French Press Cozy

Charles has wanted one of these for years! And I have been putting it off, until now. This was really easy to make, and now that I made it, I feel silly for putting it off for so long.

I have organized most of my scraps in 2 piles. One that is as unorganized as ever, and one with strips. It was so nice to be able to just look through useable strips and choose the ones I wanted!
It's a benefit from doing the circlequilt. While cutting scraps for that, I am also cutting 5'' squares - they then don't count as scraps anymore - and setting strips aside. It makes my scrap box(es) much easier to manage!

Edited to add:
These are my scrap boxes, I like this kind because they are stackable and they have lids. I got them from IKEA :)

The 2 larger boxes have all my unsorted scraps, and the smaller one has my strips. I have 4 of the smaller boxes. One has WIP (fast becoming a UFO) in it, one has my thread, one has the last bits of favorite prints and then there's the one with the strips.
The 2 larger boxes was once sorted in cool and warm colors - but that didn't last long!
So...this is how I have my scraps. I then have a small stack of 5'' charms in my fabric cupboard - but they are not really scraps, right?!

Mushroom

Miss V found this mushroom this weekend. Luckily she knew not to touch it!

These look so beautiful, but they are quite poisonous. I had to take a picture, I don't know how many of you have seen one of these "in the wild"?

Also...blogging every day seems to be paying off! I am much more motivated to work in my sewing room :D Everything I try to free-piece still looks horrific, but I'll get there. Just need to keep going and my mojo will return.

Circles WIP

I may be the last quilter in blogland to make a circle quilt - but better late than never, right?
Actually, I am not even sure the final layout will be circles, I like all the different options this block gives.

The block size I am working with is 7'' sq, that's the size of each quarter circle.
I haven't been able to sew today, but I have spent some time cutting scraps. This will be my 2nd scrapquilt this year -if I finish it in time- and I still have so many scraps! I love scraps, so I am quite happy about it ;)

I treated myself to a new blade for my rotary cutter, and OH MY!!! What a difference! It was easy to cut fabrics after that! LOL! I am going to get a couple of spare blades, so I can change it more often - having to go over every cut 3-4 times really doesn't make sense!
You may laugh - I did!

Art Portfolios for the kids

Very formal name I think...nevertheless, that's what they are called :)

I used this pattern, modified it to fit colored pencils and European size paper. Little A is still very much into CARS - he has started asking me for a CARS quilt. We'll see!

I am happy with how they turned out!

I think Miss V will like the kittens. And the letters.

A commitment..

This summer we got Miss V a Nintendo DSi. There was a moment there where I was afraid I would never again play Go Fish!, puzzles or read books with her again.....not to mention see her beautiful blue eyes!
Luckily that was not the case, she loves her Nintendo and does use it a lot, but it is something she will choose to do instead of watching a movie.

So, the only rule I made was, that it could not leave the house before we had some kind of bag/case/cozy for it.

And so I made this cozy for her Nintendo. Better than having to break my own rule, huh? She likes it! Yay!

Also I have the pictures of the grocery bag I made for myself. I love this Kaffe Fassett print so much, this way I get to see it almost every day.

I also like the lining, I like stripes.Don't you like these stripes too?

I just want to make a ton of these bags, they are really fun to sew. And every afternoon when I pick up the kids, I end up carrying all their art projects, dirty clothes, jackets etc in a big lump under my arm. Now I can pull a beautiful handmade fabric bag from my shoulder bag, and carry all their stuff in style. That makes me feel very organized. Bear with me...I don't get to feel that way very often ;)

I have made a commitment to post every day from now and until the end of October - except this weekend!
So you'll get to see a lot of pictures from my everyday life, because I don't get to sew every day.

A bag for my sushi-loving sister!

My sister loves sushi. We always have sushi when we want to treat ourselves to something special - so naturally Miss V has been used to sushi being something really extraordinary and she has always associated sushi with my sister.
So when I said the sewing project of the day would be making a reusable grocery bag for Aunt J, the only fabric that would do was the sushi print!
I used a plastic grocery bag as my pattern, so it's a good size and my sister should be able to get some good use out of this.

The lining was also chosen by Miss V, I had intended to use this print for binding for a future project...but since that is a still-unknown-future-project it didn't seem to make much sense to make that argument with the very happy V.
This bag folds up very small, and will definately fit into most shoulderbags :)
I think it turned out pretty nice!
I have made a few of these already, my favourite one has gone missing, so I made a new one for myself too. By the time it was done it was too dark to get a decent picture, so you'll have to see that in my next post :)

Swap-treasures and projects!

I am loving the weird facts you can read in the Snapple bottle caps.
This is another thing I didn't know...in fact, I wasn't even aware that there is a "rose family". Oh well...live and learn, right?! And no-one can know everything!
I have sent off my doll quilt for the DQS9, and it has been well received. That's always a nervous time...will my partner like what I made for her?! But she did, and I am relieved!

This round I have also been a swap mama, and the super talented Lucinda made a chair-quilt for each mama in the swap!!! How cool is she?! I love the chair she made for me, it is such a treasure :)
I have been working on a quilt for my bed. It is not a huge bed, but big enough that it is going to be quite a challenge to quilt it. So far it is 85" square - and I have no idea how I am going to wrestle that through my sewing machine, but I am sure going to give it my best shot!
The quilt is made from several packs of Punctuation charm squares - now I am waiting for the yardage I ordered for the backing to arrive!

Also...I want to show you the rows I have received from my fabulous Row10 friends. I love this quilt so much already!! Maybe I will use some kind of quilt-as-you-go methos for quilting this one....still debating!
My evergrowing scrappile is also keeping me busy, I have wanted to piece circles for a while, and it seemed like a good way to use some scraps. This is not a fast quilt to cut. For these blocks I do find the actual piecing much easier than the cutting.
But I will finish it!!! I will!!

Miss V is enjoying school so much - I am still a wreck, but better me than her!
My job is very time-consuming right now, but we're supposed to get some help in another month or so, hopefully that'll make it better ;)
I still do enjoy my job very much, however, I also feel like I am missing out on so much with the kids. It's all about compromize I guess.