Halloween and Christmas :D

A couple more completions --- 5 gift bags ...

... and some Halloween bibs.  The two small ones on top are for the bun in the oven that's arriving next month - to go with the Thanksgiving and Christmas bibs already completed :D

iEggs and iTurkey :)

Egg cozies I made as a gift - tutorial available here :)  These were a bit of a pain in the a$$ to make because my free-arm was too big and I had a hard time doing the last seam.  I had to pull out the Husqvarna to use as it had the smallest bed of my several machines, lol.  I love how these turned out!!  The lining is the same fabric as the outside, and they're batted with Warm and Natural :)

These bibs go with the Christmas ones I made yesterday, and are part of a gift set I'm working on.  They're backed with brown chenille (which you can see peeking out behind the turkey fabric).  These put a smile on my face - TURKEY BIBS!  ROTFL!!!

P.S.  Congratulations California!!!  Well done :)

Bibs and bags :)

Finally some finishes - stash-busting Christmas bibs and gift bags :)

A wee bit of shopping ...

Hubby and I went to Buffalo this long weekend - partly as a celebration for our 25th anniversary (on Tuesday), but mainly because I love going there to shop @ Joanns, LOL.  Here are a few bits and pieces I picked up during our trip ;)

This is the fabric I chose for a baby quilt I'm making for an expectant niece.  The green fabric at the bottom is similar to minky - it's unbelievably soft - baby will enjoy snuggling on it!

The green fabric (back) is what I picked to go with the floral print.  The floral was given to me by a friend, and I cut it into 10" squares for a quicky donation quilt.  Hopefully there's enough of the green for the alternate blocks and backing :)

The train print is from a Hobby Lobby visit a year or two ago.  I found the blue stripe fabric yesterday to co-ordinate with it.  This will likely be a donation quilt so it'll just be a simple 1 patch with alternating train/stripe blocks. 

I think I need more hours in the day ;)

Cutest kids travel blanket tute EVER :)

This is one of the cutest tutorials I've ever seen - Kathy @ Merriment Design posted this, and I fell in LOVE :)  Project is now officially on my To Do list :)

Pics are Kathy's, and are posted with her permission - thanks, Kathy!

Selvages - serious FUNNAGE!

I jumped on the selvage bandwagon a few months ago, and have been saving them since then.  Today I made my first selvage project - it should come as no surprise (right, Aubree?!) that I made a zipper bag, LOL.  I'm sure that over the last 30 years of sewing I've thrown away MILES of selvages.  DAMN - I wish I'd known way back when, how much fun they are to sew with, and how cute they are!  Selvage eye candy and inspiration can be found here and here and here :D

 

Another finish - some gift bags (2 + 5) made to use up some stash Christmas fabric :) 

A few small finishes :)

Thanks Barb!  My friend Barb (tinkquilts) recently sent me a luscious flamingo FQ - it immediately jumped under Bella (my 1953 Singer) and Cinderella'd into a couple of notebook covers!  I would have gotten 3 covers if I hadn't miscut TWICE *argh*.  I still have some pretty scraps of the fabric for a future project - thanks Barb!!!

Here are a couple of recent finishes - a set of zipper bags with a matching notebook cover (tutorial here), along with a gift bag - sorry Miss Aubree, my love affair with zipper bags is still in full force, LOLOL!!  The notebook cover has a built-in ribbon bookmark - seen below - a nice touch - thanks Roslyn and Moda!

Notebook covers - tute by Blossom!

Hey Angela - I don't have to eat a bug ... HA!!!  Private joke - don't ask :D  I just finished up 2 little (5"X3") notebook covers to try out a tutorial I found - the tute was written by Miss Blossom, the daughter of Jenny of Elefantz - it worked out perfectly, and each one only took a few minutes to make :)  Thank you, Miss Blossom, for a very nice tutorial!!  

Bag 1 of a 4 bag set :)

I'm working on a special set of zipper bags using some fabrics I was given and some co-ordinating fabrics I bought - here's the first bag - it's soooooo pretty!  When I get the other bags done I'll make zipper pulls to go with them - my one thumb is a bit too chewed up (aka psoriasy) to do fiddly jobs right now - it needs a few days to heal, lol. I hope the other bags go as well as this one did!

Singapore Jane = a brilliant lady!

A personal preference of mine is that zipper bags (which I love, and which I love sewing) be finished properly inside and outside - with no raw edges.  There are many tutorials online for this technique - here's a great one.   

When the zipper in a zipper bag is in the middle(ish) rather than at the top, it's a whole new ball of wax.  Other zipper bag aficionados (likely a rather small subset of sewists in general, LOLOL) would agree, should the question be posed in their general direction.  Suffice it to say, it's a production to do this bag "properly", and tonight, I'm happy to say, I learned how to do it from the inventive and creative Jane in Singapore - tutorial here :)  I had a rough time with the bag - many seams were ripped, many seams were basted as a test run, and I forgot to sew the tab in at the zipper pull *oops*.  However, I ended up with a sweet centre-ish zipper bag that's fully lined on the inside, with no raw edges.  Jane - you ROCK!!  Thank you for not being satisfied to do an average job on the bag, but to come up with a great technique that I'll certainly be using again and again!  Now that I know what I'm doing, I won't have problems the next time :D

Happy, I am!!

I forgot to post this earlier ...

L-R = Kim, Matt, Jamie --- Kim is my big brother, Matt is his son, and Jamie is Matt's girlfriend - this photo was taken (by my SIL, Heather, I assume!) when they were in Florida earlier this year! 

A 3" x 4" scrap ...

was all I needed to decide to make this zipper bag, lol.  I love using up bits and pieces of fabrics and trims :D

A couple of finishes for the donation box - 2 kitty cat pillowcases, and 2 zipper bags :)

Getting back on track ...

recuperating from my (hernia) surgery - I'm getting better but yesterday a weird pain started, so hopefully it goes away soon.  It doesn't seem critical but it is fairly painful - I go for a follow-up with my surgeon on July 19 so hopefully I can hold out until then.  Rather annoying to have a setback during a slow but steady improvement!

Here's a tote I finished tonight, along with some zipper bags I finished last month - I'll include one or two of the zippies with the tote as a set, and the extras will be donated to the shelter for fund-raising.  The tote is a Dandy tote from Dandelion Quilts - I cut mine 2" wider than the instructions because I like my totes big :)

Have a peek here for a spectacular loaf of bread I baked today, and the pasta salad I made yesterday - - if I wasn't on a diet I would have eaten the whole loaf and at least half of the pasta salad, lol.  SERIOUSLY!!  Holy crap they were good!

Happy 20th birthday Chris :)

Happy birthday Chris - 20 years ago today I was in the hospital having a baby 4 weeks before his due date, lol.  I wasn't even worried about it until afterwards when one of the nurses called him a preemie - I had just considered him as "early" :D  He certainly seems to have recovered from his early entrance :)  We went to Frankie Tomatto's in Markham today for an all you can eat buffet - the quality of the food there has definitely gone down since our last visit (for his 19th birthday) - I'm not sure the kids will ask to go back there again!

And now hubby and I are off to celebrate the special day by going to see a movie on our own - The A-Team :D

50 pounds :D

My official weigh-in today showed I reached the magical 50 pound mark - yay me, boo calories, yay the treats that have kept me sane - canned french cut seasoned green beans, frozen fettucine alfredo, tomato basil rice cakes, tomato onion and tomato basil tuna, broccoli slaw, and, best of all, 100 calorie Ah Caramel bars - without these buddies of mine, I would have had an awfully hard time staying on track, lol!  My BP is 118/70, which I believe is normal - YAY :)

Tonight - I dream of a McDonalds double quarter pounder with cheese, large fries and a diet coke :D  It's probably more calories and sodium than I have in two days, LOL!!  Oh - even better - THIS! DROOL!!! ;)

Happy Father's Day, Dennis :)

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and expectant fathers out there - I hope your day was a good one!  The kids bought Dennis some fancy razors (as per his request), and his big FD gift was a pair of cowboy boots ... for me ... LOL.  We drove to Herbert's Trading Post in Innisfil and bought these lovelies :)

And here are a couple of pleated zipper bags I made this weekend - not sure why the background color of the photograph is so odd!

Wordless Wednesday :D

Always puttering in my studio :D

I whipped up this little set today to use up some denim scraps and stash fabric - the boxy bag is from a Patchyapple pattern and the zipper bags are my regular zippies (tutorial linked on the sidebar --->).  The denim scraps are from worn out work jeans, so these are - technically - electrician zipper bags :D

Here's a cage quilt (about 18" x 18") I made this morning - I want to have a nice stack of them ready to drop off at the animal shelter when I go next time :)

I won a giveaway!

I won a kit and pattern for a pretty tablerunner here - somehow I missed that I was a winner, but I got an email from Kolleen today so I sent her my address pronto.  Thanks Kolleen - I can't wait to get sewing!

I'm not happy with either of these, lol

Forgot to put the ribbon (cherry) on top ... the cupcake came out smaller than the icing so the icing doesn't cover the top edge nicely ... plus the turned under area (where I turned the cupcake right sides out) wouldn't press nicely, so the topstitching is a bit wonky.  Just an overall not-so-great project, BAH! :D

The sewalong tote didn't fare much better.  I kept having brain fart after brain fart during construction.   The biggest problem is that the lining doesn't fit inside nicely - it's poochy and baggy.  I could make a purse bottom that would hide the pooch, but I still don't like the fact that it's so baggy.  I can barely stand to look at it because I know all the places I screwed up.   Yep, I've decided - I'm redoing the whole bag - this is bugging me too much, lol.  Good thing I have extra fabric! ;)

Edited for clarification:  I didn't follow the sewalong author's directions - I used her design idea but did the tote my own way - the screw-ups were - unfortunately - all mine!!

A baby!

We just found out tonight that our niece Daniela - out in Edmonton, Alberta - is expecting a baby in September - wooooooohoooooooooooo!!  Time to start making baby bibs and quilts, lol.  Congratulations Daniela and Aaron, and congratulations Nonno and Nonna Sergio and Maria (Sergio is my husband's oldest brother) :)  A BABY!!!!  *excited happy dance* :)

Here's a little pretty I made today based on another photo I had on my computer - more Evelyns fabric, but this time with added prairie point goodness!  These scrap bags are certainly proving fun to work with!

Apparently I'm not very good with Irfanview :D

I was trying to create a panorama image by putting 2 photos in one picture - one on top of the other.  I wanted the front of the bag at the top (obviously!) and the back, at the bottom.  No matter which order I added the photos, the picture was produced with the front at the bottom, and the back at the top.  ??~???!??!?!??! LOL!!!  Regardless, she turned out pretty darn cute!

New design ...

I have a file on my computer with pictures and links I've saved from various online sites ... of projects I would like to make some day.  Some have patterns, some don't.  I found one on my old laptop today and decided to "whip one up" ;)  I'm not finished yet but so far so good.  The fabric is from the scrap bags I bought @ Evelyns in Newmarket --- I love that they did the co-ordinating for me, lol.  Luckily I had some rick rack in exactly the right color - hopefully I can finish this little girl tomorrow :)

And here's a picture of DH, glass of wine in hand, bothering me down in the studio.  OK, he's not bothering me - he's checking to see when the water softener is going to regenerate, lol.  Fortunately the water softener, furnace, air conditioner and water heater are all right in the middle of my studio!!!  *rolls eyes* :D

Pink and grey ...

Using up the last bit of this fabric - one more piece down, 865 +/- to go ;)

Make a Bag Sewalong - part 1 completed :)

I finished part 1 the same day that the next set of instructions came out, lol.  If I get the bag done tomorrow I'll be all caught up!  Part 1 instructions are here :)

Side view :)

A bit of a new design for cage quilts ...

last month I finished a quilt flimsy from my UFO cabinet, and this month I picked out a bag of strips that had been pieced for ??? project - I have no idea of what I had in mind when I pieced them, LOL.  There are about a dozen strips 7" wide x varying lengths - I decided to stitch them to a 20.5" square foundation (a very thin king sized sheet I picked up at the thrift store) along with other fabric, then back/birth/freemo them for cage quilts.  I got the first one done today - I want to finish up this pile of strips by the end of the month, as my June UFO completion :D

I changed my mind ...

about the fabrics to use in Kelly's Make a Bag Sewalong.  I didn't find the co-ordinating prints I wanted to use with my Moda "Fresh Squeezed" charm squares so I decided to do the set in black/white prints with bright green as an accent color.  I pulled out the fabrics and started cutting :)  I'm using 6" squares for the tote instead of 5" squares - I prefer my bags on the larger side (kind of like ME, lolol) :D

She'll be putting up part 2 any time now, so I need to get my butt in gear and get part 1 completed!! ;)  Sewalong info/tutorials/instructions here ... and flickr photo album here :)

*oooOOOoo* I just thought of something - my friend Nancy recently gave me a spool of black sparkly thread -- I can use it for this bag set!!!  *excited happy dance* :D

OOOoooOOOo sparkly!

My friend Nancy gave me a spool of sparkle/metallic thread the other day - I wasn't sure how easy it would be to sew with, so I made a couple of fabric gift bags and meander stitched on them with the thread for a decorative touch.  Surprisingly, the thread was as easy to work with as regular cotton or poly thread - I used the regular size 12 needle in the machine, used regular thread in the bobbin, and did some easy swirls on the fabric before stitching the pieces together.  The glitter doesn't show up very well in the photograph because I don't have a fancy camera, but you can take my word for it that it's PURTY!!  She also gave me a spool of black glitter, and I know exactly what I'll be using it for ;)

Fruit A$$es :)

I can't get enough of this funny fun fabric!  Fruit Ladies, designed by Mary Stewart for Elizabeth's Studios :D

4 cats for the cats :D

4 kitty cat zipper bags made for the OSPCA ... I used my Singer Automatic Zigzagger to do some decorative stitching on the front of each.  Unfortunately the thread blends in with the fabric, so the stitching isn't very visible.  It was fun using the different cams for different stitches, although the attachment really yanks the fabric around (since it moves the fabric side to side for stitching, rather than moving the needle side to side) so it's a bit of a challenge keeping things straight!  Practice makes perfect, tho - I love that I'm using "technology" from the early to mid 50's - they really managed to create some impressive products back then! 

Here are a couple of bags I finished up yesterday - 2 gift bags (bottom) and a cat boxed bag - both of these (and the cat bags above, actually) busted the last of some stash fabric - gotta love it!  The cat bag will go to the shelter, the gift bags are for ... well ... gifts! ;)

Blue Green - such a pretty color combo :)

The blue + green fabric was a fat quarter I picked up @ Evelyns a while back - I decided to use it up so I made these 3 "prism" bags (tutorial available here) today.  The green/gold fabric they're sitting on is the remnant of an old worn out bedspread I got from my late MIL's house when we got it ready to sell - I've been using it up bit by bit as cage quilt backings - I'm down to only a small bit left over - enough for a small (17" square) quilt.  My MIL didn't particularly like cats so it's a bit ironic that the fabric's new lease on life is to make some kitties comfortable :D