Tangram Book - Tutorial Review

From Sew Mama Sew's blog:

Quilt Blocks Tangram Block Tutorial (link here)

Quick Summary:
- Great instructions with helpful pictures

Pros: 
- Fairly quick project for a "beginner-intermediate" level sewer.  I had the main part of the book done in less than an hour and the shapes within another thirty minutes.  Truth be told, I was having fun making the shapes out of my fabric scraps and lost track of time.  I'm guessing the "thirty minutes."
- For a relatively easy project, the results are impressive to gift recipients and their guests.

Cons:
- The tutorial was made with a specific fabric line/design in mind.  The main part of the book was easy to make with alternate fabric.  However, when it came to the tangrams, that was not so easy.  It took more mind power to figure out squares, triangles, rectangles, etc and their dimensions to ensure that they truly worked as a tangram. I went to another pattern I had and used it's templates.

Results:

Monogrammed Cups - Success

Just before Christmas I found some cute, but too plain, mugs on clearance and knew exactly what I would do:

Monogrammed cups!

I used the following pin as a resource from Design Mom (link here)

It really is an easy, fun project.  I wasn't too worried about the letters looking "professional" and I just free-handed my letters.  I didn't really want to work with graphite paper as the tutorial suggested.

I followed the tutorial and I loved the results!  I was so proud of how the letters looked almost exactly like the ones in their photo.

Then I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped them as gifts.  And then I forgot to take pictures again when the happy recipient opened them on Christmas morning.  Photo fail.

As far as I know the mugs are working well. I'm more curious to see how long the lettering lasts...

Happy Pinning!
Kate

Chevron High Waisted Skirt

A few months ago (ahem, one year to be exact), I pinned a high waisted skirt tutorial on Pinterest.  I was so excited I bought the fabric within a few days and the zipper just after.

Doesn't the skirt look adorable?!?

And then life got a little crazy as our family faced an adventure or two last year.  I refocused my energy on quilting until yesterday.

This week required more time commuting as a project was out of town.  This commute ate all of my sewing and quilting time, not to mention my energy.  I was in need of a quick and easy project and behold, the skirt!

I used Riley Blake's chevron print fabric in grey and the tutorial from The Big Oak Tree found here.

I highly recommend this tutorial!  For a person whose sewing skills can be limited to straight-line quilting, I was hesitant to try a skirt.  This tutorial featured a lot of straight lines.  The only difficult part, was the zipper, but I muscled my way through.

I am very happy with the results!  And I have never gotten more compliments on a skirt, ever.

Happy Pinning!

Kate

Gifts: Lined Drawstring Bags

This past week I enjoyed not only all of the Holiday festivities, but a wedding, too!  We were lucky and blessed to attend my cousin's wedding in St. George and doubly lucky to have Justus' brother and his family host us as well.  As a thank you, I made his wonderful wife and amazing sister in law, a lovely drawstring bag.

I used Jeni Baker's Lined Drawstring Bag tutorial from her blog: "In Color Order."

Here is a picture of the pattern for different sizes.  I used the tutorial to make my bag.

Long note: my sewing skills are beginning-intermediate rising.  This means I can sew a straight line on my sewing machine with confidence, but curves scare me to death.  My background in sewing is mostly limited to quilting, with straight lines all of the time. Plus, I have some experience following a simple pattern.

Here is my result:

Sorry for the poor cell phone pictures.  I snagged these during our drive up to the wedding.  I stayed up too late the night before to finish this blurry bag and wish my cell phone took better pictures.

In summary, I put this bag together in about half an hour and thoroughly enjoyed the tutorial.  It includes both clear pictures (for visual learners like myself) and well-put instructions (for those who actually read all of the instructions before starting).  I used ribbon instead of making the "strings" to save some time.

Plus it features a whole bunch of adorable fabric!  Highly recommended these drawstring bags as a gift or for wrapping one!  The only hard part is selecting which fabric to use :)

Happy Pinning!
Kate

Christmas Charades

Source: Moms& Munchkins

This weekend my littlest daughter and I have been sick with colds. What this means is there has a lot of couch laying and cartoons. Sunday night rolled around and we needed a little movement. I took the opportunity to get out this Christmas Charades Game I'd found on... pinterest.

Emily can't read these words so my husband and I would take turns telling her what to do while the other person guessed. We had a really good time. Of course my husband got the weird ones like 'reindeer games' and 'santa sitting on a beach.'

I realize now I should have taken a video, but we were having too much fun to worry about videos :).

If you need a fun family activity night I would recommend this. I think I'll keep the jar out and pull it out every now and then. Hopefully with Emily being 4 it'll take a few times to catch on that we always have the same words.

Have fun!

happy pinning!

Letters To Santa

December 1. According to my daughter Emily, today is the "First Day of Christmas." She predicted snow and it snowed so we started our Christmas activities. 

There has been a lot of chit chat about what the girlees want for Christmas so tonight we documented it.   I found these two templates on pinterest. One with lots of lines for Emily to write her own letter, and a smaller one for Lyla to "write" her letter on. 

Source: Step into 2nd Grade

 Source: Skip to My Lou

Here are my little letter writers hard at work.

Lyla's letter

Dear Santa,

My name is Lyla. This year I have been good. (I asked her if she was good or naughty). For Christmas I want a purple present and a My Little (wittle) Pony. I love your reindeer. Do they like cookies?

Love,

LylaEm's Letter

December, 1

Dear Santa,

I want a My Little Pony remote control car and baking supplies. I am a good little girl. Thank you.

Love, 

Emily

Hopefully we'll have lots to report this month (at least until the 13th when my vacation starts).

Merry Christmas & Happy Pinning!

Day 5: Color By Letter Turkey

I majored in Elementary Education in college. I don't teach now, but I say I am a teacher at heart. Not to stereotype teachers, but to get our degree we had to color, paint, dance, and sing our way to graduation. Part of me just loves little art projects, coloring especially. 

I am not a natural artist. Not in the least. Not even close. So as a little girl (and a slightly bigger girl) really loved coloring books. I also really loved those color by number pictures. I am now pushing that love onto my children.

Alas, here is the color by letter Thanksgiving Turkey

This was one where I sat down and did it too. Emily had fun, Lyla lasted about 3 scribbles. Emily and I enjoyed some nice conversation, but I would have to say the highlight of the night was at the end while comparing our pictures. 

Emily said, and I quote, "Wow Mom. Ours kind of look the same." 

For being a good sport I told her she could pose however she wanted. 

Original Pin: Reading-with-kids Thanksgiving