WiP Stuff I've Been Working On

I have actually been doing some things for the past few weeks. I just whipped up these adorable little crochet pumpkins.

I am working on another one that is a little larger than these two. I may make up some to give away for my birthday this weekend.

I whipped up some gauntlets out of felt this evening for my daughter's Batgirl costume.

I saw some cool ones made out of long black opera gloves but they cost $13 at Party City and I paid $1.50 for this felt. She loved them so that's all that matters.

I'm almost finished with an afghan for my neighbor. We have the same birthday (this Saturday).

I have also decided on how to do my curtains for my kitchen so those will be getting done fairly soon. I will post pics as I get done!

Back on the Horse...

I figured out that I HAVE been doing things; I just haven't been blogging about them. So I figured I needed to "get back on the horse", as they say.
First of all...

I got another pair of glasses (thank God for Zenni and their cheap glasses!). Why, you may ask? Well, because the others were some hubby picked out,... and they're fine...., but, well.... they weren't the ones I would really have chosen. So I got another pair. Since my prescription is still fairly mild (being new to glasses and all), I only paid $25 for each pair...and that's WITH shipping and handling! I figure I'll use the others at home. I instantly liked these better because the lenses were a bit bigger and closer to my eyes. I feel like I got more peripheral vision with these. Ya know, looking at that picture I'm thinking, "Not too bad for someone who's about to turn 45 in a few weeks!" And that's with very little makeup and I didn't touch up the picture (though I know there is weight that could find somewhere else to live!).

Secondly...
We had the service for my brother in law Friday. Everything went very well and I was surprised when several people we graduated high school with showed up. I haven't seen several of them for at least 10-15 years. Two of them were my absolute best friends in high school. We sort of keep up on Facebook, but we don't see each other or anything. I was surprised when my friend Leigh called my name. I had held it together so well during the whole service until she gave me a hug. It was a normal hug but when I went to step out of it, she didn't let go...and that made me just let go. I totally lost it. And then when I looked up I was just trying to get myself together. There was another girl beside her (yes, I still refer to myself and all my friends as girls!) and Leigh said, "She hasn't even realized it yet." It was my friend Jennifer! There were four of us that were best friends in high school so only one was missing. It's funny that you don't realize how much you miss people until you see them again. But we now have each others numbers so hopefully we will be able to keep up a little better.

Thirdly...
What have I been working on? Well, I finished the afghan to go on my couch that matches the Verona fabrics for my kitchen and living room.

I also started on another one for my neighbor's birthday. We have the same birthday in less than two weeks and we've been friends ever since we moved into this house 13 years ago. So I figured I'd do something a little bigger than I usually do. We swap books a lot and she LOVES pink, orange and brown so I thought this would be a good for one for snuggling up for a good read.

I also was asked to do some fixing of a purse for a friend. She had this bag from American Eagle that she loved...

but when she washed it, the entire liner came out. Yuck! So here I go to the rescue. Little did I know that you should not do things when you are under duress (i.e., the week of BIL's funeral).

I know the pictures kind of don't look like it matches but it does. The first thing I noticed that was wrong was that the zipper was catching a bit. So I took it to show her after the funeral (the family had a cook out at my MIL's so we could all get together). I told her I was going to re-attach it correctly, but wanted to show her how I'd added a pocket inside. So I reach in to show her the pocket and ONLY THEN did I notice it was upside down in the bag!!!!! Undoubtedly I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been. Sigh! Oh well, it will get done, and correctly this time.

A Life Full of Color

Okay, I just had to include that shot! We went to a local car show with hubby the other week and there's a local guy who has a "Mystery Machine!" I have seen it around town a couple of times but never this close up. Scooby is usually hanging out the passenger's side window. Oh, and what's that? Does it say? Why yes it does...

It has 'rut-ro' on the door! The inside is green shag and if you look at the upper picture again, you will notice that the whole gang is sort of appliqued (to use a quilting word!) to the inside wall so it looks like you're sitting with them when you sit on the bench seats inside. So cool and brings back memories.

I still haven't made it back into my sewing room but I am hard at work brain-wise on things that need to get done there! I finally picked up another fabric for my kitchen redo. I had used a Riley Blake Verona 1/2 yard bundle as the jumping off point, added a Vintage Modern print and a tone on tone I picked up from the LQS closing sale, and today I picked up a ModKid print from Joann's. Here is my color assortment as it stands.

The teal on the right is a text print and everything is in French. Love it! I was amazed at how it all blended. I think I'm going to pull the dots out though. Even though it actually was part of the Verona line, I don't actually have any prints with that particular color teal in them. I'm toying around with how to use the back prints as my volume and the front ones as accents. Since my living room flows out from my kitchen and I only have one window to cover in there, I will probably incorporate them in there as well. If I have enough, I will try to recover some of my couch cushions. We'll see what I can do with them.

Hubby knocked his towel rack off the wall this weekend by accident, and when he couldn't get it to stay up he decided it was time to update them and all the other bathroom hardware. This also generalized into our kitchen because we still had those little round gold colored balls as the door pulls. Hubby asked if I wanted to keep them but I couldn't think of anything to use them for so he threw them away. Then I went to Pinterest. Yikes! I didn't see anything specific that I wanted to do but it got my brain a-chugging so I went and dug them out of the trash. Oh, and lucky me...they had all fallen to the bottom! Yay! ......not. Anyway, I was able to salvage 30 of the 32 before I decided to give up.

I'm going to pick up some Krylon Brushed Nickel paint to change the colors and use them for a variety of purposes. I thought about attaching a few to a painted strip of wood. Then I could attach it to the wall, hang cans from it and put sewing notions in the cans in my sewing room. Ooh, and with 30 of them I could even make a couple to give as gifts. How cool is that

One Hot Mama!

Okay, so I am 44 years old, and I have been suffering from hot flashes for a while now. For those of you who haven't reached this milestone, let me just say this: Hot Flashes Stink! I have a few other choice words for them but I'm trying to be nice here. Hot flashes really are miserable. I am taking some over the counter medications to aid with it but every once in a while one will fight it's way through because it's so bad. Yuck!!
I am working on things, however. I got motivated by the fabric I want to use in my kitchen (Riley Blake's Verona) to create an afghan for the couch in my living room.

 Our furniture is red in there so this blends so well. Our dining room opens up into the living room so it will be nice that things can flow and blend. There's also only one window in my living room so I may be able to use some of the fabrics for a curtain topper in there as well.

Redecorating Dilemmas... With iPhone Solutions!

Okay, so I really want to redo the curtains in my kitchen. I made them when we first moved into the house and they have served it well. However, it is time they retired. I have been slowly acquiring a set of multi-colored Fiesta Ware and I am so inspired by all the colors. Kohls had them on sale 4/$99.99 and this past weekend they had an extra 20% off coupon so I have now moved up to having 10 place settings.

All the colors just make me so crazy and I love it! The colors I'm thinking of using for the kitchen come from a 1/2 yard bundle of Verona by Riley Blake  I purchased a while back.

I'm not totally positive that's what I'm going to use but I really love it for kitchen colors. The two fabrics on the far left were not part of the bundle, but were purchased recently when the LQS went out of business. I liked that it pulled a bit more red into the bundle, and I'm pretty sure I bought about 2 yards of the red on the far left. I was trying to figure out what color to repaint the walls if I decided to do this when I came across a really cool app. It's called the Benjamin Moore Color Capture app and it's free for the iPhone and android.

It works a lot like Palette Builder over at Play Crafts. Open the app, take a picture with the phone, and then it will pull up a palette of Benjamin Moore paint colors that match! I have figured out that the colors it pulls up vary slightly when the picture is taken in different lighting, but it's at least a jumping off point. You could use it to pull up colors, then go to the store to make sure the paint chips match up correctly. Don't like Benjamin Moore? Just go pick up the paint chips and take them to another store to match up.

Here's how it looks. I figure it's a starting point. I know I have Spring Rain pulled up but I will probably be going with the Driftwood color on the far left or the Harbor Gray on the right. How cool is that?

I Can See! I Can See!

Yup! I got my glasses yesterday and I can see a bit better than before. Now, I've never worn glasses and it takes some getting used to. I'm not crazy about watching tv with them on yet. Some of the movements make me a little queasy, but I'm getting there.

I haven't figured out how to keep the glare off for pictures yet. Plus, I should have taken some America's Next Top Model photography advice and not put my hand so far forward in the picture. It looks huge!! But, otherwise, they work. I whipped up a quickie eyeglass case yesterday afternoon. I lined it with selvages.

I'm quilting my Skill Builder Sampler right now so I will soon have some more to show for my time!!!

Sew, What Are You Up To?

I have gotten a minor amount of sewing done, though I am getting ready to pin my Skill Builder quilt into a sandwich. I am one of those people who goes to the grocery store and, without fail, will be short one bag. If I take in one bag, I'll need two...and so on. So when I came across this cool bag you can keep in your purse, I jumped at the chance to make on. I had some fabric I bought at Walmart a long time ago before I really understood the difference in fabrics. However, it's perfect for a project like this one. I used this little tutorial which even makes you a little zipper bag to keep it in. 

Here's my cute little bag. And I should say, it's not really little. It's plenty big enough for groceries, which I've already used it for.

You fold it up and slip it inside it's little pouch...

And then tuck it in your purse! How cool! I have a couple of more yards in other prints I think I'm going to use to make a few more.

I also wanted to show you what I've picked up at the LQS that is going out of business.

A little bit of this...

a little bit of that...

some things I don't know what I'll do with yet...

and some I do (a change purse!).

Some were things I just couldn't leave behind cause they were so cute. They also had that VW print in teal. I may have to go back and get some more of that for a giveaway! I'll let you know!

Tammy Blog Hop Begins!!! and a Giveaway!

I have done a blog hop with Madame Samm in the past and it worked out so well that I decided to jump on board with this one when I saw what a cute product I would end up with! Her Tammy bag is just the ticket for small projects or even a makeup bag! Here are my pretties made from her pattern.

So let's take a look at bag number 1.

I chose some Dragonflies by Michael Miller and a green Pear Tree print from Thomas Knauer to pair together. I love how it turned out! I chose not to do the frilly part in the pockets, but looking at it I kept thinking it just needed something extra so I came up with this.

I found a cute little bow pattern (sort of a bowtie noodle, if you will) here that I hand stitched just under the top of the pockets on both sides. I love the dragonflies. What does it look like on the inside? Well,...

There are two inside pockets (kind of hard to see in the picture). And what might I put inside it? Hmmmm, well....

Maybe a few skeins of yarn to crochet.
Then there's the second bag I made from laminate. This was some fabric I picked up from Hobby Lobby so no real name brands, but I wanted to make one for travel.

I love the Paris fabric with passport stamps.

Plenty of room for, well, for what really?

Why makeup, of course! And perfect for cleanup since it's laminated. Since the fabric was laminated, I chose not to do a bow for it, but I may go back and add straps to both since my frames had places for them.
Here's a last look at the two together.

GIVEAWAY!!!!!
Now, we have been doing VBS all week and I am totally exhausted so I almost decided not to do a giveaway, but I decided against myself!! I decided to offer up the fabric that you would need to make one of these little bags. It does not include the frame or anything else. Just the fabric. What fabric? Well, 1/2 yard each of the green Thomas Knauer Pear Tree and the Michael Miller dragonflies. The dragonflies went over really well on my last giveaway, and I still have some left so I thought I'd be nice and offer that up again.

What do you have to do to win? Just leave one comment. I'm too tired for hoops to jump through and we're only halfway through VBS!!

This giveaway will go until midnight on Tuesday, 6/18/13 which is the last day of the Tammy Blog Hop.  Open to US only. Sorry guys. Also, MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT A NO-REPLY BLOGGER. I am always amazed at the number of people who have no idea. If you never seem to get responses to your comments, you might want to check. I will draw a winner Wednesday morning and email the winner!

Make sure you go check on all my fellow blog hop bag makers (I know I can't wait to see what everyone else did!). Here is today's schedule.

Wednesday, June 12th

Melinda (me!)

Tina

Mary

Frederika

Thearica

Liz

Grethe

Daryl

Patty

Inga

You can find the full schedule here at Madame Samm's, and because I know some of you will really want to pick up this pattern, you can do that at Craftsy.

Whole Lotta Sewing Going on!

I decided for a little in between project while working on my Good Fortune Falling Charms and my READ mini wall hanging. I decided I needed to replace our coasters since the new pup has eaten at least two of the ones I had crocheted. Sigh....life with a dog! Anyway, I was all keyed up to do some string coasters with my tons of scraps when I came across some leftover Georgia fabric on which I had already attached iron on fleece floating around in my scraps tub. Can't beat it when a step is already done for you!

 So I salvaged enough to make 5 coasters. I cut my fabric to 4.5" squares and sewed around three sides and a little in on each corner of the fourth side.

 Not all tutorials will tell you to do this before turning but it helps immensely to me. It creates your corner so you can go ahead and poke out all the corners at one and they are more uniform. I also snip off each corner close to me seam to make sure the corners don't pucker.

 Here I have turned my coaster out and poked out my corners. Now I just folded the opening in about .25" and ironed. I did a stitch all around for closure close to the edge on all 5 coasters. I had an idea for doing some hand quilting to make a meandering stitch throughout (sort of like a road visiting all the sites) but I never thought it looked right. I love hand quilting on everyone else's work but it never looks right to me when I do it! So I just ended up doing some minor quilting on each one. I did something different on each: concentric boxes, improv, a grid, an X, and some outlining.

I thought they turned out pretty cute! Maybe the dog won't eat these! And I still have muslin and batting I cut out to do some string coasters, so I'll probably go ahead and make those too.

I finally pinned Falling Charms to the wall so I could get an idea what it's going to look like. I also placed it on my bed and it really looks nice. Six more rows before adding borders!!!

When I Was Almost Ready to Give Up...

I ordered some hardware for an upcoming project from a shop on Etsy. Unfortunately the only shops that sold needed hardware were overseas. I found a good deal from a shop in China and was able to buy 2 WITH shipping and handling for less than I would have paid at the suggested in states shop. I paid back on April 27. I received a confirmation from the shop that the "parcel" had been "dispatched" 5/3. I was finally able to track it online on 5/7 when it read, "Acceptance." Since then I have waited...and waited...and waited. Finally about 5/13 it read something new: "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment". They put that one on there three times! I was just getting ready to throw in the towel and order some from a states shop when I checked a few minutes ago. The new line reads "Processed through USPS facility".... in Flushing, NY!!! It has finally made it to the good ole' US of A! It was processed at 9:14 this morning so hopefully I should be seeing it in my mailbox in the next couple of days...and we will pray that it is good quality and I won't have to worry about replacing them after this nail biter! You see, these are needed for some projects I am presenting in a blog hop that is coming up fast and furious in the next couple of weeks. Thankfully, I got really motivated and did the sewing part already. Now all I'll have to do is add the hardware and I will be ready, Freddy!

I am sewing! No pics yet but I will have some soon!

In other news I spent the weekend totally jelly (as my 11 year old daughter would say) of all the people who got to go to Portland for Quilt Market. I am very thankful for all the wonderful pics everyone posted on Instagram. Did you get a look at that gorgeous Tula Pink butterfly quilt? To have a quilty brain that works like that, I'm telling you!

My hubby and I also attended a cookout at the house of my hubby's boss this weekend. What a lovely home! This was the view from their upper deck/porch area in the back.

So pretty. They even have a koi pond. Check out the view once the night sky hit.

How gorgeous? Very. My biggest issue was that I couldn't figure out how to take pictures of their kitchen without looking totally obnoxious. Again: jelly. My kitchen needs some serious help.

Give a Little, Get a Little

I want to give a shout out to all the wonderful people in bloggy world who entered my SMS giveaway. I was absolutely floored at the 401 entrants for my little dragonfly fabric and floral print. I got it in the mail today, and since the winner chose not to receive the dishcloths (she has a drawer full right now!) I chose another winner for those. I decided to just go with my favorite comment about the dishcloths which ended up being Bree who said:

 Bree said...

I'm still itching to try the weekender bag, but it terrifies me. And I'd LOVE dish cloths! My grandmother makes them but I'm the black sheep of the family, so I have to nab the ones she sends my mom - she won't make me any, lol.

May 6, 2013 at 4:43 AM

 

I told her that I wanted to make sure she got some since she's the black sheep of the family!

After sending off these prizes this morning, I was thrilled to find out when I came home that, after entering at least 250 giveaways, I won one as well! The lovely Corrie over at QuiltTaffy let me know that I won her giveaway so I will not only be sending some fabric out, but I will be receiving some as well. I really love what I won because I was toying around with making a compassion quilt for my BIL who was diagnosed with cancer, but I really wanted it to be reflective of him. The fabric bundle I won has this cute print of glasses (which he wears) and one with cassette tapes (and we are of that generation!). I am toying around with ideas for how to put it together.

Right after that I found out on FB that I also won the giveaway at the Amateur Quilter (sponsored by Above and Beyond Creative Sewing). I believe this is for 10 spools of Robison Anton Embroidery thread. Woohoo!

I was really excited about this one because I only just started using better thread and I've been so happy wiht the results. It will be nice to have some on hand so I don't have to go purchasing a lot anytime soon.

I am working diligently on some projects I can't show you, though I am stuck at the moment. I am waiting on an Etsy purchase from China. I may not do that again. It seems to be taking forever. I paid for it back on 4/27. I finally heard that it was shipped on 5/3, but it didn't show up at the China PO until 5/7. Now it's the 13th and the tracking details have said the same thing since the 7th: accepted at the China PO. That's it. I'm a bit frustrated and I'm not sure what to do. I chose this Etsy shop because it was significantly cheaper but still good quality. Sigh...hopefully it will arrive soon.