Saturday, December 25, 2010

Promises, Promises

Merry Christmas!!  I do have a few items I might be able to post, but mostly I've just been embellishing shirts and robes as Christmas gifts - so have been neglecting this blog.  Three robes for grand-nieces with their initial monogrammed on the breast - not too thrilling......  

I promise - more to come.  In the meantime my wonderful hubby had another great idea that has now spawned a spin off of this blog - so check out my new page about the Cake Mix Doctor.......

Friday, November 19, 2010

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Another Hubby project!

My loving husband often "gets me into" projects.  He volunteered me for the "Sparkie" towel project.  And he is always volunteering me to make pies for this or that.  But I don't mind - I feel good that he takes such pride in my handy work. 

This bag was another hubby project - for the annual Chamber of Commerce fund raising silent auction.  He was more disappointed than me that it took only about $20 -  at least that was the top bid just minutes before bid closing.  But I expected it - I've seen enough of this type thing to know - unless you just really hit the niche, you get a lot of oohs and aahs, but not much else.  That's OK - I like the oohs and aahs - just another reason why I like giving things aways more than trying to make a buck on them.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

It's a cinch!


Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. That's what happens when you have to work for a living.
 It may be a cinch bag, but not quite a cinch to make - a lot of trial and error, but it gave me a lot to try and learn.   This is my take on a bag from Quilts and More magazine (fall 2010) - "It's a Cinch".  I did a "one-up" on the handle by adding cording and fiber fill - that posed a slight problem when it came to sewing the side seams together, but, after breaking one needle,  I just went real slow and stitched over it two or three times. 

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

More Sparky

"Special Order" - well not really.  I've had a few people ask if I would sell my bags and/or make a special order, but that's just too much pressure.   I get these done on my own time line and since I give them away, I don't worry as much about whether they hold up or not.  I want them to - I sure want my loved ones who get these to enjoy them for some time - but at least if something happens, I don't have to feel bad about their investment in them.  But I'm totally off the subject.  Just a little note about this one.  If you have read my other posts, you know I did (as a service project) take on a special order to digitize Good Ole Sparky - an old time class mascot for the local high school - for the class of 1960's 50 year reunion.  After finishing off the 60 hand towels they gave out as favors, I made this bag and delivered the last shipment of towels to the reunion committee in this bag.  I hear they had a drawing to give away the bag to one of the female members of the class that was in attendance.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Baby Shower Today

My nephew and his wife are having a baby and today is the baby shower.  Last night, I made this burp cloth from a cloth diaper (NEW) to add to my gift bag for them.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Retired Teacher's Luncheon "Door Prize."

This bag became a door prize at a retired teacher's luncheon.  Those in attendance are retired teachers from our local school corporation.  My husband being an administrator at this corporation was attending the luncheon and doing one of his favorite things - having the opportunity to thank those who have made a difference in the lives of students.   I had just finished this bag - and the predominant colors being the colors of our high school - yellow and brown - it just seemed natural for use in this manner.  I hear it was received well and I hope the "winning" teacher enjoys using it.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Another Bag!

So far, this is the only bag that doesn't yet have a home.  My step brother called and left me a message a few weeks ago about wanting to add my bags to his booth at my home town's farmer's market on the downtown square.  I felt so complimented that he thinks my bags are of a quality to potentially garner interest from buyers.  But as you know, I pretty much have a home for them before I am even finish making them.  So, I have been trying find time to complete a few - sending just one to him doesn't really seem right for him or his potential customers.  (My hubby likes this one best of all so far and is often hinting as to who I might consider giving it to - I'm afraid it may not last long enough for me to complete a couple more for the booth.)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Something for the granddaughter....


Knee deep in good ole Sparkie towels - but I do take a break on occassion to do something else.  For the past few weeks I have had a second machine - for sewing.  The Brother machine I gave me daughter was going unused at her house so I asked if I could take it back.  It's been rather nice starting  a longer segment of embroidery on one machine then sitting down to the other to sew.  So after I got all the appliques in place on this outfit, I took it to the sewing machine to piece together while ole Sparkie was stitching away on my Innov-is 900D.  But all good things come to an end and this weekend daughter asked for the machine back so she and hubby could make something or other for their classrooms (teachers).  

Anyway, the granddaughter likes buttons so I looked for appliques that would allow easy incorporation of buttons as embelishments  - buttons on the flipflops include bumble bees, shells, and flowers.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Closure.....

My daughter wants a longer strap.  My mother wants closures of some type.  Well, haven't gotten around to re-figuring the fabric requirement to make the straps a little longer, but with this attempt I did add two heavy duty snaps at the base of the straps.  It's the first time I've attached this types of snaps on anything.  The directions on the package were confusing - the illustrations less than adequate. My first attempt - ruined two snaps.  Second time around, I got the snap parts in the wrong places on the first snap, but got it right on the second snap.  The end result is - both snaps work, but they face two different ways (though the outside of the bag is correct. Kind of hard to explain......

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Prototype

We are a very small school district.  The class of 1960 is planning their 50 year reunion.  We have this cute little sparkplug cartoon character as a mascot.  We are one of those unique schools with a one of a kind mascot.  Not another "Sparkplug" anywhere.  But in 1960 "Sparkie", the school mascot, was a plug - - a horse.  One of the class members aged ole Sparkie a bit - creating a more ...   mature Sparkie ... to use in conjunction with their 50 year reunion.  They had decided to have some kind of memorabilia created for the reunion but in researching so far have found businesses that will take the more mature Sparkie art work and reprint and embroider it only when buying somewhere in the hundreds.   So, I said I would take a stab at it. I created a blackline "master" of ole Sparkie and scanned it into my digitizing software to create an embroidery design - then stitched on a cheap Wal-mart hand towel.

Here is the first sample....

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Short Break from Bags!


Last week was my daughter's wedding.  I had started to simultaneously cut and piece three bags until the wedding was too close to continue and I had to take a break.  (It was a wonderful wedding.)  Now that I have returned I've extended that break a little to try out some fringe embroidery designs I purchased on www.emblibrary.com.  I read an article about fringe embroidery in an older issue of Designs in Machine Embroidery magazine and was anxious to give it a try.  I had picked up a couple of plain white microfiber kitchen towels at Wal-Mart some time ago and hadn't decided what exactly to do with them.  So I put them to use in this first try of fringe embroidery.  Added a little fabric embellishments and ta-da!  I think they turned out pretty cute.


Sunday, June 27, 2010

"Spring Tote" from Quilter's World

Another of the "Spring Tote" from the April 2010 magazine Quilter's World (page 25-27).  This time I included the tab and button - but I did shorten the tab a little.  This is another one made from a bundle of Fat Quarters - I had only one bundle of fat quarters this time and the body uses enough of the quarters that I didn't have anything for the lining, so I did purchase a half yard of another fabric to complete the project.


Monday, June 14, 2010

What can you do with Fat Quarters?

I've been meaning to post this one for quite a while, but the quality of my pictures was so poor I was trying to get better ones first.  Failing to do so, I did enhance the pictures a little bit. 

I made this with a couple of fat quarter bundles I picked up.  I was intrigued by the use of the Prairie Points and when I found how simple they were to add and how great they looked, I just loved them.  I plan to try a bigger version of this one soon.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

An Apple a Day!

I love this fabric! The straps are sewn on the outside of the bag instead of between the outer and lining this time.  I decided that at kind of the last minute - otherwise I probably would have made the straps longer. But it is sewn prior to adding the lining, not through the lining.  Next time I think I'll make them longer, put them on the outside and stretch the pocket between the straps on the front.


Get a closer look - check out the lining - it's so cute and works so well with the other two fabrics.

Notice the apple quilting design? I made it in my digitizing software.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A "Speedway" original just in time for the race!



This bag is unique! And finished just in time for this weekends Indy 500!


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I made the quilting patterns in digitizing software I purchased with some embroidery designs. On the large checks is an Indy Car design very much like one in a logo used by IRL. On the smaller checks at the bottom I digitized and created the quilitng outline of crossed flags.


Thursday, May 20, 2010

Spring Tote becomes Summer

Just finished last night, from the April 2010 magazine Quilter's World, this is my take on "Spring Tote" (page 25-27).

I grabbed a couple of fat quarter bundles I had picked up - I just love the bright colors and floral pattern. With these bright colors, though, spring is not exactly what comes to my mind. So this Spring tote becomes a summer tote!

I made a couple of minor adjustments - I didn't add the tab and button, though I may live to regret that, and I enlarged the pocket on the inside, stitching down the center making it two pockets. And my quilting is a little different - in the red block I used a quilt pattern on my embroidery machine and repeated it all over - on the strips I stitched a straight line on top of the pressed back seam allowance - I always like quilting on top of that. I feel it gives it a bit more re-enforcement - then crossed it with lines at somewhat random distances vertically.

When you are working with fat quarters, the size of the cuts are not always exactly what you need so you have to get alittle creative. I chose the blue floral for the lining in contrast to the primary red fabric in the outer body. Since I didn't have enough, though, I added the blue fabric with the cirlces as a strip across the bottom and as the pocket. The picture to the right is the lining pulled out and laid as flat as I could to get a good look at this.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Placemates - the Prequel

This was my first "real" project - something more that just putting an embroidery design on the front of a shirt or bottom of a towel. I made these four coordinating placemats for my mother. My first time combining sewing and piecing with embroidery and quilting.







Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Call me the bag Lady!






While browsing in a quilting shop one day I fell in love with this set of coordinating material and purchased 1/2 yard each of three coordinating patterns. I didn't even have an idea what I would do with it yet.

One of the many magazines I have picked up since getting my new toy is the Winter 2009 Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection Quilts and More. I found the directions for "Curve Appeal" (page 14-19), a bag I thought would look great in these fabrics and my daughter would like. My intent was to make her a bag for carrying groceries - she always uses cloth bags to bag her groceries.

So, I made my first bag. the original directions called for just two fabric patterns, but I decided on a third for the lining - which is the same pattern as the body top in different color combination - a negatvie/positive match. It was a little smaller than a grocery bag, but I thought it would be good for a few special items - especially considering the padding - a wine bottle or two that might benefit from the extra protection. But as soon as I gave it to her she dumped the entire contents of her purse into it and has been carrying it ever since.

Within a week she had texted me that two of her friends loved it so much they wanted one themselves - and would pay for it. So, I made each of them one (no money exchanged hands - I did it just to get the experience and practice - it's a past time for me!).
And so started a trend - I have just this weekend finished my seventh of that particular bag, plus another of a different style and have just started a new style bag I hope to finish by this coming weekend - all lovingly made for and given to friends!

I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of all the bags - but I have collected a few pictures of them - some taken with a cell phone camera so don't expect the quality to be great in all of them.






The start of it all - My Brother Sewing Machine

Last fall my daughter asked me to make a rainbow bright costume for her step daughter for halloween. Knowing that my old sewing machine has seen better days - especially before sewing the duck tape Tuxedo (another story entirely) and realizing that this costume would likely need some pretty special sewing, I decided a new machine was in order. My husband, being an avid follower of Consumer Reports, suggested the Consumer Reports "Best Buy" brother basic sewing machine which we picked up at the local discount department store for less than $200.

It sewed so easy and so beautifully! I was almost giddy. So, my husband recommended another Consumer Reports approved Brother product - the basic level sewing/embroidery machine. I gave the first Brother sewing machine to my daughter and purchased this beautiful starter embroidery machine - the Brother Innovis-900. It sews as well or better than the original machine I purchased and additionally will embroider designs up to 4" x 4".

It has been incredible and fun! I started buying up designs, online and in the sewing shop where I purchased the machine. I started collecting magazines - old and new - machine embroidery, quilting, and a couple of sewing titles. And I throw fat bundles, jelly rolls, and single cuts of what ever fabric that catches my eye and/or is being clearanced out at fabric stores and departments whereever I find myself. And hours and hours of sewing and embroidering! I think my husband might be starting to regret his recommendation a little.

Now I want a bigger machine - one that embroiders a bigger field - but I'll save that for another story, too. For now, here's (all over this blog) some pictures of what I've been making with my Brother (machine)!