It has been a slow morning. My brain hasn't begun to function yet. This post might be a short one. Let's begin with what I got accomplished yesterday. I mailed off a birthday present for a sweet little girl who will be turning 2 on the 27th. This sweet little thing.

When I talked to her on the phone the other day she just shattered away with such expression, you could tell she was telling you something very important but I couldn't understand any of it. She is such a sweetheart. Happy Birthday, sweetie. I also got a lot done from my list I made in an earlier post. I got 7 casserole carriers done. I have an 8th one almost done. I need two more metal rings to add to it to make it functional but the rest is done. I also finished up the last 2 backpack/tote bags. They turned out really cute. So I now have 4 of those. Then I made one of the two chenille scarves. I will do the second one today most likely. I am making all of these things for the annual craft sale that we have at our church. It is Dec. 3 rd. Oh, I forgot I also made 2 pillows that are decorated with colorful zippers. Really cute. I got a lot done yesterday. Now for today, what are my plans. I plan to finish that last chenille scarf. I have 2 pieces that would make a great journal cover. I should go get the notebooks that will go inside so that I get the dimensions just right. I have one wallhanging that I also need to finish quilting so that I can have it to take to the sale. I have a customer that loves oriental pieces and buys something each year from me that is oriental. I need to get that done. Well that is what I have planned but we will see what the day holds as anything can happen to change those plans. (If I get all this done, I might just surprise a little lady by showing up at her birthday party.) Have a great day and remember to be thankful for all your many blessings.

Thanksgiving week

Here we are. It is Thanksgiving week. How has this year gone by so fast? I remember as a kid it seemed to take forever to get from one Christmas to the next, or through one school year to the summer. The days are flying by so fast that I think we forget to take a moment each day, not just on Thanksgiving day, and give thanks for all we have. This morning I have thinking about all the things I am thankful for. I am not going to list them here since I already did in my journal. The point is not for you to read what I am thankful for but to think about what it is that YOU are thankful for. Especially all those little annoying things, like a messy house because it means that real people live there, that annoying alarm clock that goes off to get you up to go to the job you have, not wanting to get out of bed on a cold morning because you have a nice warm comfortable bed. These are just a few things. Can you think of something to be grateful for when you are gritting your teeth due to some annoyance in your life? Here is a photo of something I am very grateful for.

My family. I hope that you all have a very thankful Thanksgiving and may God bless you abundantly.

Cleaning up studio to move forward

After I got home from the airport yesterday, I spent the afternoon cleaning up my studio. It turned out to be a very productive day. Here is a photo of how messy it gets when I am in that creative work mode and don't take any time to tidy up as I go along, which never happens when I am deep into a project. Every flat surface gets taken over by all my stuff that I am using or that doesn't have a home.

This is from the doorway of my studio. In this photo, it shows you that every flat surface gets taken over by all my stuff.

Now to prove to you that I did indeed clean up.

As I was cleaning up my studio, I came across this little pillow cover that I made, it is Sashiko dragonflies, while on the quilt trip to Vermont this summer. It has been to the stage of needing stuffed for months and I had picked up a pillow form still in its original wrapper at Goodwill, I decided to get it done so I wouldn't have to keep moving it from one place to another when cleaning up. This is not one of my original projects on my list from yesterday but since it only took about 15 minutes to complete I decided it was worth doing right then and there instead of having it continue to clutter up my work surfaces and my mind. It is really cute.

I also got 3 t-shirts finished for the craft sale. So over all, yesterday was a very productive day.

Projects Finished Up

I finished up several big things over the last several days so now I can play with some other fun projects but that will still have to wait a bit. Today I have to take Dan to the airport to fly out to California for a buddy's wedding this weekend. When I get home I have to spend 1 -2 days cleaning up the house before I get back to quilting. I finished up my last customer quilt last night about 7 PM. My legs were really aching by the time I got done. I also finished up the rag rug. It didn't get too much bigger.
My list of projects to work on next.
1. 2 more backpack/tote bags
2. 6 casserole carriers
3. fabric Christmas star ornaments
4. my Tabacco Bay wallhanging.
5. a journal cover
6. set of faux leather baskets
7. 2 chennille style scarves
8. Oriental wallhanging
This is all I can think of at the moment but that is enough to keep me busy for a while. I will post photos of these projects as I get done with them. Now I am off to the airport. Have a safe fun day.

What next?

I am on a mission to finish up a lot of projects that are just about done so that I can get to working on my seascape again. This is the piece that I started at the quilt retreat at the Greenville Arms Inn last month. I have not worked on it since getting back home although it has been hanging on my design wall so that I can study it and work out the rest of the quilting ideas. Here is where I am with it so far.

I also have a small piece that I plan on finishing. It was also started at the same retreat. It will become a journal cover perhaps. Here it is.

It will get a tree branch perhaps going across it. It should be a fun quick project to finish. I hope you have fun thinking of projects that you want to get finished up before the holidays. Thanks for reading.

Crotcheted rag rug

I have been working on a rag rug. One of our quilt group members taught us how to do this last week at our work day. This is a great way to repurpose those old worn out sheets. I wish I knew how to do this about 6 months ago when my favorite purple sheet ripped from being so old. I chucked that beauty. It would have made a great rug. Oh well, no need to cry for that one when I have plenty others in my closet or that can be gotten cheaply at the Goodwill Stores. Here is what I have been able to do so far.

How about that. It is about 3 feet in diameter right now and I have several more colors to add to it. It does take quite a bit of fabric to make one of these, obviously depending on the size you want. I think I read that a 4 ft rug takes about 9 yards of fabric. To do this you rip your fabric into strips about 3/4"-1" widths, attach the strips into one long one, roll up into a ball. That is the prep work. Make as many balls of different fabrics as you want to use and then you can begin to crochet the rug. I am not going into how to crochet but it is a single crochet stitch. You can find tutorials online or get some good book on how to do this. You can make the rug round or oval or rectangular or I suppose you could even make it square. It has been fun working on. You can do this while watching TV at night and not have to concentrate on what you are doing too much. BTW, this will be a Christmas present for my BFF. Hope you try to make one sometime.

Tote? or Not

I am working on several things right now. I just made several backpack/tote bags from practice quilt sandwiches. They turned out cute and they used up something that very easily could have ended up in the trash years done the line when I got tired of trying to find a place to store them. This is what I started with

It took 3 of these quilted pieces that are 9x21" to make one bag. This is what the bag looks like.

And another one.

Sorry they are sideways. I will have to work on my computer skills some more. It took about 1 hour to make a bag. They can be worn as a backback or push the straps through the handle on top and you can use it as a shoulder bag. They have a deconstructed look due to the raw edges. They will make great Christmas gifts. Hope you enjoyed and I plan to be back every day M-F to share other things I am working on.