Craft Christmas Goodies

I know I promised to write Part II of the house-cleaning adventure, but before I do that (not today!) I'd like to share some of the craft-related goodies that I got for Christmas.  Some just arrived in the mail today, having been ordered with a gift card. :)

My sister gave me owl-themed fabric (as requested) because I'd like to make a quilt using only owls.  I love owls; I know that they are super trendy and now probably out-of-style, but I love them nonetheless!  So here are some photos of the lovely, lovely fabric for my future owl quilt:

The orange is Far Far Away II; I'm not sure about the other one.

The orange fabric is Alexander Henry and the blue is Amy Schimler for Robert Kaufman (Forest Fun).

I couldn't identify this piece either, but it is super cute!

I wasn't able to identify this red fabric; the selvage wasn't included in the cut.  The light blue fabric is Alexander Henry Tsukiyo.

The only slight hiccup is that at least one of the fabrics is a linen-cotton blend (from Heather Ross' Far Far Away II collection) and thus a bit stiffer than those fabrics that are 100% cotton.  And another piece of fabric must be cotton lawn or voile, and thus not stiff enough.  So those two pieces I'll keep apart and use for another project.  Maybe a bag for the Far Far Away and a garment for the slinkier one?

In the nearer future (for this spring and summer) I'd like to sew some skirts.  Here are two patterns that I'm planning on using:

 

I already have various shades of brown fabric that I'll use for the Hippy Chick skirt.  I'll have to buy something for the Colette Beignet; maybe a nice red.  I'm thinking of eventually wearing this shirt with the Beignet:

This was the first shirt I ever sewed.  It's a Simplicity Built by Wendy pattern: # 4112.  This is also the shirt I'm supposed to be (more or less) replicating!  Recognize the fabric?

These magazines are not, strictly speaking, Christmas gifts.  Unless you consider that self-gifts count.

I love this shirt pattern (and the fabric and styling of the example) and may even overcome my fear of Burda patterns to attempt to make it:

 

However, were I to try to sew this, I'd have to first trace out the pattern from this mess:

I'm not sure I'm up to it yet!  And I think I'd have to add the seam allowance too!

I also have some ideas from looking at these books that arrived today:

And I have plenty of knitting patterns to choose from, thanks for my mom:

This is the first time I've looked at the Knitting Guild's magazine "Cast On" and they have a different approach than Interweave or Vogue.  They had some really helpful technical articles, etc.  Which is not to say that Interweave doesn't have that, but still, the overall tenure of the magazine seemed less commercial.  I guess that makes sense, for a guild magazine. :)

I hope you have plenty of inspiration at your fingertips, as I have.  Now I need to get cracking!