Handmade Holiday Winner!

Christy Ross! Winner! I'll send you a message!

Handmade Holiday Challege Finishes!

Today is the wrap up for my Handmade Holiday Challenge. Thanks for checking on my progress and keeping me accountable for finishing my 5 gifts. I ended up with a car cozy for my son, some wooden princesses for my daughter, 3 rice bags for the fathers, and a baby quilt for my nephew. I also have 2 great bags that I haven't used yet. I'm leaning towards keeping the big one for my holiday tote. It will be great for holding all of our stocking stuffers from my mom's house. She keeps our stockings to reuse and we always have to figure out how to get the contents home!
I hope that you have also been inspired to make some handmade gifts. If you got your 5 made, leave me a comment. You will need to link to something showing your gifts...your blog, Flickr, Facebook. You also need to be a follower. I will randomly pick a winner on January 3rd for a $25 gift certificate to Connecting Threads. I can't wait to see what you have made!
I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas!

Handmade Holiday Challenge Week 5 & 6

Sorry I missed last week.  I switched my work schedule up a little and it threw me off!  I didn't anything finished last week, but I made some progress on the quilt I'm hoping to finish.  The big gift that I did finish was this:

Every year for the past several years, my friend Heather and I have made Christmas candy.  I give mine as my Christmas gift for the people in my office.  We made 4 kinds of fudge, white chocolate pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, and peanut butter balls and christmas shapes (this Reese's Trees).  I think it was our most productive year.  We still have candy at home and at the office. 

Now for my week 6 gift I made these super cute princesses from Lil Boo Blue.   

I had made a set for a birthday present, and Lily wanted some of her own.  She kept asking me about them.  The princess next to Cinderella is Princess Lily.  I don't feel like I have very much skill as far as painting is concerned, and I thought they were easy to make.  I have a box for them, but I think I may make her a small drawstring bag to keep them in. 

That's all 5 of my gifts!  I may have a number 6 for next week, but it's ok if I don't.  It's getting close to Christmas and I've busy enjoying my family!  If you haven't finished your 5, you still have a week to finish.  I'll make a post to link up to next Friday.  If you need a refreshed on the challenge, here's the original post!

Handmade Holiday Challenge Week 4

Week 4 already!  I got this week's project finished on Sunday, so I've been waiting all week to post it!  I've posted about car cozies before, so this is nothing new.  I finally have one that's going to stay at home.  My little boy is 19 months old and he loves cars!  Couple that with a great sale on Matchbox and Hot Wheels and how could I not make one for him?!? 

Since he's still little, I thought a straight road and a gas station would be enough.  I used fabric paint for the numbers.  I like that it's feely, adding another element for distraction!  I didn't do a great job with centering the letters, so I added the dots to fill the space a little, and I really like them.  They offer something tangible to count to go along with the numbers. 

I added a little loop to the gas pump to tuck the spout? into.  This turned out to be quite helpful for keeping it out of the way when I was sewing it!

Complete with a car that looks kinda like Grandma's.  I think he will love it!

Last year, I decided that I want to make something special for my kids each Christmas.  Last year I made them hooded towels which they still use.  I'm going to start on my daughter's gift this weekend, I hope.  She's 6, so it's a little harder to surprise her.  She's too curious!

How about you?  If you've kept up with me, you only have one more gift to make to be entered to with the $25 gift certificate from Connecting Threads! 



Handmade Holiday Challenge Week 3

Can you believe that Christmas in only a month way?!?  I can't.  Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I'm starting to get in the Christmas spirit.  Once we get the Christmas tree up this weekend, I can't wait to see some wrapped gifts under it!  Starting with this baby quilt:

I love it!  It's about 48X60, which I think is a good baby size.  I like bigger blankets, especially for wiggly little boys like the one this quilt is for!

The back.  The green with the little animals all over is my favorite!  I wasn't sure how I was going to quilt it when I made the back or I would have lined it up better, but oh well.

I pebble quilted every other orange border.  I just straight lined around all of the blocks.  I really like the quilting.  I think pebbling more would have been too much (not to mention it would have taken 100 spools of thread!). 

So there it is, gift #3.  I'm entering it over at Celebrate Color too.  What did you make this week?  Remember, it's 5 handmade gifts to enter to win $25 from Connecting Threads!

Handmade Holiday Challenge -Week 2

I know I'm a day late with this, but does it make it better to know that I mailed about 450 Thanksgiving cards yesterday? They had to be metered and stuff with calendars yesterday, so I didn't have a chance to blog!
For my handmade gift this week, I made rice bags. I really like them. So does my husband. In fact, he claimed the top one as soon as I showed him.


For my first bags, I used this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew! It gives great instructions and I like how it comes together. I only have rice in the top bag, though, because I don't like the smell that I picked out. I think it's grapefruit and it makes me sick to my stomach after smelling it for too long! I think I'm going to get some peppermint and some lavendar. I may have also used a little bit too much.

This is a close up of the hexis on the second one. I just appliqued them on top.

My kids have this little gel thing that we use on "boo-boos." It almost always stops my daughter's tears, unless it's a real hurt. I thought that a small bag would be a nice replacement for it. This one is about 4.5 in square. My son thinks it's amazing when it's cold. He can't figure it out!

I used an envelope closure for the back. I think I like it better than the velcro for the small bags. I think these would be cute stocking stuffers.

My husband randomly picked a number for me and the winner of the Christmas Cheer Charms is #3, Jamie Lee. Jamie, I'll be sending you an email!

Did you get something made this week? I'd love to hear about it!

Handmade Holiday Challenge!

I mentioned last week that I wanted to have a giveaway for those of us who make handmade Christmas gifts.  My goal is 5.  I want to have 2 quilts (maybe 3!), some rice heat therapy bags, and a purse for a teacher gift.  I am also planning on making some gift bags.  I know this is more than 5, but I also want to enjoy my family during the holidays.  If I find time to make more than 5...bonus!

I know that not everyone appreciates handmade gifts, but there is always handmade gift wrapping.  Instead of paper gift bags, how about making some fabric ones?  They can be used over and over again, maybe even being one of those things that everyone fondly remembers about Christmas.  Doing gift cards?  How about some cute little zipper pouches to put then in?  They could be holiday, but you could also make them a little more special and use something the person likes or their favorite color.

My first handmade holiday item is this bag.  I used  Christmas Cheer Charms from Connecting Threads.  I made a disappearing nine patch and added a 2 inch red border for the front.  The back and the lining are the same red.  I didn't have any interfacing that was heavy enough, so I used heavy canvas to line it.  It will pretty much stand up on its own! 

 It's about 16 x 14x 2 1/2 , making it large enough for lots of gifts! 

I really like this bag and I think it would even be cute to carry around during the holidays.  It would be great for holiday market shopping...any place where you were going to be picking up lots of little things. 

Now for the giveaway!  To be a winner, you must:

1.  Be a follower of Taken Patiently.

2.  Make 5 Handmade Christmas gifts.

3.  Post pictures of your gifts somewhere...your blog, Flickr, Facebook.

4.  Leave a comment on the blog I will post on December 23.  That's 6 Fridays from today.  That's less than 1 gift a week.  Easily doable!

My goal is to make one gift a week. Week one-DONE! In order to keep everyone on track, I'll post my gift on each Friday. Please feel free to comment with a link to what you made. Maybe I'll post some of them next week, along with my next gift.

I would love to see pictures of what you are making.  I understand that you may not want to post pictures until after you give the gifts, so the giveaway will be open until December 31st.  I will announce a winner on or around January 3rd.

What are you winning?  How about a $25 gift certificate to Connecting Threads*?  I love their fabric and thread.  They have some very cute new collections and great basics.  They also have a good selection of pre-cuts, which I really like because I hate cutting fabric. 

If you aren't familiar with Connecting Threads, maybe you would like some charms? 

I'm giving away 2 charm packs of the Christmas Cheer Charms (48 charms total) to help spread the word about this Handmade Holiday challenge.  Be a follower and leave me a comment for a chance to win. You could tell me what you are planning to make or maybe share the best handmade gift you ever gave or received?    For an extra chance, blog, tweet, or FB about it and leave me a comment telling me you did.  I'll announce a winner next Friday.

*Connecting Threads didn't pay me for this endorsement, nor are they giving me the gift card.  I would be open to both of those things, though!  I just really like their products and thought I'd spread the holiday cheer!