Wednesday 23 November 2016

Whatever (changes) Wednesday

Whatever Wednesday or Whatever happened to Blogger?
Such a nice surprise this morning on Blogger. What was on the left side is now on the right side. What was hidden under a tab is now on the left side. Isn't it kind of late Blogger to do Spring cleaning? I truly believe your timing is very wrong and upsetting but, I will adapt because I FEAR!


Now this being said, let's move on!

Just wanted to show you a pillow I did before I came to Blogland. It was made for my son who loves black. I mean LOVES black.  Remember the black 9-Patch quilt I showed on my blog about a year?  No? Here it is again. 


Anywho! I made a pillow for the same son. (in the picture above with squinted eyes against the sun) The pillow doesn't necessarily have to match the quilt. With boys, matching stuff is lost on them. As long it is representing what they love or has the colour they want, all is good. 

A Dutchmen Puzzle Block was chosen by DS2. If you look closely, you'll see that I did the block too small for the pillow and had to sash it. The front is colourful and the back, not so much.

For him, this side is now the front. (At age 20, I guess colours aren't as cool as they used to.)  It is the same block. What a difference changing the values makes. So changes sometimes, aren't that different. They just read differently.

Until next time ...

Don't be afraid of the changes.

;^)


Saturday 19 November 2016

What now ? (photo heavy)

The craft sale is over and now what? What do I do now?


I was taken by this busy bag 😃

so much so that I made ten large and three smaller ones for the craft sale . 😊 I had 15 more bags cut and prepped but didn't had enough time to finish them all. 
some of the prepped bags
I did every possible mistake one can make sewing up this simple bag. Even sewing the front to the front! Yes, I did that. Ironed the cut and prepped interfacing together onto another fabric that needed ironing. Oh yes, I did that mess too. I was so disorganised, I should have quite and go for a walk or something. But I was caught up in a panic to finish more busy bags, more gifts bags, more wine bottle bags and butterflies too, of course.

Gift bag, wine bag and butterflies. Hairpins butterflies on cards
and two are with clips (no cards)
Gift bags, wine bags

Came Saturday, I was happy, alert and full of adrenaline! (not to mention coffee)

I am happy with the sale. I sold a few items and that was very rewarding. All the purple butterflies were the first to fly away, lol. 

Even if they look alike, not two are the same.
Of the ten busy bags, three were sold. You might say that's not a lot but since there wasn't as many buyers as we expected and we need to keep in mind that not everyone has young children, I consider three a very good number. 
A must have: cats and dogs
The bonus; a lady asked for my name and phone number as she works with children with special needs in a school. Wouldn't that be cool to have "an order" for some bags ? Wow! She hasn't called yet and my hopes were fading, but maybe, the school council hasn't had their meeting yet. Could be. So my hopes are still alive. Anywho! not wasting any sleep on this. 

Three smaller bags. 
After the craft sale, after the rush of the adrenaline, I was exhausted and stayed away from the sewing room just to reboot my energy. On Monday, I've puttered around and got nothing much done. Straighten up the sewing room, cleaning up the house, wasting time on Pinterest, ... you know ... just stuff.  But Tuesday was more productive.

I started a new project. 😄 There's nothing like starting something new to refresh the creative energy, right? 

Remember my DS1's carpet made with some old canvas fabric I had ? 









Well, I grab the long leftovers stripes and cut them down to one inch wide. I sewed them all together in one very long stripe, starting with the brown and then the blue fabric. I rolled it up into a ball and grab some twine and started spinning these two together.

It didn't take long for me to realise my mistake. The twine is to big and with the addition of the canvas, the cord barely fitted under the foot of the sewing machine. I tried with the dogs down and it wasn't any better.
Another lesson learned was don't sew all the way up to the clip. It's really hard to spin it when it is that close to the foot.

But I prevailed. It was very hard on the shoulder and neck muscles. I had to pause often so the progress was slow.


The next morning, I looked for the Teflon foot and it was like a miracle worker! Yes! This project is finally fun to make! You can see the difference in the stitches in these pictures.


Petal to the metal, I sewed it all up ...


... well until I got to the end of the twine! Hahaha!

It's not the prettiest of baskets but it is also my first try. :^D So this is now set aside until I go to the hardware store.

A while back, I received the Broken Dish Swap.


Thanks to Barb, at Fun With Barb, hostess of this fun swap, I now possess 80 gorgeous Broken Dish blocks. The fabrics, the craftsmanship, everything is just perfect. I love my blocks! I will participate in a swap again. 😄
I did play with them a little bit, looking for a layout.


If I do what I have in mind, this project will be another long-winded quilt. Do I need another one of those when I already have two on the go ? (which are going nowhere fast!) The blocks went back into the plastic bags to rest for a while. 😞

As I was picking up fabrics tossed all around the sewing room in my frenzy of last week, I found my RSC 2016 project. Got the fabric out and started to look at the possibility of finishing this one. This year? Hmmm... /:^}


Now that the sewing room is clearer if not cleaner, I must work on my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for November.

I want to finish the month of June and I am at day 18. Can I reach the end of the month in only a week and a half?  We'll see. Nothing like a deadline to spur me into action.

So that's what's going on at my place.  Like I said; not much beside brainstorming but someone has to do it.

You can find me at Angela's place today, just enjoying all the rainbows.
Come Monday, I'll be with Beth at Love, Laugh, Quilt. See you there.

Until next time ...

;^)


Thursday 10 November 2016

Sewing for Craft Sale

I wish I had more time to sew more stuff but it is what it is, and there's always next year. :^D

Of course, to put the cherry on the sundae, I found another "perfect" project.

Here's it is!
It's a little busy body bag. This is the front of one of them ...

and the back. Loved this fabric and this is the last of it. Only some scraps remain.

Open the little flap and inside

hides whatever the child has decided to bring for the trip to Grandma's place, or the dentist, or the big brother's soccer practice (again!) or anywhere!

There's five plastic bags inside to be filled up with his / her favourite activities.

I have completed five "totes" so far and I think I have four, maybe five, more cut (I can't remember now). I want to do some smaller one too with smaller plastic bags. And more butterflies of course, and more gift bags, and more wine bags, ...

But there's always next year. :^D

I also wanted to do some felt hearts like Mary makes but time is running out for me.

There's always next year! lol.


Until next time ...

;^)