Friday, March 25, 2011

Ooohh. The sadness! The madness!

Well, I started working on my project that was to be a tutorial.... I was taking pics of what I was doing and the camera batteries died.. Not a big deal.. Just put some new ones in. I use rechargeables and I didn't have any charged, so I sat around and waited for them, then put them in. Turned on the camera and I had a "memory card error"! I was all, what the fork! So to make a long story short all 400 of my pictures are gone.. so long, farewell.. 3 card recovery downloads and none of them found anything. I am so sad. I am so mad. The pictures weren't of anything life changing or big deals, not births, or once in a lifetime trips. Just everyday things. But there were some from last years birthdays and walking trips and birds and things like that. I'm mad because it was my own damn fault. And I should know better. So, I guess I'm just going to stew about it and be pissed.
On to crafty things, because that is what makes me happy. After the camera thing I never continued working on my project. However, I found something else that I want to make. I went to Wal-mart last night and found this cute peasant style top, with shirring around the neck and it has these really ugly tassel tie things, that look like they should be on curtains. Anyway, it's only 4 pcs. 1 front, 1 back, and 1 for each sleeve. So I'm going to try and make a pattern and make my own. The only thing is that I'll need to find some fabric. So I'll have to look for something knit that is 100% cotton. Not like t-shirt material though. And I need to find some to make a skirt. I found the easiest pattern last year (somewhere) and its basically a tube for the skirt part that you gather and then a band for the waist. This time I could just shir the waist and it would be even easier... So, no pictures for today. Not much of anything really.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Coin purses!

Coiny coin purses! I made these little gems awhile ago when we were participating in a market kind of thing. I sold 1. That is a whole different post all together. But fear not these babies are FOR SALE!! There are flowerss, stars, money, and mushrooms. They all have a coordinating inside except for the money one. The brown flowered and mushrooms don't have a pocket. But the others do. The price is $4. Leave a comment if you're interested. Pass it along if you think someone else will like them! That's all for now. I think later I'm going to make something that I will post here! So stay tuned. My first tutorial....

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Yippee! C-R-A-F-T-Y!!


So, I made my lunch bag. It was an experiment. I've wanted to try zipper tabs for a while but never have, mostly because I haven't made much with zippers in while. But I've been sick and doing nothing for the past few days so I decided to do it yesterday. I worked on it most of the day and then finished it this morning. I didn't do the zip tabs correctly, because I made them the same width of the bag. They should have been shorter and then sewn around but not over. But now I know this for the future. And, I forgot about the pocket until after I was sewing up the lining but I was all "Oh, I can still do it after" so I forged ahead. Yeah, right. How am I going to sew a pocket onto something where I can't maneuver it around..so I had to get friendly with the seam ripper (nothing new there)! Then I wanted to quilt circles on it, like on the fabric. I traced some circles and used freezer paper to put them on, well that didn't work out. I had to take out tiny stitches for that one. I decided to do 2 zig-zags down the front. Then when I was about 10 minutes from being done I decided I wanted Velcro on the pocket..half of which I had to sew it on by hand (major suckfest on that one!). But now it is done! Yippee.

I'm pretty happy with it for a number of reasons. I like the zig-zags. I used up stash. The fabric I got in the fall at Mill End with a 60% off coupon. The lining was leftovers from other bags. The zipper was one I got from a sheet set. You know they come in those plastic zippered bag things, I keep those. I had one that would have matched but I didn't want to cut it up (it felt like a waste). The interfacing was some we had in the fabric bin.

Now it's going on Quiltstory! You can check them out by clicking the button too!
That's all I got!

Monday, March 21, 2011

I think I've mentioned that I love owls. I really do, they are cool. Well, part of that love is because last year we had some around the neighborhood. I could hear them but never see them, which is the way it goes with owls. Well, this year they came back (I'm assuming that it's the same pair). And they've been hootin' it up so on Saturday after a looong day at work I was in a foul mood. I decided that I needed to be outside, so I went looking for them (I had heard them early in the morning while I was getting ready for work) so I had a feeling they were straight back from our house. It's woods at the back of our property so I just started walking around and by some twist of fate, I found him. I say "him" because the female is with the babies. Here's some owl facts for you. They nest early, like the first ones to lay eggs, as early as last January. After I found him I ran back to the house to declare that "I found him". Then I took some pictures. He was awake and he was watching me. Which was s a little strange. I tried taking some pictures through the binoculars. Which usually offers mixed results.. It was really great to find him and to be able to see him and have him watch me. It made my whole long work day worth it, because I might not have gone looking if not for that day!

I don't know if I've mentioned here that I my bird love extends to all kind of birds. Last year we had a turkey family, wild turkeys are fun. I even named the Mom turkey (this is a habit..). We call her Loretta. Last year she had 3 babies, but towards fall one of them disappeared. So she only had 2. I could probably write a whole blog just on these crazy turkeys, the babies getting trapped in our fence, multiple times, being on the roof, crossing the street.. I mean really. They stressed me out. But they are back and I'm happy because they are fun and wild. Maybe this year (if she has babies) they will be smarter than the last ones. I don't have anything crafty to write about today, but I'm going to make myself a lunch bag. Maybe I'll get to it today. Hope you're all having a great Monday.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Cool Giveaway!

Vickie has a pretty great giveaway coming up.
It's called the "Pot O' Gold Giveaway". You can win a pretty great prize from The Fat Quarter Shop. Go on over there and check out what it's all about. You have until the 17th to enter.
And if you've never been to The Fat Quarter Shop check them out to! Lot's of great stuff to look at. I'd like to win the prize because then I'd be able to get some of the great fabric. And since I'm trying NOT to buy stuff I don't need it would be super great.
Thanks to Vickie for putting up the giveaway!!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Can bread make you sad???

YES! I was all excited to make some bread today. I had to get up early and so I wasn't doing anything at 9am so I thought "oohh, I'll make some bread and post it's beautiful picture on my blog. Yippee." I've never had this happen before. I've only made like 6 loaves this way. "This way" meaning I put all the ingredients in the bread maker and use the dough cycle. Then I let it rise and then throw it in a pan and let it rise then I bake it. Even loaf I've made has been good. Even the one that I let rise to long (not on purpose) and then smooshed it a little bit. Even that on looked better than this one...

I'm not sure what happened here, I let it rise and then put it in to bake and when I checked it about 1/2 way thru it was deflated. I was sad. That is how bread makes you sad.
On to other things. Like crafts! yea! They can also make you sad, but not today.

So I used the paper and pile of scraps to make this little coaster.

I don't know why the pic is turned but it is and blogger won't let me (or I don't know how) to change the orientation. But it's pretty slick how you make it, you just take good ol' Martha's log cabin template and sew the pieces onto it and there you go. You just use scraps. They don't have to be cut or the same size or anything. It was kind of fun to make. Then I added a little binding to it and blam-o done. Its polka dotted on the back. I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it ( I do know what to coaster is for) but we do have coasters at my house. Really, I just wanted to try the paper piecing.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

So, what's a fob?

Well, I've had 2 comments on my post from the other day. Yippee! Heather wanted to know what a "FOB" was. I was wondering that myself. So, of course I googled it. Here's what I found..
According to Webster's
fob (verb): "a short strap, ribbon or chain attached especially to a pocket watch" or "an ornament attached to a fob chain"
Now, what the hell is a fob chain? Webster's has no answer to that one. But I guess we can all figure it out. So there you are my darling sister. Ask and you shall receive.
So on to other things.. On my crafty calendar is to make some quilted coasters. This is in an effort to use my "Stash". I have a love/hate relationship with fabric (and other crafty items) because it's so pretty that you can't live with out it, but then you look at it and think "ohh, that's so pretty. I should make something with it" and then the next thought is "But I don't want to use it all up..." Like how does that make any sense? You want it to make things with but then you make nothing with it because it's "too pretty" to use. I'm trying to get over that and just use the fabric. It certainly isn't doing anything tucked away in a container in my closet. I mean I can't even look at it when it's in there...
Another thing I've been working on is a chainmaille bracelet. It's pretty cool, time consuming. I started working on it last summer, and then quit working on it and then just started working on it last night. Maybe I'll post some pictures tomorrow...

Monday, March 7, 2011

Of key chains and bracelets...

Well here's what I made over the weekend. This cool key chain. I think they call them "fobs" I saw a really cool one over at Dixie Mango but wanted it smaller and just a little different. So I decided to make it similar to a bag handle and then sew it up. And there it is! The part that was the most time consuming was deciding, then trying out, then having a FAIL, and then more deciding and then making of the little yellow part around the bottom.... I just love owls, my Mom even bought me a book all about owls, I read it cover to cover.

Up next we have a bracelet. Now if you're really looking you'll see that the bracelet looks a lot like the key chain but without the D ring. That's because I was testing out the key chain to see if it was long enough/short enough by putting it around my wrist and I was all "hey, that'd make a cute bracelet!" So I made one and here it is. It's got Velcro on the other side. Pretty simple! Pretty Cool!

So, I'm waiting for the peeps to start showing up to my blog. I've really been putting myself out there and visiting a lot of other blogs.. So I guess we'll see what happens.. and by "we" I mean me and the cat, since there's no one else around..


Ta-Ta










Thursday, March 3, 2011

Quilt Story

I like crafts! That includes quilts. I don't have a fancy dancy sewing machine that I can do all the cool stuff for quilting so I've stuck to really basic stuff. But I love it (and hate it) anyways. I do alot of link checking.. I find a cool blog and I look to see what kind of links they have, I've found some great stuff that way. Well I found one today Quilt Story. It's fun and there are so many pretty things.. sigh.. So check them out here! I'm making this post because they have this thing where you can put pictures of stuff you've made on the blog. So I did! Yippee. I love blogs!

Bags!

So here are my pictures!

Bag number One!

This is a bag that I designed when I couldn't find a pattern. I searched all over and looked at bags you could buy or patterns you could buy and I was all.. "hey, I can come up with something like that" So here it is. It's meant to be worn across your body but the handle isn't so long that you couldn't wear it on one shoulder. This was also a stash buster. I bought this fabric to make a bag like #2 for a Christmas present. It can be reversed but it has a seam on the inside but NO raw edges. I've never had an bag like this before. I just used it recently and it was kind of nice not to have to hold onto it. The only thing this bag does not have is a closure. This was mostly because I didn't think about it until after I had done the top stitching.. So I just left it.

Bag number Two!

For this bag I made a pattern from a grocery bag. I love these bags. I also love to make them. They look so cool but are a snap to make. I use them for everything. And they hold a lot of stuff. The outside is basic quilter's cotton and the inside is heavier weight "sportswear" fabric which makes them nice and tough!

Well, I guess that's all I have for now. Blogger was giving me nothing but problems I had to CTRL ALT DEL 3 times and started a new post just to be able to post this. Seems like I remember blogger giving me problems before. But Oh well.
**If you see something you like let me know. I'm not 100% on prices yet but they will be reasonable. These can also be customized (bigger, smaller, taller, longer handles) and if I can make a freezer paper stencil, custom designs painted on the outside (names, initials...)







Tuesday, March 1, 2011

So..Like is she dead??

Poke! Poke! wait for it...

Huh? Wha??

What's going on? Oh, it's you! Am I dead? Nope.. still kicking!

Ok, So I know that it has been forever and two years since I last posted. But I am still here and I do have something new in store. Wanna know what it is?

Well, I love making stuff. Love, as in if I could do it and make enough money to never work a real job again, I would.. I wouldn't need a lot of money either. So I've decided that I'm going to try and use this blog as I once did (wayyy back when) plus I'm going to use it to try and sell the things I make. So if (when I get the pics up) you see something you like, let me know.



Here is my list of things that I already have made:

Crocheted washcloths. I love em and use em!

Sewn coin purses, in various fabrics..

Bags. These bags are shaped just like a plastic grocery bag but they are fabric. I love these and use them ALL the time.

Felted bags. Wooly goodness!

Fabric bags. My Mom makes these.

Shoulder bag, has one strap to wear across yer bad. I have one made but love it so I'll post it.



So I guess that's all I have for now. I'll work on filling in the past few years as the posts go.