Emily's Purse

Emily is our 14 years old beautiful grandaughter! She loves purses and western themed items. She is involved in 4-H Club horse activities. Soooo, I made her this purse. It is made from a old pair of Grandpa's jeans!!! The pocket was his "wallet" pocket!!! I put velcro to close it incase she puts her cell phone in it. She loves "blingy" and so that just made this all the more "glitzy"! The zipper is for "safekeeping" her stuff! That was a challenge in putting the zipper in! It is a oldy "invisible" one from my clothes making days. She fell during a volleyball game and landed on her wrist and has a "compressed fracture". Hope when she gets this in the mail it cheers her up!

Mini Fan

Here is my newest assignment from the mini paper peicing class I have attended for 3 years, that meets once a month, except for the summer! Our instructor says this year we are going to have more challenges!!! The fabrics that I chose reflect a victorian "attitude"in shades of burgundys & purples! The challenge is putting the bias cut "fan trim" on by "blind" hand stitching. It is 1/8" in diameter! The triangle piece on the bottom is also "blind" hand stitched!
Hopefully by the time I do all 18 of them I'll have one perfect!!!

SHOW TIME!! UPDATE!!!!

OMG, I could not believe it!!!

If you have been a "fan" of my posts, you know that I have been working on this quilt since early March. Now is it "show time". I entered it in the local county fair, which is this Labor Day weekend! Lucky me!!! The judge gave my "Under The Rainbow" a Blue Ribbon and Best of Show in Traditional Bed Quilts!!!! (they are pinned to the quilt) As if the 1st prize Blue wasn't great enough I won $50.00 from a local fabric store who sponsored that category!!! When I started this project I was not "in love" w/it!!! As it progressed along in construction of the borders, I developed a fondness for it! Then when my personal long arm quilter, Marian, finished I really started to enjoy it! After I put the binding on then it won me over! ;0)

Here is a update as of today September 3. This morning I went to the fairground to pickup my quilts and when they were given to me the person (Sandy) said: "Oh, by the way you have also won the 'VIEWERS CHOICE AWARD' !!" I just went numb! Thought I was going to faint!!! Did I hear her correctly say that? Yes, I did!!! As you can see it included a $50. gift certificate from the same fabric store "Kerries"! I am overwhelmed that the fair goers gave ME that honor!! I forgot everything else that I had planned to do after I picked up my quilts and drove the 10 miles home "on a cloud"!!! DH said it didn't surprise him at all!!! I also decided that I would take the rest of the day "off"! The quilting "angel" smiled on me!

Then and Now

A few days ago I watch a weekly quilting/sewing show that featured some fabric dyeing methods. I have never done "yardage" dyeing, except for tea dyeing fabric, with real tea! So, I decided I want to try the "over dyeing" trick on fabric that was shown. I can't remember the year it was I bought this pink dye as you can see in the photo it was a looong time ago! I don't even remember what I was going to do with it!!! Yesterday I went and bought a package of the Purple dye. Now, my point is this: I paid $2.99 plus tax for the new dye!!!! Came home and was putting it a cupboard with laundry items and that is when I found the box of Pink dye that cost 35 CENTS!!! The instructions are the same almost but the box design has changed. There is no price on the new dye box! I'll show you the "overdyed" fabric when I get it done in the future days to come. Woo,I just had to share!

Down & Dirty!!!!

Don't ya just love the title!!! That was the name applied to a Mystery Round Robin challenge by our http://www.llqg.org guild presented at the May meeting. I have never participated in this segment up until this time!! Here is how it went: (available for 9 persons at first) You sign up,then the committee, tell you to bring a "big" paper bag w/your name on it to the June meeting. OK, I thought that's easy! Then at that meeting your bag goes on the table and in it, secretly, they put the instructions!!! Which say, choose 3 fabrics, background, focus & complimentary. Then it also tells you to cut your fabrics in certain sizes for 9 different blocks and have a gallon zip lock bag for each block w/name and number on it of each block that YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS!!! Then you put the fabrics in the proper zip bag! Then..(.you still w/me) we took them to the July meeting and the "committee" separated the zip bags to be put in our individual bags and then they put your pattern in w/them (now I know what it is I will make) for you to take home and put the 9 together and bring them back to the August meeting!!! (Oh, yes, you are assigned a specific pattern. That is the only one you know about!!) Well, it just so happened that the pattern I was given did not fit the sizes of the strips of fabric that the other participants had cut!!!! Eeek! I then call the committee....oh gosh....she was so embarrassed and she sent me another pattern...okay that was good! Except....then the fabrics were not the right size for this pattern!! So..... I then called the other participants and explained and they were so gracious and sent me new cut fabric strips!!!! I then called them and thanked them and proceeded to create only 9 blocks of the same pattern (show above) called "Flying X's"! Whew....at last I felt good. We then were to bring them to the August meeting and we were giving back our own fabric blocks that we made for each other!!! Does this make sense!!!

And they were all to be unfinished at 9 1/2 "! Wow, they all were just. Imagine 9 all the same size by 9 different sewers!! Okay, the last step was to put them together anyway we wanted! Well, I have mine put together, not very imaginative, but there they are. We "show and tell" at the September meeting. I don't know if I will have a back on mine by then or not!!! (I don't know if using the black to stash them is legal or not !) I really did have fun....believe it or not!

Giving Thanks!

This is a revised post!! Our Parish Priest Father Ron had asked for a volunteer to make a plaque honoring those serving in the Armed Forces from our Parish community. So....my DH made it. He used wood from a walnut tree(a gift from God) for the plaque from our property that we had cut down several years ago and it was "curing" by the barn. Father Ron furnished the "service medals" and DH used his "Leroy" to print the names on the brass strips that he obtain just for this presentation. He then attached them w/little brass screws. It did not go as quickly as I am writing this. It took several weeks to prepare the wood, shaping,sanding and putting the finish on that hopefully will last forever! The brass name strips also had to have a coating for the names to be preserved. There is room to add more names when provided. The parishioners really like it. Whew... I am so proud of DH and his talents!

"Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow"!

New Purse!!!

Last week after our LLQG general meeting one of our members gave a wonderful workshop on purse making!!! She had given us the materials list to bring along w/all the usual sewing supplies, machines,etc (you know that necessary stuff!). OR...she would bring kits for us to purchase to assemble! Well, of course when I saw HER kits I fell in love w/them all and chose the one of my fav's Autum Leaves! First we machine quilted them and then the assembling began....oh boy, what fun it was and here is the results of what I did!!! The "jewels" are so perfectly matched to the fabric.....autum leaves ! I think this is a "foo foo" accessorie, the next one I endevor to create will have a different closing. (click to enlarge) Well, I am on a roll.....!