pumpkin coasters and pumpkin placemats, never too many pumpkins!

I love sewing pumpkins!

And no, I do not have too many pumpkins!

I made paper pieced quilted coasters:

The pattern is from Joe, June and Mae,

I kept playing with different fabrics to have traditional orange

pumpkins, white and blue pumpkins,

they look quite nice with my new pumpkin quilt:

I also sewed some pumpkin placemats,

using mushroom fabric!

Mixing 2 of my favorite genres!

Another easy sew, the pattern is from Minki Kim.I even made a pumpkin shaped rye bread, very delicious!

And since I had a couple extra blocks from the big quilt,

I sewed a few more and made a simple table runner,

with some other fabric:

And yes our house is still full of pumpkins....at least for another week!
Happy sewing!

fall sewing: mug rug, more mug rugs and mushrooms!

Over the past few weeks,I have been sewing lots of mug rugsor coastersto use and share with friends and family:

pattern from the Seasoned Homemaker
fancy one like these acorn ones:

in traditional, whimsical and modern fabrics,or this apple one,

pattern from The Seasoned Homemakerwith my favorite apple cake (recipe here)
or simpler like the fall theme ones!

Who doesn't love some cute fall friends?

I also have been playing with paper piecing,and making mushroom pincushions!!

pattern from Joe, June and Mae
And finally doing some more mushrooms sewingin the form of cross stitching!

pattern from a 2023 agenda book, from Veronique Enginger (aka Les Brodeuses Parisiennes)
that one is an on going project,as it takes me a while to stitch it all!
Happy sewing!

a Hogwarts suitcase

As you might remember from last year advent calendar, we are fans of the Hogwarts world, well especially Miss C., and it turns out my niece K is also a big fan. So for her birthday, I made her a Hogwarts suitcase, full of life necessities!

And who doesn't love a little niffler?

Technically he does not belong in Hogwarts,

I am taking  an artistic license...

But let's check out that suitcase,

doesn't it look just perfect?

Once again, one more artistic licence

as it is a suitcase and not a trunk,

but it is perfect to play pretend

and go on sleepover with other 8 year old Hogwarts fans!

This inspiration for this suitcase comes from the Nicole Michelle Blog.

There are also other cool Potter stuff in that blog if you are interested.

I started with this little Christmas suitcase:

 where I covered the hardware with tape before spray painting it black on the outside, and champagne pink on the inside. Then I printed the logo from the tutorial and glued it to the top of the suitcase, and covered the inside of the suitcase top with other print out of the Daily prophet and other Potter paraphernalia....

and my niece K initial, just because!

Then I sewed a little drawstring pouch with a paper pieced star 

to store candies and other treats.

In it, I put some more Harry Potter stuff: gummies, beans and chocolates,

I found all of them at Lolli and Pops,

it is bit expensive, but it makes the gift!

Finally I added a cool t-shirt (from Target), some butterbeer,

some Harry Potter/magical beasts Lego

and Hermione's chocolate wand!

I could not help myself and printed out a train ticket:

And she totally loved it, which is the best!

In February, we went to Orlando Universal to enjoy

Hogwarts and the warm sun of Florida

(after a long cold winter here in the DC area!)

Miss C. loved it!

It was her Christmas present 

(and the last surprise from her advent calendar!)

Happy crafting!

a new fun mug rug: ugly sweater!

I could not help it, 

I made more mug rugs....

This time they are ugly sweater mug rugs!

cute, right?

The pattern is from Kidgiddy

it is paper pieced, which I am a big fan.

I do not even mind the mess on the floor from ripping the paper,

actually I do not mind the floor in general....

It comes in 2 sizes, I made the smaller one,

and in this case I added a side panel as I like my mug rug rectangle,

for the cookie of course!

I could not stop at just one so I made three,

if I have more time, I think I will make a few more,

maybe for a pillow cover....

you can see some great blocks on Instagram #uglysweaterblock.

Happy sewing!

a pillow for travelling dreams

As we are saying goodbye to this summer, it is fun to look back to some of our previous vacations, dreaming of past and future travels, as close as a day trip in DC, or as far away as Provence....

So I sewed this linen pillow,

with paper pieced book covers!

The pattern is "tall tale" from "Quilt with Kate",

available on Craftsy here (free).

I used a print from Robert Kaufman "Dream vacation",

choosing 4 post cards of places we have visited,

some recently, some a long time ago,

and mixing prints for the spines and the pages.

This is not my first time playing with books.

Previously I had made a book bag with spines of book:

also in linen and that time, some Liberty of London.

This pillow is perfect to snuggle on the chair,

dreaming of next year's summer vacation...

Happy sewing!