More........

Happy Halloween!



I'm making More.....   No, not s'Mores! 

More zipper bags......

with the help of of one of my supervisors watching me closely....naturally.

I like for the outside fabrics for the bags to be quilted with cotton batting.   Easy, peasy simple FMQ is the way I do it.

Loopy loops on this one.

For sewing things like this I prefer production construction, so I have several different ones all quilted, ready for zippers and linings.

Here's 8 of them finished & ready for me to make the glass beaded zipper pulls.

So that's what I'm doing on this WIP Wednesday.  What are you doing?



I'm linking up to Quiltsy Team Blog for WIP Wednesday.   We are a bunch of busy quilters who like to share, so GO take a look at what others are doing today. 


Thanks for visiting.

Bloomin' All Around Me

Winter might be on it's way, but I've got flowers "Bloomin' All Around Me" in my sewing room.    I'm making zipper bags - cosmetic bags - gadget pouches; all different colors, and sizes.   These zipper bags have been selling pretty good in my ETSY shop, so I'm making more of them.

I love to pull out scraps of floral prints, find coordinating fabrics for the linings, cut some cotton batting, do some free motion quilting, add a zipper........then sit and sew for a while. 

Don't ask me what the name of this fabric is, 'cause I can't remember  I just love it, and this is all I have left of it.   I used a pink small pin dot for the lining on these two. 

Boxed bottom corners, so they can hold more stuff!

Five made so far.......and I still need to make the glass beaded zipper pulls.

These will be available in my ETSY Shop after I get the glass beaded zipper pulls made for them.  But for now.........going to go make some more!   Oh, that reminds me, wonder what I did with the silk & damask fabrics I was going to use for some of these bags???


Do you make any kind of bags?  purses?  padded covers? or pouches?


Thanks for visiting.

Do You Have One?

Since I finished all of the Farm Animals snack mats in my last post,  I've been making these......

 little Christmas fabric pillow tree ornaments....33 of them for my ETSY Shop.

I've been a Quilting "Notions Junkie" since I first started quilting.  So, I've got every little gadget, gizmo thing you can think of that helps me with my sewing and quilting.  Some of these things I've never even used but just had to buy this "new thing" at the last quilt show....(can you relate to that too?)

Well, as I was turning these little pillow ornaments inside out and getting ready to "poke" out the corners with my scissors, I remembered
My Purple Thang.  I hadn't used it in ages, and didn't even know where I put it.  I'm sure glad I found it.

It's just a simple piece of purple plastic with one end being a curved pointy and the other end looking like a little shovel.  There's a little slit in it too, so you can put a ribbon through it and tie it around your neck or around your wrist......so you don't lose it.  (I never did this......maybe that's why I couldn't remember where I put it last time I used it.)

When you're turning something inside out, it's the handiest little gadget and well worth the $3.00 I paid for it years ago.  You've heard of the Little Foot ...right? and the Big Foot for FMQ?    Well That Purple Thang was invented and made by the same company. 

This little gadget saved me a lot of time and saved the little pillows from having holes in their corners from using my scissors.  I love mine and sure glad I have one.

Do you have one?  Most quilt shops have them, so be sure to get yourself one......you'll be glad you did.

Thanks for visiting.

 

More FMQ Fun!

A while ago I shared some of my FMQ (free motion quilting) practice pieces and if you missed that post you can see it here.

Time is always in short supply around here so I decided to stop practicing and start quilting all 12 of the Farm Animals snack mats with FMQ and just GO for it!

I did some basic stippling.......

and some meandering  loopy loops............

and then some curvy S circles......

lots of binding........

 

and they're finally finished and available for sale in my Etsy Shop.

These are perfect if you need a Christmas or Birthday gift for the gal that likes country style decor and animals.

 Fun for sure!

How about you?  Are you still practicing? or just going for it...like I did?

Thanks for visiting..........

Storing (Hiding?) Your Stash!

If you need more ways and places to store (hide?) you fabric stash, I've found the answer!

The last time I bought a blanket it came in one of those big heavy zipper plastic bags.   Boy, those are wonderful for storing quilts, blankets, afghans, heavy winter jackets, etc.

But, by far the best thing I use these for is to store my ETSY Shop quilted items in them.  Keeps them clean, free from dust, and all in one place.  When I sell something I can find it quickly and easily.

But....(wonder why there's always a 'but' with some of my ideas??)  I was running out of room in the ones I had, so I did a search on Etsy and

sure enough I found a bunch of them.

I bought 20 of them and they are just what I needed.   The size is perfect and these will fit under my bed or sofa.   Again....store (hide?) your fabric stash?

Here's where I found them:

http://etsy.com/shop/serenstitches

Please tell her Sew Fun Quilts sent you.   Happy Storing!

Thanks for visiting.   Have you subscribed to my blog...you don't want to miss out on my next giveaway, do you?  

Can't Just Sit!

When I'm not quilting I like different kinds of hand work.   I just can't sit in my chair and do nothing......I get too antsy and think I'm wasting time.  So,  here lately I've been doing some simple knitting with cotton yarn making dish cloths.  I love these dish cloths; they last and last, they rinse clean and don't get all yucky.  Some of these will be extra Christmas gifts for family.

I've always got some sort of hand work project going on and like to keep this needlework bin next to my chair.  It's handy and jam packed with different projects.

Here's the little mesh pouch I made for the on-going Yo-Yo making.  I embroidered the

"Any Day Spent Sewing Is a Good Day" on nylon screen and added a zipper.

Another plastic supplies pouch.

I also like doing hand embroidery work...like these Noah's Ark Quilt blocks.

Of course, I've always got a pair of embroidery pillow cases WIP..(work in progress)...almost finished.

So, like I said......."I Can't Just Sit"....and as you can see, I like variety in my projects.   If I get bored doing one thing, having this project bin handy near my chair, I can grab up something else.  Sure makes sense to me. 

What about you?  Do you like to do some sort of handwork like this?

Thanks for visiting.

WINNER and.. another GREAT GIVEAWAY!

The winner of last week's FREE Giveaway was  picked by my random generator...(my sister in WY).....scroll down a bit further for the winner.

1. Where's the pictures?  I don't like posts without pictures, so I'll just share a quilt called Beach Kitties I made quite a while ago.   I still have this one and everytime I look at it......I smile.  Nothing better than a quilt that makes you smile, is there?  (unless it's another Free Giveaway...that is! ) Read on!

I have followed  Sew Cal Gal's Blog  for a long time, and she emailed me about this new Giveaway, so thought I'd tell ya'll about it even though it decreases my chances of winning.......drats!    Did you know that she has a devoted blog listing lots of Giveaways and events?  It is here


That's what quilters do.....is share!  So go and enter this celebration giveaway.



http://www.jansquilts.com/2012/10/the-100-follower-giveaway.html


I called my sister in WY and asked her to be my random number generator (she doesn't blog or read blogs, so it's a fair way to pick the winner).  Even though we talk on the phone everyday, it was great to have another reason to talk to her.   

She  chose #32 - Wannabe Quilter.

Congratulations!  Please contact me with your home address.

Thanks for visiting.

More Yummies!

Yesterday I told you about this local quilt shop and talked about their two walls of Batik fabrics in one of the pictures.  I refrained (even tho it was certainly difficult) from buying any Batiks 'cause I had already ordered some online.

I love to get squishes in the mail......and yesterday's mail was my batiks......Yay!  Yippee! Whoo! Hoo!  Hip! Hip! Hurray!

Well....yes, I do get excited over getting yummies like these in the mail.

Three different ones.....2 yards each.....Wowzer!  and what makes it even better is I got them while they were on sale.

After you are through drooling over my new Batiks, go to Fabrics N Quilts online store and check out their Deal of the Day.  They always have some yummy goodies on sale!   and I think there are still some Batiks.

Hey...don't forget my FREE Giveaway ends tonight at midnight.  Make sure you signed up for a chance to win it.

While you're at it, subscribe to my blog (scroll down and look on the RH side for several different ways to be notified) 'cause I'm going to be having another giveaway real soon.

Thanks for visiting.

There's Nothing Better for a Quilter.....

There's nothing more fun for a quilter than going to a favorite Quilt Shop.  Here's one of mine.

Fabrics 'n Friends

Castroville, Tx

(830) 931-0141



This shop participates in our local Bluebonnet Trail Shop Hop every Spring and back in April I won a $25 gift certificate from them.  I decided it was way past time to go and spend it.



This is what you see when you first open the door......Wowzer!  Irresistible!



and then.......

and still more.......



I couldn't take pictures of everything, so just imagine two  complete
walls behind you that are simply Overflowing with nothing but Batiks......I'm drooling on the keyboard now, just thinking about them.



It's kinda like the Energizer Bunny....you just keep going and going.......

Large open class room........

I resisted buying anymore Batiks 'cause I just ordered some from online.  So, here's my loot for this time; 4 panels and a new Free Motion Quilting foot for my Janome.

Anything with kitty cats has to go home with me.  This is

just too cute!

And........what's your latest fabric purchase?

Thanks for visiting!........ and don't forget to subscribe to my blog, so you don't miss anything......especially news of my next Free Giveaway.



Practice What?

When you are as old as I am (no, don't ask me.....I'm as old as dirt!) you want to make every minute count 'cause you never know when you'll be called up yonder.

A friend of mine is teaching herself to do Free Motion Quilting  so I sent her a couple links to videos, loaned her a couple books, and CD of patterns.   Last month at our Tied Together Bee meeting, she showed me what she was doing and all the practice pieces she was doing.

mmmmh!  Practice again?  What about my time?  (Read the 1st sentence above again in case you missed it.)  and all those UFO's waiting?

Thought I'd try to do something different and play a little.  These two FMQ practice pieces were made quite a while ago right after I won Leah Day's book, From Daisy to Paisley.   She's the quilter who started the 365 days of FMQ designs.

Yes, they were fun to do.......and time consuming!  (Read the 1st sentence again..)

My friend got me all enthusiastic again, so I quickly made up a couple more quilt practice sandwiches and got going.

When I need to test my tension before quilting a project, I just grab up one of these quilt practice pieces, do a couple swirls.........and away we GO.

Practice?  Why?  Why not just "practice" some FMQ while making a few snack mats?

Front

Back

Okay...so far so good, and it was fun......so let's do a few more.  The stitches show up better on the backs of the snack mats.



There's more of them, (12 of 'em) but I don't want to bore ya'll to death.

So......do you "practice" first or do you just jump in and do it on a project?  Time's a Wastin' folks!

To receive all the scoop on my posts, just subscribe.  (RH side of the sidebar) 

Thanks for visiting.

It's FREE GiveawayTime!

Hurray!  It's Giveaway Time again.  I love doing this and hope ya'll have fun with it.

Here we GO.......

It's that time of year when we start thinking about Fall leaves and Halloween colors.

So, the FREE Giveaway  today is 6 fused fabric Fall appliques along with one set of 30 of my Orange and Black 5" Charm Squares from my Etsy Shop.

I like to keep things simple.  Simple for you and simple for me.

All you have to do to win this FREE Giveaway is leave a comment here on this post that you told someone about it.  That's it....no complicated requirements, jumping through hoops, doing 1, 2, 3 different things, no proving to me that you told someone.  You are on your honor, so just scroll down and leave your comment.

The Giveaway ends  on Tuesday, October 15th at midnight.  The winner will be determined by my random generator...(my sister in WY, so I have another excuse to call her.) and announced Wednesday, October 16th. 

Thanks for visiting.