Small Sewing

It's that time of year! Time for various quickie, small sewing projects to get through the season of dinner parties and stocking stuffer preparation.

Last night we were invited to dinner by a colleague of B along with her sister and brother in law who are, coincidentally, old friends of ours from early in our careers [hi Kris!]. I made both of them a seasonal potholder during a guild sew-in yesterday.

I was inspired to make the improv trees out of scraps from tree skirt projects and Essex yard dyed linen in black.  Jolene's tree quilt is one of my favourite from Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe and after seeing Krista's version at my recent retreat, it was fresh in my mind. Time to make some already! I quilted the tops to one layer of Insulbrite and another of cotton batting, then sewed that RST with a red and white fork & knife print for the backing, turned them out and top-stitched around the seam. There's a little hanging loop in the corner, too.

Next up was this set of two zipper pouches for a friend's young daughter to carry womanly essentials in her backpack.

As I joked on Instagram, 'there's nothing that says welcome to womanhood like a weird purple Echino deer!'

There are so many great gift tutorial round ups online at the moment. I have to restrain myself from making all the things and sticking to my program here! Check out the great gift ideas here and here.  If you've got a great tutorial you'd like to share, please leave a link in the comments, I'd love to see what you're making.