Whirl Into Winter Giveaway

UPDATE (2009JAN16): The winner is KK! KK, I've sent you an email. Congratulations!
There will be another giveaway on this blog in the spring. Thank you to everyone who visited and left comments.

I decided to participate in the Whirl Into Winter Quilt Blog Giveaway. This is my very first giveaway. Front View - various scraps from my stash.

Brown Flannel on Back has a swirl pattern -from my stash. There is another layer of flannel between the patchwork front and the flannel backing to add warmth.

The idea for this patchwork scarf came from a tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew.

To win this patchwork scarf:

• Please leave a comment between January 1 and January 15, 2009 telling me your favourite thing about winter. It could be an activity, craft, drink, recipe, etc. If your favourite thing about winter is a recipe, feel free to include the recipe in your comment.


• Make sure I can get your email address from your blog profile. If you do not have a blog, please make sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner.
  


• The winner will be announced on this blog January 16th. Please note any comments posted before January 1 and after January 15 will not be entered to win.

• UPDATE (2009JAN05): You will have until noon (Eastern Standard Time) on January 18 to claim your prize, after that I will redraw a winner. There have been a few comments left with no email address to connect to i.e. email address is not available on your profile, your profile is not public. Please ensure to have an email address available, to make it easier to contact the winner.

• International entries are welcome!

There are about 60 participants in the giveaway, giving away fabulous prizes. Click on the snowflake icon on my sidebar to be directed to the Whirl Into Winter Quilt Blog Giveaway. On the sidebar of Whirl Into Winter Quilt Blog Giveaway there is a list of blogs participating in the giveaway. Check out all the fabulous blogs and enter on each blog to win the prize they are giving away.

Handmade Christmas - Part 3

These are the handmade things made for my daughter.

The guitar bag was opened on Christmas Eve. My daughter has been taking guitar lessons for 3 years and loves this bag. There is a tutorial for this bag on http://boredandcrafty.wordpress.com/2007/12/31/my-own-guitar-bag-oh-yeah-happy-2008/. The pink is a canvas from Fabricland. I bought it full price (which I almost never do), but only needed .5 metre. The black is broadcloth. The strap is made from webbing and is adjustable. The silver-gray circles are all handsewn. Any one who knows me knows how much I hate to handsew and will try anyway to machine sew. These circles were so small I knew there was no way I could machine sew them. It took about 2 hours to do all of the handsewing, including sewing on the buttons. I would imagine that if I did any handsewing at all it probably would have taken considerably less time to do.

The turtle is from Bend-the-Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. The flower fabric is scrap fabric left over from pj pants. I used the same cordory remnant as I did for the boys' turtles. I also made one of these turtles for my niece.

Last February my daughter chose this yarn for a scarf. I tucked it away and worked on the scarf for about an hour a couple of nights each in September and had it completed by the end of September. It was the first handmade Christmas item that I made for this Christmas.

Still to come - handmade items made by the boys and by the girl for each other. Also the very thoughtful gift made for me.

Handmade Christmas - Part 2

These are the gifts we gave our boys for Christmas.

Bean bags - well actually rice bags. The fabrics are from Joanne's.

Turtles - made from the Bend-the-Rules sewing book by Amy Karol. The John Deere fabric is from my scraps stash, leftover from pj pants I made a few years ago, the beige cordory is a remnant picked up at Fabricland when they had remnants marked down 50% off.
Capes - these were opened on Christmas Eve. We let each of our kids open a gift on Christmas Eve after church. The fabric is broadcloth from Fabricland I got for $1/metre. The appliqued initials are from scraps leftover from some beachbags made for last Christmas. You can't see it in the picture but there is red bias tape around the top part of the cape, purchased at Value Village - 8 packages bagged together with some pink velvet ribbon for $1. The capes are secured around the boys' necks with velcro. I thought this would be easier for them to put on and take off the capes on their own.
I also made a cape and a turtle for my nephew, given that he is a year younger than our oldest and a year older than our youngest.

The capes were a hit and had to be worn right away. The turtles were put in their beds on Christmas night and have been carried around the house ever since. The bean (rice) bags haven't really been played with yet, but we do have one sick boy, who hasn't really felt much up to playing and the other boy is kind of lost without his older brother to lead in the playing.

Handmade Christmas - Part 1

This was our family's first Handmade Christmas. I think everyone liked what they received and more importantly liked making something for each other. I'll be breaking down the list and will try to post once a day until all of our handmade items have been posted.

For my husband I made a fleece camo pullover (see picture below). He is into hunting, so I thought this would be perfect. He seems to like it and has already used it a few times, so I would call that a success! The fabric was on sale at http://www.wazoodle.com/ two summers ago and I think it was around $4/yard. The pattern is Simplicity 3651. I plan on doing a pattern review of this pattern in January, so check back for that if you are interested.

Also I knitted a simple scarf for my husband for hunting.

It was made short to go under his coat. The yarn came from a yarn store in downtown Kingston, Ontario. They have a fabulous selection of yarns and the owner is extremely helpful. I will definitely be going back there again. This is the 4th knitting project I've done, all scarves. I think I might be ready to start trying other knitting projects, but have no idea what to try next. Obviously it will need to be relatively simple, since I've only done the straight knit stitch for all 4 scarves. Any suggestions on what my next project should be?

Holiday Traditions Exchange - package received

I received my Holiday Traditions Exchange package from Tamara on Monday. Tamara is extremely talented and makes these fabulous gift tags.

The package I received from Tamara included a gorgeous handmade necklace, beautiful hand beaded tree ornaments, a recipe for shortbread, Merry Christmas stickers and ribbons for our handmade Christmas and Tamara's holiday tradition. I hung the hand beaded tree ornaments on my Christmas tree right away. They look absolutely beautiful on my tree.

Holiday Traditions Exchange

Tamara (http://www.inkredible.typepad.com/), my swap partner for the Holiday Traditions Exchange received her package, so I can now post my pictures of the Christmas decorations I made for her. All 3 ornaments are made from felt. The snowman ornament is just freehand drew and sewed some beads on for the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons. The ribbon is some scrap ribbon I had left over from some other project years ago. The mitten ornament is based on mitten ornament I saw on http://www.bhg.com/ only mine isn't stuffed and it's bigger. I left the top open so she can stick a candycane or little treat in there for her daughter. There are beads crazy glued on under the ribbon trim. For the snowflake I traced around 2 snowflake cookie cutters and cut them out. Any one who knows me knows how much I hate to handsew, but I do think the blanket stitch around the outside of these ornaments adds a little more craftiness to them.

Also included in the package was a recipe for chocolate cookies that I add crushed candycanes on top of, and some recipe cards. I also shared one of our family's Christmas traditions with her.

This swap was a lot of fun and I couldn't wait for her to receive her package. My package is in the mail now and I'll share when I receive it.