Tick tick tick

Yep three more Christmas makes checked off the list over the past few days.

As I hoped, I managed to get the little tissue pouches made at class on Thursday night.  These will be presents for two sisters who are friends of my son and are matches for the little purses I made last week.  He was very complimentary when he inspected the final makes and thinks the girls will be happy to receive these on Christmas Eve.  (He chose the fabrics himself from my stash - not bad at all!)

And for DS himself I made a cushion from the remaining Cosmo Cricket Snorkel fabrics to match his Surprise Quilt.

LOVE it!

Surprise Quilt and Cushion together

I wish I had thought to quilt the quilt itself with these wavy lines, they really appeal to me especially with the theme of these fabrics.  Hindsight would be better if it could be foresight!

So, as I say Tick Tick Tick.  The list is getting smaller (thankfully).

Beach Huts Finish

Last night I finished off the Beach Huts cushion that Judith has been teaching at her classes.  I love it!  It's so fresh and fun and girlie.  And, to add the icing to the cake, it is my first completed pressie for this year's festive season (too early to say the actual word just yet)!

Even the envelope back is cute with its colourful prairie points!

Huge thanks to Judith for such a gorgeous class project!

A Challenge, an Update and a Promise

The Challenge 

Yesterday, my lovely nine year old son set me a challenge - to make something small very quickly and he would be timing me on his ipod stopwatch.  Hey presto, 15 mins or so later and I had a bright little tissue holder for my summer bag.  I've seen these on various blogs and always wanted to try one out, so this was my chance.  In fairness most of the 15 minutes was spent choosing and cutting the fabric strips, not in the actual making up.

Sadly my time doesn't show up in this pic, but my son insists I include it!

Pocket Tissue Holder

The Update

Last night was class night and I made some progress on my Beach Huts Cushion.

It looks nice and tidy all trimmed off and squared up ready for adding the back.  Doesn't it look cheery?  The was a lot of quilting in this little cushion front and my bunting string looks slightly like it was caught in a gust of wind rather than hanging nicely on a calm summer's day, but I tried to smooth it out three times and it just seems that breeze was determined to blow!

The Promise

Just a few days ago I noticed my son eyeing up some of the JoAnn's fabrics that I received recently.   He struck up a conversation and in the end I found myself promising to make him a new pencil case from the fqs he had chosen.  Actually, I was delighted that he wanted me to make him something.  Sometimes it feels so difficult to find things to make for boys - there are loads of little possibilities for girls but no so much for boys. Anyway, here is his new pencil case courtesy of me (and of course Terri's great tutorial) - 

Hope he's happy when he sees it in the morning!  Please note - promise kept!

Actually, all these little things and Agnes cushion are part of my attempt to clear a few things off my list before they become UFOs.   I realised that life has been so crazy this last couple of months and as that looks set to continue I need to be careful not to commit to too many projects at one time or I will end up with the world's largest UFO list!  So, in an effort to keep myself on track I'm keeping a wee note of current projects and what I hope to achieve in a given month.  Then at the end of the month I have something to review and see how I did - hopefully, this will also keep my WIPs from becoming UFOs.

Beach Hut Beginnings

Made a wee start at the Beach Huts foundation piecing at class last night.  I loved the fun and freedom of this design - choosing cute and amusing fabrics to create fairytale beach huts.  Wouldn't you like to spend a sunny summer afternoon in one of these?

Pulling fabric fun!

There's a new project on the go this week at class - Judith's going to take us through the steps to create her amazing Beach Huts cushion.  So I spent the afternoon hoking (it means having a good old rummage for those of you not familiar with this fab Northern Ireland word) in my scraps box for suitable bits and bobs to make the cushion.  So, here's my fabric "draft"

I love it so far, although it might need a little tweak here or there when wise and critical eyes have had a look too.  It's very bright but I'm going for the children's drawing look.  I love the sea fabric that looks like it has little jellyfish all over it.  Don't the huts look like they're wearing turbans with the fabric folded across them like this?

My plan is that this little project will be the start of my Christmas gifts and if it turns out as well as I hope it will be destined for a special two and a half year old girl.  There is no doubt a small issue of the unseasonal nature of a beach huts cushion gifted in December, but she's two and a half and I am well known for my unseasonal touches (I once made a full on Sunday lunch with all the trimmings in May and it turned out to be the hottest day of the year so we all ate it - apple crumble and all - at a plastic garden table in full glorious baking sunshine).  I may not be seasonal but at least I'm consistent.