Avoid Debt

I recently found this website See Me VT with helpful ways to share the monthly Visiting Teaching messages.

I usually don't do these little hand-outs, but this month I needed something because for one reason or another we couldn't visit our sisters. This month's was a little purse:

I heard a rumor that you could find little chocolate coins in the $1 section at Target, but I couldn't find them at mine. Instead I got Werther's Caramelts...have you tried these? I'm not a huge fan of Werther's Originals, but these Caramelts are so yummy!

Inside the flap of the purse, is the last paragraph of the message, where it talks about how we need to exercise faith in the Savior to be better in sacrificing our wants in order to meet our own and others' needs. The 5 "coins" inside are labeled with 5 things we can do to manage our money wisely and avoid debt. I thought it was actually a great little way to discuss the lesson!

My fabric Valentine

Over at Sew Mama Sew blog they had a fabric Valentine contest. They provided a tutorial for the envelope and card, and you supplied the design. So I decided I'd give it a try. I didn't win anything, but it was fun anyway. This is what I came up with-

A faux suede envelope with a crochet edge and held together with a heart button.
Inside-


And then for the card-

I love owls, and I knew I had to apply one to my card. It is times like these that I wish I had an embroidery sewing machine, but since I don't I stitched the writing with my machine using a narrow zigzag, and a close button hole width stitch.

Sparkly clothespins

This weekend I had a baby shower for my little sister, and I made these sparkly clothespins to hold up a onesie garland. I just painted the clothespins a pale blue, and used a craft glue spray and put glitter on them (Martha Stewart topaz blue). Then I just hot glued buttons on them. Easy peasy! I loved how they sparkled!


And here they are holding up the garland. I appliqued the white onesies, but I didn't take a close up. It was fun.

Halloween pillowcases

I wanted to make my kids something quick and easy for Halloween- end result pillowcases. I got the fabric around Thanksgiving last year at Joann fabrics (planning ahead I guess) . The fabric is all Debbie mum, and I believe I got it something like 80% off? Anyway it was a steal and that's why I stored it for a whole year :). I found an excellent tutorial here. I think they took me a total of 2 hrs total and I'm typically very slow.

My kids were excited and loved the fabric.

I made one for each kiddo- even though it will be a couple years before Abe will use it.

Check Book covers

Several months ago I bought the book "Simple Sewing" by Lotta Jansdotter and have just loved it. I have sewn several projects from this book and they have turned out pretty good. So overall I was happy with these check book covers that I finished.
I used a heavy home decorator fabric for the outside and used interfacing on the interior fabric. On the outside I crocheted a flower with a #9 crochet hook- find the pattern here . Also- I skipped adding the elastic in the book. I just didn't think it needed it. It still seemed a little flimsy/thin- so you definitely still need to put your checkbook in the cheapy plastic cover first and it gives it the stability it needs. After I made a few like this-
I thought maybe if I made a few out of oil cloth they'd be more sturdy. So this is what I came up with-
I know the fabric is a little 70's here, I had bought it awhile back here for making reusable grocery bags and I wanted to utilize only fabric I have on hand (since I have an entire closet full). For the flower on the front I used the pattern here and attached the flower to the oilcloth with one side of a decorative snap (it took me awhile to push the snap through the flower and into the oilcloth). The oilcloth checkbook covers are more heavy duty and you don't need the plastic cover for stability.

Pin Cushions

A couple of years ago my sister Kelsi made me an awesome pincushion for my birthday. I absolutely loved it and made 6 more for gifts. At first I felt like I would never be able to give away 6 pincushions, but it didn't take me long to unload them so I decided to make a few more. I used the pattern from the book "Last minute Patchwork + quilted gifts" by Joelle Hoverson. My only additional tip would be to use pine bedding (yes what you put in the hamster cage) for the stuffing instead of cotton batting. It gives it more of a "pincushion feel" then the cotton batting. Also, the easiest way to stuff these cushions is to use a funnel.