Sew Not Ready for Christmas

 I like Christmas as much as the next person, in fact, I love it, but I'm in the 'no Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving' camp. It just makes me shake my head to see Christmas trees and ornaments hanging in store aisles in August. The first week in November I do not want to be inundated with Christmas Carols when I walk into the grocery store. Makes me sound like a grinch, but really, I'm not. The day after Thanksgiving I am decking the halls and belting out Amy Grant's "Christmas Can't be Very Far Away" while I'm slinging omelettes. But don't jingle those sleigh bells in my face until I have put away the leftover turkey.

However, I'm a crafter. I sew and quilt and like to make things as gifts and waiting until after Thanksgiving to start making said gifts just doesn't cut it. I thought I had it handled, but y'all keep posting cute projects and tutorials and making me add things to my list. I've already repeated the 'Next year I'm going to start on Christmas gifts in January'...multiple times. You know y'all have said that too. I'm trying to avoid the stress of getting it all done. I suppose its unavoidable. Some people thrive on it. I am not one of those people. I'm a list maker and it works pretty well for me...until I start adding things to the list...in November.

So I've been furiously making pot holders...and table runners...and gift bags...and gathering supplies for a herd of reindeer. And the only thing I can share with you are these 2 drawstring bags I made for the 2 darling children I made the pillowcases for in my last post because they are not for Christmas:

Aren't they the cutest things?! The little boy likes Curious George and his sister loves dance class. I couldn't resist these monkeys:


The dancer fabric has glitter on it and it just made me smile and think of sweet Katy. It wouldn't make a very good pillowcase, but it makes the perfect gift bag! The first photo is a better representation of the color. Don't know why this one is so wonky:

Jeni posted this wonderful tutorial on her blog, Color Order, and I had to make a couple. Then I REALLY fell in love with them after making them and went a little wild. I cut out 8 more and started sewing them. Thank you for sharing this Jeni! I'm hooking up with the Sew Darn Crafty Party over at Sew Many Ways. So hop on over there this week and see what everyone else is up to, but don't blame me if you end up adding something else to your list! ;)

So for the time being, my Western Many Trips quilt and my wool quilt are sitting on the back burner while I'm sewing up a storm in an attempt to get ready for Christmas...before Thanksgiving.