Zip pouches galore!

      Back to school tomorrow... yes, I got my job back.  I am still the one and only German teacher in our school district.  I am very happy to be employed, but also a little sorry to see summer go.  

     It has been a strange summer to say the least.  Not quite as relaxing as I am used to.  My beloved father passed away after a long battle with brain cancer.  We all miss him terribly, but we are happy that he is not suffering anymore.  He was truly a man of integrity; someone that everyone looked up to.  

     There were so many wonderful people who comforted us and helped us out.  My mom has some really great friends from the school where she works.  They helped out by keeping my older boys entertained while we were there.  They took them to the movies and swimming and gave them other kids to play with.  It was so wonderful and such a big help!  It really helped the boys keep some normalcy during that time.

     My mom and I wanted to do something special for the women who helped us, so I made them all a back to school pouch and my mom is going to fill them with some supplies since they will all be going back to school at the end of this week.  I really like how the pouches turned out.  

  

 I love the dark denim with the contrast of the white thread!  I'm not sure why, but I find it to be very appealing.  I wish the weather would have cooperated a bit more for the photo shoot, but it is what it is!

The pouches are great scrap busters.  The next pouch is for my sweet J.  Originally I had made him this one, but he offered to give it to a friend.  He decided that he would like a Tom and Jerry one instead.  Not my kind of fabric, but perfect for an 8 year old boy!  

Winner!

Better late than never.  The winner of the books is Natural Mama!  Natural Mama has been to France.  Check out some of her cool photos here.  Sounds like a great vacation!  Enjoy your new books!

Back to School Zip Pouches

Click here to enter my giveaway!

I've been having fun this week with a little back to school sewing for some great kids! I used  Anna's 3 ring binder tutorial that I found on Sew Mama Sew.  If you haven't checked out Anna's blog Noodlehead you better head over there right now  after you read this post.  She has some mad sewing skills and tons of fantastic ideas, not to mention great patterns.  Anyway, here are the zip pouches that I made.  I am trying to use up some of my scrap collection, but these really didn't even make a dent in it.  

Strangely enough, both of my older boys chose the exact same fabric and zippers for their pouches.  I was surprised that they even chose the little monsters.  I was sure I would be making car and fish pouches. I tried using my "new to me" serger that I won on eBay, but I am still working out the kinks and figuring out how it works, so in the end, I just zigzagged the seams.  I still have to put the grommets in for the binder prongs.

The next pouches were fun to make because they are girly.  Girly projects don't happen too much around here.  I skipped the grommet strip on these.  I prepared some strips, but the denim made it too thick to sew through, but I think they will be great without them.  

I love the little window.  I bought vinyl a while ago, and this was the perfect project to try it out on.  It was easy to sew; much easier than I had anticipated.  Anna had a great tip for sewing with the vinyl.  She suggested to put a piece of tape on the presser foot.  It worked beautifully!  No Teflon foot needed!

Anna's 3 ring binder tutorial

Who's up for a Giveaway?

Okay, so I have way too many books in my library and need to give some away.  These three books are full of whimsy with some really cute projects.  All you need to do to win is leave a comment.  Unfortunately I haven't had a chance for a vacation this year, so I'd love to hear if you've gone anywhere fun or where you would love to go.  Please leave only one comment.  I will pick a random winner on Sunday, August 14th.  Good luck!  Sorry, but this giveaway is only open to US residents.  Postage abroad might be a bit much. :(

Jammin'

  Summertime.  I love summertime because of all of the fresh fruits and veggies.  One of my favorite summertime activities is making jam. Jam is really easy to make. I get so much satisfaction from it, as well as from canning other glorious garden creations such as salsa and relish.  I love knowing what is in my food, or better yet, what is NOT in my food.    

I tried a new recipe for blueberry jam this year.  It is so good!  I will be making more of this next year for sure.  It has cinnamon and cloves in it, which made a terrific flavor.  I was a bit leery of the cloves, but it turned out perfectly.

This is how it looked as it cooked down.  It almost looks like beets in there.

Next up is my old standby recipe for low sugar chunky peach jam.  The smells filling my kitchen were amazing!

Here is the yummy jam all ready to eat!  I think it's time to bake some bread!

I'm a Winner!

Look at these lovely fat quarters that I was soooo lucky to win from Fabricworm a week or two ago!  Check out their blog today!  They have a coupon code for their shop that you will want to use!  Thank you so much Cynthia and team! They are fantastic!!  

Any good ideas of what I should make with them?