This week.......

I've been doing a little bit of everything.....some holiday papercrafting.............

some apple picking...........

our apples needed to come off the trees.......before the hard frost comes in.

some applique..............

These are the new blocks going in my Family Reunion quilt.........

I don't know about you, but we usually had our Family Reunions in the canyon and it was a standing rule that the first one there was in charge of hanging the "paper plate sign" to show the way to the other family members.

My brothers and sisters and I always looked for our family name among the many signs nailed to several posts along the way, as our station wagon wound it's way further up the canyon.

another word block I've added to the quilt that describes family.......LOVE

Corn on the cob to add to the picnic.....ready to eat......eating..... and eaten!

Of course you must use those fun little cob holders so you're fingers don't get burned....

My studio is full of drawings.... patterns.... fabric...paper...glitter ....glue and whatever else that I've stacked in there.... What a mess!

I seriously should take an afternoon to put everything away but I'm busy!

The holiday crafting begins just as the holiday decorating begins.

It's ongoing at my house throughout the season. I took a class at Heartland Paper this week with my friends Shanna and Beth. We had a ball! The top photo was taken there....so cute.

I hope you'all are getting ready for a trick or treating weekend......

Fabric Bookmark Tutorial...

Kassidy wanted to make some bookmarks for her friends...on our "Sew Night" last Wednesday, she went through her basket of fabrics that she has been collecting and chose some fun prints that she thought would make cute bookmarks. This is a great way to make use out of leftover 2 1/2" strips or try using leftovers from a favorite jelly roll project.
if you want to make some, this is how we did it....
You will also need
pinking shears,
Pellon that is fusible on one side,
Ribbon to match fabric.

You will use 2 fabrics , one for the front of the bookmark and one for the back and 2 pieces of pellon for each bookmark. Cut them all 2 1/2" x 7" long.
Also cut wider ribbon about 3" long and narrow ribbon 2 1/2" long.

Press the pellon onto the wrong side of both the front and the back of bookmark fabric.

Place them Pellon sides together.

Trim the TOP ONLY of the front and back of bookmark while sandwiched. Trim with pinking shears. You will only be able to do this step now before you insert ribbon between them and before stitching edges.

Layer the narrow ribbon on the wider ribbon with the bottom edges even. Center ribbon layers about 1" down on the pellon side of bookmark back.

Place the bookmark front over ribbon and bookmark back and pin into place. Make sure that your pin goes through the ribbon to hold it into place while stitching.

Also pin the back and front of bookmark together at the bottom.

Here is Kassidy stitching the front and back together....she used the edge of the zipper foot as a guide for her seam allowance which is slightly larger than 1/4".

This is what the front looks like when stitching is complete.

This is the back.

Now trim the remaining three edges of the bookmark with pinking shears.

Fabric all trimmed .....

Now trim the ribbon.......

Bookmark complete! Easy peasy...fast & fun...what's not to like?

A cute gift for all. Tuck inside a fabulous book or even coordinate fabric to go with the book style or content....

Here are the bookmarks that Kassidy made .....she made 2 out of each fabric combo for a total of 10.

The following pics are the back and front of each bookmark.

Kassidy and I hope you have fun on your "Sew Night" with these quick little bookmarks....... if you decide to give them a whirl!

Today at Yo-Yo Mama's...

I met with my Yo-Yo Mama's group today at Material Girls...I decided to make a little nifty-gifty for everyone.

I had fun making all of them bookmarks.....

so that we can all keep track of which block we are working on in our latest project that we are doing together as a group.....

Our group is a 1930's group so naturally we decided to do the sampler quilt from Eleanor Burn's book, "Egg Money Quilts".

We all love this book and Eleanor's aproach to fast & easy methods to make traditional blocks that were typically made during the depression years. We also LOVE the DVD that she has made to go along with it...very entertaining I must say with alot of cute projects. I recommend it for those of you who enjoy 1930's quilts and fabrics.

Here's a closeup of a few of the bookmarks....

And the other side of them.

This is the last project that we did together....my "Apron Club" quilt. This is Judy's that she just finished......

Look at the cute fabric that she used for her backing fabric.

The following blocks are Shanna's. She has a few more to do and then she's ready to put hers together.

Nadine brought a vintage quilt top that she just purchased online to show us.....a grandmothers flower garden. What a lucky find for her...it's such a wonderful quilt top.

Ashley has now joined our group and brought a whirly-gig quilt that she is working on now....only borders needed. She is adorable and will be a fun addition to our group.

Well, there you have it, that was this months yo-yo mama's meeting. I hope you enjoyed being my special guest visitor!