Memorial Day

 

Being out of the country, I almost forgot it was Memorial Day.  Hopefully, my friends are enjoying a nice long weekend and having a chance to do something you enjoy.  Lastly, I hope you make time to reflect on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.  To those families who lost loved ones in the military, no words can express what you have gone through.  Thank you for fighting for our freedom.

Darci's Dress Up, Part 1??

Look at me trying to be a good little blogger and post some updates!!  :o)

I haven't figured out the sewing machine situation yet so in the meantime, I'm plugging along on prep work.  Doing what I can to prepare for when I have a working machine here in Turkey. 

I've had this pattern and layer cake kit for...oh, about two years I guess.  That must be my "simmer time" because that seems to be my average of projects I brought with me.  I guess I had to bond with my fabrics and kits first....like raising a family.  Hold 'em tight and then let them go.  hehe

Anyway, no sewing but there is quite a bit of prep work for this project, Darci's Dress Up.  The dresses need to be fused onto squares of background fabric.  I'm using Steam a Seam 2  I'm hoping it doesn't make them to stiff but I'm guessing this will be a wall hanging and hopefully, it will be fine.  (Sorry for the poor quality photos.  My camera's on the charger.)

 

 

The need to be fused, attached by blanket stitch, blind stitch or whatever your choice is.  I'm probably going to blind stitch them on.  There are collars, sleeves and pockets.  You can also add embellishments like lace, rickrack, buttons.  I brought a few things but not a lot.  We'll see how far this project goes.

 

 

I brought a charm pack of 30's but not big pieces.  I'm not thrilled with all of the fabrics I have to use but I'm going to go for it.  The background blocks and dresses are okay but once I pulled all that I liked, there wasn't much left for the little "pinwheel" border. 

 

 

I'm guessing it'll take me some time to get the dresses done so who knows, I might be home by then.  lol 

 

We'll be going to Munich in a few days and will be gone for a week.  Thus the Part 1, question marks.  Who knows what I'll get done while I'm here.  :o)

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



Another trip to Turkey

My bags are packed and by the door.  I'm off to Turkey again for six whole weeks!!!!  I'm going to spend time with my hubby, do a little traveling and a little (hopefully a lot) of sewing!!!!

 

 

 

I will miss my girls and especially my little Emily something awful.....oh, and my friends and family too.  lol  I think it's just worse with Emily because I am lucky enough to see her little face every day and I know she's going to change sooo much.  Good ol' Skype might keep me from being too homesick.

Happy sewing to you all.  I'll share any finishes I might get done along the way.  Sheesh, in six weeks with no grandbaby distraction....I should hope I could share something!  :) 

And the winner is.....

Drumroll pah-leeze!!!!!

I used a raffle drawing program from the internet called RandomPicker.  Pretty easy and the best part, it was free.  Yay!  I had to plug in everyone's names but that wasn't too bad.  Sooo, without further delay...

The winner of the Bonnie and Camille fabric bundle and little red polka dot sewing kit is.........qltnmom!!!  Congratulations and thank you everyone for playing along. 

qltnmom, I'll email you for your mailing address.  :o)

 

Baby Quilt, Turkey bound

If you haven't yet, go to this post from last Friday and leave a comment to enter the drawing for some free goodies to celebrate my 500th post.  Now onto post #501.  :o)

 

My husband asked me if I could make a baby quilt for a lady that works with him in Turkey.  I was able to get enough fabric from my stash to make the quilt but ran into a little problem when it came to the binding....arghhh!

 

 

I wish I would've intentionally made the binding scrappy but since I thought I had enough and didn't think I would be short, I had to get very creative.  Ahhh, hindsight!!  I was able to piece scraps together and make it work but it wouldn't win any prizes.  It is a quilt to be used and loved and 'hopefully', the recipient's mommy won't see the flaws in the binding.

 

While I was quilting this quilt, my little granddaughter Emily needed a little babysitting while her mommy took a shower.  These pictures are from about a month ago and she has since mastered sitting up and doesn't need this little seat anymore but with that being said, she is "grabbing" everything in sight.  I doubt she'll be sitting on my sewing table from now on.  Well, until she wants to sew something.  I'm guessing that will be at least a few years from now.  :o)

 

 

Do you see the collection on the shelf?  She already stares at everything in this room and my paper crafting room.  She can't focus.  I think I give her eye-overload or something.  lol

 

 

 



 

The quilt was given the (Emily) seal of approval!

 

 

This was the finished quilt...minus the slobber.  lol  The quilt is from a charm book my friend bought at Road to CA.  It's a great quilt for charms but I used the same focus fabric in the center blocks and the border because I had enough.  I had already used this fabric before so it was nice to try and use it up and make a little room (very little) for other fabric.

 

500th POST!! FABRIC GIVEAWAY!!! Longest No-Blog-Post-EVER!

I don't know where the time has gone or why I haven't posted on my bloggy.  A quilty/bloggy friend, Michelle, mentioned she was at 499 back in February and already had her giveaway way back when!!  Sigh...

I wanted to do something for my 500th post and that must have stumped me because I never did a giveaway...until now.  I have been very busy with family health issues and when that got better, I hit the ground running with crafting.  Lucky for you, I had to do some shopping.  :o) 

Leave a comment with your name (and an email address if you don't have a blog) and I will draw a name on Thursday, May 1st. 

I hope you like the fabrics I chose.  The line is Moda and wouldn't you know, the name was cut off of the selvedge.  From doing on online search, I believe the first line is Paisley by Bonnie and Camille and the second two are Scrumptious, same designer.  They really are "scrumptious"!  lol  They are half yard cuts.  Woohoo!! 

And I saw this little sewing kit and had to add it.  Red....polka dots....c'mon!  I should've bought two!  I can't believe I didn't!  I'll have to tell my hubby about this monumental moment.  He doesn't think I share very well.  ;o)

 Good luck!!!