Handmade Birthday Club 2014

It's Amy's birthday month, I made her a Heather Bailey Smarty Girl book bag.

I've made a lot of these bags and they are a lot of fun to make :)

I love the length that they hang, and the wide strap sits snug on my shoulder.

All the fabric I used was designed by Heather Bailey.

I love her modern, feminine designs and colors.

The bag is completely lined and is perfect for holding magazines and 8 l/2" X 11" notebooks.

I have one and it's great for carrying my iPad.

Amy made me a sweet little mini quilt for my birthday month, you can see it here.

Handmade Birthday Club 2014

I belong to the Handmade Birthday Club.

I saw it advertised on Instagram and joined right away because it sounded like so much fun!

There are 12 people in each group, and every month, you make something handmade for the birthday person.

I received this gift for my birthday.
Jennifer made me the most beautiful clutch, and enclosed delicious chocolates, some cute notecards and colorful gel pens!
It was so exciting to get her parcel in the mail :)

A pretty clutch like this has been on my "to do" list.

The pouch is nice and wide, and it's padded.

The lining is so pretty and so is the workmanship!

I have to think of something special to use this pretty clutch for.
The clutch was designed by Diane Stanley, you might be able to find the pattern on her blog, here.

Handmade Birthday Club, July

I received my second gift from the Handmade Birthday Club.

One of the things I said I liked, were stuffed dolls or animals.

Becca made me a cute whale, she made it without a pattern!

She also sent me some delicious Canadian chocolate and some maple syrup candies, yum!

I don't know how she knew I liked selvages, but I got a bundle of them!

This is only a sampling of what she sent me.

They are Lizzy House too, I didn't have any of those.

I know a little boy who will love playing with this whale :)

One of the great things about this group is that you have the opportunity to expand your skills and make things you've never made before.
I love handmade gifts and hope to show you more soon.

Handmade Birthday Club, July 2014

I've been making about one gift a month for the members in our Handmade Birthday Club, since January.

Well, guess what?

This is my birthday month!

I mentioned that one of my loves is Aneela Hooey fabric.

Isn't this the cutest table topper?

It's 24" X 24", and oh so cute :)

When I first opened the package, I looked at the back first.

I was so excited that I forgot to look on the other side, the front side, lol!

"House of bad cats" also sent me some owl notecards and some owl washi tape. 

LOVE!!!

For now, I've got my new cherished table topper on my antique sewing machine table.

I'm going to use it to decorate my table when I teach the Young Women at church in another week :)
They'll love it!!!

Handmade Birthday Club 2014

It's Holli's birthday this month, she's in our handmade birthday club.  It's my birthday this month too :)
I'll show you all the gifts I receive later this month.

Holli said that she has never made a needle book for herself.

I made this cute little "Zakka" style book.

Don't you love the teeny weeny little cherries?

I love the Norwegian style little boy that I fussy cut, also.

I used an antique button for the closure.

I made a little patchwork on the back cover and hand quilted it.

The loop is a hair elastic :)

You can find the tutorial for this needle book here on my Pinterest board, "random tutorials".

I used a pale yellow piece of wool felt for the pages.

I really love all the little details.

This needle book is really small but a lot of time and thought went into making it, I sure hope Holli likes it!

Dresden

I love the dresden quilt block so much!

I always thought it would be so difficult to make one, but they really aren't that hard.

I made this dresden mini, or tabletopper, for Teresa Coates, whose birthday is in May.
I'm just a little late.....

Teresa is a fellow member of our Handmade Birthday Club.

She loves neutrals, particularly grays, with a touch of butter yellow.

I chose my fabric and was able to make each petal a different print.

I appliqued the butter yellow center and safety pinned the block, in preparation for machine quilting. 

I am really excited about the background fabric, I think it sets off the grays really well :)

Ta da!  I finished the machine quilting!

I stitched in the ditch on the dresden, added a swirl in the center, and pebble quilted the background.

I always like to show off how pretty the back looks, quilted.

This is the binding all stitched onto the block, ready to hand stitch on the back.

Here's a closeup :)

Here's another closeup with a few untrimmed threads!

Yeah, it's finished!

I really want to keep it for myself, but I'll try resist the urge :)

The back could be used as a table topper too if you want a change.

I have a Pinterest board dedicated to dresdens, if you want to check it out here.

I have some tutorials on how to make a dresden block on my Pinterest board, random tutorials, but you will have to sift through a lot of other tutorials to find them :)

Handmade Birthday Club 2014, January

I joined the Handmade Birthday Club 2014, sponsored by 

Susannah Kate Sews.

Everyone is assigned to groups of 12.

We make the birthday girl a small handmade item and goodies are optional.

The January birthday girls have received their gifts, so I can tell you what I made them.

These are two of the lined drawstring bags I showed you last week.

Gina said she loves dark chocolate and sweetarts.

Christen likes peeps, dark chocolate and pink and red starburst.

The birthday girl receives 11 gifts, that sounds like a real treat!!!