Quilted Grab Bags

I really had a good time this year getting ready for Christmas. Along with the card boxes I gave my sisters I also gave each of them one of these quilted grab bags. Ryan headed off to China in the beginning of December for work, so out came my sewing machine. I love this pattern and besides making them for my sisters, I have also made 3 for myself. Yes, I did wrap one of these up for myself to open Christmas morning!

It was also fun to machine-quilt these on my sewing machine with my darning foot. The free pattern from allpeoplequilt.com did not say to quilt the bags, and you certainly wouldn't have too, but why not!? I just couldn't contain myself.

These bags are reversible as well! I love to take mine with me to run errands. It holds my wallet, cell phone, check book and even diapers and wipes! I have also used mine as a scripture case. It happens to be just the right size. When I do carry my large diaper bag I like to throw my little grab bag in so that I can easily locate my things among all the cheerios and board books.

More Cards!

These are the cards i made to fill the card boxes I decortated to give my sisters and Mom for Christmas. I actually began making the cards back in Septmeber and worked on this project off and on through the fall to have them ready for Christmas. I suppose I could have made them all one week in December, but where is the fun in that? Each box of cards contained 16 cards, four from each set. This way everyone got a set that contained all four themes: baby, birthday, wedding and thank-you/anytime.

Welcome Baby! Cards

Happy Birthday Cards

Wedding Cards

(I think these ones are my favorite!)

Thank You and Anytime Cards.

Card Boxes

I hope Christmas was beautiful for all of you! This year I some how was able to make homemade gifts for my parents and sisters. Had I started this in December it most certainly would not have been fun, but I gave myself enough time and really enjoyed myself! For my Mother and Sisters I created these card boxes. Each one is decorated to match their personality (in my opinion) and then filled with a variety of homemade cards.

I found the boxes to decorate at Michael's in the $1.oo section. They are recipe boxes and a great find! I cleaned them out and snatched their last four boxes.

I had planned on mod-podging the papers on but found that spray adhesive held everything in place fine enough. To unify the boxes I rubbed the edges with a sepia ink pad.

Like I said, I cleaned Michael's out of recipe boxes. I ended up paying 2 or 3 dollars for my box which is the larger one. It works though and is fun to look at on my desk. (Yes, I have been known to give myself gifts!)