GOULIES AND GHOSTS

Last Cct. when I went to the CQI retreat in Colorado a couple of the gals were making Crazy Quilted Halloween hats and I thought they were great. I decided to start one when I returned but only got it pieced before we took off for Florida.
I got it out this week and finished the embellishments and then yesterday I sewed it together. The sewing is finished and here is the hat. It is going to my daughter to use as part of her Halloween decorations.

I am thinking of maybe making myself one but will see what else I have to finish before I start something else. You know all those UFO's that we all have. If I am not interested in finishing something I will just toss it or give it away to one of the charity groups. I am finally at the point where I don't feel I have to finish everything. The journey of just learning something new that I became interested in is enough without the finished item. No more guilt feelings either.

FINALLY FINISHED

With all the heat I have been staying in the house and it has let me get some things finished. I had trouble trying to decide what I would put in the corners of the fairy lady from my butterfly quilt. I finally decided on beaded and sequined fans.
I put 2 large ones on the sides and 2 smaller ones on the top and bottom. I ripped the one large one out about 3 times trying to make the beads straighter but it was impossible. I finally said thats it and it is finished. I went to Hobby Lobby to buy 2 sets of stretcher bars and found a finished 20" square artist canvas stretched over the bars. Perfect. Yesterday with Harv's help I sewed 3" strips of black fabric all around the square and then stretched it over the frame. First I used the little pins we use on the poster board and hammered them in to hold it. Then with me pulling and Harv stapling we stapled the fabric to the back.(then I removed the poster pins). The hard part was keeping it to the 20" square so hopefully the black would only show on the sides. I think we did a decent job of it. The hard parts to get perfect were the areas where a lot of fabrics came together and you can see one or two a little higher but I decided again that it was as good as we could get it and just live with it.

I have it hung up in my sewing /studio room where the other 3 panels are hanging. I took down a small miniature quilt and just hung the pic up on those nails for now.
I took a closeup pic of one of the fans but beads and sequins are hard to photograph. Hope you like her.

BOHO BAG

I spent this hot weekend putting together and sewing my version of a boho bag. The outer fabric is a blue and cream flowered chintz that I found in my stash and of course I have lots of lace and doilies from my flea market jaunts. I did buy the blue and cream loop fringe at JoAnnes last week. When it came time to cut out the lining I went on the hunt and could not find anything suitable. I had some heavy weight muslin but thought the light color wasn't too good for a lining. Friday I had played around mixing up some dyes using 1 koolaid and the others Easter egg dyes. I put them in jars after mixing and dipped a little piece of cotton or lace in each color to see what they actually looked like. Well it hit me last night why not use the muslin and dye it after I cut out the pieces. They came out a blue grey shade that is just fine for the lining. I just did not want to go out in this heat.

Here are a few pics of the bag. It is quite large but hard to tell in the pics. The next one I make will be smaller. I just cut out my own pattern from newspaper.

HOT HOT HOT

and I don't mean me except weatherwise. We had a storm go through here early Mon. morning and by the time it was through, in just about an hour or so, over 800,000 places had lost their electricity. Well it is now Friday afternoon and they hope to have all back on by tonight. Can you imagine how much food was wasted in this week.
All I could think of were the food pantries who are crying for food and all the food thrown out in the garbage due to no electricity. We were very fortunate in that ours didn't even flicker. We had a lot of branches and leaves down but I just raked most of it into piles on the lawns and decks and our landscaper will take it when they come today. Thank goodness for the air conditioning being back as our weather forecast starts heating up around Sat. and goes from low 90's to high 90's by the end of the week. How did we ever survive before air conditioning? We will just stay in and stay cool. We both have enough hobbies to keep us busy so no problem.

I am in the midst of making a boho purse for myself and will show you when I get a little further along. My only qestion is do they interface them or not due to the fact they should be sort of slouchy. I may just put a light one on the lining. The actual fabric is a drapery weight chintz print that has a good weight to it plus the flap and all the weight on it. I am not putting too much trim on mine - just lace and one loopy fringe as befits a lady of my age group - ha ha. I did put a large doily on the back and folded it over and sewed around it so that it looks like a pocket. Sorta neat to look at. I am trying to decide if I want an over the shoulder strap or a longer one to go around the neck and hang. Will wait until it is done then decide.

I mentioned that my BIL was down from Toronto. After the ballgame between the Cubs and the Sox they were on their way back to the van when they came across a street party sponsored by BP and Pepsi to do with the Crossover game. My friends are always asking after Harv so here is a current pic of both of them. My Hubby is the one in the wheelchair. BIL looks great for a 81 year old guy.

KARLA'S BIRD TAG SWAP

This will be the 3rd. swap I have done with Karla Nathan of Karlas Cottage and I really enjoy them. I was not into paper type arts until this last year or so and it is a whole new ballgame. I have taken a couple of online classes and am really enjoying it. You know the old saying "a change is as good as a rest" well it is true for me.

This swap had to have a bird on the tag somewhere. Small - large no matter as long as it is somewhere. I had downloaded a couple of sheets from the web and one of them happened to be for birds. I found it among my stash and I used them. I ordered bird nest charms and was off. Here is the result.

The swap is only for 8 tags but I made a couple of extras in case plus I can add one to my little booklet of tags so I have a record of what I sent. I missed this on swap 1 but did add one on swap 2 and I like having it there.

Karla sorts them out and makes a cover tag of whatever the story of the swap is. Can you image Karla making 70-100 covers and they are always beatifully done. She is a wonderful artist and a great gal. Will show you what I receive when I receive them.

I should have added how I made them. I bought a Cuttlebug machine when in Florida and have had a lot of fun with it. I love the embellishing cards to use with it.
I used purchased tags but ran them through with a leafy-bird embellisher card then used a torn piece of corrugated cardboard and then the bird pic. I edged them with brown colors and added the little twigs found on my deck. There are always twigs and sometimes large branches on my deck from all the trees. I then added the bird nest charm and some of my seam binding ribbon as a tie. I also stamped a birdcage on the back of each card and signed and dated them.

THROW MY SHOE IN

After not blogging for 1 month (the longest time yet) I should throw my shoe in and see if anyone throws it back at me. Life has been very hectic and I really don't know why. I re-joined my water aerobics over at the fitness centre and going to it 2 days a week plus getting organized inside and out has kept me very busy. After all the rain this year the weeds have been a nightmare. I just can't seem to keep all the beds and walkways clear at one time. The one good thing is there were 2 hydrangea bushes at the side of my house when we moved in 15 years ago. They have never had a flower on them until this summer. I couldn't believe it when I saw the first bunch of bloom opening up. I believe it must have something to do with all the rain so some good has come out of this.

My BIL from Toronto came down last Thurs. and stayed with us until this morning. Still waiting for his phone call to say he arrived safely. He drove down alone. He was married to my sister who passed away 5 years ago Sept. and he has done so well. They were married 52 years when she passed away. He has kept the home and loves to entertain. Does more of it then we do and does all his own cooking. He is a great guy and a great gardener. They have a beautiful yard with an inground pool that he still uses.

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I was going to change one of my bedrooms into a work room for Harv. and I. He has our upstairs loft (which is large) for his office and has his big screen tv up there where he watches all the sports stuff. We had put a table into one of the bedrooms for his art work and I compained that I wasn't going down to my sewing room because it was too cold down there with our air going 24/7. He said get rid of the bedroom furniture and use that room. We had a pretty high headboard old oak bed I had bought at auction. My son and DIL have a 5 bedroom house and didn't have much in their empty 5th. bedroom so I asked if they wanted it and they came and took it all. I bought a table at Costco plus 2 large bulletin boards and my BIL helped me put them up yesterday. I am gradually moving things up there. For my readers who know that I crazy quilt I put up 2 large cork boards and hung the 3 panels of the "butterfly quilt" and they just fit. The other board is for cards, tags, etc. that I receive from friends and to be able to hang things to look at for ideas. I am almost ready to finish the middle square then she is going to be hung around a frame and I will try to put her in the middle above the three panels. We left enough room for that. If it doesn't look good there I have another smaller space next to the closet where she can go. Will decide once she is done.

It is good to be back and will try and post more often.