Make Easy Drawstring Gift Bags - Day 258 of 365, Tutorial Tuesday

Looking for a homemade drawstring gift sewing project? Check out this quick and easy one!

I started this blog back eight months ago with a sewing project. Pincushions. In that first month of writing and picture taking I made a:

• flag quilt top 
• baby quilt 
• camera case 
• pillow cases 
• grocery bags out of t-shirts
• clothespin bag 
• fabric memory game with a carrying bag. 

In the food department, I made:

• M&M cookies 
• St. Patrick's day decorated sugar cookies 
• Coney-Island chili dogs 
• blueberry muffins 
• chocolate-caramel apples 
• chocolate covered strawberries.

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Since then, I've done tutorials on a couple of those things and this week's tutorial adds another. On Day 8, I made the fabric memory game with a drawstring carrying bag.

A drawstring bag is a good way to wrap Christmas gifts, too, so today is all about the bag.

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You can find the step-by-step how to tutorial for the homemade quick and easy fabric drawstring gift bags sewing project right here:

Day 257 of 365

I'm into before and after pictures. I've taken them of kitchen cabinets, the downstairs TV room, and look at them on home improvement websites. Slow and steady changes don't impress me nearly as much as the radical changes that show up in those kinds of pictures.

When I got up this morning, I planned on taking another set of before and after pictures. It's time for us to clip our roses down low for winter, and what better way to document what I accomplish in the garden but with pictures.

So I took that "before" picture, knowing the "after" picture wasn't going to be coming until I was finished with the roses - and that might be a week or more from now. Took that picture, then got to work for a while. Filled up almost a garbage can full of dead canes.

On the way out of the garden, I found something I'd never noticed before. In 10 years. Never knew it.

Usually in the fall, I'm not working in the garden much. School is in full swing and I've always been someone to put my all into it. Which leaves nothing for the garden. Or the family. (Yep, my priorities were out of whack.) Then two years ago, I hurt my back in the fall. Definitely no working then. Last year I was in the sling because of the shoulder surgery and no working in the garden.

So this is really the first time in a very long while I've done any type of work outside in November. And wouldn't you know it, I learned something new.

We have these burning bushes. One is out by the fence (that's the one on Day 224) and then we have a couple right at the entrance of the rose garden. They're a good bush in the summer, and I love their bright red leaves in the fall. But as I found out today, there are more to them than just their leaves.

As I was exiting the garden I noticed these bushes also have gorgeous orange berries with purple coverings.

In all the years we've had these burning bushes, I never knew it. And if I hadn't forced myself to work outside today for a bit, I would have missed such a colorful sight.

Day 256 of 365

While lots of things happen in the movie Thelma and Louise, there's a line that has resonated with me. My idea of happiness, contentment, bliss.

We'll be drinking margaritas by the sea, mamacita.

I always thought if I had no worries, no responsibilities, and could drink margaritas by the sea, things would be okay with the world.

One Thanksgiving I had the chance. My husband had a Social Studies conference in Florida the week before Thanksgiving. We traveled along and spent our days at DisneyWorld while he was in meetings. When the conference was over we went to Clearwater Beach for the Thanksgiving holiday. Stayed in a hotel right on the beach. And on Thanksgiving Day as we sat there by the pool, I drank margaritas. No worries, no problems, no responsibilities.

And yet, no bliss.

That thing I held up as the representation of what happiness would be, didn't turn out to be. I went all the way to Florida and had a great trip, but happiness in that very moment eluded me.

I think about happiness a lot. Or maybe it's contentment or bliss. I do know, now more than ever, that I'm more happy at home than anywhere else. It's not about the dollars in the bank, the stuff in my house, or the travels I've taken.

It's right here, right now. It's when I write, when I read, when I take pictures, when I sew. I'm just as happy sitting on the couch reading a magazine as I am sitting on a beach drinking margaritas.

Traveling through the town of Bliss with my mom, this sign (and the surrounding view) got me thinking about that happiness factor again. Dilapidated, run-down buildings and unkempt empty lots welcome us to Bliss, Idaho.

Not quite what I would define as bliss.

Day 255 of 365

Remember all those Stockings for Soldiers I finished up Day 222? The ones I did a tutorial for on Day 237? The ones that high school kids were collecting items for? Well, the challenge to gather items was given to the kids last week. On Day 252 we had a few items - if you call 415 items a few!

But those aren't the only boxes and packages going to the post office. The rest of the kids' quilts for Operation Kid Comfort from Day 233, Day 245, Day 246, Day 253, and Day 254. And Quilts for Kids from Day 236, Day 238, and Day 243. And more Stockings for Soldiers.

Boxes are headed to Delaware, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Washington state. You'd think I was sending off Christmas presents.

But what was I thinking? I obviously wasn't thinking about the trouble it was going to be getting this packed, wrapped, and out of the house. I wasn't thinking about how hard it would be to get them all into the post office on the same day. (But thank goodness I was able to talk my daughter and her boyfriend to help me get them delivered.)

And I certainly wasn't thinking ahead about the cost of postage. I probably should have prepared myself for the hit.

And not one is a Christmas present for anyone I know. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing.

What do I know? I can breathe a sigh of relief for just a bit.

Day 254 of 365

They're done. Done, like finished. Like no backlog anymore.

The Quilts for Kids project - four quilts. The Operation Kid Comfort - four quilts and a pillow.

I don't know how I got myself in over my head so much, but it's time to crawl out from under the quilting for others craze. Yet, I still have a couple quilts to work on.

My husband has requested a quilt for Christmas. He's a huge baseball fan. He's a basketball and football fan, too, but baseball wins out.

When he was a kid he was a bat boy for the day for the California Angels. He still has the black and white picture hanging up from so many years back. For someone who was handicapped with cerebral palsy, he felt pretty special.

Now he wants to feel special with some fabric I used for one of the kids quilts. One of them had baseball fabric and when my husband saw that, he knew exactly what he wanted. A baseball quilt.

So a baseball quilt it will be. A Christmas gift for my hubby. I've made quilts for dozens of kids, so might as well add him to the list!

Now that the last one for Operation Kid Comfort is done, he'll be up to bat next.