Sunday, August 30, 2009

More bags....!

Both of these bags are listed in the Carried Away Bag Team store http://www.cabteam.etsy.com. The proceeds will benefit a charitable organization. For more information about Women for Women International see http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.php See also the team store home page on how to enter the September drawing.
I can already see that designing and making bags could be a whole new dimension of fun!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

It's All in the Bag!

Bags, bags! I do believe I've got a bag bug, and I do believe I like it! Did not make the yellow roses pillow next, but there is always tomorrow. So many miles to sew before I go...into the great mystery once more! Friday and Saturday nights I house/pet sit again for Pat, and back on Sunday evening to feed the dogs. Oh yes! the white shoulder bag is made from an upcycled New York mini skirt and an upcycled belt with rivets intact. It hangs in the right place on me. The little black number is made from scratch. One day I bought what I thought was a remnant of fabric, and discovered it was a section of shirred material ready to make a child's dress but only enough for one side. So, that shirred section became the front of this bag, lined of course to prevent stretching over time. And I even hand appliqued a butterfly design on it, padded lightly with cotton batting.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Gang's All Here!

...well, not quite all of the gang, but a number of them. The thing about taking pix of pillows is that they don't wiggle around, and there's no need to get the smile right.With the exception of the two pillows along the top which are already listed on etsy, these are all destined for the local Goodwill store. You could say this was a little goodwill gesture, pun intended. So, I'm going to plop the pillows out of the way in my car until my next town trip. Next, I really want to work on making a rectangular pillow using some beautiful yellow flowers vintage fabric I bought on etsy. That is going to be a charge!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Can Anyone Help Me Out?

Can anyone help me out with the origin and meaning of this painted canvas story? Double click on the pic to see more of the details.Please leave a comment if you can help me understand the story. Thanks!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Be Still-another ShuboxFabrixSeries quilt

This little quilt is a gem...colorwise, for sure! The needlework inset was a rescue, and the rest of the fabrics came from my ShuboxFabrix collection. Whipped out a number of Christmas stockings for our quilt guild. They made over 400 stockings last year for a group, and I guess this is the same group. That's the kind of info that just sort of whizzes in one ear and out the other. I thought it would be fun to make some, and it was. Good job they got us started earlier this year. It's really just two pieces of Christmas fabric cut out in the shape of a stocking with a pinking shears and sewn together. What I discovered is that I actually own a never-used rotary "pinker", and surprisingly enough, it works on curves. Who knew!

So Kinda Like TOTALLY!

You might say that I did a bit of perverse applique here, er, I mean reverse applique. Totally!This was a fun project. Totally! I have a feeling I may be wanting to make more kinda like different pillows with crafting felt.

Tulips!

I love, love, love these cheerful tulips pillows! They are made from a dress that I discovered at an outlet store. The skirt had a large black stain on it. At first the sales clerk wasn't going to permit the sale, but with Fred's persuasive powers she was convinced. I still think it was Fred's Australian hat that did the trick. This morning I acquired a new banner for http://wwww.eclecticarmadillo.etsy.com. It was custom made by http://www.monstergallery.etsy.com who is from Singapore. How cool is it to make an online custom request from someone who lives on the other side of the planet, and within 2 days you have it in your store?!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Christmas Stockings and Silk Pillows

Much as I enjoy and appreciate the online community for friendship, inspiration and resources, it isn't comparable to meeting with like-minded people in the flesh. Specifically referring to attending our local quilt guild meeting, and it's many talented quilters. The part of the meeting that I personally enjoy the most is show and tell. While I haven't managed to "show and tell" my own sewing projects in this guild, one of these days I will, so I will. One of the pix here is of three Cathedral Windows Christmas stockings that have been upgraded from decorative to stockings. Yes, I opened up the stitching on the back and added pockets. I made them in 2007 and still have about 24 left. Six have been committed to a fundraiser bazaar sale in November, and the others I will take with me to a local event in December, as well as list on etsy. The other pic is an upcycled silk pillow made using the original buttons, pocket with giraffe and leaves. This is my first time using bamboo fiber for the pillow stuffing. I really like it! Besides all the environmental reasons to love it, it has a bit if a scrunchy feel when I handle it...like squeezing cornstach between my fingers. And, next on the agenda is making pillow forms for two very unique pillows.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

I Got Thread!

Between ebay and etsy, "I got thread!", with more coming next week. For some not so well defined reason, this makes me feel like there is abundance everywhere. Some of the thread came from the store of http://www.quiltedlovelies.etsy.com, whom I highly recommend as being an ideal and gracious proprietor of an etsy store.
Well, it is time for a power nap and then back to my sewing room! I think I'm going to make an alteration to a number Cathedral Windows Christmas stockings I made in 2007. Originally I made them to be decorative only, but I received suggestions to change them into stockings that could be used. Till later....!

Valerie's potholders

I really love these handmade, crocheted potholders by ponderosaquilter.etsy.com. A number of them were gifts from her, and then I simply had to acquire more!"
" While they definitely are sturdy enough for many years of service and usefulness, I really consider them works of art! They are reversible, and the other side is different. I will treasure these always!

American Sewing Guild-local chapter

Yesterday was the August monthly meeting of the local chapter of the American Sewing Guild in the back room of the Sew Worth It! fabric store. Just getting to the back room means navigating through that wonderland candy store of luscious fabrics! The demonstration was making a gift bag/tote bag for the purposes of Christmas gift giving. I love seeing other people's creativity taking form! For show and tell one woman brought an origami handbag she made. It was beautiful! And we were so intrigued and just had to figure out how it was done, on the spot. She could not remember all the details. A few of the women went right ahead and made a prototype with their surplus fabrics to help them remember by the time they got home. And my mind started spinning along the lines of Cathedral Windows bags! Well, that was predictable! So, I came home with inspiration, and completed projects I had taken to work on. Till later....

Thursday, August 13, 2009

New Bio Pic

Wearing Fred's Australian hat here...I am SO gonna get one of those hats one of these days!

Striking a Balance

I feel like I haven't been here in quite awhile...it's so easy to get entirely caught up in learning a bit about something else! And that would be twitter land, and tweeting, and twitalyzer, and on and on. That is a whole 'nother world unto itself! Golly! I have no idea where people find the time to engage in so many online activities and still live a life outside their computer screen. And even after I've left the monitor screen my mind seems to still be there, plugged in, so to speak. I will have to find a way to strike a balance." " The coils in the one picture are made of strips of fabric, and are used for binding quilts. There are about 225 yards altogether. Monday evening I'll take them along to our local quilt guild meeting, and hand them over to the Kidz Quilts group leader. Kidz Quilts are smaller quilts made and donated to a local hospital for children who are terminally ill, or to wrap tiny babies who have ceased to breathe. The bright blue bundles were for the project of sending bundles of sewing supplies to Iraqi women. I enjoyed digging into my stash for fabrics that I thought would delight. It also felt like a tiny little something I could do to "assuage my conscience" for the horrors of a needless war. Time for a cup of coffee..and to make plans for a creative day....

Friday, August 7, 2009

Thubten Chodron and Czeslaw Milosz

MY ENLIGHTENMENT DEPENDS ON YOU "Often we see other sentient beings as hassles: "This mosquito is disturbing me. Those politicians are corrupt. Why can't my colleagues do their work correctly?" and so on. But when we see sentient beings as being more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel, our perspective completely changes. For example, when we look at a fly buzzing around, we train ourselves to think, "My enlightenment depends on that fly." This isn't fanciful thinking because, in fact, our enlightenment does depend on that fly. If that fly isn't included in our bodhicitta, then we don't have bodhicitta, and we won't receive the wonderful results of generating bodhicitta-- the tremendous purification and creation of positive potential. Imagine training your mind so that when you look at every single living being, you think, "My enlightenment depends on that being. The drunk who just got on the bus--my enlightenment depends on him. The soldier in Iraq--my enlightenment depends on him. My brothers and sisters, the teller at the bank, the janitor at my workplace, the president of the United States, the suicide bombers in the Middle East, the slug in my garden, my eighth-grade boyfriend, the babysitter when I was a kid--my enlightenment depends on each of them." All sentient beings are actually that precious to us." ~Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron from 'Cultivating a Compassionate Heart: The Yoga Method of Chenrezig'Love ****************************************** Love means to learn to look at yourself The way one looks at distant things For you are only one thing among many. And whoever sees that way heals his heart, Without knowing it, from various ills. A bird and a tree say to him: Friend. Then he wants to use himself and things So that they stand in the glow of ripeness. It doesn't matter whether he knows what he serves: Who serves best doesn't always understand. ~ Czeslaw Milosz ~ (New & Collected Poems 1931-2001) ************************************* http://www.sarahsquiltsncrafts.etsy.com http://www.eclecticarmadillo.etsy.com http://earthnsky8d.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/erthnsky