Epact

The period between Christmas and New Year's, (sort of...it's really about eleven days) is what my mother always said was the epact. This period is the excess of days between the solar and the lunar year.
It always feels like filling time at work. You don't really feel like starting a new project. I clean out my desk, my email, start new files and delete old ones. It's an epact at work too. The New Year starts next week and mentally we all go back to work then. But in the mean time, we're all in the epact.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

p.s. the hot pad pictured is adapted from the pattern in Quilting Arts Gifts 2009.
Of course I used their idea, but did my own thing. I like to think is because I am so creative, but in fact I just may be incapable of following other people's directions. The nice thing about sewing/cooking/all creative endeavors is that there are hundreds of ways to do stuff and all of them are right.

Holiday Gifts:Fabric Gift Bags

Quilting Arts Magazine Gifts featured fabric gift bags as one of the projects, and gave a recipe for making them. They looked so easy and cute, in my hubris I jumped right in and immediately made one incorrectly. As Mr. Hunting Creek says, when all else fails, read the directions.




Basically these are really lined pillowcases with boxed corners masquerading as gift bags, if that makes any sense. You can make them any size, out of any themed fabric and embellish accordingly. My wine bottle bag is made with 2 contrasting pieces of fabric 11"x14", sew each one in a tube with the top left open, and on one, leave a 4" area open for turning. Box the bottom corners by matching the seam to the bottom center and sew a triangle about one inch in. (Like you'd do with a pillow or purse bottom.) Sew the two tubes together at the top, right sides together. This was a tight fit on my machine, even with the free arm. Then turn right right out and sew up the hole. Make a cuff at the top and fill up with gifties. The wine bottle size could also hold maple syrup, liqueur, or any other long skinny things like biscotti wrapped in plastic
My little fat leprechaun bag was made because at first I did not follow the directions(because I didn't READ them. I assumed that I would just know how to make them.) and sewed two 11"x14" bags together first, so instead of a tall skinny bag I have a fat one. But that's ok. It will hold a pound of great coffee, fancy cocoa or candies. Plus it looks cute.
The nice thing about fabric gift bags is that they are reusable, you can use any fabric, not just Christmas fabric, and since we can make rectangles any size, they could hold any size gift. Perfect for lumpy or odd shaped gifts. You can tell the recipient to please feel free to reuse, regift and pass it on. It's not easy being green, but the more we try, the easier it will be.
Happy Sewing!

Holiday Gifts: Baggage Tags Part Two

I have had so much fun making baggage tags that I think I have enough for everyone on my gift list. I will use them as stocking stuffers and also as recyclable gift tags, so they do double duty by being green as well.
I had a couple emails asking for a little more explanation, so I took a picture of an unconstructed baggage tag.

I placed the fast2fuse interfacing in the center of my fabric piece. I fold up the edges of the fabric and fuse, then stitch with a decorative stitch. Then I sew on the Quilter's Vinyl sleeve on one of the sides. After that I make the strap. You could also use cord or ribbon. I fold the two raw edges of the long sides of the 2"x14" strip to the center of the strip then fold again so the raw edges meet and I have a long strip with the raw edges inside. I sew this, the place it with the ends in between the two sides, sew all around the edges and that's all there is to it.
Here are a few more completed ones:

Aren't they cute? Everyone who has seen them, loves them.