ornament swaps

December is always filled with fun gatherings of friends, gift exchanges and yummy food! This year has been no different. Two of my Christmas gatherings included ornament exchanges and, as always, I added some happy decorations to my tree! 

Our December McKinney Modern Quilt Guild meeting is always fun and festive. I was dead last to choose my ornament, and took the last ornament left wrapped on the table. It turned out to be this sweet little tree, in aqua and red which was perfect for me! The maker was a new guild member who said she was a new sewer.... but I did not get her name! I hope to get to know her at future meetings and let her know how much I love this little tree.

 On Crafty Tuesday we had another fun ornament swap. I ended up keeping Joellen's little felt mitten, filled with candy canes and I just love it too!

It's so much fun to have these treasures to pull out year to year. They always remind me of good friends and good times.

Somehow I managed to not take a picture of the ornaments I made for the swaps! I made two identical sets, and I had to steal this photo from Mahriam's (three owls handmade) instagram feed! So here is one set, hanging on her tree....

They were fun to sit and hand stitch during my recovery.

Have you made any ornaments this year?

December calendar journal

During crafty Tuesday this week, I created my December calendar journal page (kinda last minute, but HEY! I got it done.) Often, when I post my calendar journal on Instagram, people ask me where I get the blank calendar pages to decorate and journal on. I always think that's funny, because I draw them myself. Let's face it folks, I really can't draw! They are always pretty simple and straightforward. I draw them in pencil first, then I trace over with a fine black sharpie marker. There's lots of erasing involved too!

I hope you like my little Christmas tree forest!

I got to thinking, I could share my blank pages with you here, then if you want to you can journal along. I figured I'd start in January. In fact, I got the first 5 months of next year drawn and ready. Then I thought, heck, why not share my December page with you. You're only a couple of days behind. You can remember what you've done since Tuesday, right? I thought so.

Just click on the link below and it will take you to a pdf version of my December calendar journal that you can download and print....

December 2015 calendar journal

I  usually use colored markers to write in the highlights each day. List the projects you worked on. Or you could write something you're grateful for. Or draw a little picture. I often doodle in color around my entries and color in the letters for the month. You could use colored pencils or even crayons. Whatever you have will work.  Skies the limit.

So unleash your inner child and journal along with me, won't you? If you're on Instagram (I am) post your calendar journal as you go and use the hashtag #ellynsplace won't you? Then we can all get ideas from each other! It'll be fun.

I'll post new pages the first of every month in 2016.

crafty Tuesday

I haven't posted a crafty Tuesday update in a while! We are still going strong on the first Tuesday of every month. The group is always evolving and changing and I love it! Today we had our annual Christmas lunch & an ornament exchange. Some of our regulars were not able to be here, but six of us gathered to swap.

as usual, Lexi managed to join the photo shoot!

Mahriam's daughter joined us for the first time & I was the lucky recipient of her beautiful ornament.....

and in a strange twist of fate, she received mine! One of these guys (the other two are destined for other homes)...

Such a fun day! I hope you did something crafty today.

Gratitude

My close friends all know that I'm a huge fan of gratitude. I preach thankfulness whenever possible and try to live my life to reflect how very thankful I am. Gratitude comes easily for me, in good times and in bad, thanking God for all of my blessings makes my life so sweet. Every day I am thankful for a husband who loves me, supports my crazy ideas, washes the dishes and is one of the finest human beings to walk the earth. And the three fabulous, ambitious, energetic, curious, intelligent children he & I made together! This year I am especially thankful for a God who heals, for doctors who restored so many in our family to good health. For my mom & dad who have shown us what true love looks like. For family and friends near and far.

I'm thankful for Crafty Tuesday, the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild & all of the wonderful, creative people who feed my soul. And for you... for going along with me on this wonderful, creative journey. May you and your family be especially blessed this Thanksgiving day.

Christmas circle quilt

About a month ago, my pal Mahriam over at Three Owls Handmade finished up her "tiny scrappy circle mini quilt" and I absolutely fell in love with it! In fact, I tried to steal it when she brought it to our last Crafty Tuesday gathering but she didn't fall for it. darn. So, I set out to make my own. And, because I never do anything according to the directions, I made a few revisions. First off, my circles are a tad bigger than hers (about 1 1/4" diameter). I traced the circles onto heat & bond lite, fused them onto my fabrics and then cut them out....

that aqua snowman makes me giggle. 

I cut 144 in total. Also, I decided to make mine a Christmas circle quilt. I selected all fabrics in reds, greens & aquas (I later added in some gray). Many of the fabrics are holiday fabrics, others are just fun fabrics that fit in with the colors I wanted.

I had a light gray solid on hand and I liked the way it looked as a background. I squared it up and pressed it well. Then I began laying out and fusing my circles. I used a ruler to keep them straight(ish).  I laid them out in a 12 x12 grid and fused them well. I must confess, a few began to lift away from the fabric when I started to quilt. I did go back and glue some of them down with fabric glue. Most of the circles did fuse and stay well attached.

Mahriams circles were tinier than mine. Also she had way more of them than I do! But I am quite happy with my layout...

Goldilocks is making an appearance in all of my projects lately!

I began quilting in a organic (that's code for "not perfectly straight and I don't care") grid with light gray thread. Bound it up with a gray herringbone print and I love it! Is it too early to begin hanging Christmas decor? Because this baby is going on the wall very soon.

Celebrating three years of Crafty Tuesday!

Three years ago I had this crazy idea, that if I invited crafty people from all different areas of my life to come together once a month they might actually end up liking each other and having a good time! Selfishly, I decided to host it at my house every month (that way I don't have to pack up my stuff and go somewhere! Ha!). Well, they fell for it! And Crafty Tuesday was born. The first Tuesday of every month, a group gathers at my house to craft, gab, eat and enjoy life.

It's amazing really, and way better than I ever imagined. New friendships have been formed, new crafts and skills learned, new foods devoured!


September was our founding month, so the first Tuesday of September, every year, we have a little birthday party of sorts. You can read about our first birthday here, and our second birthday here. Today was birthday number three. Here's our obligatory group photo complete with balloons and dog.....

Thank you Stephanie for finding a video to teach me how to work the self timer on my camera! A new skill for me.

We had a wonderful time, complete with tacos and cake. Because, well, seriously, what's a birthday without cake?

Happy Third Birthday Crafty Tuesday! Here's to many many more.

design boards

I've been wanting to make some design boards using Lori Holt's tutorial for a long time. On Crafty Tuesday this week I decided this was the perfect project to work on while I chatted with my crafty buddies. I prepped all of the materials in advance so I could just sit and glue. I finished up these six!

These are 10" x 10", so you get all six from a 20" x 30" sheet of foam core board. I love all of the happy colors of binding I used.

They are the perfect size for my New Hexagon blocks.

block #26 almost done!

The tutorial was great and I had so much fun making these. The next morning I made up a big board using another whole sheet of foam core board.

I can't wait to put them all to good use. You should probably make some too.

english paper pieced kiss block (a tutorial)

I'm a huge fan of Mollie over at Wild Olive. Have you checked out her blog? You must! A month or so ago she posted this tutorial for English Paper Piecing a plus quilt. Genius! She included a free pdf for the paper pieces needed. I bookmarked it for later on, knowing I wanted to give this a try. On Tuesday, which was crafty Tuesday over here, I gave it a whirl.....

Let me just say, I have gone crazy with the pluses and there are many many more finished. But that's a whole other blog post for another day. Today I want to share something else.

While I was working on these pluses, I found myself thinking "hmmmm I wonder if I could turn these into the raspberry kisses blocks that I love so much?" Here's Rachel (Wooden Spoon Quilts) original tutorial for the kiss blocks made by machine. I love this tutorial and have made several things using it! But could I EPP the same blocks? I wondered. (and I know a few of you are rolling your eyes at me right now! I SEE YOU THROUGH MY COMPUTER! humor me people!)

the pillow I made for Catherine for our MQG swap using Rachel's tutorial

A mini I made for my sewing space also using Rachel's tutorial.

After a restless night designing EPP Kiss blocks in my mind, I set to work. Seriously, I was still in my pajamas (no there are no photos, it wasn't pretty. And by it, I mean me) working out the math and creating my blocks.

I started with pluses made using Mollie's tutorial. I think her little templates look like houses, don't you? So from here on out, I shall refer to them as such. To make one EPP Kiss block, you need to prepare:

4 houses for the plus (for mine I used all the same fabric for these, this is the color in the center)

4 houses with the roofs cut off (or you could cut four 1 1/2" squares) in a second color (mine are light gray)

2 squares, each one 3 1/2", cut in half on the diagonal like this:

so four triangles, prepared in a third color, mine are dark gray. 

You can use your favorite method to baste the fabric to your cardstock. I happen to prefer glue basting. But if you like to stitch baste yours, feel free! When you get your pieces prepared, you can lay them together to see how it will look, like this:

I learned a few things along the way that made stitching this together so much easier and I thought I'd share them here. To avoid piecing those squares into tight corners, Stitch two rows like this, with a square on either side of a house:

Now add your extra houses to one side....

And then stitch it all together like this...

Well now, that's a cute little block, isn't it? But we're not done! Remember those triangles? Attach the long edge of a triangle to each side of your block...

when you lay the triangle face down to sew, the point lines up nicely with the point in the center of your block! Isn't that clever? a happy coincidence..... I love to use binder clips to hold my bigger pieces in place while I stitch.

Once all four triangles are added, your block is complete!

EPP Kisses block finishes at 6 1/2"

And, if you're like me, you'll need to make a second one right away just because....

Kind of fun, huh? I think so too. I can't wait to make a few more and turn them into something useful. 

Oh hey, are you on Instagram? so much crazy inspiration there! You can find me here. If you post your EPP Kisses blocks on Instagram, use the hashtag #eppkisses so we can all see them and oooh and ahhhh, ok? Have a happy day! 

goodbye sweet friend

Yesterday our Crafty Tuesday group suffered a huge loss. Our dear friend Raquel, who has been a Crafty Tuesday girl nearly from the beginning almost three years ago, passed away following surgery to repair a broken leg. I was devastated when I learned this.

Raquel lived her life with passion and purpose. Whatever she did, whether it was quilting, scrapbooking, weight loss, Zumba or Roller Derby, she did it with her whole heart and all of her energy. She loved her husband and her children deeply. And her friends. We will miss her terribly.

A couple of years ago, Raquel brought me back a bundle of fat quarters from her native Hawaii. I used the beautiful Hawaiian prints to make a postcard quilt which hangs in my studio. From now on I will think fondly of my friend whenever I see it.

Hug your friends and tell them that you love them. I will miss you Raquel. You were a blessing to me.

crafty tuesday

If you've been hanging around ellyn's place for very long, you know what yesterday was! That's right....

 Five of us gathered for crafting yesterday. Stephanie was knitting cotton washcloths.....

 Trae took this mound of beautiful floral fabrics.....

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And fussy cut them into these lovely hexagons for a quilt....

 Christina was filling 80 of these cool wrap scarves with magic crystals (I'm pretty sure she had a better name for them! LOL) for Girl Scout camp leaders....

And Joellen and I were English Paper Piecing Hexagons for our quilt along. I love our crafty Tuesdays!

Crafty Tuesday and some hats....

Crafty Tuesday happened a week early this month. There were four of us celebrating January or February birthdays which made it extra fun! There was pizza, salad and cupcakes. and quite a few yarn crafts at the table this month.

I've been making hats to donate to kids in our community who need them. This one came out pretty cute...

 But not all of the patterns I've tried have been successes.....

I think I might just keep this headband one for myself....

because I'm heading somewhere cold this week.... stay tuned!

Crafty Tuesday Vision Boards

We had a crowd for Crafty Tuesday today! Seven of us got together for crafting, visiting and of course, lunch! At this end of the table was hand stitching.....

And at the other end of the table we were making Vision Boards.....

Have you heard of Vision Boards? I had made them years ago but hadn't thought about them in a while. Then I read this post on Carrie Bloomston's blog and knew I needed to make one again! I also received Carrie's book, The Little Spark, 30 ways to ignite your creativity, for Christmas. What an awesome book! You really should check it out. 

I tossed out an invitation to my crafty friends to join me in making the Vision Boards and three of them decided to do it. All four of us had chosen words for the year and we decided to make boards that represented our words. Grace's word is "trust". Melissa chose "inspiration" for her word, and made a collage to include in her notebook for her word. Joellen's word is "improvement" and I love what she did with her Vision Board....

 I love that three of us chose "I" words this year. Here's the board I made for my word, Imagine....

This will be a great visual to have in front of me this year as I explore my word.

one word

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I always choose one word to focus on each year. Or rather, a word chooses me! I'm never quite sure where the words come from, each year it is a surprise gift from God. Sometimes the word puzzles me or surprises me. (Honestly, I never did figure out why my word was Strength in 2013.) Always, after a year of pondering my word, I grow. This past year, my word was Grace.

Last Christmas, I received wooden letters from Ally, which I painted and hung in my studio as a constant reminder. I read several wonderful books on Grace. I sought out Bible verses and quotes containing my word, and I thought about it a lot. I learned a lot about myself this past year and I do believe I grew in many ways. Offering Grace to others has become more natural to me and has healed my heart in many ways. I have seen Grace in others, often when I least expected it. I know that the lessons I have learned will stay with me for the rest of my life.

But, alas, it's time to move on to a new word! I have been thinking about what my word should be for a few weeks now. Sometimes it's hard to turn off my own voice and listen for what God wants me to focus on. One word kept coming back to me and I fought it. I had this little chat with God:

God: your new word is imagine.
Me: doesn't that seem a bit shallow? Maybe I should choose something meatier? Something deeper?
God: Imagine. That's the word.
Me: seriously?
Ally: what are you going to do Mom, lay on the couch and dream all day? (this from the girl who chose FUNNEL CAKE as her word last year!)
Me: maybe?

Lest you worry that nothing will be accomplished in my household this year with me focussing on a less-than-productive word, rest assured that hubby has chosen ACTION as his word for the year. It's all good!

I auditioned other words but they didn't feel quite right. They just didn't stick! I'd think of something deep & meaningful (Leigh Anne has chosen the word Obedience! now there's a good, solid, challenging word, right?) and a few hours later I couldn't even remember what I had thought of. Just Imagine. sigh....


And for Christmas this year, Ally gave me this.....

And Imagine it is! Now I'm getting excited about the possibilities...... Imagine the woman I wish to be. Imagine the places I'd like to go.  Imagine the creative possibilities! I can't wait to see where this year takes me.

I look forward to sharing the ways I choose to explore my new word throughout this new year. For starters, I'm scouring the internet for a perfect necklace that says "imagine" so I can have a constant reminder around my neck at all times (hey, a girl can always use more jewelry, right?). And the crafty Tuesday girls have a special project set for next week to help us kick off the new year. But I'm getting ahead of myself. More on that later!

For now, I can only begin to imagine where this is going to take me! Do you choose a word to focus on every year? I'd love it if you'd share it with me in the comments.

handmade Christmas

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Ours was peaceful and fun. I'm so lucky to have friends and family who spoiled me with many handmade gifts. An assortment of ornaments from sewing friends, coworkers, guild members and blogging friends....

Last Monday when I opened up my locker at work, I found this beautiful little tree complete with handmade tree skirt from my friend Sarah! 

This beautiful Christmas mini, complete with metal hanger, arrived from Maria in Australia....

Ally painted lots of canvases for all of us. Some of mine include these fun emojis (some of our favorites to text to each other) 

And a fun Crafty Tuesday sign....

The biggest surprise from Ally was this beautiful afghan! I had no idea she had learned to crochet while she was away at college. From the looks of this, you'd think she had been crocheting for years. I was thrilled to be the recipient of her very first afghan!

Did you receive handmade gifts this Christmas too? I hope you did!