I Haven't Forgotten About Great Granny!

Great Granny has not been hung out to dry! 

I've been participating in a "Great Granny Sew Along"  but it's sort of difficult to get too much completed when sewing time is short due to long hours on the job - (12 to 13 hr days until Sep.) 

So w/o further ado...here's what's on my design line blowing in the wind. 

My Youngest Brother Loves Bacon...

...and I love my youngest brother so I made him some bacon pillowcases for Christmas. 

Our sense of humor has gotten us through some tough times as children and as old fogies we still make each other laugh. 

Working on It

Handquilted in variegated brown perle #8. This is my first time hand quilting and I rather enjoy the process even tho' this old farmhouse has no a/c and it's been over 100 degrees on some of the days I've worked on this. (Call me driven? Call me crazy?) I love this embroidery frame (or whatever it's called). On the other hand, I've tried to use several different types of thimbles and liked none of them. The callous on the end of my finger will have to do.  I may add binding tomorrow and be finished with it. Then I'll wash it and hope none of my thread knots come loose since this is the first time I've done the hidden knots and I've done a lot of them.

I love chocolate! 

Tips from an Old Bag and Gerry K

As of a few weeks ago this was my purse (aka old bag). I've used it for years and love it.  

But it was starting to wear out. 

Boho bags were all the rage and a dear lady named Gerry K posted a tutorial on how she made hers and also sold some kits with fabric in her etsy store. 

So, I made a pattern of my old bag, bought some fabrics from Gerry and used some tips from her tutorial, added some of my own fabrics and some stitching and some thrift store finds and made myself a new purse. 

 The background of the flap was a doily from a thrift store, the fringe and beads I had in my stash, I had just learned how to make wide ribbon roses, and crocheted up a butterfly for the rose garden.

I had embroidered a rose on some taffeta thinking I would use it for a long purse strap but later decided it wouldn't work as a strap so turned it into a purse side. 

 This is part of the back of the purse. Fabrics are bonded together on interfacing ala Gerry's tutorial but I wanted to have some stitching on the purse too so I stitched.  The lace was in my stash so I painted it with alcohol ink. That was a first for me and quite possible a last.

This is the other side of the purse - again, I painted some lace and crocheted up a wild Irish rose.

 I added a piece of trim with whatever these little swivel thingys are called on the end to attach key rings and keys which seem to be absent. And, no, I really don't love NY - someone went there and brought it back to me thinking I would love a key ring with my name on it.

Since I am not good at pattern making I made the bag a little too loose on the inside so had to add some drawstrings in casing to keep all my stuff from falling out. But I kind of like what I did with my mistakes. It sat for months waiting for me to figure out what to do with a purse whose contents would spill out after all the work I had put into it.

I used up a lot of trims I had in my stash from thrift stores. 

 And I even made a coin purse with roses on it to go inside my new bag.

 When I was finished I took a couple of photos to try to showcase my work.

And I won second prize in a purse contest held on the CQI (Crazy Quilting International) Yahoo Group. Not sure what I won yet, but I do feel honored and I have a new purse besides. All the ladies at work love it and much to my surprise I've been offered some large (to me) sums of money for it. But, it's all mine!

I'm going over to the usual Tuesday linky party at Quilting by the River to show off.

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

This is a quilt for my 3 yo grandson - Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails. 

Someone posted a link to a video for a 10 minute quilt block  that I thought I would try with some 6.5 charms  I've swapped with members of various groups. 

I used some of the smaller prints for the centers. 

The blocks actually took me a little longer than 10 min. only because I sewed down the "cathedral windows" by hand since my eyes don't see well enough to do by machine and sometimes my hands don't guide the machine too well either. (Numb, stiff hands this a.m. are also why pics are a bit blurry looking- or maybe they are fine and my eyes aren't working right. Ah, old age!)

We've got some snakes...

...and some snails and some puppy dog tails. 

I'll probably use some black Kona for the borders and who knows what for the back.

Linking up to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday. 

Cobwebs in the Sewing Room

I've added six more blocks to my cobweb quilt and hopefully one of these days I'll have my small bright scraps used up. The larger scraps all went to several colorful Heartstrings Quilts. My 3yo grandson loves to look at all the different fabrics in quilts so maybe I'll get some Spiderman fabric for the back and this will be his. Or not...

I'm linking up with a Linky Party at Quilting By the River.  Come party!

I'm Not a Great Granny but...

...I think I'll participate in the Great Granny Sewalong. Anything that reminds me of Granny (who taught me to sew) has got to be good. And any quilt  made from my 30s reproductions will probably be queen-sized and end up on my bed.

Linking up at Design Wall Monday.