The Turkey Trot Blog Hop - My Turn!

 

Welcome to my first Turkey Trot Blog Hop entry!

I can't believe this day is here already!  As if you can't tell, this is my first time sharing at this, or for that matter ANY, blog hop, and I am just a bit nervous and excited.  

I have been a long time admirer of both Joan's and Carol's blogs, and their amazing quilting skills. I've loved looking at all the beautiful work of past blog hop participants, wishing I had the nerve and the skills to make something like any of the projects I was looking at.

I have no idea what motivated me to email Joan last month and ask if I could participate in this month's hop.  I was just clicking through her blog, looking at all the wonderful things there, and on a whim decided to try it out.  She was gracious enough to let me join in, and so here I am!  An old lady who is a newbie at this!

I love to quilt, but I like smaller projects rather than big quilts, probably because I not a fast quilter.  An entire quilt would take me a year or more! I like to see a finished project, so I love making things like table runners, bags, placemats, and mug rugs.  And pincushions!

As I began planning my project for this turkey challenge, I was worried I wouldn't have enough fall or Thanksgiving fabric to choose from.  But I had more than I thought!  I love seasonal fabric and decorating for each season and holiday.  My husband will testify that I love buying fabric no matter what the season!  :)

I was debating between making a pillow or a bag, and decided on the bag! I'm sorry if you were expecting a quilt!  I didn't really have a plan, I just decided to wing it (no pun intended). 😁  I found a cute turkey to make as a focus for the front of the bag, so I fussy cut it out.  Then, I just proceeded to add fabric around it that I liked and fit the theme.  I'm not very complicated!

I just kept adding more pieces until I liked the size of it!

I added a bottom piece that matches the back, and decided it was big enough to start quilting. In the photo below,  the front of the bag is lying on top of the back of the bag.  I left the back of the bag just one solid piece of fabric.  It is brown, with little silvery leaves that have a bit of shine to them.  I'm sorry you can't really see that from the picture - it's just gorgeous in real life!

The photo above shows after I quilted it, and I had trimmed it up a bit.  I used a cross-hatch quilting stitch, because I love the wrinkly kind of look it gives, and it makes it feel soft and squishy.  

Then I sewed it together, using the pattern Anyone Can Make This Bag, by Laura at Sweet Cinnamon Roses.  I've made several of these bags before, and I just love them.  It's a basic tote, but oh, so sweet!  And you can make the fronts and backs as cute as you want to!  It's a very adaptable pattern, and allows me to improvise easily!

Here it is, all finished!

The back of the bag

Now, I'm not a great quilter, nor a great photographer, but I'm a happy one!  I love making things, and I just have so much fun doing it!  I had a ball going through all my fall fabric for this project, and piecing it all together.  I usually forget to take any pictures at all, so I was quite proud of myself for remembering to photograph a few of the stages!

Thank you so much for taking a look at my project, and for letting me participate in your blog hop this month!  I hope you enjoyed your visit here!  Please feel free to look around the rest of my blog, which is mostly my Weekly Menu Plans.  But this may just motivate me to share more of what I make!

If you'd like to see more projects from some amazingly talented quilters, you can find the list of participating bloggers here:

  The Turkey Trot Blog Hop

Take care, enjoy all the wonderful projects being shared, and I hope to see you again real soon!

2019 Finish Along - Finish #2

Here I am at finish #2.  I had intended to make these little gift bags for Christmas for friends of my granddaughter's at the bus stop.  I bought little pencils and pens, little Christmas notepads, little boxes of crayons, and some candies to put in each one.

Needless to say, I didn't get them finished.  I finished 2 or 3 of them, but the granddaughter claimed the first one, and I got too busy with other projects to finish sewing the rest.

Here is the original FAL 2019 post that shows the stacks of bags ready to be sewn:
Unfinished Tote Bags  

But I finished them and they are ready for next Christmas!  I don't even have to buy little things to stuff inside them, because I have it already!  Here are the bags I finished:

They turned out so cute!  Each one has a pocket in the front for a candy cane.  And they were so easy to make!  I started an assembly line, and before I knew it they were all done.  It only took about 3 evenings.  I had everything cut out and placed in piles before I started the finish.

Here you can see them a little closer:

I am linking up my finishes here:

Dizzy Quilts  

One more finish to share after this!

Another Mini Charm Basket

It seems I am addicted to these little baskets!  I will definitely be making the medium and large sizes after Christmas!

Here is the one I made yesterday:

So cute!  These are great for holding gifts and candies!  I cannot wait to make some more!

Hope you are having a productive week!

Small Charm Baskets

Hello!

I just finished three small charm baskets, using Moda mini charm packs and a fat quarter.  I have several more to make, but I finished these three last night.  They are gifts for some friends I won't see again until after Christmas, so I wanted to gift them today.

These are such cute baskets!  I made all three of them in an afternoon and evening.  The longest part of making these is fusing the fusible fleece onto the pattern pieces!

I stuffed each one with a Yankee candle and some chocolates.  So much fun to make!

I hope you are all having a merry week so far!  Take care!