St. Patrick's Day quilt FINISHED, YAY!

Here is a little fun quilt I made with a St. Patrick's Day theme. I tried my hand at mitered corners for the first time and in a very non traditional way of doing them, geez, I'm not even sure I could do them the same way again, LOL !

It was a fun project.... hmmmmm....now to move on.... we have rain in the weather forecast for all this next week.... let me see now.....what can I create next? As the brain turns..... lol ... I'll be back....

New purse made.... Puppy Style!

Okay, I need a diversionary day from slipper making so I remembered seeing this cute fabric in my stash a couple of days ago and this idea came to my mind... so today I made my "Puppy Purse", LOL!! It doesn't look like my Poodle Tinkerbelle but she says I'm forgiven anyway...."whew"; thats a load off my mind!

More cozy slippers

I had so much fun making these slippers (ahemm... after redrafting the pattern) I decided to make some to fit "me", LOL.

So here they are and finally... they're DONE!

Now off to do something different....my short attention span is now burned out on slippers.... for a while, anyway.

Cozy little slippers

I need a new pair of slippers... necessity was the mother of invention, right? Right. So this time (drum roll please...) I actually bought a pattern! WELL..... I won't tell you the name or company or place where I bought it because I'm going to complain about it (lol)... it had 3 "poorlys": 1) Poorly sized, 2) Poorly written and 3) Poorly designed....that's it, I'm done. SO.... I made it a second time (with major major major adjustments (that's 3 adjustments for the 3 poorlys) and this time, got a cute little pair of slippers. I used cotton for the outside, fleece for the lining and added little yoyo-s (they tell me you should not hypenate yo-yo! to be correct ??) and back to the button stash. This time I found two little matching pink heart buttons to top them off. Oh, I forgot ....that non-skid stuff on the soles is the soft rubbery shelf liner stuff and I got mine at the dollar store in a roll.

Now remember I said "Poorly sized"? Yep, I did. Since I didn't adjust quite enough... I took them to DD Tami and said "aren't these cute" (I'm pretty convincing at my age...had a lot of practice), "here, model them for me" (see, her foot is smaller than mine) and she did....aren't they cute ON HER? She loved them (as she twisted her little feet around) so I said "Happy Valentine's Day"... and gave them to her. She politely said "Ohhh, for ME?" I had fun with it and she has new slippers.

I still need a pair of slippers.... I should have posted a picture of my old ones so you would understand how desperate I am... they had two major blowouts; one on the left front (toe) and another on the right rear (heel)....now to make me a pair large enough to fit (hopefully)!

Easter bag.... tired of WalMart trips

Ruffles, did someone say "ruffles"? Well I'm thinking if I can do a bag with horizontal ruffles (round and round, right?) why not a bag with VERTICAL ruffles (as in...up and down!).. WHY NOT? OK, Easter is coming.... oh my... hurry up. Let me see now, run to my stash, find pastel fabrics and oh gee I have this little piece of "bunny fabric"...oh how SEW-perfect is that? Now to whip up my basic bag, turn strips into ruffles, make a loop and now I run to my button stash (yes, I DO have a button stash too!) and find this cutesie little wooden pastel button in the shape of a flower and WALLA! finished bag in time for Easter too! Whew, I'm on a roll..... but I'm sure getting tired of going to WalMart just to carry my bags! LOL

I have to make a shopping list....let me see now, what all do I need? Yep, gotta' go to WalMart....I'd rather show my new purse to them that at the Doctor's office... got to get sick to go there and Lord knows, I don't have time to get sick nor do I want to! See if I don't hurry up and carry this purse (now that Valentine is past) I won't be ready to carry the Easter purse in time! LOL !!

See I saw this really cute ruffled bag (somewhere...can't recall...no telling where I was,...I do get around 'ya know) and thought "how cute, I'd like to have one of those"...followed by "I can make that"... and so here it is... the little ruffled bag in honor of St. Patrick's Day!! I'm luvin' her!

Valentine Quilt progression

Here are some progressive shots of the quilt as-you-go Valentine project (my first quilt BTW); it was FUN!

OK so I decided to make a little quilt....just a little "throw" mind you, nothing fancy, nothing too big...after all, this is my very first attempt at a quilt-as-you-go by machine piece.... let's keep it simple. Yeah, right. See with me, its all about ideas in my head, a vision, a dream...sometimes a nightmare in disguise! I don't use patterns much (maybe I SHOULD!) so I just set out to go where angels fear to trod... and the path can get really strange, LOL.

Anyway, the bloomin' thing just grew and grew... until it covers a double or queen size bed...don't know HOW that happened but it did. So here is the FMQ, quilt-as-you-go Valentine quilt, for what its worth! I chose three solid colors (glittery, yep I'm all about the BLING) and two red prints with a third one added for the two squares framing the center appliqued heart square..... keep it simple, remember?

Stay tuned and I'll share my two new bags made with the "wing-it-method"... LOL.
Oh and the slippers made from a pattern that was SO very convoluted that I had to almost-wing-it to make them (I think that's why I don't use patterns; I can convolute things on my own, thank you very much!).

Fabrics and thread for Valentine quilt project

The gorgeous Pheasant from 1901 !!

A raving beauty among the thorns! Here is my precious Pheasant whose Mom was also Singer but she was born in 1901!! Imagine, 110 years old, wow. Now being the "older" sister, she got preference and chose the first "bed" (cabinet) I found. Don't get me wrong, she DEFINITELY deserves this cabinet and all its splendor as she is the Queen of Machines and looks like one sitting high upon this throne! I am in love with her!

I must be a collector; otherwise I have no defense!

Here is a photo of one of my newly acquired little girls, she is called a Sphynx but I call her beautiful. Singer is her Mom and she was born in 1912 according to her serial number. Wow, to be that old and so well preserved, I should be so lucky!! I don't yet have a bed (cabinet) for her to sleep in but I'm on the hunt for one as pretty as she deserves and in the meantime she is patiently waiting.

New things for the NEW YEAR.....

Okay, the new year is almost three months old; so is my motivation, lol!

I haven't been sewing but I have been attempting (mind you I said "attempting) my hand at jewelry making. Now having a DD who is really good at this is a bit intimidating to start with, having to buy supplies (yes I'm prone to excesses) secondly and thirdly being old enough to need 2.00 reading glasses (at least I find them at the dollar store.... that leaves more money for buying beads, crystals and something they call "findings") this means nothing more than I have three strikes against me before I even begin, right? Ahhhh but I have never been deterred by a small amount of adversity so HEREeeeeeeeeeeeee I go anyway.

Tried my hand at a necklace with matching earrings and then made another (after staring and smiling at first one). Then decided second one was a bit better, first one needed help.....in this case "help" means you cut the wire, remove all the beads and DO IT OVER ! YEP, me the "I don't like to redo it girl" did just that. See the flower center focal piece just kind of lopped out at you, like a little rabbit who was too sick to stand on its own...oh well, lousy comparison but I discovered during the making of the second one that if you criss cross the wires THROUGH the focal flower or bead, the two strands like each other better and they come together for the common good of all, lol.

SO I "fixed" number one and now I'm off to some new challenge, trying to make a flower petal out of some round mother-of-pearl chips with beads....can't find a pattern and can't figure out how to make it lay right.... sigh *****.... pursue, pursue, pursue.... On the left we have the first attempt (BEFORE the FIX !) and on the right we have the second set....

Fear not! I SHALL RETURN !!! (uhhhh, whenever....)

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Happy New Year to everyone and I sincerely hope everyone has a great year in 2011.

Our Christmas Holiday was very unusual this year as we lost my Dad on December 22, 2010. We will miss him but we "REJOICE" at his new address.... HEAVEN is now his home!
He spent the last nine years of his life in a nursing home and I know he is much happier now. My Mom is 91 and they missed their 73rd Anniversary by a mere 6 hours. We told Mom that we are "giving" her that one. She is still staying with me due to some Blood Pressure issues but is doing as well as can be for the time being.

That aside, I haven't had much time to do any sewing or playing but alas and beware, I am MOO-ving in that direction !! AHAaaaaa... all those little ideas are beginning to spin around inside my head... think I'm going to pick up the BIG bunch of squares I cut out last year for a Valentine throw and perhaps "throw" that together in time for Valentines Day 2011! Sounds like a good place to start if you ask me, right? RIGHT!

I'll be back..... sooner than you think... LOL !! Now HAPPY SEWING TO ALL and to ALL A GOOD NIGHT !!

Here I am again! Not gone as long this time.....

Ok. I went to JoAnn's craft and fabric store for a stroll through the fabric and saw this darling pumpkin stack that was priced somewhere around $30. I thought (don't we all!) "gee, I can make that" (LOL) and so home I went, dove into the stash like the cat lookin' for a mouse in the hayfield and came up with a few small pieces of Halloween colored prints and WALLA! I was off to the races....hmmmm,let me see now, how did that look? Ok, senior moment, forgot exactly...go online, look at JoAnn's website, AHAaaaa, there it is; print picture, pin it to the wall above the cutting table and away I go. You've figured out by now that I have no pattern, RIGHT? Right.

He (she?) turned out pretty much BIGGER than the one at the store, my Spider was a really fun, used yarn (fun fur type) and made loopies for her legs, oh, and did you see those little "beady" eyes? HA! A couple of colored seed beads did the trick. I used multicolored thread for the stitching around the pumpkin's eyes, mouth and nose (noses?-well there are three of them!)

Ok, serged around the edges, put 'em all together and Uh-Oh...what about that hat? And the brim is supposed to "stand out"? Oh dear. Got out some really heavy interfacing, drew on it, cut it out, used it for pattern to cut the fabric, ok, yes, its REAL stiff, now for the hat part...oh yeah, and the band. Say WHAT? Ok, hat part should be able to cut it using template from FAT CAT quilt ( it worked) and a wide strip of fabric for the band, now "ease" all together. But wait, I need to embroider something on the band. Chose a little ghost/halloween design; once accomplished, put it all together and here she is! Whew!!

New purses to carry....oh where to go??

Well at last I have actually been busy enough to post a couple of new purses here (yes, it seems that I'm either "in a rut" or "on a roll" but I'll worry about that later. Right now... fun fun fun, sew sew sew, and then where oh where shall I go to carry my new bags? I will need to go somewhere everyday if I keep this up, three new purses in the last 4 days, WOW ! Whew!!

A friend call yesterday and said "what ya doin"? (Texans never pronounce all of the word ya see) and I said "making a purse". "WHAT she replies, like you NEED another purse" (color me grinning) as I said "Its not about NEED"! Nope, if I want another one I'll make another one...now I'm going to have a garage sale in a few weeks (waiting for a cooler temperature; been 100 here and thats TOO hot) so I really need to weed out the closet and make a decision which handbags to part with...hmmmm,....or CAN I? Oh well, I'll worry about that later too.

Here are some pictures of the latest two purses. The "autumn" bag is foundation pieced using a modified dresden plate template and then quilted on my Janome 6600 (using mode 3 stitch 45) with a variaged thread in the needle. I made a wide binding for the top edge and the candy corn looks good enough to take a bite, lol!

The second bag I call the PinkBag is a cotton patchwork printed fabric of lime green, white, pink and a bit of turquoise. I quilted around the patchwork design(s) of the fabric with hot pink thread (using mode 2 stitch 47) and then decided to have a go at doing some embellishing on the pattern using seed beads. Hopefully that shows well enough in the photos to be seen.

Now I guess I'll have to go to Wally World to carry the purses; how many trips to WW can I make?

Just thought I'd elaborate a tiny bit more. The two white drawer units (under the leaf of the Arrow cabinets) are from Ikea.

On top of the plastic storage units (7th pic from the top, I think) there are 4 divided plastic boxes with handles that hold reg thread spools. These open on both sides, lid snaps down tight and they are actually "garages" for the MatchBox cars found them in the toy department at WalMart for $6 and each one holds 48 spools of thread (won't hold mini cones though).

The most difficult thing about setting up this entire room was hauling it all upstairs!! As you can perhaps tell from the window view, this is an upstairs bedroom in my home. The Idea drawer units and the Office Depot bookshelf units were not too bad to assemble but better have some muscle behind that screwdriver (or have a hubby to do it for you), NOT in my case, lol.

Anyway, I'm so happppppppy its DONE!

Now, back to the UFO's....heehee

Call it FINISHED....my sewing room!!

Having bought my home (July '09) and being faced with a 12 X 14 bedroom for a sewing room I had my work cut out for me.....after all, how can you POSSIBLY fit 6 machines (all need to be usable, right?) into such a small space. Not to even mention the stash of an OCD...no, not just fabric. Theres fabric yes, of course but, but, but, (trying to think of some spiffy sounding excuse...failing) theres also the yarn, thread, buttons, beads, tools, oh and did I mention fabric? OM Gosh, tons of it, I mean all of it, oh gee, Im really not defending myself very well AM I?

Now also, being the "Queen of Craigslist" or uh.... Ms. Frugal Google (heehee) AND being a single retired lady living on a VERY "fixed" income... **VBG** I KNEW I had to find the least expensive (uh, CHEAP!) way to do this room.

So I haunted Craigslist, and WALLA! I found the two Arrow Airlift cabinets (I removed the doors; my choice) for one hundred dollars each (grinning again) and then theres the wonderful custom made (desk for 2-I called it) which was also one hundred dollars! The cutting table consists of 4 medium height bookcase units from Office Depot (costing $59.95 per unit) and it had cubicles...hmmm said I....wonderful! Now off to try to find the EXACT size baskets to use in those cubicles for storage (ahemmm...as you can see, they are full of yarns (I thought you'd notice so I am admitting to a stash that big). I found the first 2 baskets at my local discount Ross store and then haunted another dozen or so Ross stores for the rest. I found 1 here and 2 there and several stores had NONE (how DARE them....and me driving all over Houston just to patronize their store(S)!!!
Okay, after about a hundred miles and 4 days of looking, I managed to find all 16 to match (WHEW!) and thats the basket story.
I already had most all of the plastic bins you see, it was a matter of organizing...now my daughter calls me the "Queen of Organization".... some have said that I can get more "stuff" in the smallest space...oh well, so much for them, they don't sew...or felt....or knit...or crochet....or else they're just not OCD!

In the midst of all this, I actually managed to SEW SOMETHING!! Can you BELIEVE IT?
The jacket on Matilda (my dress form, she's a person too you know) is a sweatshirt jacet I played with and finally finished (actually I decorated several sweatshirts but this was the only "jacket" one.

Hope all of you are having fun out there, let me know what you are up to....I have unfortunately been conned into games on Facebook and I can tell you that my crops grow WAY to fast on FarmVille, my apartment is not very well furnished on YoVille and Mafia Wars is killing me (pun intended)... if you play, join me there for some non sewing fun.

Judy