Newest Project - Bow Tucks Bag

Sew, here is my newest project (finsihed!).

The colors don't show up well.  I gotta figure out what setting to use on my camera.  This is actually a very vibrant blue.

The inside:

This is a bit closer to the colors.
It's quite a large bag and has lots of inside pockets which I like.
I'll be making more.
It's just finding the fabrics that go together.  I'm not as good at it as some of the others that I've seen done.  Sigh........another thing to get better at.

Good finds

So, gh Tony decided to do some cleaning up in the basement a few days ago.  He called me down before going to the dump (amazing!) and of course I had to rescue something from the dump pile.  I hate letting go of things.  Anyway, I decided that I would look thru a few bins with things from the past.  Past crafting that is.

I opened one bin and there were some of the earrings and pins I'd made previously.  Hmmm, they are kinda cute!  So I took all the earrings out and decided I'd bring them upstairs and wear them.  Heck, they are just hanging around anyway!  They ought to be hanging around on ears!  I wore a pair today - and they matched my shirt perfectly.  Even better, someone in Dollar Tree asked me where I got them, and I said, I made them!  :-)

Can you see them?  Not really.....................................

Here you can see them a little better.  Don't they match my shirt perfectly?






They are a bit large, but they aren't at all heavy.


Can YOU tell what they are made from?  Betcha can't.....................






So here is some fabric that I found in a bin....and totally forgot that I had it.  What a GREAT find!!!!

This fabric has bears and kittens and horses.

And this is Christmas fabric!!!  Lots of it!


















There is more, but the colors didn't come our right when I photographed them.  I will re-photograph them and put them in next time around.


I did some sewing on my Bow Tucks bag today but my back is hurting.  So I only did about an hour and a half.  I hope to get back up there for a couple of hours tomorrow morning.  I want to finish it.

Then Thursday I'll go up and help Jenn.


Off to feed the dogs - they are complaining they haven't eaten yet.  Then to check the chicken and veggies baking in the oven.  I'm hungry!

More later.

Seeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww

I actually got to sew!  Yay! I sewed some on Sunday.  I decided I wanted to try (and succeed this time) the tube quilting ruler I got at the quilt show a few weeks ago.  My first go wasn't very successful.  So I re-read the instructions (vague) and I watched the tutorial on YouTube that the Missouri Star Quilt Co has on there, and I decided to give it a shot - mostly successful this time!  :-)

I had 4 squares after sewing the tubes together and cutting.  Four successful squares.  I decided to try to make a tote out of them.  I had leftover fabric from what I had bought to make the tubes with (even after a few unsuccessful tries).  I decided to take 3 of the squares, cut strips for the sides, and free motion quilt (fmq) all of the pieces.  I've been practicing my fmqing because I'm getting geared up for using the long arm quilting machine at the local quilt shop in July.  :-) :-) :-)

So here are the pieces all quilted.

Gotta close for now - storms coming!

Ok, I'm back.  Storms blew thru last night and all is well.....so here are the rest of the pics and story! :-)

These are the sides.  I stenciled a pattern on them and then free motion quilted around it.  Wondering now if it would have been better to use a walking foot or regular foot, and followed the pattern with regular sewing.  Anyway, it's interesting- looks good but it's deceiving - the flip side tells how much practice I still need! Ha ha.

The back side.............

This is all the bits put together.  The final outcome of my tote (that I made without a pattern).

This is the inside of the bag - the bag turned wrong side out.  It really could be reversible.  I need practice on making linings for bags.  I attached the handles inside because I was experimenting with out to attach the lining and just didn't bother with getting the handles between the 2 layers.

Notice the handles - I did blue on the light side, and a light gray on the dark side.  They have batting in them and are comfy on the shoulder. 



There is a pocket near the bottom - it also was not placed correctly.  Again, I need practice!

Here is a close up of the sides now that they are attached to the front and back panels.






Not too shabby..........

So this is my tote.  I really like it.  My next one will be 2 blocks wide, and not as deep - only one block deep. I will have the same sides, and the sides will also be the bottom (instead of a block on the bottom).  A woman can never have too many totes!









My next project will be a bag holder for my daughter since she's been asking for one for months and I haven't gotten around to making it.  So that is today's project, and then some knitting.  I think I finally found a knitting pattern I can follow..............lol.

Nature

Ya know, I really LOVE photographing nature.  I just wish I were better at it.  But I like doing it and thats not anything to stress over! :-)

 This is my favorite!  The wings in motion. I want to try to get more of these.

Below are some photos of flowers I took - I like the shadows on them:

These are in a basket in front of the porch.

This is my first tomato of the season!  It's ripening up in the kitchen window.

This is Evan, my amazing wonder dog. He's such a good little man!

And this is the "nature" that took place across the street from our home on Thurs and Friday.  ICK.  I hate

when they spread this stuff.  Stinky!  Luckily the wind has been blowing the other way and now it's tilled into the ground so not so stinky.  Farm life!  Ugh.

So that's about it for now.....more tomorrow.  Time to go and knit and watch some t.v. (and maybe have some ice cream....yum).

Thursday.........

It seems to happen every week. All of a sudden it's Thursday.  How the heck does this happen???
This has been a busy week again.  But it's ok  -  I love being busy!!!

The only "crafting" I've really done the last couple of days is that I have gotten a little further on my knitting.  Boy, the back of this sweater has been amazingly difficult for me.  I'm not sure why, but I'm having a heck of a time understanding the directions.  Poor Rita, she has to be so patient and bear with me, and explain all this to me.  Silly me...........mental block - they start throwing numbers in there and I freak out in my little brain!  LoL  But the back is done.  Now, I have to start the front(s) and then the sleeves.  O boy!  Good thing this is a practice one because it's got a few stitch glitches in it. When I decide on a colored yarn, then it hopefully will go much better.

I haven't had a chance to really do any sewing and I really NEED to get to that. 
I also have someone special that needs a birthday gift, and I haven't gotten to that either - yet!  Where the heck does the time fly to???

Off I go to try to get something done!

They're back!

My followers are now showing up again.  :-)
I can't figure out why my little photo of myself looks like I have a blotch on my face tho.
Guess I'm gonna have to change it.

More food

So, I decided last week that I wanted to make some Scones.  There are dozens of recipes out there of course.  I got the recipe for these off of the Food Network dot com site.  It is from the Barefoot Contessa.  She always does really great baking........so its the one I went with.

The dough was really wet, and I'm not sure I did it all perfectly and I ran out of flour when it was time to roll them out and bake them.  Sooooooooo, good hubby bought some flour on the way home and I worked it into the dough and used a knife instead of a cookie cutter.  And, I think I made them smaller than they should have been.  But they are good anyway!

O, one more thing.  Instead of sugar on top as the recipe calls for, I put crushed almonds.  YUM!  I did put some mini choc chips on some of them too.  Gotta have SOME chocolate in there!  he he

Here is the first batch of Strawberry Scones.  Thank you Barefoot Contessa!

Sewing room

Ok, so here is my sewing room, as it's set up now.  It's been rearranged several times (feels like 100).  I *think* that I'm set now.....I do need to find a small table to make my cards on.........but I'll figure that out.  Everything else has come to me as I need it. Thank you Universe!  :-)

These are the two tables that I use for ironing and cutting and laying out and sandwiching the quilts.  Of course, it can't be a really large quilt.  LOL.  I have them covered in batting and duck cloth.  I had clamps holding the batting and duck cloth on, but the clamps kept snapping off because the back side of the tables are not smooth - they are bumpy.  Who knew.

This is my new sewing table.  I really like it.  I got it from All Brands dot com.  The legs fold up under it if you want to take it someplace else.  The sewing machine fits down inside.  The last time I sewed with a machine down inside a cabinet was on my mother's White sewing machine that had it's own wooden cabinet.  I sure wish I'd inherited that!  Anyway, I now have this and it makes a world of difference to have everything level.  Even if I get another machine, and it doesn't fit this cabinet - I'll get another cabinet it DOES fit in!  

This is my design wall - which I plan on enlarging.  I will find another piece of flannel on sale, or, I'll just hang up a large piece of batting.  For now, this is working.  This is the view from my sewing machine.

This is the veiw from the t.v.  

This is the view from the top!  My sewing machine and table.  :-)

This is my free motion quilting.  I am new at this, so it's interesting to do.  But I obviously need LOTS of practice.

Ok, so my next post will have other pics.  :-)

Hmmmmm, Interesting!

I have changed up my blog some, and some things have disappeared.  I need to fix this somehow.  I've lost all my followers.........not sure how that happened.

I HAVE decided that I'm going to make this blog only about my crafting.  I'm very excited about everything I'm doing right now.  I'm knitting, crocheting, quilting, and of course, photography.  I am also trying to get back into baking - its SO hard tho with the tiny kitchen and practically no counter space to work with.  I also have the cards that I make (which I haven't done in awhile but want to get BACK into doing now that I can make room for a table again) and I always have the crafts I used to do - jewelry, beads for horses, etc.

I'm really enjoying these things, and although I've given up some other things in my life recently, this is going well and I'm very happy where I am.  :-)  It feels really good.  I'm content, and I'm happy!

Food!

I love watching the Food Network.  There is also the Cooking Channel now, which used to be FLN.  I was watching yesterday, and Giada DeLaurentas (sp?) was on, and she made Paninis.  I love that kind of sandwich. She made hers with Mozzarella cheese, and raspberry jam.  That wasn't exactly what I was looking for, so when we went shopping, I got the cheese, and I already had beefsteak tomatoes here at the house that really needed to be used.  I also bought a loaf of round bread, which I believe is called Boule. 

I sliced the bread into about 3/4 inch slices - they have to be somewhat thick.  I used only the center slices, which are large enough to make a nice sandwich.  The rest of the smaller slices, I froze - mostly because the bread had a purchase date of today.  I find I love freezing bread and using it in unusual things sometimes.  Or, just take it out, toast it, and put peanut butter on it!  :-)

Anyway, I got out my George Foreman grill (its only the small one that we purchased when they first came out - gotta love that little grill!), and I heated it up.  I took out the cheese, and the tomato.  Also some Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  I turned the slices so the outsides were facing up.  I drizzled the olive oil over the tops of the outsides.   I sliced the cheese into thick enough slices to not fall apart when picking them up.  Sliced the tomatoes pretty thick too - afterall, they had to stand up to the cheese.  I layered the tomato slices, and the cheese, onto one of the INSIDE slices of bread - the side without the oil - and then set the other bread on top, with the oiled side out.  I placed the sandwich on the grill, and closed the cover.  About a minute later, I checked it.  OMG, it was golden brown and SO yummy looking.  I took it off the grill and set the next one on.  I sliced the finished sandwich in half, and served with chips. 

When the second one was done grilling, I removed it and sliced it. This one was mine.  I let it cool because I was busy at the time, and when I sat down to eat it, it was so delicious!  I WILL be doing this again, soon!  It was a yummy summer sandwich and filling and so good.  It really hit the spot too.  And simple!  Give it a try. 

Knit, Crochet, Sew!

Yes, I'm managing to do them all - I've started knitting, and I'm crocheting at the same time - well, not at the SAME time, but I have 2 projects going at once.
I also tried to do some free motion quilting today.  How interesting!

I got a new sewing table and it's working SEW well!  I really am glad I spent the money on that.  I like how everything is level.  I'm getting used to it being lower than it was.  And if I arrange things well, then I'll be able to quilt quite a bit.  Of course, my quilting needs a LOT of improvement.

I'm really excited to take a class on Friday - learning how to use the Long Arm machine at That Little Quilt Shop in Madison.  I tried long arms at the quilt show a couple of weekends ago, and I had SEW much fun!  Honestly, I just need lots of practice to get better.  I love it - it is mesmerizing to me.  I could do it for hours I think.  I got pretty into the fmq upstairs on my little machine.  I seriously think it's easier on the long arms, but maybe that's my imagination.  LOL

The knitting is coming along.  I'll try tomorrow morning to do the decreases the pattern is now requiring.  I've had to tear it out at least 20 times (at least it seems like 20 times - it MUST be close to that) and start over, but I've learned a ton of stuff by doing that.  Good thing I'm stubborn.......ha ha.

Tomorrow I will work on the knitting, and after the dr appt, I'll work on my sewing.  Oh, tonight I tried out my strip tube ruler.  I still have to work really hard at getting it to be right and wasted some fabric.  I hate wasting fabric!  Grrrrrrrrrrr.  But, it was fabric from Wal Mart, so at least it isn't my best fabric.  I'll get really good at this first, then, I can use really good fabric to try again.

Off to dream land.