Halloween Treat Bags- Oh- Goodie!

Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but this year I decided to make all of our custodians treat bags so I can thank them for keeping my classroom so clean. I'll have to take a picture of my art room so you can see what they have to deal with. I really do appreciate them. Here are the little bags. They are made of felt and then I sewed Halloween panels on them and added little handles. Then I filled them with goodies. (That's the best part.)

Sew Attached

Applique- decoration made of one material attached to another. Ok, this is what I do every morning when I have duty at school outside the bathrooms. No, I'm not kidding. I sit on the floor and sew for 20 minutes and make sure the kids are not messing around in the bathrooms. Now the kids stop every morning to see what I am making. I always reply, "I'm making good use of my time!" Here are some of the "Art To Heart" appliques I have just finished.

Sew Pretty!

I have been making aprons this year. This is ironic because I am not a good cook and I only wear an apron when I am making Christmas tamales once a year. My tamale apron is not pretty and is made of green canvas, and I wipe my hands on it about every 5 seconds. Anyway, I think aprons are pretty and I like making them. I had some of my friends put them on this weekend so I could put a picture of them on my blog.

Yesterday I took my first sewing class. I learned how to use the fancy stitches on my sewing machine and made a pair of p.j. pants. What fun!!

Have Supplies...Will Travel

My sister Cindy gave me this little suitcase. It was old, just what I like! All of the outside coating was peeled off and there was just wood showing. I took Sharpie markers and started drawing on it. I thought this case would be perfect for taking my art supplies on trips or camping. Yes, I take stuff to do when we go camping because I am usually the first one up and I have a hard time doing nothing!! Anyway,
I lined the inside with material and organized all my stuff inside. You would be amazed how much "stuff" fits. Happy Trails!

A New Favorite

My new favorite book is called "PATCHWORK STYLE" by Suzuko Koseki. I love this book because it is easy to follow and I am direction impaired most of the time. I have made a few things out of this book. I adapted the floor mat by sewing a pieced scrap quilt right around an existing floor mat that I already had. I have it in my laundry room and it makes my feet very happy!

Tags

I have been working on some gift tags. These little tags are tea stained, then I sewed some old pieces of quilt blocks to them, added a printed fabric picture and embellished them with hand stitching and buttons. They are super easy to do, and make a gift even more special!

Sew Special!

I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post! School is back in session and it's almost Fall Break! This must be my year for completing projects.
The first quilt I will share with you was started at least 5 years ago. I drew out and painted the cowboy, then embroidered around the design, added two bands of fabric
and then I stopped. I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it and I put it away, then ta-da a new quilt shop called M's Quilting came to town and the perfect fabric was waiting there for me!



The next quilt is made from very old Sun Bonnet blocks that were in my stash of blocks that I picked up who knows where or when!



The next crib quilt is made from scraps that I thought were really pretty.



This is the Dresden quilt I am working on now. The blocks were made in 1939. A friend of my family gave them to me. I have had them for some time now and decided to start sewing them together when I saw a picture of a "Dotty for Dresden" quilt in the book MATERIAL OBSESSIONS by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. Once I sewed the blocks together I embroidered dotted circles in the center of the blocks and in between the blocks. This one is going to take some time, but I love it!



That should be enough for today. I have a lot of little projects I'm working on and I will include them in my next post.