The Innocence of a Child

The holidays are upon us.  Just in case you didn't know that.  First, Happy belated Thanksgiving to all in the US.  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday dinner and ate lots and lots of turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy.  Did anyone brave the crowds for Black Friday shopping?  Not me.  I went out over the weekend but stayed away from the stores on Friday.  There was nothing I really needed to shop for to bother getting up super early for.

I wanted to show you this.  Amelia finally finalized her letter to Santa and gave it to our Elf "Sneaky" to personally deliver to Santa.

She was excited to see her letter to Santa was gone the next morning and she said to me "Mama.  Sneaky must like you too because he saved you a trip to the post office!".  I love that she still believes.  I know it's coming to an end soon.  I will keep the magic going for as long as I can.

I have been doing some easy sewing but my mojo is disappearing and it really can't.  I have several more gifts to make.  I just haven't had the time.  My long Thanksgiving weekend was spent away from my house.  We had something to do or some place to be all weekend.  It was a bummer because I need to get myself in gear!  I'm just going to have to take time out at night and get it done.  My husband will have to hold down the fort in the evenings.

Here's what I've finished so far.  One was a birthday gift for my Godson for his 1st birthday - on Black Friday.  We partied it up.

I made him a warm and cozy fleece blanket.  I owe him a coordinating pillowcase but I haven't made it to the fabric store to see what I have find for brown doggie fabric.  I HOPE to get there before Christmas so that I can get that off my list.

Here's one with my helper

For my God-daughter for Christmas, I made her another fleece blanket and pillowcase.  Last year at the last minute her mother (my cousin) shared her Christmas wish list with me.  At the very top of the list at #1 was "a blanket from Jen".  I made her and her siblings each a blanket about 4 years ago and she wanted another one.  If I had known about a week sooner I would have made her one last year.

I made sure to make her one this year.  Now, she'll be 9 in January but isn't a girly-girl.  Doesn't like a lot of attention.  She loves to create and craft stores.  Office supplies is another big one with her.  Finding fleece that isn't all bright and "Look at me!" is difficult.  Until I found this...

Cute but not too girly-girly Zombie fleece.  I think I nailed it.  I backed it in a dark gray.  The next challenge was finding fabric for a pillowcase.  I was going to go with a black/white/gray theme but took a shot on Etsy.  And I found this:

Zombie Apocalypse by Riley Blake.  It's not as "cute" as the fleece but really?  Totally meant to be.  The cuff of the pillowcase is zombie eyeballs.  Awesome.

I think I will have a happy God-daughter at Christmas.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Am I done?!

I keep thinking I'm not.  Well, I'm not.  Sewing, I am but I have tabs for those coupon clutches to cut out yet.  My hand aches just thinking about it.

Here is the last of my Christmas gift sewing that I finished today.  I made 3 fleece blankets.  2 are going to TX to my BFF's little girls and one to my sister in law who is always cold.

First is my SIL's.  Her favorite color is orange so I think this one fits her well.  I backed it with "tangerine".  I kind of want to keep this one for myself.  :)

Now for my BFF's girls.  This one is for Julia:

And this one is for Sydney:

They are going to super late for Christmas but that's okay.  They are getting wrapped right now and delivered to the post office tomorrow morning.

And just to finish out this post... Punkie got sick at school this morning so she was sent home and has to stay home tomorrow.  24 hour rule.  She was sick a little at home but now she is feeling much better.  She needed to pose for some pictures.

do  you like her "scary face"??!

Enjoy the rest of your day!
Jen

More Fleece Blankets

I put together a couple fleece blankets and coordinating pillowcases for my cousins to give to their respective god-children for Christmas. I gave one to my god-daughter last year for her birthday so now all three kids in the house will have one.

This one is for Katrina, the oldest. I have no idea if she even likes turtles but this is what she's getting. LOL!

And for Julian - pirates. He's BIG into construction vehicles and tractors but we didn't find any suitable fleece for him. So pirates it is! I love the fleece. It's a big treasure map!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

Finally Finished!

I finally finished sewing together the fleece for my god-daughter's birthday gift. I made her a fleece blanket and a coordinating pillowcase. No, I didn't use my new sewing machine; I didn't want to get it all linty. Her birthday was 2 weeks ago and I just dreaded sewing this blanket. Why? Because the one I did for Punkie didn't work out as well as I wanted it too. The fleece kept shifting even though my husband and I pinned the crap out of it. This one did the same thing! BUT after I had finished Punkie's, my husband said, "if you do any more, it would probably be a good idea to sew it on the floor. Keeps it all level." Yeah, yeah... moving along. What do you know.

Man, I HATE to admit he was right! My husband took Punkie to his parents house for about an hour this morning so that I can get the blanket done. Sewing it on the floor worked like a charm. No issues. I didn't have to fight with the fleece shifting or anything and I got it all sewn up in about 30 minutes. Now I like them (the blankets) again and will be making more for some inexpensive gifts to come this year. I have one more to do for next month, my god-son's and then I'm taking a break for a bit. I have the fleece for another blanket but the recipient's birthday isn't until August. I may just get it done just to have it done. We'll see. I still need to get the pillowcase fabric for the other two blankets. I really do like the sewn edges look better than the whole knotted business. I hope she likes it. I just have to package it up and get it in the mail this week. The green of the pillowcase is more of a limey green then what is in the blanket but they do look nice together.

I have been playing with my new sewing machine. I just LOVE it. So does Punkie. I think she was as excited as I was! LOL! I've been letting her sew on it. I work the foot petal and she moves the fabric around. Too cute.

That's all for now. Amelia is taking a nap so I'm going to take this break in the action to play on my sewing machine and finish up my swap items!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

Got more projects done

I've been busy doing some sewing the last couple of weeks. I worked on a few more pillowcases. I love pillowcases. Nice use of fabrics I like and quick gratification for a project done. The pink/white ones are for me and the blue one in the middle is for Amelia. The fabric collection is called "Amelia" and I also bought some fat quarters a while back from the same collection and I'm going to make Punkie a lap quilt out of them.

And I got Amelia's Mickey Mouse fleece blanket done. I decided NOT to topstitch it. I had problems with the backing fabric shifting on me - even with all the pin basting my husband and I did, so the blanket is a hair off square. AND I had to patch it because as I was cutting off my extra material before turning it out... I cut a hole in it. I was NOT happy. I ran out and bought an iron on patch from Joann's. Good as new! The blanket is soooo warm. I'm going to make a few more for me. One for the couch when we're just hanging out and one for the New Hampshire house. I didn't struggle with it too much so I'm still going ahead with my plans to make them as upcoming birthday gifts. Joann's has the fleece on sale again this coming weekend so I'm going to pick more up. So far I've gotten all the fleece I need for 3 birthday blankets (one birthday falling in August). But for 50% off, it's a good deal. Just have to find a place to store it.

Amelia loves it. That's all that matters to me.

I'm off Monday and Tuesday to do my Christmas treat creating. Can't wait to get started! I know by Tuesday night my back will be killing me but it's worth it!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)