The Crosley Pouch, Halloween style

I wanted to make my grandchildren something for Halloween and decided to make them each a medium Crosley pouch 

by Center Street quilts. You can see more about the pattern 

on my last post here.

 Choosing the fabric is half the fun!

These pouches were all made with 10" squares of fabric for the outside, 10" for the lining and another 10" for the trim.

I had fun taking these photos with some of my Halloween decor!

I'm going to fill these pouches with each grandchild's favorite candy.

I really love the pumpkins with the purple background!

It took me a week of solid sewing and late nights to get all of these pouches cut out and sewn.  I'm waiting for some little ghost charms that I ordered, to arrive. Now I'll be on the hunt for their favorite candies ❤️ I hope I might have inspired you to make your Halloween a little spookier 😂

The Crosley Pouch

I posted about the Holland Pouch pattern that I bought from Centerstreet Quilts in July, here. I follow them on Instagram and they came out with a new pattern, the Crosley pouch.  I fall in love with everything they do, partly because their patterns are so cute and partly because they post great video tutorials on Instagram.

Below is their Crosley pouch.

When I saw their post on Instagram, I raced right over to their site on Etsy and bought the pattern.  I made three right away, a Papa (11"X11"), a Mama (9"X9"), and a baby (7"X7").  I just love them!!!

This one is made with Rifle Paper Co fabric, from their Alice in Wonderland line.  I thought it was so elegant, that I had to add an Eiffel Tower charm for the zipper pull.

The inside always has to be cute too 💗

 Next, I used American Jane fabric, with a black m&m charm.

This pouch was made from layer cake squares.

Last but not least is the little pouch.  I used Lucien fabric and a gummy  bear charm.  

Here they are, all in a row.

Part of the fun is choosing the fabric and the zippers.  I buy my zippers from YKK zippers on Etsy.

I decided to make a halloween themed pouch for each of my grandchildren this year.  I hope to have them finished by the end of this month.  The sweat shop has been busy for the past three weeks, choosing, cutting and sewing :)

Sabrina's First Birthday

 Last week was my grand daughter Sabrina's first birthday. A lot of preparations went into that party :) I have a little pink plastic pig that blows up balloons and then I tie them.  I made a few balloon arches.

It was a circus themed party.  

My son Sean and I wore matching tee shirts.

I made 99 old fashioned sugar cookies and almost half of them were left over.  

Sabrina's mom prepared a beautiful spread of fruit.  They also had a popcorn bar with various spices to sprinkle on.  They had a savory one, Mexican chocolate, cinnamon and theater butter.  There were m&ms to add and praline pecans and little chocolate peanut butter cups.

Karina made Sabrina a banana loaf cupcake with whipped cream frosting, minus the sugar.  Sabrina loved it!!!

I drew this chalkboard for the party.

There were about 35 people who came, and it was fun to see all 9 one year olds play together :) There was a piñata, darts to throw at balloons and a bounce house!!! Sean grilled hot dogs which were delicious.

One more photo of Sabrina loving her little doll I made for her 💗

My Quilt Retreat

I went to a quilt retreat last week, Monday through Thursday.  It was only a 50 minute drive from my house but I still stayed at the hotel.  I shared a room with my good friend Nedra and we had lots of fun together.  We sewed and sewed and went to a nice restaurant every day. There were 41 woman at the retreat and it was great visiting and getting to know some of the ladies. This is me at my machine.  Everyone had a large Costco table to themselves which was really nice!

This was my view, sitting across from Nedra.
 

There was a sea of sewing machines in the. ballroom, quite a few of the women brought their embroidery machines along with their sewing machines.

We were just a block from a wonderful quilt shop called "Modern Quilting" where we saw and bought lots of gorgeous fabric!

I completed my Cabin Chills quilt. The fabric is designed by J Wecker Frisch. It's called "Old Made" and is all sewing related.  I fell in love with the quilt the moment I saw it, and bought the kit last year. 

Instead of the white background, I chose a gray fabric to make the quilt a little spookier.

I still have to do a blanket stitch around the moons and the windows.  I had my Singer Featherweight with me. It sews like a dream, but only does straight stitch.

I also made this little doll for Sabrina who turned one year old.

I attached a little tag on her back which says 

PS I love you.

Sabrina loved it!

I also made about 10 Halloween "Tell me a story" blocks.

The retreat was so much fun!  The ladies were all so lovely, we won lots of prizes and were given quilt patterns and all sorts of goodies.  

I sure hope to go on the retreat again next year :)

The Holland Pouch

I made another Holland Pouch, I just love making them! They're as straightforward as 1-2-3

The Holland Pouch is designed by Center Street Quilts, here is a link to their blog post.  I made the large size this time, instead of the medium size. I love it just as much.

The inside seams are hidden by contrasting fabric.  You have to sew through a few thicknesses.  With a size 14 needle, you shouldn't have any problems, especially if you go a little slower.

It always helps to have a cute charm for your zipper :)

I'm super excited to be going to a quilt retreat today through Thursday. It's local but I still get to stay at a hotel!  This pouch will be my handmade gift to give to someone.  I hope to have the Halloween quilt called "Cabin Chills" finished to show you next week.

Enjoy your week, hope it's a Quilty one!

Pineberry QAL

 I finished the Pineberry quilt along, and was actually on target! I love it when that happens.  Lindsey from Pen and Paper Patterns designed this quilt and I think it's so cute!

This is what a Pineberry actually looks like.  White or pale pink with red seeds.  I really want to try one!!!

Pineberries have a strawberry flavor, but with subtle essences of pineapple, pear, and apricot. Because they have a slightly lower acidity than traditional red strawberries, pineberries have a delicate finish that leaves the palate pleasantly refreshed.

Here are my Pineberries, I have two of each color.

Here's an apricot flavored Pineberry, Tula Pink fabric.

This pineberry looks very juicy.

One of my favorite parts of making a quilt, is choosing the fabric.

This one looks like it may have a "gumdrop" flavor, really sweet.

Here's the finished quilt.  I'll get better photos when I get it quilted :)

It was really fun to make, I keep seeing all the color schemes out there, it's very tempting to make another one.

Have a great week!

RBD Block Challenge 2022

 I really enjoyed this quilt along.  I chose some Tasha Noel fabric, aqua, navy, green, pink and red.  I have a healthy stash of Tasha Noel, she's one of my favorite designers :)

For the background, I used one of Lori Holt's bee backgrounds, daisy pink.  I used a Kona pink for the Irish chain squares.

I was happily making all the blocks every week, and was all caught up.  That's the fun of a quilt along, to be on task and see everyone else's cool creations. Otherwise, I always feel like I'm lagging behind.

When I saw that the finished quilt was an Irish Chain design, I was really surprised!  So many squares! I chain pieced them....

...until I had a neat little stack.

Here are the blocks that I completed, and put on my design wall.  

I changed the order of the blocks a little. We had to add a block of our choice, of course I added the red maple leaf block.  

Here is the completed quilt top.  I really love it!  There is a lot of pink in this quilt but I think that it makes the blocks pop.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with this quilt or any of the others I'm making right now.  Maybe I'll amass another 27 quilts and give them all away to my kids and grandkids again.  Or maybe I'll tag each quilt for a great grandchild.  Even if I'm not around to give it to them, their parents can do the gifting for me.  

I'm excited to get this quilt quilted and will show you a photo when I do.  My unfinished quilt tops are piling up!

This is my favorite block in the quilt, the one designed by Lori Holt.