Black Friday sales...

Here are a few Black Friday sales worth checking out from some of my sponsors...

matching girl and doll outfits...

My middle daughter and a friend from school wanted to be dressed up from the Little House on the Prairie era for book character day this week. I had a copy of Miss Madeline in my sewing patterns, as well as enough fabric on hand to make two girls dresses, matching doll dresses, and bonnets.

For the doll dresses, I used the bodice piece from another pattern I had, lengthened it, and added the apron. The bonnets were from a free online tutorial and I decreased the measurements for the doll version. My daughter is pretty pleased with them, and I hope to make some more matching modern sets for my girls in the new year.

quick knight costume with Tombow Xtreme...

Book character day is coming up at my kids' school, and this is the first of the four costumes for it. My little man already had a hat and pants for a knight, so I just had to make the top for him. I used a piece of grey fleece from my stash, and a couple solid charm squares for the crest on the front.

For the crest, I copied a picture of a dragon, cut it out, and then using Tombow's new Xtreme adhesive, I glued the dragon to the crest, and then glued the crest to the top.

This was a great and quick way to finish up the top, and I'm happy to say that after a week of wearing it almost every day, it has been holding up just fine.

I'll be back next week with my girls' outfits which spent a fair bit of time on my sewing machine.

playing with fabric...

I have been pulling fabric lately for a queen-sized quilt for my middle daughter. Since she's my 'neat' one, we gave her the larger bed and a room that turns into a guest room when company arrives. But since the move, her twin sized quilt is looking pretty small on that big bed. This fabric pull started with a bundle of Joel Dewberry's Botanique line that I won on Joel & Laurie's blog a little while back and since then I've added in more prints from my stash.

Just yesterday, I received an email that I won this gorgeous bundle from Pile O' Fabric, and am excited that several of the prints will work with it...

But before I get started on that project, I have one more set of Christmas prints to work with, Mistletoe Lane from the Bear Creek Quilting Company. Looking forward to sharing it with you soon!

Winner and JOY circle update...

My turn as quilter has come up again in our JOY circle for Do Good Stitches. It was a good reminder to get my quilt top done from the last time I hosted now that the blocks have finished trickling in. I chose the Fairground Quilt tutorial from the Moda Bake Shop, which ended up in an assortment of different flag blocks. For the 'string' for the blocks, I used a rickrack. I just need to pick up a backing for this, or piece something together so I can get it quilted.

And the randomly selected winner of the Roots & Wings fat quarter bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop is Kim V. Congratulations! I've sent you an email.

GIVEAWAY from Fat Quarter Shop!

Today I have the pleasure of sharing a giveaway of a fat quarter bundle of Roots & Wings from the Fat Quarter Shop! This bundle has 15 fat quarters, and one of my lucky readers is going to win it!

But before we get to how to enter, I want to tell you about the Wishes Quilt Along and how it's helping raise funds for the Make a Wish Foundation. This event is being hosted by Fat Quarter Shop and Moda. Each month a new block is released, and these downloads are available for free on the Wishes Quilt Along page. The finished quilt that was made for this is going to be auctioned off with 100% of proceeds going to the Make a Wish foundation, helping to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. You can help by making a donation to this worthy cause, by making a pledge here or bidding on the auction quilt.

But back to the giveaway - wouldn't this bundle work great with the Wishes quilt pattern?! Just use the rafflecopter below for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

sewing up some quick baby gifts...

There were three sweet babes in our congregation in need of a baby shower this week, one of them being a new nephew for me. So instead of shopping, I dug through my fabric stash and used up some scraps and flannels to make a receiving blanket, some burp cloths, and soother straps.

I used this tutorial to make the receiving blanket with a self-binding edge...

and the soother straps are a mix of a couple different styles, the ones with the piece of elastic are for soothers that don't have handles.

Now back to some quilting projects on my machine. And I'll be back on Friday with a sponsored giveaway from the Fat Quarter Shop - check back then!

Fabri-Quilt Winner...

With the help of random.org, a winner was chosen for the fat quarter bundle of Season's Greetings prints from Fabri-Quilt...

Congratulations Joyce! Your fabrics will be out to you shortly.

And if you'd like to follow me along on Bloglovin', Feedly, or another reader, I have some more pattern reviews and fabric giveaways in the works.

featured on Purse Palooza...

This past week, I had a pattern review posted in the Purse Palooza over on the Sew Sweetness blog.

It's for the Sun and Surf Tote by Modkid, and the fabrics are from the Bear Creek Quilt Company. If you want to check it out along with all the other bag pattern reviews, you can hop on over there.

And there's still a few days left if you'd like to enter this fat quarter bundle giveaway.

Hexagon table topper tutorial and giveaway...

This is my second tutorial for the 12 days of Christmas on the Fabri-Quilt blog.  The fabrics used are from the Seasons Greetings line.  This topper is perfect for a round table, or a side table. It starts with a hexagon (the tutorial shows easy steps on how to cut one), and then how to border it.

Instead of using a solid backing, I used some fat quarters in my stash to make it reversible. Fabri-Quilt has a line called Cassandra which would work fantastic for this and make great use of the border print.

Fabri-Quilt is generously offering a fat quarter stack from their Seasons Greetings line to one of my readers!  To enter, just leave a comment below, and I would love it you hop over to the Fabri-Quilt blog to check out the tutorial.

For bonus entries, follow me on Facebook or Instagram and let me know that you do in separate comments. Winner will be selected by random.org on Oct 27.

Christmas is Coming . . .

Fall has been a blur so far for me this year, so in order to feel like I'm on top of something in my life, I've started some Christmas sewing. The lovely people over at Fabri-Quilt sent me some of their Season's Greetings prints to play with. The prints and quality of these fabrics were fantastic to work with, and I have a couple table topper tutorials to share.

First up, is a longer table runner - perfect for showing off the large ornament print and reindeer prints in this collection.

To see the full tutorial, just hop over to the Fabri-Quilt blog.

And here is a matching coffee table runner that I sewed up with some of the leftover scraps and another print from this collection. It was the perfect mini to practice some free-motion swirls for quilting.

I'll be back on their blog next week with a tutorial for a quilt topper perfect for a round kitchen table, and check back here for a fat quarter bundle giveaway of these lovely prints to go with it!

WIP Wednesday...

It's been a busy September, that seemed to drag into October. I won't lie, I'm feeling a little fried lately. But my big fundraiser commitment for the year is DONE, my bookkeeping year-end is DONE, and things have started settling into a more normal pace around here, starting with getting more time at my hobby...

Last night was spent putting the last of hand-stitching on one of my projects for the Fabri-Quilt blog. Check in with them tomorrow for my first Christmas project tutorial, and there will be a second one featured there next week.

And these are some lovely prints from Bear Creek Quilting Company, that will be turned into a bag for the Purse Palooza over at Sew Sweetness. My day comes up on the 21st.