Heartfelt Thanks

I have spent quite a few hours (shhhh, don't tell anybody) going through the Sew Mama Sew giveaway blogs today. Oh, my goodness, there are so many inspiring blogs out there to see. You must go and see them, even if you don't join any of the giveaways, just look. Such inspiration, creativity, and just all around wonderfulness (is that a word?).

I have personally entered many of those great giveaways and have actually had some responses from some of the wonderful craftspersons(?) from those blogs. I am excited and humbled by their comments. Me and my elementary skills are thankful for the responses and good will that has come from them.

Thank you to all of the great people having the giveaways and for Sew Mama Sew for sponsoring.

I don't think I can ever find enough time to go through each and every blog that I have seen today, but I tell you, I will do my best. And there will be lots more buying handmade and from these independent sellers from now on. You can't buy this stuff in stores it comes direct from the heart. I think the thing I love the most is the little peek I have into their lives and homes and the new perspective I gives to my own life and home.

Sincerely, I thank you.

When they say Flash Flood, you better listen!

This is the creek by our house during the flash floods over the past week. I live in Douglas County, GA that got a good brunt of the worst of the flooding. My son took these pictures as he was walking the dog. Yes, I know he is close to the water and yes he got in a lot of trouble and was grounded. This creek is usually just a little lazy small creek and he fishes out of it from time to time. This little creek took out two roads of our subdivision leaving only one road in and out. There are over 100 roads that are impassable in our county and the major interstate from here to Atlanta was closed for almost three days as the flood waters from the Chattahoochee River and Sweetwater Creek took it over. Now that the interstate is open it takes forever to get anywhere as that is the only way in and out of our county now.

We were very lucky as we had no flooding in our house but we do have some new leaks in the roof. We just fixed some about two weeks before the floods so that was great. Others in our county and the surrounding counties were not that lucky. There are many people in our community with no home or belongings and 10 people lost their lives. I have lived in this area for 44 years and I have never seen anything like this before. My banner is a picture of Sweetwater Creek State Park here in Douglas County. It was completely flooded and I have seen aerial shots but you can't get to park to see it now as the roads leading to it are impassable.

Unfortunately, its raining again. Pray for us here.

Reuse and Recycle

I have been using the sewing machine as you can see. I am just doing some small things to learn as I go. This is the Kokeshi Stuffie from Melly & Me.




Cute and very easy. I have to work on sewing around the curves as these didn’t turn out as neat as I would have liked. I also ran out of stuffing material and it isn’t stuffed as much as it should. But overall I really like it. The embroidery was fast (as its all backstitch and few lazy daisies) and simple with minimal sewing. I am getting better at the ladder stitch to close up the turning holes.

This will show you the backing material I used.

This was my next project. These are crooked coasters from thelongthread.com.

I learned machine quilting and changing the feet on my sewing machine. I had to use the walking foot with the thickness of the material and batting. The linen set is some linen material from a shirt that I don’t wear anymore (the kokeshi doll was made from this shirt also). The white set is just some white cotton material I have had for a while to use with embroidery. I absolutely love these. I have a linen and white coaster on my desk at work. I haven’t washed these yet so they don’t have that quilted wrinkley goodness yet, but they will.

This set of coasters comes from a pattern from foofanagle.wordpress.com.

These were very fun to make. I learned to piece for quilting with this. The first few I made didn’t match up in size with the backing and batting and I realized I was using too large of seam. I changed that and they worked great. So, so fun. These were made from that linen shirt also with some scraps from some fat quarters I had.

These have been great to work on and have gotten me comfortable with my sewing machine and even hand sewing. I want to start a small quilt now.

As for the title of this post, I have used one linen shirt to make all of these projects and I still have more (I think I may make another Kokeshi doll). I have been going through my closet and the kid's closet for good material of things we don't use anymore or are stained or torn. I don't have a big budget for material so this has been a great way to reuse things that are old and really no one would want to wear. I have a closet full of acid wash jeans from my skinny days. I think I might make something from those.

Meet Hugo!

My first stuffie!

I know its hard to tell in these photos but its a frog. I got the pattern from the Purl Bee. I used some jean material that I had from cutting my son's jeans off for shorts. My sewing really blows though. There were a few areas that I didn't sew very well and all I did was just top stitch them closed after I turned it right side out. I think as it ages and the seams start to fray it will be so cute.

I added some beads for the eyes and stuffed with dried beans for a bean bag effect.

When I sat him up for pictures he reminded me of Hugo from the Lost TV Show. So his name is Hugo. I may try some embroidery to spruce him up a little.

It was so fun and only took about an hour and I'm a newbie sewer. So for someone who can really sew it should just be a really fast, cute gift.

Hugo is going with us on our trip to Key West next month. I hope he enjoys it. I'm sure there will be pictures.

Another New Obsession

Well, I have finally caught my breath and have a new crafting obsession. I am so excited. Its a Brother CS-6000i computerized sewing machine with 60 stitches.


I'm still learning. I haven't touched a sewing machine since I was in the 7th grade. My mother was a very accomplished seamstress and she tried to show me how. I just wasn't that interested. I wish she was still around now to show me. But I'm sure she would be very proud.

My first project was a very easy purple pin cushion. You can see it in the foreground of the picture. I have now started with the fabric stash. Another expensive hobby. My husband is still shaking his head. I told him he better let me do this or he better start paying for therapy. All this crafting keeps me sane.

I haven't really been doing too much crafting lately. Just a little doodle embroidery and some knitting but nothing to really show yet. I want to start a small quilt and have been surfing blogs and the internet looking at all the wonderful quilts others have made. Wow, there are some wonderful quilts out there in blogland!

My Friend

I lost my best friend last week. She had been very sick and lost her battle with Interstitial lung disease. I am still in a state of shock as we thought that she would be okay once she got the lung transplant. But in the end, the doctors decided that the transplant wouldn't even save her. So she was taken off of life support.

I just want to put this out into the universe: I love you, Dawn. I will miss you. I know that I will see you later. Just please forgive me for not being there for you this time.

To everyone that sees this, all I have to say...Don't let your friends get away from you. No matter what you have to do. I learned my lesson the hard way.

'Shrooms

My new obsession has really taken off. I spent Thursday night and Friday night finishing this cute little mushroom.

I found the pattern at The Little House by the Sea blog. Isn't it just the cutest thing.

I think that I have mastered the french knot. Ha! Its made with felt and the original is sewn on the sewing machine, but since I don't have a sewing machine I stitched it all up by hand. I am quite proud of this. Its definately not perfect, but is soooo dang cute. I have started to make the second one in the pattern and I think I will make more in different colors. This one is going on my desk at work just so that I can look at it. But I think I will make a few for gifts. My oldest step-daughter just got a new sewing machine and I think one of these will make a great little pincushion.

New Obsession

I have a new obsession. I found some old cross stitch that I had done years (and I mean years) ago and realized I wanted to learn embroidery. I found an easy pattern and started.



I mostly used back stitch and stem stitch. Its done on an old white linen I had for my cross stitch and never used.

Here are my first stitches in stem stitch. I had so much fun with this. I only did an outline version of this pattern. I hope to do some more with more advanced embroidery stitches. I might even find a use for this on my knitting. Here is the final version.

I got this pattern at http://zuill.us/andreablog/2008/01/04/gnome-the-embroidery-pattern-for-january/

I think its cute as a button. I hope to do more of this. (Sorry for the crappy pictures, no sun today.)