WIP Wednesday -- Actually Have Been Working!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and now I wish you all also a Happy New Year too!


glitter-graphics.com

I finished up the covered composition notebooks and got them all wrapped.  I have 7 left to give to my guild to put in the boutique for sale at the Wichita quilt show in June.

I was told that a lady wants to buy 2 of the double towel scarves from me soon, so I went ahead and got a start on making with the 4 towels that I had on hand.  It ended up that my daughter also brought home a towel from work that she wanted me to make into one of the scarves for her for Christmas too.  I made that one, finished one of the other 4 and have 3 left to just sew up.  I will buy a towel each time I'm out and continue to make these all year long.....at least that is my plan.

Amelia will turn 1 on January 14.  I have made each of the grandchildren the jingle bell blocks for either their 1st birthday or first Christmas for years now.  I went to my room and gathered my supplies and have a good start on getting her blocks done.   I intend to make as many as I can and start getting them put into my Etsy shop as well.  I have one set of 2 in there now, but I am going to change it to a set of 3. 

I've been missing my headband to keep my ears warm with it getting so cold outside.  I ran across some fancy yarn in my sewing/craft room, so sat Christmas Eve afternoon and crocheted myself a headband before the evening church service.   Yes, an idea as well to make more for Christmas presents last year.  While in my room yesterday I found more of the fancy yarn, so I am on a roll to getting more made!

Last, but not least, I was finally able to get to the quilt shop and use part of my gift card to buy some 505 spray.  I got this little baby quilt basted......of course now I'm anxious to try to start machine quilting it, but it must wait until I get the towels done.....and I won't be home again until late Thursday night. 

I did not do well at all with the challenge of completing 17 UFO's in 2017, as you can see on the sidebar that I only finished a few of my 17.   I think I will edit that and add 2018, and add more of my UFO's to the list!

Our family Christmas party was awesome as usual.  A little stressful with work schedules and things, but we finally were all together.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures until after the gifts were opened.  Here are the few shots where I attempted to get in everyone who was there.

Hoping beyond hope to be able to continue crafting and sewing as I have been this past week every week!

I link up with the following blogs:



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/

 

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Christmas

Christmas is now just 3 days away.  Usually we do our family Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve, or a day or 2 before depending on my brother's schedule as a fire captain.  This year we are actually doing our gathering ON Christmas day in the afternoon.

As usual, I got a late start on the gifts that I made for everyone.  A list of 30 people to give to.  28 of those are getting covered composition notebook covers.  I sewed a total of 35 of the covers (the remainder goes to my quilt guild to put in the boutique at the quilt show).

Each notebook also comes with a pen and a mechanical pencil in the front pocket.  I bought a package of either one each time I shopped at Dollar Tree until I had enough.

I am still in the process of finishing up the stuffed Care Bears for baby Jordan and baby Amelia.  I was blessed to find that panel at a rummage sale where I bought a whole stack of fabric for just $4.
In fact, some of that fabric also was used to make the notebooks.

The other fabrics for the notebooks came from my stash and from a member's sale at the evening quilt guild where I paid 50 cents for each fat quarter.  I also did buy one yard of fabric from the markdown section at the quilt shop.

Buying a little here and a little there is how it has to be done, watching for bargains all the time!

Excuse the same picture as what I posted in my WIP Wednesday post, but I didn't get any others taken.
You will see the Car Bears on the table.  The box is the notebooks I had wrapped up already, plus a stack still to wrap, plus the extras.  You can see the pens and pencils laying there. (The towels on the table are hopefully going to be made into the double towel scarves by Saturday evening as a lady at church has a friend that wants to buy them for gifts if I can get them done.

My wrapping paper somehow got wet, but I used it anyway.  I just can't let anything go to waste, and there was no money to buy new!

I pulled out my tote--the tote where I stash gifts as I find them throughout the year.   I had Eggtastics for most all adults (bought at Dollar Tree for just $1 each)
I had some small things for the children.  I was worried as I didn't have enough for 2 of the teen boys.  I then remembered that I had the miniature Jenga and dominoes that I had picked up at Dollar Tree one day just because I thought they were cute.  Whew!  Just what I needed to fill in the rest of their boxes.   Not much in each box, but it's something extra to go with their notebooks.



I wasn't really going to talk about food this week (believe it or not!), but I don't want you to forget to get your Friday Freebie.

Free Barilla Ready Pasta at Kroger & Affiliates


I also want to talk a little about our "baking day" that my 3 daughters and I had.  We made a day and evening of it on Wednesday to get together and make our treat boxes that we give to each person.    I had boxes that I bought last year half price after Christmas from Dollar Tree and my oldest daughter had a few larger boxes too that she bought this year.
I made  the Ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle and coated in chocolate.  Heather made banana bread, which she sliced, and she made peanut clusters. She also made "Puppy Chow".   Elizabeth made the treats where you put a Rolo candy on a pretzel and top it with a Pecan half.  She also made peanut butter cookies with Hershey Kisses on top.   Jasmine helped where she was needed.
Each of 31 people get 2 of each thing that we made, plus the bag of Puppy Chow.

For our family Christmas gathering, we each bring food to share.  I can't wait to give these Christmas tortilla chips a try. 

CHIPS AWAY! HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS TORTILLA CHIPS

I have gotten really wordy today, so if you are still reading, thanks so much!   I will close by wishing you all a Merry Christmas!!  (and, don't forget to link up your frugal posts this week too)


glitter-graphics.com

WIP Wednesday -- 5 Days Until Christmas!

The days are going too fast and Christmas is literally right around the corner!

I have all of the covered composition notebooks done and over half of them wrapped.  I have found that I need to stop and buy another package of pens at Dollar Tree yet to have enough of those. 

I almost forgot about the stuffed Care Bears for Amelia's gift.  Since I didn't have anything for baby Jordan, I've decided that he is getting the blue and green Care Bears.  I only have 2 of the 6 completed.

In my picture you will notice more towels.  If possible, I need to make more of the double towel scarves before Sunday as a lady at church who has a friend who wants to buy some for gifts too.  Wish me luck on that one.

I've not yet pulled out my tote to see what's in it to see if I can make up some stocking bags for the children or not.  Again, wish my luck.

My daughters and I are getting together today in Inman for our "baking day".  The kids are out of school so my middle daughter has things planned for them to help today too. Busy day!!!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I will see you one more time with a WIP Wednesday post before the new year.


glitter-graphics.com


I link up with the following blogs.  I hope you will check them all out and see what others are making.



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

KatieMae Quilts for BOM weekly linky.  https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/

 

Frugal Friday With Marsha-- Christmas is Past

Christmas is wonderful, but I always breath a sigh of relief once the holiday is over.  It's such a busy time getting ready for all of the church and family events.......and preparing gifts.

You know that I made the drawstring backpacks for everyone on my list.  Everyone was 26 people both children and adults.  I needed a new bag, so gifted one to myself too.   I made so many that I have 9 left to list for sale in my etsy shop.

The beauty of making the bags was that I had a lot of time (and love) put into the sewing, but very little money.  Most of the fabrics were given to me and a small amount of the fabric I bought at yard sales or estate sales for very little money.  It proved to be a great stash buster of my fabric as well although there is still plenty in my craft room.

I didn't think to take a picture, but I got a great deal on the candy that I put in everyone's bags too.
I used shopkick while I waited at Walmart to get the oil changed on my car.  With the few points I already had in the app and what I got while waiting I ended up being able to get $7 in Target gift cards.
This prompted me to know that I needed to buy my candy at Target.  I went to work and printed coupons for some of the candy---from Swagbucks and Inboxdollars so I will earn an additional 10 cents for each coupon that I printed and used----I used 2 coupons.
I put the Target Cartwheel app back on my phone and found additional percentage off on the candy I planned to buy.
Then, when I arrived at Target I found a one day special that day of an additional 25% off all candy!!
I ended up with over $30 worth of candy and paid less than $10 for it.

For people such as my brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, children's significant others etc, I came up with the idea to make up little desk gift sets for each of them.
I shopped Dollar Tree and bought index cards, small notebooks, pencils, and pens.  I spent $8 plus tax.
I used paper clips from home and bookmarks that I already had made and added those along with index cards, a pencil, a pen and a small notepad into a cellophane bag.

Other gifts for my children and grandchildren came out of my stash that I gathered all year long.


As for shopping after Christmas, I only hit Dollar Tree to see what I could get for 50 cents each.  I spent less than $10 but came home with gift boxes of all sorts.  Boxes is what I was short on this year for wrapping.


How was your Christmas?  What did you do to make it a frugal one?

WIP Wednesday-- All About the Bags

I am trying to only work on the drawstring backpacks for gifts until I get them all done.

I made all of the ones that had fabric cut for.

Now I have my other fabrics out and I'm working on cutting the rest of it to start on more.  I sure hope in the end that I have enough to make the amount of bags that I need to make!

Of course tomorrow is Thanksgiving and that's also it's own WIP!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

UFO's:

Rectangle quilt
challenge wall hanging
Hexagon quilt
Emerald Island Fusique table runner
Five and Dime quilt
Brown half square triangle table runner
2 sets of doll blanket, pillows, bed and rug
Wall hanging for quilt guild
yo-yo's that need to be made into projects
black and white rail fence quilt
Arkansas Crossroads scrap quilt
T-shirt latchhook rug
Charming Stars quilt
Special crocheted prayer shawl
Fall Squares table topper
Crazy colored quilt with the five and dime blocks
Rainbow colored string quilt
St. Patricks yo-yo table topper/runner
Lexington quilt
? microwave hotpads
? drawstring backpacks for gifts and for sale

I link up with the following blogs:

WIP Wednesday -- My First Quilt Shop Hop

I finally got to go on my first quilt shop hop.  I've helped at Cottonwood Quilts during the Central Kansas Quilt Shop Hop for some years now and have always wanted to go on the hop myself.  My friend from out of town said let's make it a reality this year and have a girls out weekend, so we did.
I spent the weekend with her, taking 3 days to visit the 9 shops on the hop, and staying at her house.
It was a blast!
I had very little to spend, but I am very pleased with what I was able to buy with what I had.
I took a picture of each shop's shop hop quilt along the way.  This one is my favorite because of the log cabins.

While my friend drove on the shop hop, I worked on the doll rugs.  Yes,I work strangely.  I worked a little on all of them.

While working at the local quilt shop during the hop I added more yo-yo's on to the Christmas table topper.  Just a few more to go and it will be finished and I can get it listed in my etsy shop.

This month's color with the soscrappy blog scrap challenge is colors of the sun, yellow and orange.  I was able to sort through my scraps and get all of this to make my string quilt blocks with this month.

Last, but not least, this week, I took the rug along when I ran my mom around on her payday.  I was able to get the other 3 colors in.  Now I need to get in and find just 3 more colors to make into strips to finish it too.

UFO's:

Rectangle quilt
challenge wall hanging
Hexagon quilt
Emerald Island Fusique table runner
Five and Dime quilt
Brown half square triangle table runner
? sets of doll blanket, pillows, bed and rug
Wall hanging for quilt guild
yo-yo's that need to be made into projects
black and white rail fence quilt
Arkansas Crossroads scrap quilt
T-shirt latchhook rug
Rainbow colored locker hook rug
Charming Stars quilt
Special crocheted prayer shawl
Fall Squares table topper
Crazy colored quilt with the five and dime blocks
Rainbow colored string quilt
Christmas yo-yo table topper/runner
St. Patricks yo-yo table topper/runner

I link up with the following blogs:

If you are interested, here are a few of the quilting books that I have for sale on half.com:

WIP Wednesday 12/16/15

One more week to work on Christmas gifts.
I have done nothing but work on the microwave hotpads this past week.   I have 6 done and have this stack of 13 more to go.
All they need is to be pressed then sewn around the top to be done.

I hope to press these and start sewing them yet today.
I wrapped what gifts I had complete today and they are under the tree.  Now I have an idea of what I still need to come up with for who.

Any ideas on gifts to make for men??  It's too late for this year, but if I have some good ideas for next year it sure would be appreciated.

I was planning on making some gifts for the girls but I, sadly, am putting that aside.  I had some things for them in my stash.  I'm going to take the pressure off of myself for that part of it and just finish the hotpads.   I can start making the other gifts to have in time for their birthdays in August.

UFO's:

Rectangle quilt
challenge wall hanging
Hexagon quilt
Emerald Island Fusique table runner
Five and Dime quilt
Brown half square triangle table runner
3 sets of doll blanket, pillows and rug
Hexagon flower table runner
Wall hanging for quilt guild
yo-yo's that need to be made into projects
black and white rail fence quilt
Arkansas Crossroads scrap quilt
18 Hot pad bowls for Christmas gifts


2015 Finishes:

Locker Hook Rug
re-do binding on blue and peach patchwork
9 lined fabric bags
yellow crazy quilt lined bag
Pink hexagon table topper
Blue hexagon table topper
Yo-Yo Table runner
GoodNight Irene quilt/wall hanging
Fractured Pineapple quilt
Charming Stars quilt


I am linking up with the following blogs:
alt="WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced" />