Older Days

I picked up a bundled package of several packs of bias tape, tiny ricrac, seam tape, and iron on hem tape at Goodwill yesterday.  I really bought the package for the all the packs of tiny rickrack.  Also in this package was some loose, opened packages of biased tape.  I'm in my early fifties, and I don't remember getting Wright's bias tape for this price of .10 cents.  It does look like something my Grandma used to have in her sewing box.

Whenever, I see these old things, it always reminds me of the times when we would spend time sewing.  She was the one that gave me such a solid foundation in my faith, life skills, lots of love and of course sewing skills.



Isn't this nice, the even included a pattern on the back of the label. You don't find that kind of thing anymore!

Two Zip Hipster Bag

NOTE:  This sold before I got it on listed on Etsy!


This is my version of the pattern from "A Dog Under My Desk", found here. I bought her PDF pattern to do a different look of a bag for my Etsy shop.  I also wanted to do more with zippers on pockets.  I had this fabric left over from when I did the chair cushions and since it is in a camo print, I decided to line it with hunter orange fabric.  I thought this fabric would look nice made into a bag, and it wouldn't cost much except for the hardware.

This first picture shows the outside zippered pocket.

This picture is the one I will use on my Etsy store.

Along the way I decided to make a matching key fob using orange webbing and the camo fabric sewn on the webbing.

This view is the hipster standing up, showing the open pocket behind the zippered pocket.  It also shows the main compartment zipped shut.

B

These last two pictures below the bag opened (sorry, the bright orange it photograph well), showing the pocket inside, which I made two pencil slots.

One Hour Sew Time

Sometimes, I only get an hour or less a day to sew. (Deep sigh) And the month of September is usually tougher to get in some sewing time because it is canning season. I've made some kind of sauce out of our tomatoes every week this month, several pints of jalapeños, we just canned our modest potato harvest, and this weekend we will be roasting and canning our continuous green chile harvest.

Oh, and my husbands gun shows pick up in the fall, so the last two weekends we spent working at the shows. Both days of the weekend...OK, no more whining.

 I try to have several Projects cut out and ready to just pick up and start sewing when I have these little snippets of time. I can always work on my Farmer's Wife's blocks, because I cut all 111 blocks out for both color ways. I just grab a package of a cut out block and start sewing. Here is what I got done last night.

Ever Had a Bad Sewing Day?

Well last week, I had such a day. I was making a pair earbud holders for my Dad and his friend. My mom thought they would be nice for the two of them have when going to the gym so they could keep better track of their earbuds.

 Let me preface to say, this is not the first time I have made this little pouch, try 4 times already, and I have already sold 2 on my Etsy shop! I made the first one, good to go, making it my 5th one made. Then came THIS one. I made it and believe it or not it looked worse than what's pictured, so I took it apart and tried it again. Better, but still awful! My rule is to only rip out something once, after that and it still looks bad or funky, into the trash it goes. I figure I have too much fabric and too little time to get all worked up about projects that go wrong.

 So I got up from the machine, cut out another one, and sewed it up just fine! Except, I mailed it off before I got a picture of it and the other one, as they turned out perfect pretty good. At least my Dad and his friend thinks so!

Sunday's Reflections

Chair Pads

Be sure to read to the bottom of the post for an update of how well they worked at the show.

 I rose to the the occasion of necessity. Let me explain. When we go to the shows my husband does, we have to sit on chairs the faucilities providies, always really hard and crappy. Most of the time they are the cold, metal banquet type chairs. And, since we are not busy a lot ot the time, we end up sitting on the cold, hard, crappy seats. And after two days of torture, I said enough is enough! My first thought was to take a couple of old chair pads (as seen in the first picture) Yuck! Just picture it, walking into the show places, setting up the tables, and plunking down kitchen chicken pads! I can just hear the snickers, and snide comments. After all, these shows are like being a man cave.

After thinking about it Thursday night, I dug out some camouflage fabric, a couple of zippers and webbing. I put the zippers in first, then added the webbing (for handles to carry them), and then stitched up the three sides. TaDa!

Update: the chair pads were wonderful, my backside didn't feel like it had been ironed to my frontside. And, as an unplanned bonus the carry handles hooked over the back of the chair, holding them in place, and kept them from falling off. Oh, and I didn't hear any snickers and snide comments! Tee Hee Hee!

This and That

The last two and a half days have been a mixture of several different sewing things getting done. I have eighteen blocks to get done during September if I am to stay on track of completing all of the Farmer's Wife quilt by the end of the year. Thank goodness I have all of the blocks cut out for the entire quilt, because it makes it easier just to grab a packet of a couple of blocks and sit down and sew. I managed to get three done during these past days. The first two are out of civil war reproduction fabrics, and the third one is from Breath of Avignon colorway.

This is called the Friendship block. Women used to make them, put their name on it, exchange them amongst themselves, and then make them into a quilt that would have all their friends names either written or embroidered on the blocks. I made this one for the leader of the Farmers's Wife quilt along. All of who are participating in this quilt along are making one for her in the the fabrics they are using in their quilts. She will have about 20 Friendship blocks that she can make into anything she wants to, and then she will have something memorable regarding us and this big project.

Then I wanted to get back to my 2012 goal of assembling and quilting some of my past BOMs, and the one I chose to work on this evening was the one called "Star Skill Builder Sampler". I posted about it here and here, that shows the twelve blocks I have already made. Below are the cornerstone blocks that will go at each corner of the twelve blocks. I have to make 20 of these, and I have to be really careful because I have very little of the light fabric and I don't want to run short.

I have so much going on and I have more to share, but I'll save it for the next few day's post.

I Woke Up This Morning.....

WARNING, this is a lenghty post! I woke up this morning with this on my mind:

And I wanted to go straight to here:

But I had these things to do first:

Laundry. There is always laundry to be done since I first had children. I am greatful, that the amout of laundry is less now that the boys are out on there own. I even have those nice front loading units on pedestals, which is supposedly to help in doing the laundry. Not. Laundry is laundry, no matter how it is done, and it is a neverending chore. One is never done with laundry, as there is always the clothes you wear the day while you're doing all the other laundry.

While the washer was working it's cycles on the first load, I had this chore to do.  The chore of ironing.  Yep, I iron. Most people can't believe that I am still ironing.  Mostly it is the button up shirts for my husbandAnd once in a while a shirt or blouse of mine.  I feel, and this is just the way I believe, that how the family looks out in public is a direct reflection on the woman of the household.  So I iron! What can I say?

Ok, so we are about three hours into my day, I see there are more tomatoes ripe out in the garden. So I trek out there and pick a large bowlful.  Then I remembered I had about this much more in the fridge from a picking earlier this week.  

So, I cut them in half (throwing in some yellow pear tomatoes), into a big stew pot to cook down into sauce.

I pureed the pot of tomatoes, and decided to make this batch into enchalida sauce. I let it cook down with all the other ingredients for about three hours, and the pressure canned it.

And here is the final result, 4 quarts, and 1 pint. Hardly seems worth the canning of such a small batch,

I am not sure how well you can see in the picture above, but I used the "Tattler" reusable lids. This is my first time using them, and I really like the way they work. They seem a little pricey initially, but I think they will be worth it over the years. I went to put three boxes of regular lids in my cart, and then I saw the "Tattler" lids. The cost of the three boxes of regular lids equals one box of "Tattler" lids. So in reality, I will recoup the initial cost after three times of use, and then after that it is like free money! You can go here to find out more about these lids.

I did manage to get some sewing in late in the afternoon and evening, but I will save that post for tomorrow, as this one went on forever. Kinda like my day felt today. canning season does that to anyone who cans.

Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Designer BOM - Block 4

This is about all I have been able to get done outside of my Etsy shop stuff, and doing the show this weekend, really left very little time for sewing. Speaking of the show, I was able to display several of my things for potiential customers, but to no avail, I only sold one thing. Normally I would have been disappointed, but nobody did very good at the show and my Etsy shop is doing just fine and dandy, so no complaints. Tomorrow is my day off, so after my weekly house chores, and a trip to the Goodwill, I'll get some more sewing done. I can't wait!

Below is block 4 of the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery BOM. It came yesterday, I cut it out last night and made it this afternoon. You can find out more information here.
I have pictured the previous blocks below to give you a look of all the blocks as we progress through out the rest of the program.

Block 3

Block 2

Block 1

Sunday Reflections

In these somewhat trying and unknown times we must remember.....

Africian Violet Blooming Again

I really enjoy this violet plant. It blooms about every 3 - 4 months, the blooms last for about a month, it likes Mircle Grow for a treat once in awhile, and it is 7 years old! Wonder how old that is in plant years?

This is one side of the plant,

This is the other side, although it looks like a separate plant, its not.  The  blooms start out dark purple and them they get this verigated look.

Now I do have it in a special Africian Violet pot.  It is a pot within a pot, with the inner pot having a porous bottom, this way the plant always get watered from the bottom.  NEVER water them at the top of the plant.  I really think this is the secret to it's success.

Remembering 9-11

Today is a silent post to remember...

Whoop! Whoop!

I have been on cloud nine since about 3:00pm this afternoon. I made my "real" first sale on my ETSY store today! I did the whoop, whoop with my fists pumping the air all the way home from work today. I'm sure all the other commuters thought, "what a crazy old lady".


I opened my ETSY store on August 15, 2012, and did not expect sales for awhile. Only because there are thousands of stores and goods on ETSY, so I knew it would be some time before i would be found and start to get some sales. I've had three sales to date, the first was from my son. I sent him the link to the store in an email, and he bought three things. Then a co-worker from a previous job saw my items on Pinterest, and placed a custom order. So today's sale was the first sale to someone unknown, and was found through a search. So, that is why I call it my first "real" sale!

Tonight, I worked on some new inventory for the shop. These are really cute ear bud holders, and you can find the pattern here. Having the key ring on it enables you to attach this pouch to your keys, and thus having your ear buds handy. It keeps them from tangling in your purse, and is padded for further protection for the buds. (I did buy the PDF pattern to use for selling the product)

Sunday's Reflections

Today's Project

I worked on some new things for my etsy shop. At the same time, I am also making these same things for shows that my husband does. I think I've shared before that he is a gun dealer, and we do gun shows all over Oregon. So a lot of the camo items I make will fit right in at these shows.

First off are coasters made with camo fabric that has the "Army" logo, and are offset with the yellow that is found in the "Army" logo. Sorry, it's kind of hard to see in this pic the Army part.

My youngest twin is an Oregon Beavers fan, and wanted a dog collar reflecting the teams colors and logo for his English Springer, Lincoln, (see him in the next pic showing it off). I wanted to try a sample one first, before I started making them for my shop.  

Isn't he just beautiful!

And here is a bunch of projects cut out ready to go.  I like to get them cut out in big batches like this, because then when I have an extra 20 minutes or so, I can sit down and just sewa project.  I find it makes better use of my time.