Crayola Holders for Adopt a School Pen Pals

I am a pen pal for a PreK class and the letters are so much fun to receive and send.  I try and send a gift each letter I send.  My last letter I send a Dora the Explorer book entitled Camera Contest and asked lots of questions about taking pictures on spring break or family trips.  The class has 29 5 year olds....I cannot imagine keeping 29 5 year olds busy and learning all day.  Teachers are my heros!  This next letter I will be asking them about colors and coloring.

These are roll up Crayola caddies I made for each child. 

I put a key tag on each one so they could write there name on it.  I know this will be a hit with them as they love to color.  I have coloring books I will send to them also. 

Each holder holds 10 colors then wraps up nicely for storage.  I had so much fun making these and of course they are so easy to stitch and stuff with colors that in one afternoon I turned out 30 for the class.  People at work saw them and so I made extras to give away.  It really does not take much to give  someone a smile and I find sewing gives me so much room to bring smiles.  I like to think these will color a student's world with a bright future. 

Happy Spring one and all

 http://www.ehow.com/how_5631581_make-crayon-holder.html

INITIALS for Baltimore

Do you like your initials?  I like mine a lot. MD  I think those two letters carry a lot of weight and look good together.  When I decided to begin a Baltimore Album quilt I knew I wanted my initials as a block.  I looked for lettering that would fit my vision and struggled to find a font that I loved.  I wanted formal, flowing, elegant but simple.  I decided I would have to draft my own to get my eye satisfied.  It was a good process and fun.  I went through a few renditions before settling on what I wanted.  I chose what I am calling my focus fabric to use for the applique.  Copying to material, cutting and stitching began with the thought that I would add ivy or flowers or something intertwining the letters.  I tried several variations of this concept and was not happy with any of them.. I have I think decided to let the initials stand along.  I envision these initials to be a centering for the quilt, but since I am so far from even being close to having blocks finished (have finished 5 not including the initials) all this could change several times before the quilt top is done.  Now... my initials 

Carpenter's Square on the Design Board

Carpenter's Square   

 First four blocks.... I love this quilt and its geometric pattern. I like geo patterns and the movement they evoke.. The material I chose is "Morning Rush" by Carol Eldridge for Andover Fabrics. This coffee themed material in medium brown with coffee beans and coffee words is paired with the black with brown coffee words and coffee beans. The background is a white on white floral with lots of movement. The movement of the background complements the straight lines of the pattern. The floral is so subtle you sense it but it does not standout or take away from the starkness of the brown, black and words of the main fabrics. The pattern has set in seams in a couple of places which I do not mind at all. I love the ease of set in seams and the way they allow the seams to lay flat and smooth. I am so pleased with the results so far.


I had so much fun getting this quilt started by cutting the material.  Now all those strips are 1 1/2" so lots of cutting is involved in this pattern.  If I had read the pattern I would not have cut the 1 1/2" squares for the "units"...I would have striped pieced and then cut the unit tops.  But, with me going to the girls weekend of sewing, I did not take the time to dissect the pattern and do a rewrite to really make this a lot easier. Wine fixes that....the weekend with friends fixes that.....the laughter fixes that....doing it the hard way is always easy when a good time is had by all.


I am now working to finish the quilt and will post soon the quilt all sewed up and ready to wrap up in.