The Cute is in the Details

Today I made this little tote for my daughter's teacher.  I started out with the hint of an idea on Stephanie's Blog which you can see here.  I knew I wanted to make mine with the dashed lines but I wasn't really sure about size until I sat down with the scrap of Warm and White batting that I'd planned on using and found a scrap of white about the same size!

Teacher's Christmas Tote

From there everything was easy.  First I basted and then sewed.  Yep quilting first!  Then after I did the blue quilting lines I went back and added the red as sort of ah opps I forgot!  Then I hand - yes hand stitched the dashes.  After I squared that up everything came naturally.  I really wasn't in the mood for making straps so I pulled out a cloth tape that had seen better days (like the days before I cut it in half with the rotary cutter!)  I saw those numbers and thought perfect Math!  So they became the straps.  It really helped that when I cut it I cut it around 28 inches which makes a nice drop.

Detail of Quilting with Tape Measure Strap

I knew I needed to add a way to close it but the french seems were already looking thick so I thought a toggle would be great here.  Didn't have any toggles on hand but I did happen to have a button with the liberty bell on it so that added the final touch.  Not bad for a teacher's Christmas tote if I do say so and better yet that I made it from start to finish in one afternoon!

Liberty Bell Button

And the Winner is:

The winner is #8 Liz!  I bet right about now she's really glad to find our little corner of blog land.  Happy holiday spending Liz we'll be looking forward hearing from you again.

All Caught Up

I am now all caught up with the Freemotion Quilt-a-Long.  I hadn't realized I'd gotten so far behind!  So I happily stitched scallops, vines, meanders, and attempted some feathers.  I did not do the echo work except to embellish within the quilting I was practicing because I feel quite confident with echos.

Random Vine grows a nice flower!

 The best part about the vines was putting flowers on the end.  Some of these turned out quite nice even if my brain panics a bit at having to quilt a flower?!?!?!

Puzzle Piece Quilting

Next I made these little puzzle pieces.  On the front size the strip is just the width of those pieces so they really look like a line of pieces running the length of the strip.  These little pieces are a meander variation, I think they would look quite nice on a baby blanket, stitched row after row would add the tops and bottoms that appear to be missing in my strip from this backside view.

Meandering around the butterflies

Remember those butterflies that I stitched around?  I wasn't sure what to do with the empty space so when it came time to practice my meanders I went ahead and added them around the butterflies. The effect is nice.

Currently the quilt is about 2/3rds quilted.  At one point it was mentioned we should have our quilt halfway quilted at that point, but as I was never certain in the beginning where to stitch what I just sewed things where I thought they fit and looked good.  I wish all of you could cuddle this quilt the quilting makes it so inviting.  I have it positioned where I can see it often and the way the quilting pops is really nice.

Don't forget you still have a bit of time to get in any extra entries for the giveaway.  All of my non-Canadian non-US followers can feel free to enter as well, because I have a plan for you if you win!  ;-)

Gift Certificate Giveaway ~ Happy Holidays

Yes, you read that correctly, thanks to our sponsor CSN I'm hosting my first giveaway.  It is a $35 gift code good on anything at their 200+ sites.

Here the Rules:

• Leave a Comment to this post for a chance to win.

• Go to any of the CSN Websites and find something you'd like to buy from them could be anything from TV stands for flat screens, cookware, or even something you forgot to buy this past weekend. Return here and tell me about it for a second chance to win.

• If you blog about this giveaway on your own blog you'll have third chance to win.

That's all there is to it.  Their website is already decked out with snowflakes, each one indicating items that can arrive in time for Christmas.  The giveaway ends next week Wednesday on the 8th so our lucky winner will have enough time to spend their gift certificate on Christmas presents if they'd desire.

Best of Luck to Everyone.

A Box of Knitting

Today I started and finished the final blue dishcloth, all that knitting all at once and my hands are protesting a bit, next time I knit I'm back to a little at a time!

These will be joining the wrapped presents awaiting their debut under the Christmas tree.  They are made with 100% cotton yarn and all have a loop at the end for hang drying.