Cross-Body Purses

How's the weather where you are?  It's been cold, cold, cold here.  And if that wasn't bad enough, I lost one of my mittens at the grocery store.  I'm not very happy about that at all.  Those were the best mittens ever - so nice and warm.

Anyhow, enough about my mittens.  Check out these cross-body bags I made with the instructions from the book Sew Serendipity Bags by Kay Whitt.

I made the small bag on the right for myself last summer.  I made the large bag on the left for my sister and gave it to her for Christmas.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Friendship Braid Quilt {Back}

And now it's time to share the back of the friendship braid quilt.

The back is done with the same Kona solid used as the border of the quilt.

For the strip, I simply pieced together all of my scraps from the jelly roll I had used to make the quilt.

I had some triangles, small squares, rectangles and a few small strips which I put together in this simple pattern.

Pinterest is a great place to be inspired.  It is there where I came across the idea that the back of the quilt doesn't have to be boring and plain.

I am quite pleased with how the back of the quilt turned out and I think it's a nice complement to the front.  If you haven't read about the front of the quilt, you can check it out here.

I am sharing at my favorite parties.

Friendship Braid Quilt {Front}

It's finally time for me to share the things I made and then gave as Christmas gifts.  I'm super excited to share this one with you first.

I made this friendship braid quilt for my best friend from college.  It came out even better than I hoped.  I love the pattern.  I love the color combination.  I love the quilting.  I love it all!  I was a little bit sad when I packaged it up and mailed it to her.  But I felt better about it when she said she loved it.

I found the pattern in this book - Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam & Nicky Lintott.  This is the first time I've pieced anything other than squares or rectangles.  Those first trapezoids had me thinking when I started but I got the hang of it fairly quickly.

I used a jelly roll from moda fabrics - Hometown by sweetwater.  Among the prints in the line are a couple that had city/town names on them.  The neat thing to me was that I saw the name of the city that my friend grew up in and the city she now lives in.

The border is a Kona solid in a color which I can not remember the name of.  And the binding is also from Hometown by sweetwater.

I had this piece quilted by a local quilter - Kars Quilting.  I have used them before and they do great work.  I would recommend them to anyone in the Twin Cities area.  The pattern is Swirly.

Stay tuned - I'll share the back of the quilt in an upcoming post.  In the meantime, I'm sharing this quilt at my favorite parties.

{Handmade Christmas} Stripey Tree Skirt

So, am I the only one that still has their Christmas tree up?  Probably, but I am taking it down today.  It just seems like it takes so much time to put it up that it deserves to be up for more than one month.  I don't turn the lights on after New Year's Day if that makes a difference.    But this year there is an added benefit for it to be up so long.  On New Year's Day I finally finished this tree skirt and I wanted to enjoy it just a little before putting it away.

The pattern is from fourteen may and the fabric is Joy by Kate Spain for Moda.  My favorite part is the ribbon closure.

I didn't really like that section however {the eighth and ninth triangles} and changed it up from the pattern.  The pieces were overlapping completely and not creating an opening so I cut those trianges in half.  I am quite pleased with my modification.

I did not add the pom pom trim and I didn't quilt the skirt.  {But I did want to do the quilting, however, I haven't really figured out my darning foot yet.}  Instead I added decorative stitching along the seams.

I think it looks like snowflakes.  My one regret is that I used five different fabrics.  I don't really like that stripes one, two, four, and five alternate around the skirt.  I didn't realize that was how it would come out.  If I would do it again, I would just use three different fabrics.

All in all, though, I really love my new Christmas tree skirt.  So much that I am sharing it at my favorite parties.

{Confidential} - January Project Board

Welcome 2013!  Let's see how many of these projects I can get done this year.

{Not So Confidential} - December in Review

Happy New Year!  Mother Nature decided to ring in the new year here with a deep freeze.  Brrrr!  I would have much preferred a nice snowfall like this one earlier in December.

{What I made} Craft Projects

And in case you missed the posts on a couple of them:

{Handmade Christmas} Pinecone Ornaments

{Handmade Christmas} Felt Ornaments

{What I made} Yummy Eats

• Chicken Pesto Lasagna Rolls from Tracey's Culinary Adventures
• White Chocolate Peppermint M&M Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod - My second thought when I first tried the white chocolate peppermint M&M's was that they would be great in a cookie.  And they are.  {My first thought of course was mmmm these are yummy.}
•  Pomegranate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod - I love pomegranates and they add a fun pop to these cookies.
• Chocolate Fudge Pomegranate Cookies from How Sweet It Is - Two of my favorite things - chocolate and pomegranates.  So good.
• Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction - This recipe takes the chocolate chip cookie to the next level - awesomeness!
• White Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cheesecake from Baked by Rachel - I didn't make this one but I definitely eat it.  I suggested it to my mom for Christmas dessert and she was nice enough to make it for us.  We all loved it.  Probably one of the best cheesecakes ever.

{#FMSphotoaday} Favorite

4. Black & White...#dearsanta #fmsphotoaday