Christmas book reviews

The boy has promised to build me a new sewing table for my Christmas present. I'm such a lucky girl! But since he wanted me to have something to unwrap he got me two awesome books that I'm already in love with...This book is so inspiring. The author, Jeanne Williamson, pledge to make a small art quilt per week for a year--and then kept doing that for several more years! She amassed a collection of quilts and expanded her technique, using uncommon materials in her quilts. I'm a packrat too, so I'm inspired to try my own. I've started one that I'll post soon.Adorable! Aimee Ray has some great ideas. The projects are super cute, but the stitching ideas can easily be adapted for many more projects. She had a unique way of combining stitches and colors that wasn't obvious to me at first but now seems so intuitive. Pictures of my attempts will be here soon!

Photos from the bridal shower gift!

Evidently my bridal shower gift was a hit, as I managed to catch the new bride in groom showing off their wares at the wedding (well, technically after it).
The post wedding brunch featured the cute Mr and Mrs visors (sorry they are hard to see)



And the bag made it to the honeymoon suite, although you can't see the photoshop genius that became the label at all...

It's so gratifying when someone likes and uses their gift. Not that they wouldn't have liked or used something they registered for, but this is SOO much cuter, don't you think?

Don't wait until after you wrap...

To take pictures of your creations, as you'll inevitably forget to take them!

In a fit of creative fury, I put together a honeymoon pack for my friend's bridal shower. Their registry was boring me (love them, but who wants to buy sheets and slightly creepy silicone bakeware) so I got creative.

However, I waited until the last minute to do all my creating and was up until 2 am the morning of my flight finishing the details. But it was a hit! A beach bag personalized with their names courtesy of photoshop. Two coordinating visors with mr. and mrs. for the beach. A beach blanket for two with their new (for her) initials. Other cute beachy stuff. Made the uber-long gift opening session more exciting...there are only so many towels and kitchen gadgets you can ooh and ahh over.

The most exciting part of my project was discovering how to embroider on things you couldn't put under the machine, like the visors. I used 4 layers of water soluble stabilizer and stitched the letters using a heavy block font. After washing off the stabilizer, I glued the letters in place, complete with a heart shaped rhinestone for the period. They turned out super cute, if I may say so myself. Maybe I'll get lucky and Jen will send me a picture of them wearing them on the beach!

A much needed break

Nuf said?