Shopping Trip

One of my Christmas gifts was a gift certificate to a locally owned fabric store.  When I received their newsletter announcing their Sweetheart Sale, I just had to make a trip.  Nearly everything in the store was 30% off, and while that didn't do much for their high prices (in comparison to JoAnn Fabrics), it was certainly better than paying full price.  Here's what I found:

I plan to use these cuts for finishing cross stitch projects.

I would like to make a miniature or small blue and white quilt.  This will be perfect, don't you think?

This purse pattern is the Boutique Shoulder Bag by Bella Nonna.  There are two sizes:  12" x 17" or 10" x 13".  I'll make the smaller version.  They had a sample of this purse in the store, which is what sold me on the pattern.  I need another purse like I need another opening in my head, but I just can't resist!  

I need to finish cutting the fabric for Candice from Lazy Girl Designs - I'm making one for me, and one for Sarah.  Then I would like to make a tote bag to use for when I sing with the praise band at church.  I have to carry my binder of music, my Bible and notebook, my folding footstool that helps with my bad knee, a pillow that I have been putting behind my back since I hurt it, and my shoes for those rare weekends when we have snow and I must wear my boots.  I purchased a Dresden plate ruler that I'm itching to use to make a motif for the front of the tote bag.

Guess I'd better get busy!

Purse Project Planning

Last week was quite a week for errands!  I had a few more to do on Friday afternoon, so I headed out to do them in the afternoon.  One of my stops was JoAnn's (it's the only fabric store in the area, although our WalMart does still carry a good selection of fabric, which I've often found to be of better quality than what they sell at JoAnn's, but that's another post.)  I decided to check out the special patterns in the quilting area, which include a lot of bag patterns.  You know how I can't resist a good purse pattern, so when I spotted Juliet by Me and My Sister Designs, I knew I had to get it.  It didn't hurt that I had a 40% off coupon, either! 

The entire bag is cute, but I especially love the bow that is threaded through the handles on the upper edge of the purse.  I have seen other patterns with a similar bow treatment.

This pattern doesn't require much fabric, so I'm sure I'll be able to find enough in my stash to make it.  It calls for 1-1/4 yards for the exterior and handles, 3/4 yard for the cuff and pockets, and 1 yard for the lining and tie.  I may need to add extra pockets to the inside because I love pockets, but I'll have to carefully read through the instructions first.

My motto:  A girl can never have too many purses!

New Fabric

My daughter usually does the weekly shopping for me, something her dad and I appreciate greatly.  But occasionally, I do it, or we will do it together.   That is what we did last week.  The problem is that I will always deviate from my written list and spend more money than I intended.  But what else can I do when I find an outstanding bargain?  This time, I wanted to look in the fabric department for some vintagey fabrics, and while I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, I did find this:

It was marked down 30%, making it $3.50 per yard, and the bundle contains 2 yards composed of eight fat quarters.  The nice thing is that I don't have to make sure they all coordinate.  My plan is to make a purse from them.

I also found this:

which consists of 24 - 2.5" x 42" pieces.  The prints are the same ones in the fat quarter bundle.  I am not sure what I will make from these.  Perhaps I'll try my hand at a small quilt; since the pieces are already cut, and cutting is my biggest challenge, I might actually be successful.

New Purse

On Thursday evening, I finally completed my newest purse.  I used my favorite Lazy Girl pattern, the Miranda Day Bag.  I prefer my purses to be a bit more formal than funky, and this one was even more formal than others I've made.  I have wanted a nice black purse for a while, but every time I looked for fabric, I could find one black pattern, but not a second, so the last time Sarah and I were at our local non-chain fabric store, I decided to splurge and get some nice fabric.  Patricia's has the most wonderful selection of good quality quilting fabrics, yet I still had trouble finding what I wanted!  In the end, I'm pleased with my choices, and can't wait to begin using my new purse!

Inside

Another "Miranda Day Bag"

The sewing bug hit me on Sunday.  Or rather, the desire for a new purse caught up with me, so I sat down to finish my newest Miranda Day Bag. (You can see my other versions here.)

I found the fabric on one of my trips to Hobby Lobby.  As so often happens, I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted, but couldn't find fabric to fit my image. 

Although I've made this bag twice before, some of the instructions made little sense to me today.  I guess I was just tired.  The one part of the bag I am not pleased with at all is the flap.  I'm now thinking that on the other bags, I used interfacing instead of batting, thus eliminating the bulk that I couldn't sew through very easily.  Once I stitched it, though, I didn't want to do it again, so I just left it.  After the bag was assembled, I decided to take another look through my button box for some accent buttons, which you can see I did indeed find.  I think it adds a nice finishing touch.  (I was just thinking that, with advance planning, machine embroidery could be done on the flap, too.)

Here's a shot of the inside.  I've been having problems with the stitching on the pockets ripping out, so I made sure to stitch back and forth at the top of each pocket section several times.

I'm looking forward to using my new bag when I take Phil to his doctor's appointment on Wednesday.  Until then, I'll try to stay cozy and warm at home.  I think there are more dishcloths in my immediate future . . .

Weekend Crafting

Yesterday was a cool, drizzly, and somewhat windy day and we needed the rain. It was a good day to hole up in the craft room and finish what I started on Friday: I tried to rearrange all the stuff I have on the craft table. The table is L-shaped, the longest part of the L is where Sarah and I have our sewing machines and sergers, but I have so many things in back of my machine that it's sometimes hard to sew because things hit the various containers. While I was working, I listened to Pride and Prejudice (on cassette tape) which I had borrowed from the library; I wanted to finish the story, so a rainy day seemed perfect to do so. Here's what I created:

Miranda Day Bag
Lazy Girl Designs

Here's the inside of the bag:

This is the first Miranda bag that I made using coordinating fabrics I bought back in October.

I love this pattern! The bag is roomy enough to easily hold everything normally I carry with me (including my iPod and cross stitch project), plus my Day Timer, leaving my hands free. I can also slip in a bottle of juice or water.

Country Garden is nearly completed. I am loving the variegated thread effects, which, unfortunately, do not show up well in the photo.
Phil is recovering slowly from his surgery. It's been ten days, but he's still sore. Part of that is his fault as he hurt himself working on the lawn mower a few days after the surgery. I think he learned his lesson. He had his chemo treatment last Thursday, and is feeling its effects (he seems to be falling into a predictable pattern with the side effects; at least he knows what to expect when.) His hematocrit (a measure of red blood cells) took a big hit, so I now get to give him medication (by injection) to increase his red blood count every 14 days instead of every 28 days. This is a normal response to chemotherapy.

I'll leave you with a picture of my kitty, Callie, right before she fell asleep.

Never a Dull Moment

I've been looking forward to having things slow down, but things have instead gone haywire. My husband started having problems during his nightly dialysis treatments last Thursday night. On Friday night, we spent from 2:00 - 3:00 am trying to figure out what to do and ended up calling the nurse, who told him to stop his treatment, not do anything over the weekend, and come in on Monday morning. It has now been determined that the catheter has migrated up under his rib cage, thus causing pain when he tried to drain the dialysis solution from his abdomen. For now, he is enduring what is called manual exchanges (done without a machine) twice a day. It takes 45 painful minutes to drain the solution after it has done its thing over several hours, but with the threat of hemodialysis hanging over our heads, we are willing to endure almost anything. We have an appointment with the surgeon on Monday and will go from there, but surgery is inevitable. We both hope this will be considered "urgent" so that Phil doesn't have to suffer too long. It is good that he doesn't need a lot of dialysis, so that two exchanges a day are sufficient.

This is probably very confusing unless you have some knowledge of dialysis; the bottom line is that he is in pain, and his catheter needs to be moved back to the correct position.

With all this going on, I haven't had a lot of time to work on crafts, although I did make a purse. I used the newest pattern from Lazy Girl Designs, the Miranda Day Bag. I made it using fabric from my stash. I was surprised at how big it is, but when I put everything in it, it didn't seem so big!

Thursday night we are going to the Ernie Haase and Signature Sound concert. We got tickets as part of a group from our church. It's going to be a crazy day, as Phil has his chemo at 2:30, then we'll have to race home so he can drain his dialysis solution, grab some dinner (hot dogs!), and drive to the concert. We have been looking forward to this since we learned about it last October! I am hoping that I won't be sneezing from the cold I came down with on Monday night; I've been sneezing up a storm today.

There's never a dull moment in our household!

New Projects

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been cutting fabric for almost 1-1/2 weeks. Not continuously (got to preserve whatever sanity I have left!), but as time and energy permits. (I am on Prednisone for chronic hives and it does quite a job on me. Great medication, lousy side effects, including inability to sleep, mood changes, weakness, headaches [probably from not sleeping] . . . you get the idea! I have seven more doses.) Cutting out fabric is, by far, my least favorite part of sewing, so I try to do a lot of it at one time, thus affording me the pleasure of completing projects without having to think about cutting anything else out.

First up is Kwik Sew #3396, a wonderful apron. I first saw this on Candle~by~Night's blog (sorry, I can't seem to access anything more than the latest page, so I'm not able to give you a link to the exact posts) and decided I must have this pattern! Here's the pattern front and the fabrics I chose.

The lighter fabric is for the body of the apron, and the darker for the straps and pockets. I'm making view A. I was feeling lazy the day I bought the fabric (from WalMart, I might add -trying to take advantage of their fabric department before they eliminate it . . .) I bought the bias binding instead of making it.

Next, we have a pattern by Indygo Junction called "Pocket Perfect." I love making purses, even though my husband thinks I have plenty. One for every outfit, right? I have a feeling this one will turn out a bit smaller than I prefer, but I can always scale up the pattern for subsequent purses. I've done this quite successfully with other patterns.

The fabrics I chose were from my stash - simply leftovers from other projects. The light blue with the lovely large roses is the main fabric; the magenta is for the handles, and the smaller blue and pink print is to be used as piping around the outer front pocket. I believe I also cut a second pocket for the back as I've discovered one is very handy for things like JoAnn Fabric ads.

"Laura's Zippered Tote" was picked out by my 17 yo dd after seeing a sample in a fabric store. At the time we were there, I couldn't find the pattern, and I didn't feel like asking, but when I went back a week later, there it was. The woman who cut my fabric that day told me that the inside of the bag isn't finished very nicely, so I will be aware of that when I stitch it together.

Again, these are lefovers from my stash, as I thought I should make one up before having my daughter pick out fabrics. The fabric in the middle is the main one; I'm not sure which pink is for handles, and which is lining and inner pockets. I'll figure that out when I sit down to sew.

This wonderful jumper, for my 20 yo dd, is a Common Sense Pattern from Kathy's Modest Sewing Patterns. These patterns are simple to sew, fit well, and are available in any (yes, any) combination of (usually) three consecutive sizes. For example, if you want a 6-8-10 or a 10-12-14, you can order them that way. This is the Women's Empire Jumper; you could easily drop the waist a couple of inches as well. Sarah found fabric last spring (on sale, of course), and we're finally getting around to using it.

The color in the picture isn't totally accurate, but close. I love the embroidery on the fabric - it takes an ordinarily mundane fabric and makes it pop!

Also for Sarah is Simplicity 4177. She chose the orangy one and is using this pretty pink fabric. The background, unlike the photo, is also pink.

Hang on just a bit longer . . .

This is a Lois Hinse pattern (#5305). I've mentioned her patterns before (see my Monday, September 24, 2007 post), so I won't go into great detail here. This particular pattern is her "Tank Dress Group", which offers a sundress/jumper with or without a gentle elastic gather below the bust, as well as two tank tops (one with round neck and another with scoop neck, seen here) and a body fitting camisole. Since I'm testing this pattern, I chose some cheap purple broadcloth from WalMart, and am making the round neck version. If it fits well, I will wear it, but if not, I'm not out much money! I first saw this in the Nancy's Notions catalog; the sample jumper had machine embroidery on the bodice, which was very attractive.

This is apparently Creative Keepsakes' best-selling pattern - their smocked gown and robe. The sleeves are interchangeable (cut simply from blocks of fabric). I'm making a nightgown out of a lovely blue and white fabric (it didn't photograph well), and using the elbow-length sleeves. I will smock with a deeper blue, then probably add some flowers (pink?) I am finding the patten to be rather confusing, but I hope as I go through it step by step, it'll make more sense. In particular, the directions cautioned you about dips in the hemline because it's a bishop, but the blocks for the front and back were not scooped at the neckline. I'm confused!

This final pattern is self-explanatory. I found a deep purple fleece at (where else) WalMart for $4.00 per yard! The pattern pieces had to be the largest I've ever seen! I also saw this in the Nancy's Notions catalog. I liked the fact that it has a hood (I know that young people don't wear them - they're not cool, but I like one when it's very windy or blowing snow.) I'm not sure how easy it will be to drive with it on, but I'll deal with that when I have to!

Here's my tip of the day (hey, maybe even the year!): I put my cut out pieces, interfacing, zippers, buttons, etc., along with the original pattern, in Ziploc bags. I'm forever "losing" buttons or other notions, so this has been a great way to store my projects. And, if you're like me, and it sometimes takes a l-o-n-g time to get to something, you don't have to rely on your memory (which is getting worse as I get older.)

Happy sewing!!