DIY video for Valentine crafts...

I love a video tutorial because I've come to learn I'm such a visual learner it helps me to see the steps of the project well.  The DIY Dish has a cute way to stitch up some valentine placemats and then quickly transform them with iron on vinyl!  Plus, they often have great patterns to download for free! Check it out!

Dream On Giveaway Link!

Stop over at the Lucy & Norman blog to take a peek at the Dream On Fabric Giveaway going on. Enough fabric to make an entire quilt!  Making a "real quilt" is a goal of mine for 2011 so it sure would help to have a whole kit of fabric ready to go! Megan at Lucy and Norman is an inspiration with pictures of her beautiful finished quilts!

"New" Doggo Blankie

B-dawg is checking out what his mamma is workin' on!

This goodwill blanket ...... 

 

 

 

pretty easily turned into.....

A new doggo blankie... it's very cold here! :-)

Onesie and Burp Cloth Baby gifts

The guitar with orange machine stitching for detail.

I think my favorite part was the WOOF on the little bum!

I didn't wash them after snipping so hopefully the ragging process worked! :-)

I was excited to finally make cute baby gifts with some of the many wonderful tutorials I've been finding!  I used this great pattern and tutorial from homemade by jill  to make the burp cloths and have seen many simple onsies on a variety of blogs to get the idea for the dog and guitar applique.  Now I can't even remember for sure where I got the guitar image.  I'm pretty sure I just did a google search and used a basic outline.  I love how the backstitching at the top worked for the "tuning knobs!" The little hat was made from a t-shirt sleeve which was from another easy tutorial by homemade by jill found here. I'm sure I'll be making many more of these cute baby gift ensembles! I'm linking this post up at the Tea Rose Home linky party. Sachiko has a fabulous blog with great tutorials as well!  Check out all of her ideas here!

Crazy Christmas CLothes...the tradition continues!

At the school where I teach we have lots of SPIRIT and have shown it off quite well over the years!  Last year we started wearing the craziest christmas clothes we could find on the last day before vacation.  On this day we also gathered together in the gym this year for our 2nd annual Caroling sing-a-long and Ohhh what fun it is to ....see a gym full of red and greeeeen! The staff outdoes themselves every year and I always question, "How will people BEAT this next year? And yet, they always seem to come through.... Love this staff!

Burgundy Buttons: Put a Little Pop in Your Project!

I just bought this quilt kit last night using the new sugar pop line from Moda! A big project to start off 2011!  The fabrics are all my favorite colors put together-love that! 

Burgundy Buttons: Put a Little Pop in Your Project!: "Liz’s debut line for Moda is popping with color and as sweet as sugar! Sugar Pop stems from Liz’s love for all things confection..."

Three quilts in almost as many days!

As soon as I was done teaching and home on Friday for Christmas vacation I got right to work on these gifts for my nieces!  I had already cut the squares of fabric and some batting so I really wanted to make sure I was able to complete these by Christmas!  I was inspired to make a rag quilt when I first came across roryunraveled through the blogging world.  She has a beautiful etsy shop here! I found some great directions at kevinandamanda.com.  I also found a great site with video tips here! 

The snowmen and trees fabrics are so adorable from the Riley Blake line and I purchased mine on etsy with great service here! I would definitely recommend a walking foot for your sewing machine as mentioned in the tutorials.  I purchased mine from amazon and as always had really fast shipping which I LOVED because it didn't delay me getting right to work.  I also invested in the small spring loaded scissors which was recommended and am thankful I did that.  It saved on sore hands from all the snipping!  I did have the help of my fiance with that work.  How sweet that the girls' uncle even had a part in making these quilts. ♥

I hope these will be treasured for years to come by all my sweet nieces! I'm linking to a few link parties.  Click on the buttons below to check them out!

With the leftover scraps I even made them each a pillowcase! I split apart a perfect pink Goodwill pillowcase I just happened to have and quilted the scraps together and pieced it together!

Here's a shot of the tags I added that I printed on my computer!