Holiday Cheer!

I love wrapping presents, maybe a bit too much.  Here are some pictures of this year's batch.  I used white kraft paper, acrylic paint, lots of tape and ribbons.

All wrapped up

 I played with crinkling the paper and dry brush acrylics to add texture.

Poinsettia closeup.  I just painted some crinkled paper, cut the leaves, folded them down the center to create the 'vein', taped them all at the center and then taped on that wad of paper with a little yellow paint for the center.

But white-on-white looks pretty too.

Presents piled up under a tree are the best.

Handmade: Baby Quilt

My cousin and his wife just added a little baby boy to their family, so for the baby shower I whipped up a baby quilt.  For those new to quilting, starting small is the way to go.  And I'm not sure I possess the required amount of patience for a large quilt.

I started out looking through my fabric stash and found some browns, blues and teals with an overall theme of stripes and polka dots.  For the quilt, I decided to incorporate a lot of white and the lighter colors rather than the standard pastel-for-babies route.

Because I don't particularly like patterns, I just cut strips of varying widths and lengths.  Then I started laying them out and playing around with the composition.

After sewing the strips together, I added a wide, white border to freshen it up.

After layering the top with 80% cotton/20% polyester batting and the quilt back fabric, I planned out my stitching pattern.  I simply 'stitched in the ditch' for the strips in the center, and for the border, I measured out large 'x's to go in the border.

Then I bound the edges in crisp white to finish it off.  You can see the stitching pattern a little bit better from the back as well.

This quick and simple project was a great way to get me back into sewing.  I haven't made anything in a while and it felt good to be back behind the machine.

Valentine's Gifts

So, after making the fudge and toffee, I had to do something with all of it.  T, got the bulk of it, in a lovely heart shaped box that I picked up at Surfa's (I linked to the cafe, but it's attached to a restaurant supply store, with great stuff.)  I also got the candy liners from there as well.

Want to see more candy goodness?...K

You might also be noticing those molded chocolates in there, these were a fail.  I used metal petit-four cake tins and they did not release the chocolates well.  Out of the dozen I made (they're filled with white chocolate ganache) only 4 stayed 'together'.  T loved 'em, so I guess that's good.

But I still had candy left over, so I took some to my co-workers.  I used favor boxes that I had lying around from Paper Source.  

I cut some hearts out of card stock, taped them at the bottom and bent up the edges a bit.

Just enough for a sweet fix (or enough to make you have a horrible craving for chocolate the rest of the day).