applique b'day card

The first entry forthe Sew Darn Crafty submissions for this week at http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/ is for scrappy cards from
http://happycottagequilter.blogspt.com/ 

I saw her card and knew I had to try one immediately.  I needed a b'day card for a friend for this morning. Such a great opportunity.  I used an applique pattern I had on hand and came up with this

The only problem was that I picked up and used a pen without checking if the color of the ink would match the fabric choice.
It is such an easy process.  I would recommend it to everyone.  it took longer for me to pick out the fabric scraps than it did to put it together.

Have fun.

Ghastlies - 1st post

Now that I have an idea I sit patiently waiting for my fabric to arrive by mail. Fat chance.

yesterday I had to go to my FQS to pick up some support fabric for my idea.  It was so much quicker to go there then shop in my stash. 

There are days when my tunnel vision scares me.  I know about the Ghastlies through blogs.  I ordered my fabric on line. Why it never occured to me to look for it in my quilt shop I don't know.  So when I asked if they had any I was totally shocked that they had some. More shocking ( more tunnel vision) was that it came in green background.  It was all they had in stock. It didn't matter cause I love it.

Since it doesn't work with my original idea and the new fabrics,  I had to come up with another idea.  See you at the hop.

Very productive weekend

It's Monday AM and this is my weekend so far.

My weekend started Friday when a friend wanted to know if I had made the Jelly Roll quilt where you sewed all of the strips together end to end and then side by side.  Well I hadn't done it yet but had been thinking about.  Anything J sends my way I tend to take as a challenge. So Friday night I pulled out a Jelly Roll and started.  Found out real quick that it was a small roll containing only 20 strips so I had to start cutting additional strips from the matching fat quarter bundles I had picked up at the same sale. Including making 20 additional strips from the fat quarters I was completely done the top in just under 3 hours.  The first long seam of 800 inches is a hum dinger,  I finished that and went to bed.  The next morning I got up and finished the top before breakfast.  OK so the 3 hours does not include ironing. That seemed to take forever. The top finished at something around 48 x 62. I did listen to a great book while making these long seems and ironing.  "The Brutal Telling" by Louise Penny ( a mystery takes  place in Canada)

After that, I went on to finish the tote B asked that I make for her.  I really like the way this one turned out. Maybe I need to keep it for me,  maybe not because I really am toted out for the time being. Next I decided to work on some personalized purses that I wanted to do only to find out I was out of black ink. Instead I worked a bit on some mug rugs that I need to do for a swap later this month.  I gave in and ran to Staples for ink and whipped up the 2 purses and called it a day.

It's now 9AM on a cloudy soon to be rainy Holiday Monday. I need to go find something else to accomplish.    I hope you and yours have a great Holiday.

How I spent my rained in weekend

Irene was not bad to me and mine.  We never lost power and only lost a few small branches. I have spent my lock down time very productively.

I am part of the Make a Gift on the 25th at Sew Many Ways and was very busy working on Christmas gifts.  Last month I had started on some of the blocks needed to make 3 quilts for Nephews families for Christmas.  My goal for this month was to finish at least one top.

TA DA  !

I also worked on the blocks for the other 2 tops, all of the snowmen are done and hopefully by end of day I will have the 8 star blocks done also. That would make the goal for next month - finishing the tops for the other 2 quilts.

                                                       These are the blocks for top 2.

 I also did some embroidery for a Christmas swap and started on another bag,  this one for a friend, just to break up the snowstorm I was caught up in.  I'm gonna run now since I still have several productive hours left of this crafty weekend.

I’ve had a fun week. For some reason or another I got it into my head to make a bib.  I’ve been thinking about it for several weeks.  It’s odd because I don’t have kids or grand kids. All of the kids in my immediate world are in school.

Earlier this week Beth at http://www.lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/ posted about her rag dolls.  See her postings of 8/20 and the tutorial of 8/22.  So very, very cute.  Had to make one. I did, isn’t she a sweet heart?

Now back to the bib, while I was hunting in my kid fabric I saw this great scrap of rocket fabric and thought that now was the time.  I googled for a free bib pattern and let it fly.  It is backed with the same fabric as the dolls tights. The doll was resting on my desk at work waiting to go to her new home.

 
I have some great coworkers who were more than willing to give these items new homes.

Here is a picture of the bib on its new owner. Is he not the greatest model ever?

Just a great week.  Maybe if the electricity holds out this weekend I can whip up a few more.

Thank you

When I first started to read blogs that I now follow I was fascinated by the generosity of all of the people in this new world. Giveaways and Swaps were an intriguing concept.  Bloggers getting gifts from people they only knew through their blogs just didn’t compute.  I’ve now been blogging for several months and been reading blogs since maybe January. Now I too have made friends around the world.

Last month I found a new blog to visit from the   http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2011/08/sew-darn-crafty-partyweek    listing.  Judy at    http://cathcarts.blogspot.com/2011/07/printing-on-fabric-hint.html  , was printing onto fabric from her printer and I offered a suggestion that I thought would be easier using Freezer Paper.  I live in NJ, USA and I consider Freezer Paper a staple.  Judy lives in a small town in Australia and Freezer Paper there is rare.  So I sent her some freezer paper. 

Now comes the fun part.  I had a world wide experience. I function in the world of what goes around in life, comes around some time, some place.  The very day I mailed the Freezer Paper to Australia  I won my first Giveaway.    The notice that I won came from Madame Samm, in Canada,    at http://www.sewwequilt.com/   I won a wonderful pattern and thread from Shell  at  http://theraspberryrabbits.blogspot.com/    NC, USA.  A very cool international day indeed.

OK so now it’s a couple of weeks later and I come home on Saturday to a puffy mailer from Australia. It was chock full of stitching  goodies.

 Can you see them all? Wonderful play things, Aussie buttons, labels, a plaque, a great mini tote that the picture doesn’t do justice, on and on and a wonderful thank you card. Judy, you shouldn’t have.  Many thanks, I love it all.

 I really am glad to be part of this adventure.  Selina

She's Cut Off

This is the 6th bag I've now made for my sister in the last 15 months. Plus the one I made for her friend.  My sister is sweet, good and kind but now she's being officially cut off. 

This is like my big canvas bag. Its about 12 inches tall by 9 inches wide and 5 inches deep.  It has a draw string top which lets it work as a purse and if you leave it open it's more like a tote.  It is one of the best bags I've ever used.

I have one more of these to make for a friend who saw it and absolutely has to have one.  Yes BA I'm talking about you.  Maybe by October. I have a couple of other projects ahead of it on my list of to do's.

Snowing in NJ

This has been a very productive week.  I am working on 3 quilts for Christmas,that are  comprised of a total of 6 large snowmen and 12 small snow men.  I had hoped to get 2 large and 4 small done by the 25th of August.  Somehow I managed to complete all 6 of the large and 7 of the small.  The picture only shows 6 small but I didn't have another skirt hanger handy.

I'm still working on what I want to do with their faces.  Not sure if I want to use buttons or applique. Right now I'm leaning toward applique.  I made this same quilt 3 years ago for a friend and that one still has no faces. I appartently have issues.

til next time.  Selina

Vacation Totes for Sissie

It all started with a call from my sister wanting to know if I was up for a trip to our local JoAnns.  It has recently been remodled and she hadn't seen it yet.  Me on the other hand was there 3 times last week.  She had to beg for about 3 seconds before I caved.

The store is terrific and as we wandered up and down the isles she found some great prequilted  cheater fabric that she thought would make up into a wonderful vacation tote. 

Now she is my biggest fan and she can sew but chooses not to. She also is not shy about asking me to make something for her  and she always offers to house my finished quilts if they need a home.  So it was not surprising that she wanted me to make her three new bags (totes) with this fabric. I really do love her.  The 2 shown in the following photos weren't even difficult.  We will address the 3rd bag sometime in the not too distant future ( she won't let me forget ).  She wanted 2 very simple totes with very large boxed bottoms.  The bags I made were based on a green grocery type bag that she found with this type of bottom.

This picture is with the sides folded in to match the size of the bottom.

this is the side view

And this view is with the sides opened up.

the width of the bag opened out like this is about 20 inches.  The boxed bottom is about 9.5 x 11. and I think it stands about 15 inches tall.

The first bag took forever. I made a bad judgement call regarding the fabric I cut for the straps and handles.  Wasted a lot of time making the fabric I cut work as opposed to wasting the fabric.

I made the 2nd bag in 1 1/2 hours. Better than half of that time was spent on the staps and handles. It is pretty hard to see the straps in these pictures.  They are the type that go completely around the bag and form the handles at the top.

Well I delivered them to her a little bit ago and she was thrilled.  It's her reaction that makes me do these things for her.  She is just the kind of person it is fun to give things to.  No matter how small the thing  she is happy happy happy.

I now have an empty  evening ahead of me and I need to decide what to do next.  It definetly  won't be a tote.  Maybe something for Christmas or maybe cut some fabric for leaders and enders. Whatever it is I will enjoy myself.

I have officially started Christmas sewing.  Thanks for the push Karen. http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/search/label/Make%20a%20Gift%20on%20the%2025th  I decided to make Christmas quilts for the families of MJ’s 3 nephews.  So far all they have seen of my quilting are baby quilts. 

Several seasons ago I designed snowmen blocks for a guild block of the month project.  I did turn my sample blocks into a finished quilt for a friend. It was great, blocks and quilt designed by me. It is the little things in life that make us happy.

I decided that this would be a great quilt to replicate.  Each quilt is made up of 6 snowmen blocks, 2 large (14x24 inches)and 4 small (12x18 inches) and 4, 6 inch star blocks. I have cut out all of the pieces for the large guys and at least ½ of the pieces for the small guys. In addition to cutting block pieces I

put together 1 of the large guys the other  night because it was the 25^th.   He took about an hour to put together.

My goal for August 25^th is to have all of the blocks done for at least 1 quilt so I can spend the 25^th putting the 1^st top together.  I hope you are all feeling the Christmas joy.  Selina

More bags

My sister P, my biggest fan, has placed requests for 3 bags this week.  She stopped by Friday to peruse the stash and made her decisions. The bags are from   the tutorial on  http://ayumills.blogspot.com/. The purse is just a little zip purse from looking at many different tutorials. 

The polka dot and stripped bag with the matching purse is for a friend of hers who is retiring this week and the canvas bag with the butterfly fabric is for P.  She fell in love with the fabric scrap and I stretched it as far as I could for this bag.

For the 3rd bag she chose the same polka dot  and stripe combo but in a larger version for herself.  She can't have it until I get to JoAnns for more fusible interfacing. If you go back a few posts you can see a version of the larger one I made from stamped canvas. 

I think I'm bagged out for the weekend.  I have started to make Christmas quilts so I think I'll get back to them for awhile. Unless something else catches my eye while I take this blog break.

zip pouches

For the last several weeks I have been perusing different blogs looking at the various tutorials for zip pouches. I have combined a few and came up with these

I wasn't planning on doing them now but I needed a quick gift for someone who did MJ a favor and I wanted to thank her.  The really fun part of making them was making thepersonalized fabric.  If you zoom in you will see that the printing on the pouch is the same name over and over in different fonts.  I spent maybe 15 minutes doing the name in word and doing the font thing.  I saved the first one and when it was time to do the second one all I had to do was go in and use the replace option to get another name filled in on an entire page.

Then I printed out an 8.5 x 11 and placed it in my ink jet copier.  I ironed a piece of pre washed cotton onto an 8.5 x 11 piece of freezer paper and ran it through and viola - I had personalized fabric.  The pouches used 1/2 of the sheet for a back and 1/2 for the front. 

I brought the prototype (going to my mother in law - the guiene pig for my odd projects) to work and immediately had requests for more.  Since I have now done my sample these pouches can be worked up in about an hour or less. In the picture the "ruthie if for my MIL and the other one is for a girl in the office whose daughter can never find anything with her name on it.  her b'day is Tuesday, so glad I can help her celebrate.

Tomorrow I will make the one for the girl who did the favor in the first place.

Cool kids quilt

I found this site a couple of weeks ago and bookmarked it for a rainy day.  Went back last week and just had to do it.

http://thiscraftyfox.blogspot.com/2011/06/garden-fence-pattern-wip-planning.html

 

The blocks whipped up in no time.  The pattern was easy to follow.  Thank you, thank you, thank you

Then there were Two

In my last post I showed the lunch tote I made for an old friend that I am meeting for lunch later today.  Thinking it over I decided it would make a great summer purse if it were only a little bigger.  So I set out to alter the pattern to do just that. 

The small one stands about 7 inches high (not including the handles). The large one stands about 12 1/2 inches. They are both about 5 inches deep. The most time consumming part was hand stamping the canvas.  The only thing I still need to do is make a base for the inside so that my accumulated junk doesn't distort it's shape.

have a great week.

Blank Canvas

Next week I will be having lunch with a friend I haven't seen in a very long time.  She is the gal who got me into stamping and card marking way back.  Stamping stuff makes up one of my larger stashes of things. It takes up a good size section of the basement. I don't do much of it any more but thought this would be a good time to drag out some of the goodies and make a gift of some kind to give her.

So I took these items, a piece of "BLANK"canvas from a drop cloth from Home Depot, a piece of fabric from my quilting stash and stamps and ink from my stamping stash

 I spent an evening being creative and came up with this lunch bag /small tote from a tutorial I found at http://ayumills.blogspot.com/

This is a bag I've made on 2 previous occasions from my quilting stash. Once for a friend as an emergency bag after she spent an afternoon in the waiting room of the local hospital twidling her thumbs. I filled it with things like sock yarn, needles and a pattern and a paperback mystery and some quarters for the vending machine (hopefully she will never have to use them).  The other one I gave to a friend for use as a lunch bag with a gift card for a local sandwich place.

I think I will put in this one a suduku book with pencil and maybe I'll make a matching tissue holder and eyeglass case if time permits before Tuesday's lunch.

It really was a fun time making this and combining crafts.  Maybe now that I found the stamp stuff again I will even make a few cards or some of my own designer fabric(tee,hee).