Summer Tote/Bag Swap

Hey there!  Dandelion Quilts is sponsoring a swap!  Head on over and sign up!  It's a bag/tote/purse swap!  You'll have until the end of July to complete your swap item and send it out.

Come join the fun!

Happy Monday!
Jen

It's a Party!

A charm party.  A Charm Party Tote in all its cherry glory.  I started this bag last Spring and for whatever reason, I put it aside.  Maybe I thought the fabric was too much to look at.  Maybe I got tired of it.  Maybe something else came along.  Who knows.  I don't remember but I pulled it out of my WIP basket a couple of days ago and got it finished today.

One thing I did different was make the handles longer.  I don't like short handles.  If I'm carrying a bag, I want to carry it on my shoulder comfortably.

It's cute.  I like it.  Great for toting things around this Summer.

View #1

View #2

Lining...

Amelia and I had a play date this afternoon.  My good friend from high school and her daughter.  We went over to their house and hung out all afternoon.  It was nice to just sit, relax and chat while the girls played.  We had a good time and can't wait to get together again.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Jen :)

It's huge and it kicked my butt!

My hexagon table runner is done.  It kicked my butt.  Oh geez.  For every one piece I sewed, I ripped three out.  I can't tell you how many times I ripped a full row out.  But enough to start fraying my fabric pieces so I finally said, that's it.  That's the way it's going to be.  I'm not going to stress about it.  That's my new motto, by the way.

I fell in love with this runner when I saw it on Heather Mulder Peterson's blog and bought a kit.  I've never used a 60' ruler nor made a hexagon but I thought I would give it a try.  I'm happy to say that I did but I'm not going to try again any time soon! 

So, a few of my hexagons are wonky and don't line up all the way but you know what?  I'm not going to stress!  I've asked Sharon to see if she had time to quilt it and I figured with all the quilting, it will disguise all the little issues.

Wanna see it?

And here's a wider shot of my table so that you can see how big this thing is.

Well, Amelia is home from school today.  She's not feeling well and finally decided to take a nap.  Hopefully that will settle her tummy.  :(

Now that is is done, I will work some more on Amelia's quilt and finish my Charm Party Tote that I started last Spring.  It feels good to have one project out of my WIP basket!

That's all for now.
Enjoy your day!
Jen

What I've been up to

Hi there.  I hope all is well.  I've been busy.  I got a few things done and I'm happy they are off my list.

First - End of the year teacher gifts for Amelia.  I made those cute pouches again.  I put together pairs of fabrics and Amelia got to chose 4.  I decided to make the pouches same outer fabric on both sides and no embellishments.  The easier the quicker the better.  I especially like the lime green zipper on the pink pouch.  Nice pop of color.

And the insides.  Only thing I have to do is slip stitch the turning holes in the bottom of the liners.

Next up (I love how this came out!) - a personalized pillow for Amelia.  It's a secret.  I'm going to give it to her for her 5th birthday in August.  I don't know why I'm saving it for then but I just want it to be a gift.  I have a little puckering between a couple of the letters but I'm not going to stress about it.  It's VERY cute and I want one for myself!  Same colors too!!  LOL.  I think I'm going to make them as gifts for the family kids this Christmas/birthdays.  It did take me a couple of hours to do her name but after that, it was smooth sailing.

One of the quilt shops that I've taken classes in a few times is having a GREAT sale until the end of the month.  Buy 2 yards, get 1 yard free.  I took a ride on Saturday and bought 16 yards of fabric.  SIXTEEN YARDS!  Oh my.  But 8 of them were "free".  That's how I justify my purchase.  LOL!  My stash is getting full now.

One last thing, I ordered some labels from Sweetwater Street.  I want to be able label totes and smaller things that I make for people.  I ordered 4 so that I can see the size and such.  Even though I really like the bigger ones, I think I'm going to get the small square with flower.  I think it's too cute.  I also want to get personalized ribbon for the same reason from here.  Now that I decided on this label, I can make my decision on the ribbon.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Economic Stimulation

Hello there!  How is everybody today?  I have been busy creating but I'm not ready to show anything yet.  So why don't I show you all the fabric I bought last week!  We all love fabric!

Here it is.

The Birdie and Candy Land fabric will be made into pillowcases for Amelia.  I love pillowcases.  Quick to do and they show off fun fabrics.  Instant gratification is good in my book.

Next is some Wildflowers yardage by Heather Mulder Peterson.  My LQS has an annual anniversary sale in May and I got these for 20% off.  Not bad.  She just got these bolts in too.  I wish she had gotten more of the collection.  Maybe some of the reds.  But I'll take what I can get.  I have plans to go to another quilt shop on Saturday morning since I haven't been there in ages and see what they have.  Last time I was there, this other shop had Wildflowers.  I'm sure it won't still be there but doesn't hurt to check!

And then I thought I was done shopping.  But NOOOOOOOOO.

Here is some Rebel Roses yardage by Heather MP.  The story goes like this.  Last year some time, Heather was promoting some table runner kits and her Sizzling Sixties pattern book and a 60' ruler on her blog.  I LOVED the tablerunner so I snatched up a kit.  Never looked at it again.  Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  I have so many things started (don't we all) and other things waiting to see the light of day.  So I dug around and decided to make a new runner for my table.  I dove right in and started making my pieced hexagons ONLY to find out that I was shorted some fabric!!  WHHHHHHHYYYYYYY?!?!  I cried!  Of course the hexagons I started were the ones short fabric.

Okay, seriously.  What is up with Blogger??  Every third picture is going to be oriented wrong?!  It's fine in my folder.

I quickly ran to the computer (while swearing up a storm!) and found some yardage doing a quiltshops.com search.  FYI - LOVE that search engine.  It is marvelous!  One shop had 2 of the three I was missing.  I needed to substitute the blue print for another.  No one around had the blue print I needed.  A couple of shops in New Zealand did.... I passed.  Now that my additional yardage is here, I can continue working on my hexagons.  Hopefully I'll have the top pieced soon so that I can show it to you.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Another Finish and Zippers

What a boring post title.

I got my 6th block finished for the Jelly Roll Sampler done.  CUTE!

Another thing I tried was installing and sewing zippers.  I tried once and my attempt didn't come out very well.  So I never tried again.  Until I saw Jen's cute little pouches.  I needed to hunt down the pattern (my LQS had it - last one too!) and give it a try.

SUCCESS!  I'm quite pleased in how it turned out.  I have a bunch of fat quarters that I bought a few years ago when I started my sewing adventures and never used them.  Now, when I look at them, I have no idea what drew me to them.  So I put a few to good use and made a practice pouch.  I love how I even had a button to match!

Why is this picture orientated wrong??  It's fine in my picture folder.  Darn blogger!

I gave this one to Punkie.  She saw it and immediately asked if it was for her.  How could I say no.  She has since filled it with her pennies.  LOL.

I'm going to make these for Amelia's teachers as end of the year thank you gifts.  I think I'm going to put a gift card to Target in each of them.  Just have to sit with Amelia and pick out some fabrics to use.

But this has me thinking, I wonder how hard it would be to install zippers using tote patterns that don't have them?  It can't be that hard, can it?

Enjoy your day!
Jen

How about some Punkie Pie?

It's been a while since I posted some pictures of Amelia.  So here you go!  Enjoy!

Ignore her hair.  LOL!  Sometimes it has a mind of its own.

Twirling.  She loves to wear dresses and tops that can twirl and flare out.

In her pink tutu skirt.

Best for last.  On her BIG GIRL bike!

Enjoy your day!
Jen