Not your Grandma's Dolls

You MUST meet my talented friend and visit her new blog where she will soon (at least I hope so) be posting lovely pictures of the most UNIQUE and EXCEPTIONAL handmade items. Regularly, you will find Dolls such as this Raggedy-style shown above; but also for the Holiday Season you will find Snowmen, ornaments, Santas, and more! She does quality work--no joke.

If you are in her area, go by Sisters Christmas Tree Farm (Deming,WA) and you will find her goodies in Sisters Shoppe for sale! Tell her I sent you! Hopefully she will soon have the ability to sell to you online as well. In the meantime, send me a note and I will see what I can do for you! Or write a note to her!

Gnomes need Homes...

I have crafted some Christmas Santa-like Gnomes in sets of three. They are based on the pattern for Jumbleberry Santas by Simone Gooding. Her's are created from wool felt...very cute! I made a few adjustments to accommodate sewing with cotton and other fabric on hand. They are about 4, 6, and 9 ish inches tall.

ANYWAY, I am posting here to see if any family members want first grabs at a set. These are what I have completed but have about 5 more sets ready to stitch up....let me know SOON. :)

The Peppermint Guys have been taken by my daughter!

Quilting to Go Bag

I finally just did it. Well actually...I said "screw it" and just did it. The following bag has been sitting unfinished with just the binding left to do since..um...June I think(?). The pattern called for hand-stitching it on after a stitch and fold scenario and I said NO. So...I stitched, turned, and zigzagged it on. DONE. It's mine and that's that.

Now I can take my rulers, cutters and small mat along with my fabric or whatever if I want to go to Modern Domestic Sew Night! **Sorry the pictures are so bad; we got a new camera though so as soon as I learn how to use it and download/upload from it they will be better! Anyway, take a look..........

Bag Back has 3 pockets: 1 for Ruler, 1 for Rotary
Cutter, and 1 for Whatever.

Bag Front has an awesome Big Pocket. I can
put my 12 1/2" square ruler in it with room to spare.

My FAVORITE of it all. I stitched a posie-like flower on the
rotary pocket.

My 6x24 ruler fits. Yay! The gussets are shown here too.

A Weekend Trip...

...requires a weekend bag! Even Callie knows that! Using a pattern found on the Weekend designer web site, I fashioned an awesome bag from a stash of outdoor (very slippery) fabric I've had for several years.

I REALLY like the web site because you have to draft your own pattern templates based on measurements given. It offers great practice and more experience in this aspect of sewing to me!

I added a loop&hook closure to the cool, big pockets on
both sides of the bag.

And I used a double zipper too.

All Set!

Since I now have the pattern pieces made and I had enough of this fabric, I will be making another one for my daughter. (Which is who I went to visit for this bag's first weekend trip!)

Living Room Pillows

I'm only 3/4ths done....but I know my mother is dying to get a sneak peek. Yes, I'm slower than Christmas! Look...it's been a month since I posted last. lol.

I want to give ALL KINDS of information about the fabric..but...um...I lost it. Oops. I CAN tell you though that I have tried Kona Cotton Solid now (the natural color in the pillows) and it really is nice to work with like they say. I'll be looking to buy more in the future!  All patterns were found on the allpeoplequilt.com web site.

Here are all four with one circle pillow back showing.

I had a little fun with the stitching on my machine

 and the design of the fabric. :)

Unfinished little squares pillow is from the "Sweet Retreat
room ensemble" from the web site.

This and the square pillow are from the project
"Squares and Circles Pillows."
 (how imaginative of a title hehe)

All pretty now....a place to lay our head.
Well...almost. Still have one-quarter to go! :0)

Pedal Pusher?

...No, not the pants. I was just wondering though: who else MUST remove their shoe to "push the pedal" on the sewing machine like me? Can you tell a difference when sewing with a shoe on? What do you do? On or off or both (no difference to you)?

I remove my shoe EVERY time! lol...I think it's a control thing. Only trouble with that is I end up walking around with only ONE shoe on to go to the ironing board or whatever! Oh goof-y-ness!

Dish Mat

This was fun to make! I used this tutorial and did a little customizing on it to fit my own need.

I have made this Bee style one for a friend of mine.
The front with the lovely Debbie Mumm bee fabric and a flower fabric (don't know who).

The back is made with kitchen towels I purchased at Costco sewn together. Cute little beehives!

I have 2 more lined up and ready to get stitchin' on:
The first is Fruits with fruity colors!

The next is a Cake (looks chocolatey) with pink/purple colors!

Adorable AND functional...I wonder which one I'll use in MY kitchen?