Car Trash Bag

Yesterday I made a trash bag for the car.  I can't stand trash in the floor of my vehicles, so I'm constantly putting trash in the side compartments of the doors.  Needless to say, that fills up pretty quickly and hard to clean.  

I have this wonderful book, "One-Yard Wonders", that I've had for several months.  It has 101 sewing projects that can be made in a flash.  This bag was one of them.  

It was suppose to have a buckle on the straps, but of course, our small Wal-Mart didn't have any, so I just used some velcro and it worked very well.

I love the second pocket also.  The big pocket will be for trash and the side pocket will be for tissues.  And I can just throw it in the wash when it needs to be cleaned.  Now if I had thought about it, I would have embroidered something really cute on it, but didn't, so next time....

Flowers Blooming!

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Check out my "Naked Ladies!"


The day after my granddaughters, Kayley and Lyndey, added the frog house and shells, these flowers popped up.  As you gardeners know, these grow very rapidly and in less than a week this is what we have!


When I told the girls we had naked ladies in our garden, they couldn't wait to get outside to see them.  I had to explain the name to the girls and their mom told them to be sure and tell their friends just exactly what kind of "naked ladies" we had in our back yard when they were discussing our garden.  lol

A friend of mine gave us the sea shells and the wonderful little teapot and cup on the table in the middle of the photo.  She loves fairies too and had come over to check the garden out.  A few days later she brought over the items.  Thanks, Carrol! 



The "Ladies" real name is Amaryllis belladonna and you can learn more about them here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5264061_plant-naked-lady.html

I think the fairies are loving our garden!!

Embroidered Tea Towels

Today I made these two hand towels for a relative that's having a surprise birthday party tomorrow night.  Don't know if they'll match her kitchen, but I hope so.

They "whipped" up (is that a Oklahoma term or what?) very quickly.  I couldn't think of any cute sayings this afternoon, and this was all I could come up at the time.  Afterwards I emailed one of my sisters and she came up with these:

Move over, Martha!

Your opinion wasn't on the recipe.

If you want fast food, let's eat out!

 

I also thought of, Kiss the Cook!  

 

Can any of you think of something really cute?  Let me know.  These make great little gifts and I want to be prepared next time! 

On Point Table Runner

This table runner had a lot of "firsts" in it for me!  To begin with, 5" charms were laid out on a fusible webbing of 1" squares that were on point.  Strips of 7/8" were put in between the charms.  You fuse them down and fold over and begin sewing 1/4" seams.  The pattern is called Point Setta.  "SEW" easy!

The bias stems were added with a machine blindstitch.  I  appliqued the flowers down and then applied the tendrils with my new  #43, free motion couching foot.  Now that was an experience.  I practiced and practiced and then tried some on the runner and ripped it out several times.  Finally, I settled for what you see.  It's pretty cool and works great, I just don't know how tendrils wind around naturally!

Three-D leaves were supposed to be added along the vines and it definitely needs them.  Either that or I should have made the vines shorter.  I used my great embroidery attachment to do the quilting.  You can't see it but there are feathers quilted on it.  As soon as I can learn to hoop the sandwich easier, I will be so much happier, because I love the end result!!

This is not my favorite piece, but I did learn how to do some new things and I do love doing new things!

Fairy House

This week I finished the fairy house my husband and I made for my granddaughters!

It was so much fun doing this.  There was an article in our newspaper about these and it got me fired up!  My son-in-law had the perfect stump in his log pile and then Rob drilled me some doors and windows.  He then made a swing for the fairies and I added the ladder.  Kayley, my seven year old granddaughter is so smart.  As I was making it she looked up at me and said, "Nana, why do you need a ladder, fairies have wings!".  Man I had to do some fast thinking.  I told her fairies get tired of flying, just like people don't like to run all the time.

Then I made the lounging bed and table and chairs.  We made some fairy rings to encourage the fairies to dance.  The girls love it.  I ordered a couple of books from Amazon and also ordered some from the library.  The books by Barry and Tracy Kane, especially Fairy Houses, everywhere! and Fairy Houses and beyond were great help.  And The Girls Book of Flower Fairies is wonderful to read with your children.  Just Google Fairy Houses and you will find lots of information to help.

It is a lovely addition to my garden and quite the conversation starter.  I encourage any of you to try this--you don't need kids around to enjoy.  I believe in fairies, do you?

Finished Rag Quilt!

The flannel ragtime quilt for my brother-in-law is done.  It took more time to clip the edges than making the whole quilt.  I took it to the laundromat to wash and dry.  Didn't want all those strings to mess up my washer and dryer!

I chose several animal prints thinking they looked more "manly".  And also, since he will be going for chemo, to make him think of the courage he might need.

The second photo is a picture of the back of the quilt, complete with a label!  Woohoo, another project done.

Row Markers

Today I am working on a Ragtime Quilt for my brother in law, Jim.  He was diagnosed with cancer recently and will be starting chemo in a couple of weeks. I want to get it done soon.

I am all ready to put the rows together.  I usually grab my sticky notes and number some, slap them on and half of them fall off before I get to the sewing machine.  Then I keep them for a while and then they get thrown out when I straighten up (which I should do more than I actually do).  Maybe you all can carry two rows to the machine and sew without turning one upside down, I have not mastered that, so I have to mark them.

My friend, Patsy, showed us all something at our guild meeting the other night that will help me immensely.  Of course, you can purchase row markers, but who wants to purchase them (save that money for fabric!!).  It literally took me less than five minutes and that included finding the supplies.

Grab some template plastic or really anything stiff.  You could even use heavy cardboard.  I made mine one inch square, wrote the row numbers on each, punched a hole in top and ran a safety pin through it.  DONE!  And they'll be easy enough to save.  And of course, you can also make column tags if you need to do that. 

Now to start sewing those rows.  Then the "FUN" part begins--clipping the edges!!