ABC Bean Bags

I found this adorable ABC fabric panel from Jessica Flick on ebay.

It makes a really cute fabric book, but since my daughter has a few of those already, I decided to make bean bags out of the letter rectangles. After cutting out the individual rectangles, I cut some slightly larger (and imperfect) rectangles out of some extra corduroy fabric I had in my stash. I pinned them together, right sides facing in.

I sewed a 1/4 inch seam around the alphabet rectangles, leaving a 2 inch opening at the top. I then trimmed the extra blue corduroy fabric and trimmed the corners.

Next, I turned the bags right-side out and pushed the corners out with a chopstick. I filled each bag with about 2/3 cup of beans.

Then I sewed a 1/16 topstitch around the all 4 edges. I liked the look of stitching around the entire bag, and not just over the opening. However, I could have saved a lot of time had I just sewed the opening shut. My little girl loves them!

Memory Tree Art Quilt

Being pretty new to sewing (about 9 months), if you told me  a few months ago that I could learn the technique of Trapunto AND free motion I would have never imagined it possible.  However, after shopping at one of my favorite fabric stores, Sewing Party, I fell in love with a store display of this memory tree made by Jean Impey.  The pattern is actually made by Don't Look Now! and comes with three different style trees, all equally adorable.  Fortunately, Sewing Party was offering a class for this project, so I jumped in and was surprised that I was actually able to make this!  In fact, I have now made 3 off them for various people.

The one below is the tree that I made for my daughter's room using Amy Butler's Lark fabrics.

 I especially love the little birds that are part of the pattern.

P.S. I used a $20 shadow box frame from IKEA for my daughter's room, but you also make this into a 20x20 pillow.

Too Heart to Handle

After making about 1,000 of these oven mitts for Christmas presents last month, you'd think I'd never want to look at one again.  Yet I am still really loving these!  They are so very simple and quick to make.

I just got back from Joann's with all new fabric combos to make more.  I will add pictures of the finished mitts soon!

I am selling the pattern and VERY clear and detailed tutorial (with pictures) in my Etsy shop, if you're interested it is $7.

Update...

So here are my finished mitts with my new fabric.