4 Kids Christmas 2016, The Presents

I host an Instagram swap called #4kidschristmas and it's about sewing up a medium sized gift for a child for your partner.  This year we did an open swap where you traded with your partner and kept in contact with each other.  I really liked this because I got to know Amanda well and was able to talk to here about her kids and she was able to talk to me as well.

Wearing Senegence Lipstick with out the gloss on

When I found out she sold Senegence Lipstick, I kind of begged her to send me a color, since I love it so much.  And I would suggest you go out and buy it as well, it's fantastic, stay's on your lips forever, you can do many things and it won't come off (want a detailed list of what I did while wearing it, you can e-mail me, wink, wink ;)  Her Instagram name is @lastinglipscolorado if you want to check it out.
Amanda also made the kids the perfect gifts for Katerina a play mat, that she can play on with all of her little Playmobile.  And Nik a Minecraft sword out of felt, the workmanship on the sword is amazing.

The Frozen print is the interior (a better picture of the exterior play mat is below)

The secondary presents were perfect as well, I put these in the kids stockings, so they got them first thing in the morning.

Playmobile Santa for Katerina, it came with presents, but I couldn't find them when I took this photo, Katerina has been hiding them around the house.  Lego Minecraft for Nik, we don't have these here in Greece, so this are super cool and Nik wants all of the other Minecraft Lego sets, lol.  Thanks Amanda, hehe.
Inside of the Handmade Pouches was a small Minecraft toy and also the Jelly Bean candies, again we don't have these here, Katerina was so excited to try these, she see's them on Challenge videos. So of course we had to do a taste challenge, we put them in a bowl and I wrote down the different flavors and the kids were supposed to guess the flavor, it was fun.
A few more pictures.

This is just half of the play mat so you can imagine the size, it will come in really handy when she is playing on the verandah during the summer with all of her Playmobile.

Nik with his sword.

This picture is classic, I just love Katerina's face.
Thank you Amanda for making the kids's Christmas extra special.
I made 2 stuffies for Amanda's girl's, from the book "Sew Fantasy Toys"

Tell Me a Story Pillow

I joined Amy of During Quiet Time for the Tell Me a Story Holiday Pillow a version of her Tell Me A Story Quilt in her Intentional Piecing book.
I love the idea of this quilt, but I'm really bad at being "scrappy" and although there are tips on how to make it not so scrappy I still decided to make the color around the fussy cut squares all one color, plus I was using scraps from another Christmas project, so it was a win win situation.  Now to find the cutest center Christmas fabrics and along came Lucy of Charm About You blog, she sent me a FQ of the cutest Christmas fabric and I was able to make 6 blocks with it.
The Stories:

 Mr. Snowman was the fist to arrive in Santa's village, actually he never left since the elves made him last year.

This guy was next, he wanted to be there in case any of Santa's Reindeer ended up getting sick, his little bunny friend helped put lights up in his antler's, just in case it was Rudolf who got sick.

Little Nik ran ahead of his family he was so excited to see Santa coming.

Along came the rest of the Penguin family, little Katerina was wearing her new red scarf to show Santa.

The little red fox was also hoping to show off his new scarf to Santa.

Mr. Polar Bear brought several gifts for Santa to drop off with some of his family that had moved to Canada.

All six of these are from the same print, adorable right.  I even had extra of the fabric and sent it to another friend who lives in the States, so this FQ went from the UK, to Greece, to USA!
In Thanks, Tammy , sent me some cute fabrics she had been cutting up for her blocks.

I wanted the Santa that she had, it was perfect!

For the next block, this little elf was in charge of letting everyone know that Santa was coming, she told the bird's to spread the word in song, "Here Comes Santa Claus"

All the elves started to sing along.

Even Santa was singing along.
It makes a perfect pillow, with slight changes to the original plan and what is written in the book. (guilty look here, I'm horrible at following directions and sometimes think I know what will look best)
Here is the finished Pillow.

 Quilted with Red Aurifil #2250 and Blue Aurifil #6738

Tammy sent me so many cute fussy cut squared that I just had to make a second pillow,

 This one is based off of a Christmas Song, "Santa Clause is Coming to Town"  especially the line, who is naughty and nice.  I think the little girl above is on the naughty list and the one below is obviously on the nice list.

Again scrappy greens from a previous Christmas project, sadly I needed to order more of the grey fabric and even though I ordered it from the UK it did not make it here in time.  So these will continue after Christmas.

Luna Sol

I recently got a Fat Eighth bundle of the lovely Luna Sol from the designer Felice Regina
OMG!  I just love this fabric, the colors are fantastic, the little bunnies are cute.

Aurifil (left to right) 2255, 1133, 2120, 2805, 6738, 2510 Variegated 4658, 4663, 3840, 4660

I immediately had to make a project from them, so I decided to try out Sonic Stitches one hour basket hack, the Eliza Basket with Foundation Paper Pieced geese.  And also Karen's Orange Peel Pincushion, both are free tutorials (links will take you to a new page, so click away)

First for some fussy cutting 

I used all 19 prints when making the Orange Peel Pincushion

The little blue bunnies hopping is my favorite print and I used that on the back.

The reason the pincushion isn't filled is that I was going to mail it as a gift, so it's flat :)

I couldn't leave the back side plain, and had to use my favorite designer, Alison Glass!

The basket is of course filled with Rainbow goodies from AG!

I did keep the original One Hour Basket, corner cutting dimensions of 3", 

instead of the Eliza Basket 2.5" suggestion.

My FQ's fit better in the 3" boxed corners, but this did make the flying geese go right to 

the edge of the basket, but I still love it and plan on making more.

Do you need to pick up some Luna Sol, Janum sells them in F8 (what I got, but wish I had gotten more) 

Also FQ bundles, 1/2 yard and 1 yard bundles.

She also has the matching Aurifil Thread small box available.

Also @iamlunasol Is doing a giveaway in regards to her Kick Starter for some Enamel pins

So be sure to go check that out.

Linking to Sunday Stash

Sunday Stash

This week I got a wonderful bundle of fabrics from Janum fabrics.  My most favorite, the stunning metallic bundle of Luster from Zen Chic.

Luster fabrics with Aurifil (left to right) 2021, 6072, 2600, 6736, 4241

Inspired by last weeks Sunday Stash to take a picture like this, it doesn't look as good as My Go-Go Life's though :)

I just love the metallics in this!
In the same package was her Tuesday deal's from Instagram, which are really good, you should check it out.

On the left the Cat's Meow and of course I just had to get a charm pack of Handmade.  She also always includes the cutest buttons in your package.
I showed off my new Aurifil threads last week, along with a giveaway, it's still going on till Monday night.

Linking to Sunday Stash episode #200

Fall Thread Giveaway!

Hello Everyone,
Fall is my least favorite season, is it warm is it cold, sunny or rainy, please just make up your mind weather and do it!
But I do love the changing of the colors on the leaves, I'm not a big brown fan, but watching the leaves change colors is so fun and pretty.  Were I live we aren't there just yet, in fact I had to go up to the monasteries and even there only found 2 trees who leaves were going all pretty.

Behind our house looking down at Rousanou Monastery.

See the trees haven't changed just yet.  But I made these 3 pouches out of fabric that I received free from Moda, Courtyard by 3 Sisters, it's not my normal type of fabric and I looked at it and was like, ugh... but it sure does make pretty fall leaves.

For a giveaway I would like to give to you one of these pouches, a #sewillustrated pincushion, a charm pack of "Courtyard" fabric along with some Aurifil thread and gold ribbon!  Yippee, if the fabric doesn't thrill you the thread should, hahaha!

Fall Giveaway!

A Large 50wt. spool in color Moonshine 6724 and 2 smaller spools in #2370 and #4173
The exterior leaf

And the interior spelled motif of Thankful and Blessed

Are all done with this gorgeous and wonderful to work with Aurifil Brillo Gold thread!  I wish I could send some of this to you but no way am I letting it out of my greedy little hands!

The Silver is #800 and the Gold is #739

I did recently get my Aurifil thread order in from my favorite European source Busy Needle, Elita the owner is wonderful to work with, plus I think her prices are good!

Isn't that the cutest sticker, if you want one on your box just ask Elita!

This time around I was in desperate need of some neutral thread colors.

UhOh all out of Aurifil neutral colors, very hard to ignore all of the pretty colors.

Inside my box, I think I did a good job of just picking mostly neutrals, oh okay I had to get some color, I'm working on a long term EPP project that just needed those soft blues and pinks along with a brighter red and of course I will be quilting it with my favorite variegated thread #4660 in 12 wt.

2600 is my all time favorite neutral, it works with all colors as a soft grey, but with a nice sheen.
I also like 2021 it is white but not bright white or a yellow white, it is also very good.
New to me this time around were these guys.

New Aurifil thread colors

#6722 Sea Biscuit is a cross between the 2021 that I spoke of earlier and 2026, it's not as yellow meringue as the 2026 so I think it's a keeper.  Now as you can see from the number AND name 6724 and 6725 are very similar, they are a brownish grey color, not sure if I like them or not, the 6724 moonshine (that I am giving away) has a nice sheen to it, that reminds me of my favorite 2600, the 6725 moondust is more flat. Jedi 6736 is a dark grey blue color it's alright I will see how it looks when sewing up darker colors.
Did you read all of that, good job, enter below in the Rafflecopter for your chance to win some Aurifil plus the rest of the goodies in the picture.
The first one is mandatory but the other's are not, if you do stop by these shop's tell them Mara says Hi! And in case you are wondering why I want to say Hello to the Fat Quarter Shop, read last weeks blog post about how awesome they are.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

3 Fall Pouches

  Linking to Elm Street Quilts Bag It Event.
And Sunday Stash.

Why you should get the Sew Sampler Box!

In the beginning of September I was really lucky to have won Fat Quarter Shop's September Sew Sampler Box. But I said to myself, "I can't accept this, they would have to mail it all the way to Greece and that would be very expensive" (it's not by the way, keep reading :)

All of the Sew Sampler goodies (Aurifil threads are my own :)

 So I thought it would be a better idea for them to send it to a sewing gal who just lost everything in the Louisiana floods a horrible tragedy, not only loosing mementos like photographs and the memories of her home.  But her brand new car, brand new sewing machine and  her recently organized fabric stash.

The Floods took it all and she became homeless.  I asked the Fat Quarter Shop if they would be so kind as to send my September Sew Sampler box to her instead, to bring a small smile to her face.  And not only did they send the Sew Sampler box but they sent so much more!! Melody told me "We’re going to put together a little something extra for Margaret" lol, yes I see a little something extra.

All of the wonderful items sent from the Fat Quarter Shop

Wow, Fat Quarter Shop, you are so amazingly generous, it still brings tears to my eyes, and I'm not even the one who received all of these goodies, but I know that she really appreciates everything, Thank you so much!.  But then they also sent me my  box!! WHAT! WOW! 
I put immediate use to everything inside.

Making a pouch using this free tutorial.
Just changed the back to using 2.5" strips for the top and bottom of the bag and a 4.5" strip of linen in the middle.

And a Sew Travel Bag using Elm Street Quilts free tutorial

The only change I made to the tutorial is to bind it instead of sewing around and flipping it.  I have found when sewing with vinyl it is better and easier to bind it

SO why should you sign up for the Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler Box, first it is a reasonable price of $24.95 a month the one time sign up fee is .99 cents and shipping well if you live in the States it's a no brainer, hurry up and sign up, what the f**k are you waiting for, only $4.95, Canada is pretty reasonable as well at $12 and then for us International's I thought for sure it would be like $25 to mail but it's ONLY $16 so again not bad at all, taking the total of the box up to $40.95 a month, and let me tell you you WANT everything in the box!  I am the kind of gal who can only purchase what I need, but there is of course so much more that I want, but never buy, well here you go, FQS as made it easy for you and is sending you the stuff you really wanted, but had a hard time actually purchasing, like this month's October box (you have till the 20th to sign up for) they have already shared this sneak peek.

All the heart eyes, they are going to send the Handmade Bonnie & Camille Embroidery Floss Collection.  I have had this in my I would love to have imaginary shopping cart since I say it come out at Spring Market with Lecien Cosmo threads.
So sign up today, you won't be disappointed, in the last box they sent over $50 dollars worth of supplies which makes up for even the cost of International shipping.
And I have already used everything in the September box, yes even the seam ripper (hehe) can't wait for my October box!!

I love and have used everything in the September box!

 Linking up my finished bags to Elm Street Quilts Bag It Challenge.
And Sunday Stash (it's been a long time since I have joined in).