Getting it done early...

I seriously do not remember learning all this about Roman Numerals back in grade school...I do remember learning about them in hmm 3rd grade or so, but not THIS much about them lol. It's easy but  :D Maybe I purged the information when I deemed it useless other than telling time at a glance on my mom's clock lol. Now onto fraction review...yay (?!?) I do remember a bit more about them.

Something I started today

This is a purse I started today. I changed up the pattern some and am happy with it except now I wish I had put in something to give it more stability. It will work as is, but hmm thinking my sister might like this. I'm still deciding on the closure and binding for the purse. It will be a solid red, just not sure zipper, flap, button ???

The inside is a lovely bright green :D. I love making liners a bright color. This is a pretty crappy pic, but I was taking it really fast before getting into bed to load this. You can see how I should have lined it :X

Figuring out how I want the coin purse and/or makeup bag...it's about the size of a dinner napkin and shaped much like one LOL. I can go a few ways with it as it is ...

Here is my prized duffel bag purse! It's ugly canvas/brown color but it's awesome! I used no pattern and winged it the whole way through and as soon as I remember to buy more colors of canvas and straps, I'll make more. I like the durability of the fabric...not sure if I'd make it in a lighter fabric. I can throw this around and not worry - well other than not smashing my phone, camera, ipod, etc LOL. They do have their own little padded sleeves but still :D

The inside is a very bright blue. I hope to find more blue fabric like this - it's a perfect liner color for a lot of fabrics I have. The inner design of the purse needs more - I did one blah pocket and it's rather useless. I have a few ideas for the next one. This purse is still my favorite even with its' flaws! The flower(s) I stenciled as an afterthought when I found my pattern test turned out usable.

I should sleep. Tomorrow is my first official day in the new job position!



One gift done....

I finished a Christmas gift today! I wish I could post a picture of it, but the person might see it on here....it turned out pretty good!

It's really odd having weekends off after working them for a few years now. This is the second one in a row and I still find myself planning things for a weekday then thinking oops!  I won't be working 40 hours most weeks so I'll still have some weekday time free sometimes, but still, yay! I don't know how to be normal anymore :D

Taking a break right now to play on here, then back to the sewing machine. I also have some math homework to work on...it's easy math so far, but since it's been so many years, I need the review!

I had some friends see my purses and say they'd buy them, so hmm....maybe? I keep toying with the idea. Maybe after some more practice purses. I'm also working on figuring what design I like best. I am keeping my patterns as I make them. I can totally say I suck at making wallets! Coin purses and makeup bags are a breeze, but wallets I might have to practice at a lottttttttttttt more! I think I know what the problem is. I always start a wallet after I have made a purse and I'm ready to be done with that purse and on to the next LOL. I have no patience left. I should stop making matching things and just work on wallets for a bit. Maybe after a couple more Christmas purses that I am kinda planning on giving away..? :D

Happy Thanksgiving!

The house smells wonderful and I'm getting so hungry! Just waiting on the turkey now....then lots of sleep (hopefully) before a crazy black friday shift at work - my last official shift in the old job position and then another weekend off! I'm loving my new schedule. We can be a family again :D

I'm here...

I'm working on a really cool Christmas gift and can't post pics here... We've had a lot going on and lots of changes in my life. One thing really bad I finally had to make the decision to leave behind for good, and a few really great things happening. The good outweighs the bad :D



Here are a couple purses I've made in the past year. The zebra one is for my oldest daughter. She picked out the fabric. The accent fabric (huge outside pocket not shown - other side) is a sold bright green and is also the liner color. She carries this every day stuffing it full of stuff for school and it's holding up well.

This pyramid purse is one of my favorites. I found a blog with a great tutorial and need to find it again to give proper credit. None of us has used this purse or the others I made like it. They kind of got shoved to the side in my excitement to try more and more techniques and designs. It would have went well with the black homecoming dress darn it.

I've made some other purses but don't seem to have pics of them...my current favorite for myself is a little duffel bag purse. I made it with no pattern out of scrap canvas just to see if I could make one. I love it! I do want to make more like it and still with some type of canvas/duck cloth for durability. It's not huge, and yet I can stuff a ton of things in it. I carry a little bit of everything with me to work ready for anything lol.  I stenciled a flower on the outside of it just to make it somewhat presentable.

Here are a couple pics of the bookbag I made for one of the twins. She is very rough on bags, so I was determined to make something that would last a year :D. No pic of it completed even though she has now used it for months...you'll get the basic idea though :D

Ok the other pic I have wouldn't load right now. The bookbag is a double (?)(my description - 2 large pouches) messenger bag with lots of pockets hidden in flaps and on the outer sides (One for her reusable water bottle). I also made a matching cylindrical pencil pouch. We determined her needs and designed it specifically for her. The one I will make for next year will only have minor changes. This is heavy red duck fabric with the black cotton only used for decoration purposes.

I keep going back to edit. Got it to load! You can see the very large outside zipped pocket she uses as her purse. I need to get a current pic of the bag. I heavily padded the strap because she hauls everything with her all day all over campus (no lockers).

The fabrics

Here's what I'm working on today...I am starting to accumulate unfinished projects LOL. I will finish this one in the next day or so. I'm not following any set pattern, but it's a simple tote. Isn't that fabric gorgeous!?!

Here's my current zipper collection :D



Tote bag

It's already turning out great! I did have to make a run to find a batting I liked (to avoid joining scraps I have) and also had hopes of finding more of the orangish red snowflake fabric I used on my Christmas purse...and I found 2 fat quarters of it!!! I was about to give up and walk away from the display when - voila - there it sat right in the front! I guess I was too fast to dig through others thinking it would be hidden away to notice it!

The orange snowflake actually goes very well with the Merry Main Street fabric and I'm using it as an accent strip as well as the straps (I think lol). I also needed some darker orange almost red liner fabric and found a great one. I want this tote nice! Pics to follow.

Oh I also bought a couple more zippers...I am seriously developing a zipper obsession! :D

Oh yeah!

So I spent a lot of time hand washing all the red fabric, prints and solids, that I had originally intended for the quilt. After much washing and rinsing and washing and rinsing again, the water ran pretty much clear finally! So...as you could probably see from the previous post's pictures, I went back to red for a border on the quilt. Anything else I considered just didn't do. I will also be using the simple patchwork reindeer I did as the backing. I wanted both sides pretty in case she didn't like the tree side so much LOL. I'm always nervous others won't like my creations, hence the built in ability to hide it as an option. :D

Catching up

I've been on, just hadn't fished out the camera cord to upload some pics - lots to show here even though I left out a lot...

My new sewing area (which is already much more cluttered than this pic shows lol) You can see my little fabric basket I made for fat quarters - I like to look at them for inspiration and to coordinate colors on projects. I added a lotttt to this basket yesterday. I used my 25% off at Joanne's and bought way too much stuff.  I know they are a little high in prices, but they had most fabric starting at 40% off then another 25% and well you know I filled up my basket. I bought some Christmas fabrics I had considered ordering online. Found one called Merry Main Street that I LOVE and ended up with 2 yards. Hey I got some Insul-Bright (sp?)! After setting up this area, I realized even though I love my teeny tiny little sleeve ironing board (I know there's a real name for that somewhere), I needed a bigger one that is square and not long like what you can buy in the store. So, I'll be getting out my jigsaw - I love power tools lol - and making myself a custom ironing board.

I bought a lot of zippers since our local Wal-mart is the only place to find them anywhere close to here and their selection well sucks! I'm a freak sewist (?) that actually loves zippers! They do not scare me. I know people turn their noses up at getting sewing supplies at wally's, but wouldn't you know I see a few of the same exact fabrics and a lot of the same notions and other supplies as higher end stores - ahem - We have one wallyworld close that has pre-packaged fabrics and another that actually has bolts of fabric (although rather limited) and a clerk to help. It's good for a quick trip.




Here I was doing the applique of the star. It has a white part over it for more star points as well which I think shows in the pic above. See the blue "snowflake" fabric is actually flowers.

A few Christmas fat quarters I picked up. The stripe will be the quilt binding. I went back for more of it.

I loved this little fat quarter and started practicing quilting on it - it became a purse. I used fleece as batting - I'm already a big fan of fleece as batting at least for purses. I've done a couple more since this pic.

I practiced binding the right way. I have done some binding on other purses and did it way wrong and way hard. Following directions was easy! Maybe I should more often...(I am not fond of patterns or directions lol)

Here is the finished purse. I love my little quilting experiment! I can't wait to use it and the girls keep coming in and eyeing it and playing with it. There is a zipped pouch attached inside. I like having what I consider "privacy" pouches for odds and ends we don't want falling out of our pocketbooks when fishing for other things lol.

I love making various little bags to match purses, so here's a - zipped - coin purse out of the very few scraps I had left of the blue. Oh the orange fabric is a kind of snowflake pattern that was so perfect! It's an odd Christmas color pairing, but it really works. I did also make a little credit card holder that fits inside this, but it turned out sloppy, so I'll leave that up to you to imagine lol.

I had so much fun quilting that purse, I started another. I even went with very similar colors. This one quilted faster and even better. I'm really glad I'm practicing before I quilt the Christmas quilt.

Here it is as it stands now. The quilted pocket is as near to perfect as can be! It doesn't even need a closure or flap like I originally planned. I have done the lining with some basic pockets and it will zip close. I'm still deciding on whether to bind this one or not. The straps will be the blue fabric.

Did the applique packages and placed the ribbon yesterday morning. I wanted to be sure the gold is what I wanted and I am happy with it. It's still pinned waiting to be sewed. I had to rush off to Joanne's you know!  (30 to 45 minutes away in good traffic - Raleigh beltline)

I wanted to see how it's progressing. I stopped work on it for awhile and kept just looking at it wondering what I should change. I wish the star showed in this pic. Now with the presents, I'm happier again. I still have more to add to this - thinking a little snow on the tree maybe? I also want names on the packages somehow to personalize it. I was also thinking of some little woodland creature maybe - was hoping to find a fabric that I could cut one out of, but no luck on right animal and/or size. Maybe a snowman instead?

I have more things to work on before the holiday. I got most supplies yesterday, soooo no more shopping until I make a good dent in the decent fabric and supply stash I've built up! Well, I might need a solid color or two.... :D