An Old Friend

Since school is over and I've got more time on my hands, I've recently become acquainted with an old friend, my sewing machine. Here is my first bag of Summer 2010.

Hopefully this is the first project of many more to come!

Have a Cozy Christmas

I decided to make coasters for my co-workers for Christmas this year. Here is my stack of finished coasters. I think I made almost 20 coasters all together, this was my stack after I'd already given them to 4 of the paras that work in my classroom.

These were the 3 basic designs. I found this cute "Figgy Pudding" fabric at the quilt shop in Olathe.

I had so much fun making these coasters and giving them away. The expression on their faces was totally worth the late night, not to mention it let me procrastinate on grading some papers for a night.

On a Roll!

While I haven't been sewing as much as I'd like to, I have been busy making some new projects. On Sunday, my friend Lesley came over and we had a sewing day. We try to get together every week or so and craft. This week's project was a crayon roll. Lesley found the pattern on-line and we spent the day Sunday sewing.
Here is my finished product. The original pattern called for ribbon, I used elastic instead (thinking it would be more kid-friendly). I used too much elastic, so this is my example, next time I'll know, less elastic.
One of my former students and volleyball players, Judy, has cystic fibrosis and is in the hospital for 3 weeks. Yuck! Please keep Judy and her family in your prayers, as they are waiting for a lung transplant. Judy is very artistic, so I decided to change the crayon roll into a colored pencil roll. I'm hoping to take it to Judy in the hospital when I visit her later this week or next week.

Hopefully this will help Judy pass the time!

Another project Lesley and I created were these cute coasters. Again, the pattern was Lesley's idea and it is so easy! I'm planning on making some of these for my coworkers for Christmas. These are the ones I made for my coworker's Tea/Coffee themed basket for our school silent auction. I can't believe how easy these are!

Recent Projects

For my last few weeks of summer, I tried to cram in as much sewing time as possible. Here are a few things I came up with.

I decided I couldn't go back to school without making myself a new school bag, so this is what I made. I used Mary Englebright fabric and I really like it, even Tim was impressed with this bag.

We'll call this my "Last Summer bag", since I made it tonight, on the last night of my summer. This was the first time I'd made this pattern and I ended up shortening it by 2 inches, and I think I like it better smaller.

I keep wondering to myself, what in the world am I going to do with all of these purses/ bags, so... If you see something you like, let me know, it could be yours!

I've Been Bitten by the Bug...

The sewing bug! I'm not sure when it happened, but I can't get enough of fabric and patterns. I know it's gotten bad because Friday night Tim asked if I wanted to watch a movie and I declined, because I wanted to sew. What! The start of school is looming, so I've been trying to get in as much sewing time as possible, so much so that I keep putting off working in my classroom. (This is bad, because I had a dream about the first day of school and it wasn't pretty.)

Anyway, here are a few of the things I've been working on.

I have so many friend/ relatives/ co-workers that are expecting babies that I thought these burp cloths and baby blankets would be perfect gifts. My mom helped me get started and showed me a few sewing tricks. I've got two more sets of fabric to work on.

I found the pattern for this purse on-line and thought I'd give it a try. This is the example my mom and I made. We just used fabric she had to see how it worked out. It turned out to be surprisingly easy and cute!

Here is the second bag I made. I stopped in Lawrence at Sarah's Fabrics (I love that place!) and bought some fabric. On accident I ended up getting the same fabric as the lady who made the pattern. I also made a few modifications from the first one, shortened the strap and added a few more pockets on the inside. I have more fabric for another bag and I'm hoping to make a little bag to go with it.

This bag originally started out as a $9 Wal-Mart t-shirt. I had a different idea in mind when I thought about this bag, but I couldn't get it to workout right, so this is was I came up with. I'm thinking this bag will be great for Cardinal games. I'm not a huge Ryan Ludwick fan, but I couldn't see myself cutting up a Pujols shirt, especially when I wasn't sure how it would work out. (Not to mention that Ludwick t-shirts were $9 and Pujols t-shirts were $14.)

I think this takes care of #11, sew 5 things!

This Takes the Cake

A couple of weeks ago, I made a trip to Salina and with the help of my mom I accomplished #10 on my "To Do" list: Buy a sewing machine and learn to sew. Well, my mom actually purchased the sewing machine for me and provided the sewing lessons, I'm not sure what I'd do without her!

Here is my first project/ sewing lesson. While at my mom's house I completed this table runner. I'm hoping to have it completed by the 4th of July to put on my table, but we'll see if it gets finished or not. It still needs to be quilted and bound, two things I can't do on my own. Looks like I'll be making another trip to Salina to get it finished up. Here is my new-to-me sewing machine. According to my mom, it's a pretty simple machine, something to get me started and to learn on.

This is my workspace, I've set up shop in our guest bedroom in the basement. This keeps the mess out of sight and I can leave my sewing machine up all the time.
This is my second workspace. Tim's not too thrilled I've taken over his desk, but it's usually only temporary.

#53: Make a quilt- Done
This is the second project I've completed with my sewing machine. The title of this pattern is "This Takes the Cake", hence the blog title. It still needs to be quilted and bound as well, but the hard part of piecing is done.

#21 In progress...

I've decided that this is my week with no TV. I haven't caved and watched TV yet, but it is only Tuesday. I find the times I miss TV the most are when I'm getting ready in the morning and when I'm grading papers or working on the computer. I only sit and watch the TV for a few shows, but I usually have it on in the background in the evening, so no TV makes for a quiet house. Since I haven't been watching TV, I've found a few other things to occupy my time....This week is teacher appreciation week, I knew I wanted to do something for my teammates, so when I stumbled onto this idea, it was perfect. After a trip to Michael's (my new favorite store) and Hobby Lobby for supplies, and a night of crafting, here is the final product.

I plan on filling each box with some candy and leaving it on their desk. Hopefully this will accomplish #36 as well. (I'm trying to multi-task)

The one without a flower on top is for my male teammate, I didn't want to leave him out.

I can't take credit for these cute cake boxes, here is the website with the tutorial for how to make them, enjoy!