Attempting to sew in Turkey...

I have my little sewing space all set up in the living room of my hubby's apartment.  We moved me out of the back bedroom so I could have access to the internet to use the wifi for music on my tablet or to watch tv while sewing if I wanted to.  Um....since I blew up the tv in the back room last time I was here.  lol

 



I brought a suitcase full of things to sew since I'll have quite a bit of time to myself while the hubby is at work.  When we're not traveling, I'll be playing with fabric.  Things I bought quite a while ago and didn't have time because of work or because of someone named Emily.  :)

 



 

The first thing I thought I would try is this little kit that I bought probably two years ago on a quilt run.  I bought it at a favorite little shop called Stars and Scraps in Corona.  I always find something cute in that store!

 

 

I got about almost to the last step of adding the bottom binding and my machine went kapooey.  The machine quit working, gave me a beep and message on the screen that I'm sure has something to do with the power difference between our 110 and Turkey's 220 power.  Grrrr.  And this is with the surge protector I'm using.  I was "very" persistent and turned the hand wheel to finish the binding.  This might be my only finish while I'm here.  :(

 

 

 

This caddy is a pretty generous size of almost 9" across and almost 6" tall.  I love the fabrics in the kit.  They were very generous with the amount of fabric that came in the kit too.  

 

 

Pockets on the inside although they're flimsy so my stuff wants to fall over.

 

Well, off to see what I can cut up and get things ready for sewing....whenever that happens.  When I thought I blew this machine up on my last visit, hubby took it to have it fixed.  Maybe he'll remember where he took it and we can take it back in.  Either that or maybe I can find a little used machine in one of the shops here.  There are about three machine stores we've seen in sopping area, Janome, Pfaff and Singer.  I ought to be able to find something, right?  lol



Fabric Box

It was my middle daughters birthday yesterday.  We are going to dinner to celebrate tonight and she just wanted $$ for her present this year.  I found this little fabric box/basket tutorial last week and wanted to try making some.  This was the perfect opportunity.  I will tuck her card inside and some money and it will be a two-fer gifty.

The blog that the pattern is from is Seaside Stitches and it's a great tutorial with lots of pictures.  It's very easy and cute as can be with just two 10" squares of fabrics, a piece of batting and 4 buttons.  You can see I have a printed copy of the tutorial.  I am a visual person and need to refer to patterns quite often.  The printed directions are better for me to have in my sewing room as my computer is in another room.

Look!  It looks just like the picture!!  Shocking.  lol

And here it is all done with the buttons on.  Soooo cute!!

I suppose I ought to take my things out of it and put the birthday card inside.  :o(  I guess this means back to the sewing machine for me!  hehe

Chalkboard Placemat

My hubby is doing pretty good healing from his hip replacement surgery so I've been able to get in the sewing room.  I have been wanting to make a chalkboard placemat since I bought two pieces of chalkboard vinyl at Road to CA last month.  Since my daughter's are in their 30's and no grandchildren are on the horizon, I don't have many opportunities to make things like this very often.  Helping Jenny with a few projects for little Ellis's first birthday party, I thought it would be the perfect little gift.

I had a fat quarter pack someone gave me a few years ago.  Since Jenny is Chinese and her husband is Korean, this fabric seemed just perfect for the little birthday girl.  This is the placemat side.

This is the chalkboard vinyl and the little pocket told hold a wipe cloth and a few pieces of chalk.

This was my first time mitering store-bought binding and I did okay.  The challenge was where the fabric was thicker and needed a little more binding.  I don't think a one year old will mind my seams being a little thicker here and there.  :o)

I'm glad I thought of adding elastic to the edges before I stitched it up so everything is nice and tidy for tucking in a tote bag or the back seat of a car. 

Argh.....back to work tomorrow.  I've been off for two weeks.  I should've been in bed hours ago!  Wish me luck. 

Christmas Cookies

Did you bake cookies this Christmas? We did. See the little bears in the lower left of the photo? Those were my favorites. I used to read a book to my girls when they were little called, "The Gingerbear's First Christmas". I think I bought the book from the Current catalog. It was a cute little story about a family who had many things on their list and they were so tired from all the extra activities that had to be done for the holidays. The mom fell asleep in a chair. The little bears did all her baking, did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. You can tell the book was fiction as no one except moms do the dishes and clean the kitchen!!! lol Well, I made my gingerbread cookies to look like the Gingerbears with little cinnamon red hot hearts.

Mrs. Claus (my sister) invited me to her house to bake lots of cookies.

I took two days of vacation before Christmas, loaded my cookie cutters, cookie sheets, parchment paper rolls, recipes, rolling pins, etc., etc. and headed out at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning.....in the pouring California rain! I think you might've heard a little something about our crazy weather. I'm not used to getting up that early but my hubby thought even though it was raining, I wouldn't hit as much traffic as if I left later. It was a good idea but I had to have a little cat nap when I got to my sister's house while my sis got her shower and got ready. Once I rested, we baked all day. We started with all the batches of dough that had to be refrigerated. By early afternoon we had some cookies rolled out and ready to frost. I stayed the night and headed out the next day with cookie tins in tow. It was a much nicer drive home.

I came home to some pretty homemade Christmas cards from my stampin' buddies. I'll share those in my next post. And this adorable potholder from my buddy Carolyn. It's so cute, I think I'll give up cooking so I don't risk ever getting it dirty. LOL

Do you take your Christmas decorations down right after Christmas? I don't. I love, Love, LOVE Christmas and even though I'm ready for my house to be back to normal, I'll wait until New Years weekend to take down all of the decorations.

Chugging along....

Got all of the table runners and wall hangings quilted. They aren't fancy but they'll be cute enough to decorate the table or wall. Woohoo!

Wednesday night I got all the bindings on. This stripe binding fabric reminds me of the suckers they sell at See's Candies. I had to piece the last of the scraps to get enough for all four of the little quilts.

I got mine tacked down and on the table and Kelley, my oldest dd stitched hers. I'll probably have to do the other two so it's a good thing one daughter can stitch.

Okay, off to stitch some binding.....

Saturday Sew-in Status

You'd have trouble saying that with a lisp, wouldn't you? :o) Just a quick check-in between putting away all of my supplies and doing some housekeeping.
This is our little favor that our friend Neena gave us yesterday. It is so cute with the little 'bat owl' on the outside. On the inside was delicious cuts of Stampin' Up! ribbon in new gorgeous colors, some pretty decorative brads and watercolor cards with the cutest kids on them. I should've taken a picture of the contents but once I put it back inside, I didn't want to mess up the ribbon again. I think I'm just pooped from all the work yesterday. It wasn't so much the sewing, but moving an entire sewing room to my friend's place. But soooo worth it~

Susan went to visit her mom about a month ago and brought us treats from the Quilter's Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana. One was a cute little finger pincushion and the other was a book with historical quilts and quilters who have made it into the Hall of Fame. I didn't see my name in there so I guess I better get busy!!! lol

Susan worked on some beautiful Fall placemats, which I didn't get a picture of with some of the leftover fabric, she made these cute table runners. I think they took her about an hour. A really simple pattern where you cut a 10" strip of each of the fabrics and sew them into a tube. I can't remember the rest cuz I wasn't paying that close attention.

I was working on these......

And these....

They are from charm packs I bought at Cozy Cottage on the quilt run this summer. The long ones are for me and my middle daughter and the shorter two are for my oldest and youngest daughters. I still need to add black borders to them and I think I'll use a stripe on the bias for the binding. So, I better get my room put back and busy or this will just be another UFO and not done by Halloween!!

Memory Bears

My dad passed away five years ago this month. A volunteer organization in San Diego offered to make a bear for the family out of the clothing of a loved one who passed away. My mom was the first one to send a shirt off and get a bear back. Then my sister wanted one, then another sister. My family is pretty big and each time we got a bear back, my mom would send another couple of shirts for a daughter or grandchild to have a keepsake from my dad's plaid shirts. The picture below shows some of the bears the family got back from that organization. Each time my mom got a bear, she (or the family member who got a bear) would send a donation to keep this wonderful non-profit organization going.

But...they do limit the number of bears they will make a family. I had made some bears years ago and thought I could make the ones for me and my three girls so that family members who don't sew could get a bear from the charity group. I found my pattern and made the bear bodies when I went to my friend's condo a year or two ago. When I got home, I started to stuff them and argh, what a boring job and I put it aside.......
This weekend, after my stamp party, me and my sis got to talking about our mom's clothes and if we'll do bears again, in her memory, with some of the garments we saved. I told her about the 'bodies' I had in a bag in my sewing room and she said, "Get them out. We'll help you stuff them." My oldest daughter Kelley and her friend Brenda were still over so I practically RAN to my room and got my bag of poly fiberfill and the bears. In no time, we had stuffed three bears and I actually ran out of stuffing. I couldn't believe it because stuffing seems to last forever!! Me and Isabel closed up the bears with ladder stitches and wallah, they were finished!!! Boy, did that feel good!
These bears belong to my girls (from l-r) Ashley, Stephanie and Kelley. Kelley remembered my dad's pearl buttons and made sure to pick a shirt that had them. She wanted those somewhere on her bear so Isabel cut off a cuff from the scraps left from my dad's shirt and I made a little collar to connect it. Came out pretty cute, I think. :o)

I need to buy some satin ribbon to tie a bow around the neck of the other two bears just to dress them up a little bit. I also need to buy more stuffing so I can finish my bear. I hope to finish it this week and not wait another year or two!

Finished May in July

Well, I can't really say this block from my Berry Picking BOM took me three months to finish because I didn't even start it until July, but it's finally done! Yay!!! It is one of the bigger ones that are on this project. I got the fabric ready to go for the June block so I'll trace that one tonight. Luckily, it's just a glass of lemonade so I'm hoping I can get it done in just a few days and then onto July, the monster beast of them all. :o) The final block is a basket filled with jelly jars and goodies.

I'm actually surprised I did as well as I did on this BOM. I would be happy to have to top done by the end of August. One month behind (for me) isn't bad at all! Let's see how I do....

And here is the make-up bag I made when my sister was over. This was a fat quarter we both bought but Isabel used different fabric on the bottom of her bag and different ribbon.

After I finished sewing the May block together (above), I started preparing the fabric to trace the July pattern but I was getting tired. I usually trace the pattern and then baste a piece of quality muslin behind the fabric so my thread doesn't show through. Instead I basted the fabric on first. That will make it very hard to see through the lightbox and trace the design so I will have to rip it out. I knew I didn't have it in me last night so I turned out the light and went out in the living room and watched a little TV while stitching down the scallop binding on my little quilt. You know, sometimes you have to give in and when I start making mistakes, that's when it's time! I got two sides of the binding stitched down when the eyes started to get very heavy. It was hard to stop because it's looking so cute, if I do say so myself. :o) But I had to get to bed so I wasn't a complete zombie this morning.

I marked the top of that little quilt all up with a blue water soluble marker when trying to decide what other quilting design to do before doing the scallop border. Once I'm done with the stitching, I'll lay it out and see what else it needs. My sis suggested stitching in the ditch in a section I missed so I'll do that and then see if it tells me it's finished. My friend Carolyn says her quilts talk to her but mine seem to be VERY tight lipped. hehe

A few more finishes

Last night, I made a small set of curtain panels out of that same mushroom fabric I used for the make-up bag for my daughter, Kelley. She has a bathroom that faces a walkway and said she was concerned for her privacy when the window is open. These little panels should do the trick. I whipped them up pretty quick using the serger to attach the red strips and sewing a little casing with my regular machine.

Then, I had this UFO sitting in a basket in my sewing room. I looked on my blog to see if I posted about it before and I had. Last year!!! Here. Honestly, how do these projects sit so long without finishing themselves before I get back to them? How??? lol

It's a caddy/mat for your machine to give you storage pockets when you have limited space.....or if you just want something cute to look at while you're sewing! Part of it sits under the machine, but it's also a tote so you can haul your project, mat and some supplies in it. Pretty clever, huh?

The pattern is called "Sewing Machine Mat and Caddy" by Sheila Cautillo and it was put out by a local quilt shop, Flying Geese Fabric, Inc. They designed it using the Sandcastle fabric on the outside and the pretty fabric on the inside but I flipped it around. Why let the pretty lining hide under your sewing machine? This fabric has been in my stash for a while. I loved the butter yellow with the red and black designs but didn't know what to do with it. I thought this was a good project for the bigger design.

The little trash tote is attached with Velcro and the pincushion is just stuffed with poly fiber fill and stitched onto the bag. There is also a pocket for a ruler or other supplies behind the other pockets. My Sandcastle got stained a few years ago when we had a flood but I used it for this project anyway. The stained parts are inside the bag and on this pocket.

Okay, what else can I work on??? Let me at it. I'm on a roll! lol

Birthday Pennant

Last night, my youngest daughter Ashley and her co-worker Jenny came over. Jenny wanted to make a birthday pennant for her one year old daughter's birthday so they came over to have a work party and we got to work. Jenny picked the cutest fabrics from Joann's. Very sweet and girly and something she can use for years as her little one grows up. It went pretty smoothly except I forgot to have her get bias tape to sew onto the top edge to attach to the pennant pieces but it worked out okay. The girls ran over to Michael's and picked up red ribbon. I actually think the ribbon looked better than bias tape would have.

We used my Sizzix machine and I borrowed my friend Neena's pennant die cut template from Stampin' Up! Jenny started ironing the Heat n Bond to the fabric and then passed the torch to Ashley so she could start cutting the pennant pieces. Look at these cute colors!

They are double sided and the scalloped edge just adds to the fun of this project. I pinned the pieces to the red ribbon by sandwiching the fabric between two pieces of ribbon and leaving about 20" of ribbon on each end.

Originally Jenny wanted to put letters on each triangle but my letter set was too small. We even tried to cut the fabric with my Cricut but I think my blade was too old and it was just shredding the fabric. I'll have to try that again some day. It would sure come in handy for some crafting. The die shape that we used cuts one big pennant shape, one small one and a couple of little round scalloped circles. Jenny used all the scraps from the pennants to cut as many circles as she could and came up with this to spell out "Happy Birthday Kylie". Isn's she clever? These letters were the ones that were too small for the pennant triangles but they fit perfectly on these little circles. She just has to iron the letters and then she'll glue them down to some ribbon.

I think I'm going to go through my fabric. I'm feeling the need to have a banner of my own now. Yes, I'm jealous. :o)

Busy weekend

I have had the pattern for this tidy tote for a long time and it seems I have made one for each of my sewing buddies. I started this one up at the condo in Lake Arrowhead but didn't remember the lace, velcro or glue gun. So I finished it last night. It's for my friend Susan who went with us up there. I should be done making them unless I make some new sewing friends. :o)

And on Saturday, I went to my friend Sherrie's house and quilted this quilt for my daughter Kelley. The main part of the quilt was made out of all scraps from my scrap basket and some fat quarters she had. The piano key border adn two outer borders were purchased.

I just did a simple meander all over it. It's for her queen size bed. Man, what a beast it was. I'm so used to little lap quilts. Whew, it felt good to get it done though.

And Sherrie left this little gift for me in her sewing room. She was out of town when I was there quilting. Isn't it adorable! I already put it in my spatula pitcher and it looks so cute!!!

Off to work on my nine patch/snowball quilt. It's coming along. I'm doing little flowers in the snowball blocks. It's looking pretty cute, if I do say so myself. :o) Hope you had a great weekend.

A snow day in CA?

We don't often have snow days in southern California but we almost missed work today because of one yesterday. Our little mini treat in Lake Arrowhead was awesome. Lots of laughing and sewing and shopping and chocolate!

This is a picture of the walkway to the Village. It's a bit of a walk but a nice one. However, when we go up to sew, we barely make it out of the condo! We did take a walk around the complex to see the lake and it did not disappoint us. It was gorgeous. About 70 degrees, blue skies and a nice breeze. That was Thursday.....


This is the same view but on Sunday!

The two girls I went with, Neena and Susan, both checked the weather and it said it was going to be sunny all weekend. Hmmmm, somebody didn't tell Mother Nature. hehe Lucky, the sun came out and the snow started to melt and we got down the hill. Darn it. lol

In between the sun and the snow, we got a lot of sewing done. I finished the last border on this quilt. Now to go through my stash and see if I can find something to use for the binding. I don't know why I don't have enough fabric but I don't.


I got four of these bags made but was short one zipper. The zipper goes in last so I was able to make the fourth bag and bring it home and will just have to pop in a zipper. My daughter had been asking me for a bag for a while and I thought the other two might want one too. I love the lavender make-up print fabric. It made a really cute bag.

This is my little 1 1/2' snowman, that looks more like a white owl. The snow was just screaming "make a snowman". :o)

I guess the almond nose and raisins from the trail mix weren't the right fit for this little guy. Or maybe I should've kept digging in the trail mix and used m&m's for a mouth. It doesn't matter I guess. I went to the edge of the balcony to take a picture and stepped on him and squished him dead. LOL

Busy Stephanie!

This post is not about what I have made but some finishes that my busy daughter Stephanie did. Some of you are familiar with Kelley, my oldest and artsy daughter. Well, Stephanie (no blog), my middle daughter, is more like her mama (that's me!) and dabbles in a little of everything like sewing, paper crafts, plays with her Cricut. Yeah, we like it all! Well, she came over on Sunday and got some 'started' projects 'finished'. :o)
First is a little apron she made for her friend's daughter. It's a reversible apron and a great little birthday gift for a two year old.

And it's reversible!! She got the pattern at Tall Mouse, our local craft store. Do you like our model? It's a roll of batting. hehe The heart fabric is from Stephanie's stash and the rest is from my stash. She also made a batch of pink play dough (vanilla scented cuz that's all we had) and included a little pink rolling pin. Then she raided my gift bag cabinet. I asked her if after all this "borrowing" she would include my name on the card!!!!! LOL

Then....with her very own fabric :o) she made this little travel diaper tote for a co-worker. It holds one or two diapers, depending on the size and a pack of wipes. Cute huh?

I thought it was clever how she matched the diaper to the bag. She said it was just a co-inky-dink!

And here are the wipes in the back pocket.

And on MY finishes, I got my quilting stencils in the mail yesterday that I had been waiting for. I hope to get my quilt marked so I can finish it up by the weekend. Maybe I'll have a picture of something I did to show you! :o)

Finally, a little sewing!

I tried to make the little nursing cover up I mentioned yesterday for my neighbor's baby shower gift. Sometimes flying by the seat of my pants works and other times, it doesn't. I had not seen one of these cover ups in person, only saw a small picture online so I wasn't aware they are just fabric and not lined or quilted. Well, I quilted the first one I tried and it's more like a diaper pad. Too thick and not pliable to hug mom while she nurses. When we were at the craft show Friday, I saw the pattern in a kit at the Tall Mouse booth so I bought it. The fabric was adorable so that clinched the deal.

The pattern is very easy to follow and I finished the gift last night in just a few hours. It would've gone quicker but I had the tv on and took a few phone calls. :o) The couple is having a little girl and this fabric was perfectly cute with pink hearts and flowers. (Hopefully, she won't be riding a scooter right away.) lol

It has an adjustable strap that goes around mommy's neck, has boning in the front so it naturally curves away from the body so she can see the baby and has a flannel pocket sewn across the bottom for things like nursing pads, binkies, etc.
Since I posted working on this, a nice on-line buddy wrote me and said there is a free pattern available, so if you are looking to make something like this, the directions look the same. Here's the link.