CHRISTMAS ITEMS IN MY SHOP

 It's that time of year again and holiday gift shopping is on everyone's mind. I just wanted to let you know about the Christmas/holiday items I have in my shop all ready for gift giving. 

First is a vintage reindeer Christmas ornament from Avon. His name is Belvedeer and he's just the cutest thing every. He has a red nose, red antlers and a knit scarf in red and green stripes. At present I have 9 of them left and you get free shipping with an order of 3 or more.

Next up is a tote made from some of my favorite holiday print ever. It's called "Coyote Choir" and features a bunch of coyotes singing their joy of the season. They've even decorated the cactus with colorful lights. They are joined by other desert denizens. The tote is trimmed with recycled denim and lined with a deep red fabric.

For the Maxine fan (and who isn't?) I have a super tote bag featuring Maxine in all her holiday glory giving her opinion of the season. The background is red with white snowflakes and the tote is lined with red fabric.Carry this tote and  you can laugh all the way to the new year.

For the cat lover I have a wonderful tote is a prim print of Santa and some very lucky felines. The background is a pale gray with Santa in a prim red robe. The cats are all wearing colorful mufflers just waiting for Santa to break out the catnip. The lining is a pale gray solid. 

I also have a lot of other items in the shop that would make ideal Christmas/holiday presents. I have aprons in fabrics that echo the prints of Provence. There's a lovely girly John Deere theme diaper bag and baby quilt combo. I have a cool teacher print tote for the fav teacher in your or your child's life. There are other tote bags in assorted themes that just might catch your eye and a couple of beautiful rag quilts. 

If you don't see something that meets your needs, please convo me thru Etsy and I'll be glad to work with you to create just what you have in mind. www.grandmabarbara.etsy.com is the place!

NEW TOTES IN MY SHOP

In anticipation of the upcoming "gift giving" season, I'm going to be listing a number of tote bags in my shop. They will make great holiday gifts for friends and family or to keep for yourself!

The first listing is a nifty patriotic tote in red, white and blue. The colors are more of the primitive, darker colors than the usual combo. The pattern is little squares with stars, stripes or USA. The inside is a dark blue with tiny stars and features two 9" x 9" pockets. There's also a handy little pocket on the outside that's been accented with a vintage white button.

Just in time for Halloween, I listed a beautiful orange tote with a spiderweb pattern that could carry you all the way thru the winter. Inside I went wholeheartedly Halloween with a cute print on black with bats, pumpkins and the like. The tote also has two inside pockets and one on the outside with an unusual metal button feature.

I also listed a cute tote that would be the perfect teacher gift. The print is in bright primary colors of red, blue and yellow. If you look close you will see the schoool house, the school bus, the teacher's apple and many other school related items. The background is a denim blue and the lining a great bright red. Inside are four roomy 9" x 9" pockets to handle all of the "stuff" a teacher carries around. I also included the small outside pocket with a bright red button.

The last tote I'm featuring today is perfect for the piggy collector. The print, in browns and pinks, is all pigs. The tote lining is a pale pink. Inside I placed two 9" x 9" pockets with a small pocket on the outside that has a pretty pearly accent button.

All of the totes have a fusible fleece between the fabric layers and a fabric covered matte board stabilizer in the bottom. The 10" drop in the double top-stitched straps make them great for carrying on the shoulder or in the hand. Although the totes are washable except for the stabilizer, most problems can be taken care of thru spot cleaning. And any of these would make a great diaper bag, too.

I'm also open to requests for custom made totes. Just email or convo me on Etsy with your requests or ideas. And be on the lookout for more - especially those with a Christmas/holiday theme.

THE MAKING OF A BABY CLOTHES QUILT - The Finale

Today is the final entry in "The Making of a Baby Clothes Quilt" series on my blog. I'll tell you about assembling the quilt and show you the finished product.

After all the blocks are "sandwiched" and stitched, I lay them out on my cutting table in a random pattern and then make adjustments in placement until it has a look that pleases me. I love that moment when I can say to myself, "Yes, that's it!" And that's a remarkable moment for a perfectionist!

After the layout is finalized I pin the blocks in each row together to make sure that they stay in the proper order. Then I sew them together with a double seam to make sure the quilt is sturdy and will last thru lots of use. This shows one of the strips with the blocks pinned.

Next I pin and sew together the strips in sets of two. You will find that this makes assembly much easier, especially when you have limited space like I do. I use about a 3/4" seam for a nice bloom or fringe. Here are two of the strips after being sewn together.

Since this quilt had eight rows,  had four sets of two strips at this point. Then I sewed two sets of two strips together for two sets of four. Then one final seam to complete the assembly. After the quilt is all sewn together, I sew around the edge twice to make the space for fringing the edge.

This shows the completed quilt before clipping.

And, ta-da, here is the finished quilt. It measures about 55" x 62".

I just love all the red in this quilt. I can see it on a winter day, adorning a sofa or keeping someone warm while watching a movie or reading a book. I love this quilt and my customer told me she loves it, too. I love a success!



THE MAKING OF A BABY CLOTHES QUILT - part 4

Now we get to the framing of the blocks. This gives us a cotton edge that fringes much better than the stabilized knits. The framing strips are 2.5" wide and 6.5" and 10" long. Of course I cut twice the number of blocks for each length. Below are the strips cut for this quilt.

I start by sewing the 6.5" strips down each side. (I like the way it looks with the longer strips across the top and bottom, but you could do it whichever way looks good to you.) I  use chain stitching to save on thread.

After the side strips are sewn I press them with the steam iron to make a nice, neat seam. Then the blocks are ready for the top and bottom strips.

These are sewn just like the side strips; chain sewning  again saves on thread.

And here's the finished framed block, ready for trimming. I'll show that and the "sandwiching" in the next blog post.



THE MAKING OF A BABY CLOTHES QUILT part 1

For a long time now, people have been asking me to do a tutorial on making a baby clothes quilt. Well, I'm not very good at tutorials, so what I'm going to do is tell the story of one baby clothes quilt from beginning to end. With pictures, of course.

It all starts when the box of baby clothes appears at my doorstep, courtesy of the USPS, FedEx or UPS. I love the feeling of anticipation when that box arrives and I can't wait to open it.

This particular box that arrived yesterday contains all holiday themed baby items and looks very festive right from the beginning. Look at that cute little reindeer.

Of course I have to take out all the clothing items so I can ooh and aah over them. This batch has a bunch of onsies and footed pj's that will yield lots of colorful blocks. There are also lots of cute tshirts, sweaters and bibs that will contribute to a truely one of a kind quilt. The main colors, of course, will be red, green and white with some blue thrown in for contrast.

The next step will be to cut apart the items just enough for them to lay flat for cutting blocks. I'll show that in the next blog. Stay tuned to see how this quilt turns out.



WHAT'S GOING ON WITH PAYPAL THESE DAYS? ANTI-CHARITY?

I usually don't write "rant" blogs and I won't do it today, but I do want anyone who has ever dealt with PayPal as a customer or vendor to read these two blogs. You can then decide for yourself on the issue. First go to http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/ to read about it from the "horses' mouth" so to speak. I've heard from many friends and online buddies who sell online and use PayPal about the heavy handedness of PayPal. This takes the cake. Then go to http://thegreengeeks.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/why-paypal-is-wrong-regarding-regretsy-according-to-their-own-policies/ for a great breakdown of how PayPal is making up the rules as they go along. Emailing PayPal probably won't help as several folks have pointed out, but getting this out to the public and, hopefully, making national news about it just might. So pass this on if you wish or not. I will leave it up to you to decide if it's worth the effort.

***OKTOBERFEST SALE***

I wanted to announce that I am having a month-long sale in my Etsy shop, Grandmabarbara. You can find fall and Halloween-themed fabrics at 15% off and Christmas fabrics at 10% off. They've already begun flying off the virtual shelves so get in soon to find your treasures.

BACK ON EBAY

Well, y'all, I'm back on ebay. I only have two listings right now, but plan on a lot more soon. My kitty, Max, is in the hospital and I need to raise some money to pay for his care. I'll post more about him later. Right now I'd love for you to check out this cute little lap quilt I made from a MODA layer cake in the "Wee Woodland" collection by Keiki. It has the fall colors that are so perfect right now. It has one layer of flannel to make it the perfect weight to snuggle under on these cool autumn days. Go see at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBaylSAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320611380651&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

My next listing is a cute little holiday table topper in the Christmas colors of red, green and gold. I made some little four-patch blocks using two holly prints in green, red and metallic gold and framed them with a beautiful red, green, metallic gold and black paisley. The back is a green and red holly print on black. There's a middle layer of red flannel to add body and extra color. Check it out http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBaylSAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320611724902&ssPageName-STRK:MESELX:IT

Guess I'd better get back to sewing!! Thanks for stopping by.

CURRENT PROJECTS

I just wanted to share my latest project of which I'm very proud. I saw a tutorial for a patriotic table runner on the net (forget where, but will let you know when I remember). I didn't want red, white and blue so I searched the stash and realized it was perfect for a Christmas runner with only one color change - replace the blue with green. So I used a number of different of different Christmas prints to make this and I think it turned out great!

This picture is of the runner hanging on my design wall.

This is the runner on the cutting table. Please ignore the mess!!

I'm backing it with another Christmas print - green with little holly leaves - and using another print for the binding should I ever get that far. At first I thought about hand quilting, but couldn't decide on a design. Then I thought I could just stitch in the ditch, but why do that by hand when you can do it easier on the machine? So I'm still thinking on it. I am hoping to get it finished by this Christmas!!

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY!!! PLEASE?!?!

Ok, I know I said we needed some rain, but enough already!!! I couldn't get out and run some needed errands yesterday because of the rain. I'm not afraid of getting wet; it's the crazy Houston drivers and unexpected standing water that keeps me in. There has been enough rain at my house that the backyard is beginning to pond. We had at least an inch yesterday and expect that much more today. Of course I shouldn't complain when people in areas near here are having water in their houses.

At least I was able to use my time constructively yesterday to start on a cute quilted table runner. The pattern I found on allpeoplequilt.com had it in patriotic colors, but, if you change blue to green, you get Christmas!!! I had a lot of Christmas fabric in my stash so it was easy to pick out some fabrics to use. I have two of the three blocks assembled and it was really pretty easy. Of course the cutting would have gone smoother if I had paid better attention to the instructions. However, I have a lot of the fabric so I'll just keep the extras for another creation. Maybe another runner? Who knows? I'll post a pic when I get done.

I'm going to prepare to at least hit the grocery store today. The cat food and kitty litter can wait til another day. If I don't go to the grocery store I may have to resort to eating cat food so I may just have to brave the rain. Somehow Fancy Feast Turkey and Giblets just isn't that appetizing - even with a salad!