Gift Sewing

I've been sewing a lot (but blogging little) lately.  I didn't make a lot of Christmas Gifts this year, but I have resolved to make special birthday presents for friends and relatives in the coming year.

The two pieces I did end up sewing for Christmas were for my mom and Nana.  Aylin posted some gorgeous Christmas paper-pieced projects over on her blog.  The patterns are free from Sewing Under the Rainbow's Last Minute Christmas Sampler.  I'm really not a fan of the process of paper-piecing, but man I love the results!

So the Saturday before Christmas, I decided it would be a good idea to start making some trivets for presents... famous last words right!? Good thing I had eggnog and brandy and rum to keep me company!

I estimated each segment took an average of 10 minutes to piece, trim and press.  Each snowflake has 16 sections x 2 trivets...  I was literally sewing right up to the moment we had to leave to go to my Mom's on Christmas morning.

Both trivets are 12" square, and are made with Insul-Bright batting so they can be used as big pot holders.

My favorite part of my mom's trivet is the Cotton and Steel metallic netorious binding :)  I just want yards and yards of this stuff in all the colors!

Last year I made little fabric baskets for the my fellow full-time librarian ladies in the reference department.  Since then we have hired another full time staff member, so I asked her what she wanted handmade for her desk, and she asked for a "thingy to put her mug on."

Jodi, my co-worker, has her bulletin board upholstered with a lime green canvas, so her criteria had to be that it went with the lime green.  The stack of 1.5"x3.5" AMH scraps I had laying on my cutting table definitely fit the bill :)

This was a super easy and quick gift to stitch up.  it's just 3" rail fence blocks made completely out of scraps.  The back is the AMH Postage Due print I used for my Aeroplane bag that I wanted to use up because I am so sick of having that fabric around, lol.  And I used the leftover binding from the Medallion baby quilt I made last month.

Lastly on my gift sewing marathon, I promised my sister a double zip pouch ages ago.  She was visiting over the summer when my first order of Cotton and Steel and she fell in love with Rashida's Tangram print and asked me to use it for her pouch.

I couldn't resist the Neon yellow zippers that match the yellow in the print.  I used this tutorial and the pouch came together really quickly.  It's a super cute and useful pouch and I can definitely see myself making a lot more in the future!

(sorry night-time photo!)

Right after I finished this pouch, I decided I wanted to make a few more. 

The top Vintage Happy pouch went to my other work friend, Abigail, for her birthday; I sent the middle C+S pouch to my Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap partner; and the bottom pouch is still sitting in my sewing room waiting for a good recipient.  It might turn out that it turns into Craft Show inventory if that goal becomes a reality!

Next up on the gift agenda is a Noodlehead Supertote for my friend and co-worker, Christine's birthday.  I ordered this fabric from Spoonflower which will hopefully arrive in the next few days :)