★★★ I'm still learning! In my most recent sewing class, we learned how to use a 3-way cording foot to make a coaster: "Mug Rugs". They were a lot of fun to make, although it did take time. I began making a video on my Olympus but 2 seconds in to the video, the camera ran out of memory. I do plan on trying it again on the Sony video camera. Here's a photo-shot of my foot in action. Basically, you keep seaming in a square, but always seaming the entire 4 inches. We used Aqua Magic for our stabilizer; it washes away with water. It's SO COOL!

After you've completed your square, there will be loops to cut. You can see some of my loops forming in the photo above. I combed my cut loops so I could measure and trim for a more tidy look. I didn't read how short to trim it, but I thought an inch looked good. :) Here it is finished.

Moving on: The most recent project I completed is this cute organizer for my planner. (Using a planner is an old system that worked well in my past, and I've started using one again.) I wanted to apply what I learned with the cording foot to this project.

The cording is the bottom trim (sewed with a decorative stitch) and and I added another decorative stitch just to see how it looked. :) I like seeing what my machine can do!

I added a gold cord between the two fabrics, but it's hard to see. I used a regular zigzag stitch to keep that in place. I have been watching Sewing With Nancy on Twin Cities Public Television 3 days a week. This week I learned how to use my zigzag stitch as an appliqué stitch too. I attached the elastic pencil holder using that method.

I need pockets - lots of 'em! This one is for my cards.

And of course I have to have a pocket for all of my craft coupons and other notes I might need to take. And that's it! It was nice to not follow a pattern so I could use my mind to come up with design ideas. I like practicing my decorative stitches.

And yet another project: I made some place mats over the weekend too. These aren't quilted or batted. They would work well for bed night stands, especially since I made only two. :P My corners are perfect. I used a tool that is designed to give me perfect corners every time. It's called Sewing Revolution Double Mitre Ruler. Made in the USA. I learned about this ruler in my sewing class too! Thank God for my sewing class!

I think my next project will be a bunny doll. I've already started cutting out the pattern pieces for it. I saw some 5 3/4" lace trim last night at Joanne's Crafts that I might be able to incorporate into the petticoat or something. Joanne's has a crazy sale going on with items being 50% off. I should pick up that lace pronto. OH! (Changing the subject here) I saw cute tiny sequins/lills pins while I was picking out my appliqué pins. I've never used them for sequins, but I bought them so I could try it. I like the detail work. I'm going to have to get a new book now! :P

All right, I've written a "blog" day in my planner each week to help me stay on top of it. So, now I can say "Until next week..." as my closing. So...

Toodles, until next week! ★★★

Cute Salmon Kitty

Good Morning!

This morning I have sewing club in Champlain, MN. Our instruction is to bring 4 yards of 3 different color decorative yarns and our sewing machine. We're making coasters and I have absolutely no idea what the heck we're doing. It interests me somewhat, but it's not an overwhelming interest.

What does interest me is my latest project. My sweet Salmon Kitty! She is too cute.

Kitty front-view

Kitty rear-view

Kitty features... I decided on a light nose because my kitty Fiona has a light nose, although it's pink not white! :) The features are cut from synthetic woolen felt. I decided to glue the features on instead of a fancy hand stitch. Of course, the whiskers and eyelashes are embroidery thread, not felt.

This kitty was easy to whip up. The directions are just as easy as making chocolate milk! :) I used Simplicity 2613 for the pattern. I'm also going to make the elephant.

I'm going to scoot off. Sewing With Nancy plays on TPT (channel 17 if you're in the Twin Cities) at 7 am and I've kept in habit watching it on Mon, Wed and Fridays, as those are the only days she is on air. :)

Blessings!

A Holiday Table Runner and Poly-Pumpkins

I have had an itch for a couple days to sit down and write again. When I arrived here, I was reminded that it's been 9 days again (Thanks Laura!!). I can't believe how time flies. One of my new hobbies lately is to sit at the computer for at least an hour at a pop and research sewing machines. (That's where the time goes!) I was starting to lose hope in the Kenmore I sent in to have fixed. I thought for sure I screwed it up bad because I have a tendency to be really hard on things. Nothin' delicate about me! I dig in full force! Well anyways, I got a call two days ago that my Kenmore was back in MN and I picked it up. The only thing wrong with it was the bobbin tension and timing. I thought for sure I messed up the gears somehow. HAHA! (That's why I've been reasearching new machines. Well that, and I want a new one "just because".) I started to sew up a table runner in beautiful blues last night and it runs like a dream again. I will mention though, that I messed with the bobbin before I started my project. I'm PICKY ABOUT MY TENSION! It may be my weakness as a seamstress. Hah.

I'll move on. I learned how to sew this table runner in my serger class.

The desk it is displayed on is my old sewing desk. It's around 70 years old and I love it!

This next photo is a result of a day's worth of work! I went through all of the fabric my new friend at work gave to me. I measured it and separated it into their piles. When I was finished folding and organizing, I counted the yardage: 70+ yards! Woohoo! What a blessing. The table runner that I'm working on is from that stash. She has excellent taste in fabrics! (A photo of the table runner will be posted as soon as I finish it.)

I don't know if any of you remember that I made some cupcakes out of polymer clay a long while back. I just couldn't stop making them after I got started. HAH! They are too cute. I wear them for earrings and people just love them. So do children, little girls especially!

So, my husband was impressed with these cute little miniatures and encouraged me (repeatedly for days!) to make pumpkins for the season. I finally set my stuff up and made them and they turned out adorable! I even made little vines for them. Cute, cute, cute! They will be used as earrings, pendants and charms. They were a lot of fun to put together. My last step is to polish and varnish them, then put on the findings. :)

My mom and I have planned to go to a craft show in Blaine, MN today. Oh, a handful of women from work are also going to meet us there. It will be so fun! Apparently, this is the only show of it's kind for crafters to make as much money as they do in the state. I'm not going to spend money though - I'm going for ideas and to compare my craftmanship! Shhh...:)

A 9 Day Update

Doh! The last time I wrote was 9 days ago! I've said this before. I always have intentions of writing each week, but that isn't realistic for me at times.

As some of you already know, I have had some big ideas and some really big ideas as of late. I'm getting my cute little ducks lined up in a row because I like things to operate smoothly when it comes to implementing my ideas.

First off, I met a friend at work who is a quilter, Evie. It's torture for me to not completely blab about sewing while I'm on the clock! She's been quilting for around 20 years and had accumulated a little stash of fabrics that she has tried to get rid of - she's cleanin' house! Well, I gladly took that extra stash off her hands. :) I thought a basket of fresh veggies from our garden would be a nice "thank you". I stitched this dish towel up on the Kenmore 19233 and it rode "shotgun" on our journey to Evie's. :D She liked the basket of vegetables! She'd mentioned taking a photo of them, and I told her that I did!

So with some of the fabric stash, I worked on sewing up a cosmetic bag. I started with a pattern from Sew Pretty Homestyle and decided that I didn't care for the construction of the bag. I adjusted the pattern for cleaner construction. This is what I have come up with.

The day before my birthday, my "WizardGir1" labels arrived in the mail! I will now start adding labels to my finished items. :) I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out. You can definitely tell that the last letter is a number one and not the letter "L".

For my birthday, Evie gave me this beautiful Croton plant! I'd mentioned to her that my Croton wasn't doing so well and it's a bummer because the foliage is so gorgeous with color variegation.

My husband, Ed, bought me a Nikon for my birthday! I love the grape color. This is such a great gift for me because I always say "where's my camera!" when we are out and about and I see something snapshot worthy. This little baby fits right in my pocket! Woohoo! (I took the photo of the Croton plant with it.)

We had a frost a couple nights ago, so I figured that I should get out to the garden and harvest all that I could of our vegetables. These are quite the carrots! They didn't do this well last year. Never overwater your carrots - that causes those ugly cracks!

When I was harvesting the week before, I came across this little guy. It's going to be a Swallowtail butterfly, but I'm not sure which one. I have an easy laminated guide I use to determine caterpillar varieties. :) I'm not only a shutter-bug, I'm a "bug-bug" too! What a pretty caterpillar.

Well, there's a little introduction to my big ideas, and what I've been up to since I've last posted an entry. I still have some more duckies to line up before I can unveil anything further than this. Things take time. :) Until my next post...