The Fifth Anniversary

    I started this blog on October 17, 2014 to I can keep track of my crafting projects.  I just recently spent a few hours going back over my old posts to see if I had left anything out.  Nope, it's all there, warts and all.

Here are a few items that I recently completed that I want to show you.

   A proper turquoise ear warmer knit with my original ribbed pattern.

 

  Three new shopping bags made from three yards of home decor fabric.

 

   A couple of crocheted cotton coasters.  The top one was made using Jayda in Stitches YouTube video tutorial.  Link here.

 

    I found some extra fall kitchen towels I bought last year and lots of the black cat fabric in my stash and I made some fall hanging dishtowels and potholders for a friend.

    I made another water bottle carrier.  It's too tall but I don't care.  I was playing with resizing the pattern.

    I also made a lovely find on Amazon.  I found these fun needle threaders.  I love the flowers and the pastel colors.  These came in a pack of 50.  I haven't used any of these yet so I don't know how sturdy they are, but the wire feels like it is secure in the plastic flower.

      No update on the hexagon quilt top.  It's in a state of limbo for a while.  I have been finding all manner of small projects between sewing and knitting to take up my quilting time.  I may not start working on it again until next year.

Secret Birthday Sewing and Gifts Revealed.

   I made my dear daughter several things for her birthday.  They included three shopping bags.

   Two made with this fun pineapple fabric with a fun lining on each outside pocket.

  

    One made with this fun blue and white plaid and I gave the outside pocket a wonky look with a fun lining.

 

    I also made her a 16" pillow cover with snowflake fabric in a star pattern.

     front

     back

    Lastly, I made her a 16" pillow cover with the fun snowfolk on it.

   

    I bought her some needle nannies from etsy sellers, some cross stitch needles, a set of steak knives, a book about aprons called "The Apron Book" by EllynAnne Geisel, and I also made her six white wool dryer balls.

    We went out for dinner the day of her birthday and had a lovely meal at a local owned Italian restaurant.

Bags, Bags, Fourteen Knitting and Crochet Project Bags!

   I sewed up all the bags I cut out a few days ago.  They were so easy, each one only took about 45 minutes to sew.  No zippers, no drawstrings, there are 4 seams and a little top stitching.  Such an easy pattern for a really nice bag that is perfect for a knitting or crochet project for me.  The lady bug bag and the Eiffel Tower bags in the fourth picture are being given away to dear daughter and a friend.

   I wanted to show the handle of the bag so the first three pictures are the bags hanging off a dowel stick.  The other two pictures have the rest of the bags laying on the table.

Cutting Out Fabric to Make Lots of Bags and Crocheted Embroidery Hoops

   I'm making a bunch of Two Kates Project bags.  I love this beautiful bag pattern and I thought this would be a great project to use up some of my fabric stash and I need some new project bags for my knitting and crochet projects.  This bag is perfect to store my yarn projects because it doesn't use a zipper  or a drawstring and it's a nice size.  The link to the .pdf pattern is here. 

   Tonight I cut out fabric to make thirteen of these bags.  The picture of the bright green lady bug fabric at the end is a bag that will be given to dear daughter.  She loves lady bugs.  Most of these bags have the same fabric for the lining as the outside but a few of them have different lining fabric because I didn't have enough fabric for both.

   I'll be sewing on these bags for the next few days.

   I finished crocheting the borders on the rest of my 3" embroidery hoops for my Christmas tree project.  I did all of these crocheted borders with embroidery thread.  It was a lot of fun to do.  To finish these hoops I still have to add some embroidered trees.

Curtains and Tote Bags

   I haven't broken out my new quilt project yet.  I want to finish up my ugly yellow cotton curtains first.  I finished the living room curtains.  You can see the bright yellow behind Merlin's head in the picture below.  They didn't turn out like I wanted, but they will do until I find something I like better. I thought the yellow would have been softer, more pale, but it is really YELLOW! and you should see it when the sun shines through in the evenings.  I have to make 6 more panels for the dining room which I will finish this week.

   Merlin is sitting on my sewing extension table for my Janome 7700.  He likes to sit there when I'm on the computer.  This morning he was concentrating on doing a mind meld with me and telling me to go into the kitchen to turn on the faucet so he can drink and get wet.  He puts the side of his face under the light stream of water and lets the water run into his mouth.  His face is all wet when he finishes.  That's the highlight of his cat day.

  After I finish the dining room curtains, I'm going to make four tote bags using Crafty Gemini's Must Have Tote Bag pattern.  I bought it for $3.00 from her website.  Here is a link to the pattern page.  It comes with .pdf instructions you can print out and a video.  These tote bags are super fun to make.  I have about 4 that I keep in my car for groceries and I make them for gifts as well.  The pattern calls for a thicker fabric like decorator cotton and I have some fabric leftover from my bedroom drapes that I'm using to make three of them and I also have a yard of decorator cotton that I bought in the spring to make another.

   I packed up my secret Santa package this morning to take to the post office.  Boy I wish I were getting this box.  I sent my secret pal a quilting book (It's Quilting Cats and Dogs by Lynnette Anderson), a wool pincushion I made, some pretty pearl topped pins, 4 - 1/2 yard cuts of fall fabric, 4 1/2 yard cuts of Christmas fabric, 5 colorful fat quarters, a spool of thread, buttons, ribbon, cat charms, a pocket calendar, a journal, a pack of post it notes, a small Boyds Bear, a Christmas kitchen towel set, and the cute scrappy Christmas stocking I made.  This package has to go all the way to Western Australia.  I hope it gets there okay.