A Few More Handmade Gifts for Friends and Family

A couple more crocheted dish cloths...

...I added a dishcloth to the collection of gifts I made for my good friend, Marsha, who LOVES purple. I used one of my vintage Black Americana dish towel transfers on a large flour sack dish towel and embroidered it with 3 strands of floss and did a running stitch along the outside edges in perle #8.  (Doesn't the cat look like it has a moustache, not whiskers? That cat is kind of creepy. ) Previously I embroidered other days of the week towels for her. And then I made one of those quick and easy hot pads from 5 - 9 inch squares plus a square of Insulbrite and quilted it with perle #8. ..

 ...and I will gift it to her in this groovy reversible grocery bag...

...and finally, I made two totally groovy coin purses for my lovely 8 year old granddaughters. Little purses to follow in the next few days. Peace, baby!

No, I'm Not Going to Let the Cat Out of the Bag...

 But I will let some other things out of the bag...
I'm going to make some reversible shopping bags for several people for Christmas. This one is for my dad and step mom. Dad loves all things Irish; hence the shamrock fabric and the madras plaid was on the 1/2 off table at the fabric store. I'm also going to use the bags as "wrapping" for Christmas gifts.

  So far, inside their bag is a crocheted dishcloth (dish rag?), dish towel I embroidered with a 50s motif and a hotpad (so easy to make) that also reminds me of the 50s.

And while I was in crochet mode I crocheted up a couple more dish cloths to add to the Christmas gift box. Now I just need to embroider a dishtowel to go with and make one of those easy, peasy hotpads and make a couple more shopping bags and I've got a few more people crossed off my Christmas list.

I've been so tired lately with working the overtime (which I hope ends at the end of Aug) that I welcome the mindless and quick work involved with the crochet.

I'm linking up to Connie's Freemotion Quilting by the River Tuesday linky party. 

Nobody Likes Me and I'm Alright with That!

Facebook went public today. I've never felt the urge to join it. And I don't care if anyone likes me or not. I like my privacy. I like to remain a person of mystery. And I like myself just fine. If I play games I play old fashioned board games. I don't have a product to sell and I don't really care to know everything my relatives are doing since they are usually up to no good. And farmville?...I live on an acreage and do some real work that produces some real flowers, fruits and veggies. Like these peonies. 

 What's that under the pitcher of peonies? 

I found the cutest 50s type fabric...dancing dishes.  I combined it with some other fabrics from my stash and made a dish mat. My DH washes the dishes and what he doesn't put in the dish washer he puts on a towel. Basically this is an old covered bath towel. It looks nicer I think. 

So to match I had to embroider a flour sack dishtowel with some happy dishes and I made a hotpad to match it all too. I actually got a little wonky and just machine stitched lines wherever on the hotpad.  My DH burns them up or gets them grease spattered anyway. But I still like him. 

Free Motion Quilt Challenge - Flowers

This is my hotpad for March for the Free Motion Quilt Challenge at SewCalGal.  This month's tutorial was by Ann Fahl. and I chose to free motion some flowers on my hotpad. I used some variegated thread (I think Coat's and Clark's) I had on hand in shades of brown. 

Hotpad is filled with insulbrite and terrycloth and is 8.5 inches in size so my flowers had to be rather small. It was hard to quilt flowers on the fancy fabric I chose to use but this will be a hotpad for my brother who looks forward to my wild hotpads for Christmas.  Quilting flowers seemed appropriate. 

And what I was actually practicing flowers for was to finish this Sunbonnet Sue quilt that's been a WIP for too long. Blocks were from a swap on the Mailblocks Yahoo Group. I will need to buy some monofilament to stitch in the ditch along the borders framing each block and then find some thread to use as filler flowers around the Sues. 

Oh, Horsefeathers!!!

I joined SewCalGal's 2012 Free Motion Quilt Challenge and what a challenge it was this month. This month's tutorial was feathers by Diane Gaudynski. I've had Diane's book (maybe she has more than one) for a couple of years but have never quite gotten the hang of the feathers. Maybe I just don't like feathers. I can't draw them no matter how hard or how many times I try. I've drawn on paper, I've sewn on paper. I was going to cheat and resort to tracing some feathers on tissue paper and then sewing over the tissue but decided that would not be a challenge. So, I don't see any feathers in my near future - not until I retire and have more practice time to wile away on feathers. Anyway...this is my not quite completed hotpad (need to bind it yet) for Feb.  And I'll keep it for my own collection. 

The don't call it a challenge for nothing!  And I'm definitely feather-challenged! 

Sweating and Small Stuff But Not Sweating the Small Stuff !

It's been very hot here in Iowa. I don't have air-conditioning but I do have a little country air. Today I sat in front of the fan and finished a few small items. Above is the front of a card holder. It's a "Fun Friday Toot" challenge over on the Stitchmap Yahoo Group.

I went through my first scrap box looking for the right sized scraps to use and happened upon these scraps left over from when I made placemats for my dad and stepmom. I used two different fabrics inside so at a glance I know which pocket a card is in. One side for credit/debit cards and the other for other stuff. I had to ask my granddaughter for a green hair band for the closure. I was going to also whip up a few Christmasy card holders but my GD said I could only have ONE hair band. I guess I will have to buy more for my next card holders.

Also from the scrap bin...blue scraps for a hotpad (or is it a potholder?) for a swap over on Mailblocks Yahoo Group. This is the front using 2.5 inch blue scraps...

...and this is the back. I don't even remember buying this fabric but there it is.

I also crocheted up another dishcloth for a stocking stuffer or maybe for a set including embroidered flour sack dishtowel, potholder in a market bag.

And finally...these are my July lottery blocks - Double Wrench. I won May's lottery so was ineligible to win June's lottery but maybe I will win in July. At any rate...lottery blocks are a great way to use up more scraps. If I lose the drawing I send them off to the winner and if I win the drawing everyone sends their blocks to me and I make a quilt top that turns into another WIP. 

Now...back to sweating..and a little embroidery before bed.

They Made My Day

I got home from work today to a load of mail. No bills - just fun stuff! Ramona sent me this pincushion she made for a swap with mailblocks yahoo group.

And LouAnn sent me these gorgeous, too-beautiful-to-use hotpads for a swap with the same mailblocks group.

What a pleasant surprise to come home to. It was almost like Christmas thanks to a couple of very talented ladies.