My 'New' Sewing Machine!

This is my Janome. My birthday gift. I haven't used it yet (I don't know where the instruction manual is), but I love it all the same. I think we're going to get along really well. It was my Grandma's but she gave it to my mom. When my mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said I wanted Grandma's sewing machine. So she gave it to me a month and 25 days early for my 2oth birthday. Thanks, Mom!
My grandma is one of the most interesting and wonderful people I know. She is getting close to 90. She had 11 kids, raised 10 to adulthood and has about 25 grandkids and is expecting her second great-grandchild (my niece!!!). My earliest memories of my grandma include her crocheting doll clothes and aphgans and sewing quilts (we each have a quilt and an aphgan from her) and knitting baby booties for new cousins or babies that she knew of.
I remember one time she was visiting she decided to make herself a quilt. She went to the store and bought her fabric and brought it home and started cutting. I was watching her and was in the way. So I said, "sorry, I'm kind of in the way," and started to move and she put up her hand and said in her very New England accent, "you're never in my way." Somehow, when she said that it made me feel like a million bucks. :)
She helped teach me to crochet and I always wanted to be able to make things the way she could make them. I have a letter from her that she sent me when I was probably 9 or 10 telling me about this Swedish embroidered blanket she was working on. I finally got to see it a few years ago and it was pretty remarkable. Yes, my grandma did all kinds of textile arts: sewing, knitting, crocheting, embroidery, quilting, cross-stitch, and all kinds of stuff. She also loved to bake and make candy. I want to be like her. She not only raised a large family, but she came from a large family so she always had nieces and nephews at her house along with her own kids and then their friends were over too. She certainly had her hands and heart full. I can't wait to use her machine to make things for my family and friends.It can do all kinds of stitches that my current machine can't do. I think this is going to be a lot of fun!

patchwork scarves with fleece backs!

These were fun to make and pretty quick too. I made them for a craft fair my coworker was participating in. None of them sold so now I can take pictures of them for all to see. Real exciting, right? ;)

(I am keeping this polka dotty one! It's nice and warm in this freezing weather!)

It was really nice to do some sewing again! I'm going to try to sew a dress before Christmas. As usual, I have good intentions, but they don't always pan out the way they're supposed to. My goal is to make a dent in it during Thanksgiving week. Other goals this week include:
1. plan a Christmas event for my Campus Crusade for Christ group at school.
2. finally get my room cleaned and organized (hoping for a miracle here...organization isn't exactly my forte...)
3. get a head start on my final projects.
4. start planning Christmas gifts.
5. do some baking for Thanksgiving and enjoy my family and friends!

There, that's not such a big list is it? I have to work on Tuesday, but I have the whole rest of the week off. It's going to be beautiful!

So...

I've taken a very long break from crafting and blogging, but this past week I did do some sewing. :) I sent it off with a friend for a craft fair she was participating in and since the weather was so bad I didn't photograph any of it. I talked to her this morning though and she said she didn't really sell anything though, so perhaps I will still be able to take some pictures and post them here, which is a small compensation for not making any sales. I did sell a baby blanket to my doctor and she has asked me to make another for a friend of hers! So even though nothing has really sold this weekend (my friend thinks this is largely due to the state of the economy) it was still fun though to work on some stuff and hopefully will put me back in the mood for crafting. Especially with the holidays coming up.

I got a sewing machine for my birthday (photos and story of that to come as well) that I can't wait to use. I haven't figured out how to load the bobbin (it is a front loader instead of a top loader and I don't know if that is actual sewing jargon hee hee) yet so I'm still using my old machine which is slowly but surely falling apart. I am really excited to start using my 'new' Janome soon!

In the meantime, happy Sunday. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and ready to face a new week!

Fall Fest

The weather around here lately has been absolutely gorgeous! Yesterday's weather was practically made to order. It was cool and the sun was shining. It really was a perfect fall day.We went to a local farm for a Fall Fest yesterday. The farm was just beautiful! You could tell that whoever owned it took very good care of it.
There was a corn maze and pumpkin patch and apple picking and hayrides and if you felt like going late at night you could do the corn maze in the dark and then go to the House of Panic afterwards. We didn't stay for that. The farm had beautiful buildings and flowers and orchards and they had also set up a sort of store near the house. They sold gourds and pumpkins and apples and apple butter and soap and all kinds of stuff including lots of products from India (not sure what that was all about, but there was a lot of beautiful stuff there!).

The corn maze was fun and in certain places the corn was really tall! We've had a lot of rain here this year so the crops have done very well.

Here are some pictures of the little store they had set up. This was the outdoor part.



This was the indoor part.These guys were so cute! These little alpacas are just a year old. The darker one was named Sterling and the lighter one is Cleave. I loved their faces and the expressions they had. It made me want one.
They look like they're talking to each other or something.
I couldn't resist getting a picture here. My godmother was a good sport and got her picture taken with me. I love those things where you can put your face on a funny body or into a sign.

I just love fall!

How time flies...

Is it really October? Already? Are you sure? Okay, I was just checking. Where did the time go? I obviously have been slacking as far as crafting goes. Fortunately, I've been doing a quite a bit of homework and am trying to keep my grades up.

Our internet at the house is out for awhile. My feelings toward this are two-fold: on the one hand, it is very inconvenient because now I have to do all my homework for 3 internet classes at school. However, since the school is closed on the weekends and I really don't want to spend Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays at school all day trying to finish homework, I am being more proactive about getting my homework finished as soon as possible. This means I have more time for sewing and crafting. :) Which is great since it's already October and I would like to get started on some Christmas gifts.

I have been doing some knitting and crocheting and hopefully I will have some finished projects to show soon. If I can get enough stuff made I will hopefully be updating my Etsy shop!

It is beautiful outside today! It's cool and the sun is shining. It's perfect autumn weather. I absolutely love it. The leaves are just beginning to change colors and I can't wait till everything is red and orange and gold outside...there is something about this time of year that makes me feel so excited. I know spring is the time for beginnings, but somehow fall always signals a time of change and perhaps beginnings for me. Maybe it's because of a new semester and all the changes and opportunities that present themselves with it.

Ready or not, here fall comes!

My name was drawn...

And this lovely came in the mail for me today! It is a vision journal. African Kelli had a giveaway on her blog where she made and gave away 10 of these and I was one of the lucky ones whose name was drawn.It came with a very sweet and encouraging note too. The folks in blogland are very kind people! I am so happy to get a chance to 'meet' them.

Thanks Kelli! I love it and I can't wait to use it!

Etsy Shop!

I finally figured out how to put a link to my Etsy shop on my blog! I've had an Etsy shop since the end of June, but I haven't done much with it. Now if I could just start filling it up with stuff. I may have to start making time to do that!

New blog finds~

I guess I am taking a hiatus from crafting while I am trying to get my new school and work schedule balanced out. Add in seasonal allergies (I get spring and fall allergies...wahhh) and this week wasn't very productive. I am knitting a new scarf that I will hopefully have pictures of soon to show that I haven't been totally lazy!

In the meantime, check out these blogs I added to my blog list!

I've been visiting Christy's blog Made for Adventure for a while now and just got around to updating my blog list and now you can view her blog from there. She not only sews, she weaves! Something I have wanted to learn to do for awhile now. She does beautiful work.

And here is one I just found and am really excited about! Check out One Pretty Thing. It's a really cool blog with lots of tutorials and ideas. There is pretty much something for everyone there depending on what you like. There are some baking ideas, party ideas, home decor ideas, sewing, knitting, crocheting...I haven't even finished looking at all the ideas for August yet and I spent about an hour on there this morning.

They links are all in my blog list where there are a lot of other inspiring blogs to look at.

Have a nice weekend!

A Lovely Labor Day~

I hope everyone had as beautiful a day as I did. It started off with an outdoor breakfast with friends and my sister, and ended with a potluck at another family's house. I realize that I am blessed with good friends. God is so good to us.

Here is my attempt at a dress form. My friend helped me make it this morning after our breakfast get-together while my sister sat on the couch and laughed at us and photographed it. I won't post the pictures of me on here because I look awful. This is the semi-finished product though. We ran out of the turquoise duct tape. I think I may try to cover it with fabric since I've got a ton that I need to use up. I am so excited about this. I hope it will make it easier to sew things. I just need to stuff it and figure out how to mount it.

I hope everyone had a lovely Labor Day!

Photos

We took a trip to the park today and I got these pictures while I was there.


It was kind of hot today. It's been so beautiful this past week and unseasonally cool. I'd say low 80s and it's the middle of August. Someone at work told me that we are in for a hard winter.

I am moving to the equator.

The stamping continues...

This one is my favorite I think. :)

Not so sure I like this Thank You card...

You probably can't see it very well, but I loved the little corner pieces you could stick on the ends. They're for photos, but I'm using them for the frames on the cards.

I was at Borders last night

And I brought these books home with me. I really am excited about the Printing by Hand book. I'd love to be able to print my own fabric. And I've been stamping cards so much lately it would be fun to use some of the stencil and stamping ideas from the book for cards too.Simple Sewing with a French Twist...I don't have any attachment to French fashion or anything, but I did like some of the projects in here. Particularly the screen. I've always wanted a screen. You know, like a changing screen that you'd find in a dressing room or something. They give directions on how to make them in the book. Along with a beret that I really liked.

I'll have to get back to you when I get a chance to print with the printing book.

Card fun~

I spent a good deal of the afternoon making these. A quick trip to Target resulted in me coming home with as many rub-on transfers as I could find (I love those things!) and I happily crafted away with the transfers and also some vellum quote pages that were in my bucket of paper supplies.
Do you see the white hearts? I bought a heart shaped paper puncher and cut the blue paper to let the white underneath show through. I was so excited about the heart shaped puncher until I got it home and used it and I found out that it sticks to itself horribly! I have to pry it apart each time I use it. :(
I also found this pack of paper on clearance. That's where the dotted paper came from and the Happy Day and flowers are transfers. I wish I could find more of those!

All in all, it was a fun time.

Stampin' good time.

I found these Martha Stewart stamping kits in the craft section at Walmart last weekend. She has some really nice stamps! And ink. And corner punches. And well, it's Martha Stewart...what else were we to expect? So I dug up some cardstock and made stamped them up in the hopes of using them as banners on my other blog at some point. I really enjoyed doing the one below with the bird in the tree. It was inspired by Joelle Hoverson's quilt in 'Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.' The one called 'Someone to Watch Over You.' It's probably my favorite in the whole book. Anyway, I know this didn't really come out looking like it and it may be a bit too busy too, but it reminds me of fall. Get here soon fall! I don't even like snow, but I liked her snowflake stamps.

I thought it would be fun to write the name of my blog and it's description on these last 2 because I thought it would make my blog a little more personalized. I don't really like my handwriting. As you can see it's kind of sloppy. But I kind of like the overall finished product. They're kind of simple, and I like the colors.

Quilt Top

I had a hard time photographing this last night. The lighting was bad so I used my flash. But this is a pretty fair idea of what it looks like. I'm thinking of using a dark green binding around the edges. I'll probably pick up the stuff to finish it this weekend sometime.I'm not 100% sure of what I'm going to do with it after I finish it. It makes me want to make lots of other quilts. I got the idea for this quilt from Joelle Hoverson's 'Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.' It's loosely based on the 'Stacked Coins' quilt and the 'Just Sweet Enough' quilt. I have SO many sewing books, but 'Last-Minute Patchwork' is one of my favorites. Especially since the quilts in there are very contemporary so I don't think I'd lose my patience on any of those and quit mid-project. I'm very excited though because Angry Chicken and Anna Maria Horner and both putting out new books this fall and I can't wait to go look at them at our Borders. Not that I need anymore books, but it's so fun to look through them. I love the fabrics that are used in these books.
Speaking of fabric I stopped in at our local fabric shop (we only have 1 nice one that I'm aware of) yesterday when I was off work. They had some beautiful fabrics in there. I didn't buy any of them, but I have a feeling I will be paying that store another visit. Especially during the school semester when I have to be out anyway!
Dad surprised me by say, "if you want to go to JOANN's sometime, just let me know," the other day. He has never offered to take me to JOANN's before. It's not a very interesting place to him (which I understand). I think he knew I was feeling kinda down this past weekend (oh the joys of being a girl...) and he was trying to cheer me up! It was very sweet of him. I think I may take him up on that offer sometime soon!

Happy Wednesday!

New stuff~

I've got a few projects I've been working on. I guess I've been bitten by the crafting bug lately and I'm getting projects finished. So far I've begun or finished 3 projects since Saturday. Seeing that it's only Tuesday, I am really pleased with that! I'll post photos later of what I'm working on, but for now I'm going to go to bed! I had today off because my doctor was sick and although I'm sad to hear he wasn't feeling well, it was so nice to have an extra day off during the week. Even though I only work 4 days a week anyway. I had a great time with my sister this morning doing errands. I have been having a rough few days, so it was good to spend some time with her. It lifted my spirits! I'm thankful that God is allowing us to become better friends. And it also gave me some time to work on a quilt top (which is the project I was speaking of and will be posting photos of later). I had started a quilt over a year ago and I never finished it. So I'm really pleased with this one that I made because I bought the fabric today and cut it out and sewed it up all in 1 afternoon. Now I just need the backing and the inside stuff...whatever it's called.

Apron

I really want to take pottery classes, and if I can fit it into my work/school schedule I will try to take classes this fall. I am a sloppy person though and I can see myself getting totally filthy trying to work with clay, so I made this half apron. Only instead of being a half apron for my legs, it's an apron to cover my shirt.The fabric is brown with little yellow flowers and polka dots.

The back is criss-crossed so I don't have to fiddle with ties. My ties always end up too short.

Here is the best part though: it's reversible! So brown with yellow flowers and polka dots on one side and blue with white polka dots on the other side.

It only took me about an afternoon to make. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon. :)

Door Hanging

I made this door hanger for my friend Courteney.  She is going to be an RA this year at her school and I had this idea for a door hanging that had a pocket for messages.  There is a notepad and pocket so people can write a message and leave it for her in the pocket in case she's at class or the gym or doing errands and can't speak to them right then and there.  There is also a thinner pocket for a pen or pencil to fit into. I left the upper right hand part of the hanging bare so she can add things to it herself to personalize it.

I had wanted to put a dowel through the top of it and hang it with a ribbon or something, but I didn't have a dowel at the house, and honestly, I was doing this project at the very last minute right before I was about to leave to go see Courteney for the last time before she leaves for school.  So I used a hanger instead.  Sorry, Court! 

And here is a close up of the fabric and notepad.

I know I haven't posted on this blog for awhile.  I spend a lot more time on my other blog.  I have been doing some sewing, but it is mostly coming out kinda...bad.  So I've been scrapping a lot of the stuff that I've made.  I'm becoming inspired again though so maybe I'll start making some things to post on here soon.