I had seen this super cute tutorial a couple months ago on a craft blog. I knew that with the simple addition of a wrist strap it would be the perfect little clutch for Mandy. I won’t repost the tutorial (it isn’t mine, after all) but I will show you how mine turned out, and how to add the wrist strap.

The inside: The floral fabric is a divider pocket, the red polka-dot two credit card/ID pockets. The blue is just the lining.

Instructions for adding the wrist strap:

Cut a 2″ x 11″ strip of fabric. Sew along long end, right sides together. Turn tube, and press so that seam is in the middle (not along the side).

On the very last sewing step (where you sew around the edges of the lining and the outer fabric. ) – tuck the strap in between the two outside fabric panels. See my photo below about how NOT to do this:

That’s right. I’m such a fantastic blogger that I took a photo of the wrong way to do it, ripped the seam out, replaced the strap in the correct position, and sewed it all up without taking a photo of the correct way to do it. Awesome.

Anyway, the strap should be tucked inside the fabric here, with just the little end tabs sticking out from the middle. In other words, the opposite of the above photo. Make sure the seam on the strap is turned facing the inside. Then sew it up according to the instructions on the tutorial. You may want to pin the strap in place if you don’t plan to start sewing at that spot.

I want to make another one or two of these to have on hand for gifts. This first one took me about three hours, including choosing the fabrics. I would imagine the next ones would go a bit more quickly, since there would be less seam ripping taking place. At least, theoretically.

As for Mandy, she says she hasn’t left her wallet/cash/phone/ID even once since she’s been carrying it. I’m glad I could be a life-changer for her.

Regardless of my snail’s pace, I am loving these colors. What do you think?

To see the tutorial again, click here. Hopefully for my next update I can share photos of my fellow quilters progress, since they aren’t bloggers.

Anyway, this week we are sewing together our strips for the quilt top. So far, I have 15 of my 20 strips sewn. Then I have to sew the strips together to complete the quilt top. It’s exciting because I can begin to see what it will look like. I am totally loving the colors.

I know as far as quilting goes, this is the most basic, easy pattern possible. But seriously – I’ve wanted to make a quilt for so long I’m super excited to have at least started…something. I can’t wait to cuddle up under it.

A sneak peek at Amy’s fabrics:

And at Brittany’s (notice any similarities):

Here’s the one fabric that the three of us Huntington/Barboursville clan chose:

Me, being the have-it-all-together person I am (not, at least not anymore) had nothing for her. I had intended to pick up a card and gift earlier in the week, but that was one crazy week. So I had nothing. (No worries – I’ll send something. I will. I have a plan.) But she came bearing gifts.

Shallon has since started sewing. And not in the same way I sew (poorly, and for occasional crafty outlet). She is serious about this sewing business. So serious, in fact, she intends to make it a business. So at our little breakfast meeting, she brought me a gift. A little clutch, a pin, and a hair clip for Sydney. All made from repurposed fabric. LOVE THEM.

She has covered all the details – little tags pinned to the items, and these super cute tags sewn on the inside of the bag.

This is the pin.

And the hair clip, featuring her grandmother’s buttons!

Aren’t these gifts super cute and super thoughtful? I think I have the best friends ever.

You can see more of her work at Sewn by Shalley – her site.

I thought to myself – now I could handle that. A reasonably-sized quilt with a beginners pattern broken down in to six steps. However, I knew if I attempted this on my own the quilt wouldn’t be finished until 2012, so I recruited my friends Brittany and Amy to quilt-a-long with me, and there you have it. Week 1 assignment: Purchase and prepare (wash, dry, iron) the fabrics. Easy enough, right? Well, mostly. I actually went and bought my fabrics Monday evening so I could give my full attention to helping Brittany choose her fabrics this evening (at her request).

We’ll see how this all goes down. I am by no means an expert at sewing, and have never quilted so much as a pincushion before. (Do you even quilt pincushions?) But I figure if I’m ever going to make a quilt, I have to start with something.

Here is my color scheme.The blues/greens are for the tops, the cream for the back and that crazy orange for the binding (border). I’ll be posting my weekly progress, and hopefully by the middle of May I’ll have a finished quilt to cuddle up with. Just in time for summer.

Second, I actually completed some projects, and was totally impressed by some of the things the others made. 80% of the projects were sewing. I crocheted, and there were some painting projects, but otherwise, sewing.

And I’ve never seen so much embroidery going on in a group of 20- and 30-somethings.

Check out this cute apron Stephanie crafted. (Sorry for cutting off your head, Steph. It was unintentional.)

Here are a set of four fabric bookmarks Amy (who, inexplicably, doesn’t blog) and I made. They are deceptively simple looking. Don’t let ‘em fool you. Or maybe it was just us.

My favorite craft, thanks to a pattern brought by Lillian, was the flock of owls we crafted.

I made this one for Sydney…but she isn’t getting it until her birthday, so don’t tell her, ok?

I had such a good, good time. I surely hope we can pull that off again next year. Until then, I have some sewing skills to develop to keep up with the Nashville crew.

My lifesaver came in the form of The Art of Crochet channel on You Tube. The lady who has the channel, Teresa, who has more than 500 tutorial videos! That’s crazy. What’s even better is she goes through each step slowly, and it’s actually super easy to catch on since it’s a video and not some random still photo in a book. She even posts some of the videos for left-handed people (like me!) to make it even more helpful.

I chose these lovely colors from Vanna’s Choice yarn from Lion Brand. (Family Trivia: I have a now-grown cousin who’s second word was Vanna because he loved to watch Wheel of Fortune as a baby. I’m sure he’s trilled I just shared that tidbit with the blogging world.)

I decided on a pattern and went at it. The scarf turned out totally imperfect. I’m glad I’m giving it to Jenny because if I wore it I’d just be annoyed at myself every time I looked down at it, but it’s really only things I would notice. But I do like it, and I might even attempt another. You know, before next winter.

Not only were they clip on, but they were large and awkward on my ears. But I thought the size and shape would make a perfect cocktail ring.

I bought a pack of adjustable ring bases with flat tops, and removed the clip part gently from the back of the earrings.

Then I just used some hot glue to attach the earring to the ring base. (I know, I know…hot glue for me brings up some terrible memories of “crafts” from the local fairs and festivals. But it really was my best option to get in all those tiny cracks without breaking the ring backing).

I sat them in some foam upright to dry.

Then I put it on to try it out. Isn’t it lovely? It’s got me wondering what else I could repurpose around here.

(Sidenote: Does anyone else just love The Giving Tree? Because I do.)

Leaves
Choose colored sheets of card stock (I used reds and browns, but yellows, oranges and greens would work great). Fold them in half, and using decorative scissors, cut them in an oblong shape. Unfold, and punch a small hole at one end.

Tree
1. Fill a bud vase with seed beads at least a couple inches deep.

3. Take some heavy-gauge crafting wire (floral or beading – I used about 20 gauge) and bend slightly for the main branches. I used three main branches, but you could add more if you have a large family gathering.

4. Take some lighter-gauge crafting wire (I used 24 gauge) and cut 5-6 pieces for each main branch (so if you have three main branches, 15-18 pieces) varying in length from 3-5″ each.

5. Tightly wrap the lighter gauge branches around the main branch, starting halfway up. Add 5-6 wrapped pieces to each main branch, overlapping the wrapping slightly to make the smaller branches more stable.

6. Using a pair of Round Nose Pliers, bend the ends of each branch so you have a place to hang the leaves.

7. Have guests write what they’re thankful for on leaves and attach to tree.

8. Use the tree as a centerpiece of mantle decoration to remind you of your blessings.