to lay out fabric, so that gave me the incentive to at least make a start at clearing out the backlog, LOL.

8"w x 10.5" tall, not incl. feet :D

First up are some piggy zipper pouches which are going into my gift box because they turned out ever so cute :D They're from Fast, Fun and Easy Fabric Critter Bags :)  The piggy keychains that I scored from Ebay make the perfect finish to these cuties :)  

These are the piggy keychains from Ebay - I love that there's a boy one and a girl one, lol!

Up next -  kids' wallets  :)   This was a new to me tutorial and I made several changes to the tutorial.  I have more of these little cuties kitted - they're great to have in the gift box - I plan on tucking some pretend credit cards and some cash in them before gifting :D

Bibs! Every baby needs bibs, and these ones are a gifty for a little one that's arriving later this year. I'm making a little taggy to go with them - it's cut out, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I hope you can see the Thomas the Tank Engine ribbon they're embellished with!






That's it for now - Blogger is making unilateral decisions as to photo and text placement.  Frustrating!  There's going to be a learning curve getting back into this, that I wasn't expecting!   I keep trying (Blogger keeps changing the text/size on me!) to delete the extra white space but Blogger says NO CHANGES FOR YOU!  *mutters*

Posting to some linky parties (if I can remember how to do it, LOL)
Ho Ho Ho and On We Sew  for July (all the items, as they're gifts)
Sew My Stash 2015:  Holiday in July (all the items are gifts, and happily, everything needed to make them was from stash :)
Celtic Thistle Stitches New to Me 2015 for July - (the wallets)

Monday Makers! #40 :)

Yay a fun finish to report! For Monday Makers! #38 I started a pillow project, and finally got it finished :) I did this guy a bit differently than the tutorial - I used a 20" pillow form instead of stuffing it, and I quilted the legs instead of stuffing them.  It turned out pretty cute!  I did have problems with the leather nose, but you can't really notice unless you get up really close to that area - and who gets that close to a polar bear's nose?  ;)  This is a new-to-me project that's also a Christmas gift  :D
 

For next week's Monday Makers! I plan on getting this project done - a drawstring gift bag (top) (that rattail is red, not orange :D) and a zipper pouch (bottom) - these are 2 pieces of a gift set I'm making for a June birthday. 

These are the scraps I picked for a strawberry pouch - I'm going to make a 9 patch block for the front with the 2 strawberry prints, and the pink gingham is for the back (I haven't picked the lining yet).  I have strawberry charms to use for the zipper pull ;)

These projects are being posted to the following linky parties:
Monday Makers! #40 (the pillow and strawberry bags)
Celtic Thistle Stitches New to Me for May (the polar bear pillow - and wow it was easy to make!)
Celtic Thistle Stitches and Mud, Pies and Pins'
Ho Ho Ho and On We Sew for May (the pillow)

April sewing :)

I didn't fare very well sewing or blogging wise in April - I don't even really know what I did the whole month, lol.  I did get a few projects finished though, and now the weather is finally warming up so maybe my hibernation will be over :D

Our twin greats (niece & nephew) turned 3 early in the month, and I made them each a drawstring backpack.  I'm hoping that their mom sends me a picture of the kids wearing them - she HAS to be a better photographer than I am, lol. 

Hubby modelling the floral backpack :D

DS2 modelling the shark backpack :)

Floral backpack :)

Shark backpack :)

In March I stitched a set of dinosaur fabric baskets for a Christmas gift - this month I used the last of the fabric and made one more basket for the set -- this latest one is the 8" size (the others are the 7", 6" and 5" size).

The newest basket, the 8" size :)

Inside of the basket - all of them have a covered plastic canvas removable base :)

Here's the entire set of 4 baskets :)

Another view of the set :)

That set turned out well so I made another one (another Christmas gift) - can you say ... busting stash?  Each set took a meter of outer and a meter of lining fabric, plus I had scraps left over to make a few zipper bags :)

I call this the Roadway set, which includes the 8", 7", 6" and 5" size baskets :)

As with the dinosaur set, each basket has a covered plastic canvas base for sturdiness :)

They stack together so nicely :)

My efforts to work on new-to-me projects didn't go well this month - I only got around to doing ONE new project, and it's tiny, lol (6.5" tall, 5" wide).  Cute, though!

This little gal will go to Blue Hills :)

Now - providing I haven't missed the deadlines (like I have a few times already - timezones apparently confuse me!) I'm posting these projects to:

Celtic Thistle Stitches New Me for April
Ho Ho Ho and On We Sew for April

Hey Pam - this one's for you ;)

My bloggy buddy Pam and I recently gave each other a challenge to complete some specific projects each month - it's a very informal agreement, and we email back and forth with reminders and ideas :)  My goal is to sew 2 gifts and 2 new-to-me projects per month, and hers is to sew 2 gifts and a robot block :)  January is now completed - this is a good time to be in a later time zone - HA!!!!  *winks @ Pam* :)

My gifts were done a few weeks ago - two penguin bags :)  I had trouble with the new-to-me section of the challenge - suffice it to say I need to work on my grommet and paper piecing skills, LOL.  Since I was running out of time I decided to go with a tried and true project to donate to Blue Hills - but I would do them in new-to-me designs.  Somewhat of a cop-out, but the rules aren't written in stone ;) 

The flamingo penguin bib on the left is made with the bib pattern from stubbornlycrafty.  I modified the penguin applique from her zipper bag pattern (which I bought last year) to fit the bib.  I love how it turned out :)   The blue shark bib is a scrap buster - I have enough of all of the fabrics to make several bibs in each of the designs - I'll add a taggy blanket to each set and shoot them off to Blue Hills for the mom/kid reading program :)  I get to post this to Celtic Stitches "New to Me" linky party as well - I'm on a roll!

[X] January challenge with Pam completed ;)

[X] New to Me in January completed :)