Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

It is Thanksgiving Eve here in Texas.  This past week, we have had really cold temps (for us) and lots of rain but the weather folks are predicting the big day will be cold with sunny skies, so I must clear off the dining room table and move our dinner inside this year.  Last year we ate outside on our deck and it was so nice. This year will be nice too, just another temperature.  I have the turkey thawing. And some special sweet potatoes that have come from the Sweet Potato Capitol of the World located in Vardaman, MS.  I have made three pans of cornbread that will make up into dressing, one regular and one vegetarian style. DILs will make the best mac and cheese ever and a delish Cranberry Pie. Pecan Pie is a must. I do like this meal. 

I have been sewing.  I  have had several custom orders on Etsy and some random sewing for a special baby.

This Tumbler pattern is loaded with cowboy themed fabrics.  It was purchased by a sweet mom to be who asked me to make a crib skirt and curtains to help decorate her nursery.  It turned out so cute and she is over the moon with excitement as she prepares for her baby    

This warm and cozy rag quilt found a new home. 

 Lots of custom orders for bibs and burps this month.  Each one is special and such fun for me to design.   

  

Don't you just love the names!

Dylan's mom and dad are avid bike riders. 

And I helped decorate a pink and aqua nursery for a really special grand baby.   She is our Princess who happens to be named Kate.  She had to have a British pillow with her name on it.  Just because!

Thanks for stopping by.  Everyone have a safe Thanksgiving holiday.  Give your family hugs and tell them you love them. Friends and families are the best.  We have so much for which to be thankful.  God bless.   

More Pouches

I LOVE making these Triple Zip Pouches. I don't really know why I like to make them. I am counting 68 made as of today.

Top 10 Reasons I like making Pouches.

1. They use fabric from my VERY large stash of fabric.  It has allowed me to cut into fabric I have been saving for special projects.  But I still keep buying more fabric. :o(  I have collected so much fabric.






And that is bad.  But that is also good. :o)  Nothing is more fun than buying a 1/2 yard cut of a fun fabric.








2.  It's like painting with fabric.  I choose many colors, textures, and creative design themes.  I am a textile artist!  A quilter is a textile artist.  The floral fabric was purchased on a trip I made to Lancaster, England.

3.  I like the bright, cheery fabric colors.

4.  They make people smile.  Like these Yoga frogs.

5.  They are useful.  (Makeup bag, IPod bag, credit card storage, electronic chargers, etc. )

I usually have several to choose from in my basket and it is fun to see which bag is selected by different people.

6.  I like to make something unique and specific for each person geared to their personality.  Pets, makeup, type of flower, citrus, beach theme.   I always ask what type of hobby or interest one has and try to match the pouch to their interest.





7.  I like matching the fun zippers and colors.  But I also like to stir things up a bit and put in a zipper color that changes the whole color scheme in a completely different direction.  







8.  I can spend hours, happily stitching pouches and listening to a good recorded book.

9.  No matter how many I make, people always want more.  Can you make one bigger for my IPad.  Can you make one for my Kindle.  My grandson, "Can you make me one with tractors on it?  And can you make it today?"    

10.  And I get to spend the day with my faithful buddies who seem to like fabric as much as I do!
Sandy and Little Brown Bear!







Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

My Favorite Fall Quilts

Happy Fall Everyone!

Today is cloudy with a chance of rain and a slight nip in the air.  I love these Texas fall days.  I am always late to jump on the seasonal decorating bandwagon but I decided to bring out some of my favorite fall quilts I have stitched up over the years to share with you.





This year I crocheted the little pumpkins that were featured on Fiddlesticks.  They are just so cute!  I love pumpkins in the fall.

I 

This is probably my most favorite fall decorative quilt.  It has all of the fall elements that I enjoy.  Pumpkins, scarecrows, and black animated crows.  The rich colors of warm orange, muted olive, and soft browns.  I like the pieced background with machine applique stitched on top.  The machine quilting had to be done before the applique was added so you had a lot preparation planning in advance.  It was featured in one of the quilting magazines years ago.   I love bringing it out to enjoy every year.

This is another favorite.  It was a fun patchwork wall hanging to stitch up and my first one to machine quilt using gold metallic thread.  It has a really nice hint of sparkle in the background.   Again from one of the quilt magazines ages ago.

I made this quilted wall hanging Halloween 2012.  I purchased a 5 inch Charm Pack collection of retro Halloween style fabrics at the Houston Quilt Festival several years back.  (Don't know the fabric line.)  I had been saving them for some special project and I finally decided the Snowball pattern would feature them nicely.  I machine quilted a spider web in black thread and there is a leggy spider in the web.  

This quilt is unfinished.  I started it last year too.  I was trying to use some of my scrap stash of dark fabrics and decided to add pumpkins and black cat silhouettes.  It is growing on me and I like it even though it is a bit dark.  Not bad work for striking out on a whim one quilty afternoon!

This wall hanging was also created from Charm Packs.  I bought them because of the cream and tan color palette but after making the hour glass blocks I knew immediately more color and texture was needed.  I added some primitive style florals and vines and the brick border.  I really like how it turned out.  I love the olive green which ties all the colors together.

This is a picture of some of our pumpkins that grew in our spring garden and were ready in June.  At the same time the eggplants were ready.  They were big and beautiful but the summer heat and fall moisture have required me to move them to the compost pile. They were pretty while they lasted.   

I hope you all are enjoying the season.  Thanks for stopping by!

P.S.   Disclaimer:  I mentioned that a few of my quilts were made from quilt magazines.  I did not keep a record of the magazine nor the article nor the designer.  I do want to thank all of these fine folks whose designs have inspired me.   I made all of them myself and for my own enjoyment.  Thank you.   

Thing of Beauty!

Let's step out of the sewing room, shall we?  Let's go outside and take a look at some flowers that are blooming in my yard despite the hot, dry summer days we are having here in southeast Texas . It is so bright and sunny outside at noon that the colors in these photos are washed out.

Look at this one.  Passiflora . I have always called it Passion Flower. This is a wild flower, a vine, that you don't often see around my area. I am lucky to have it. It is a most exquisite flower. Look at those petals! Look at the crown! I have read that it symbolizes the Crown of Thorns which Christ wore on the Cross. This flower says it all.  Amen. The most beautiful quilt could not be compared to the glory of this flower.

Passionflower

  Kaffe Fasset fabrics come close, though.

This little delicate flower I call the Purple Hyacinth.  It is also a vine.  After it flowers, it forms these lovely purple seed pods.  The seeds themselves are beautiful. 

Ahhh, I just love my little garden alcove.  One of my happy places.  And now, let's get back to sewing.  I am making pouches and this is my sewing room in pouchmania...

Enjoy your day everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!

My Triple Zip Pouches!

I have several projects going besides making the Love Entwined applique.  Over the weekend I made a few more triple zip pouches! Have you seen them?  They are soooo cute!  I have made about 30 of them. They make a great little gift when you add some goodies behind those bright little zippers.

My mom recently celebrated her 90th birthday and I gave zip pouches as party favors to all the "girls" who attended her party.  On Mother's Day, the mothers of my grandboys and granddogs were given a pouch filled with yummy lotions, beauty products and a gift card for a cuppa coffee. They are perfect for a quick thank you gift. Some very dedicated teachers received them as a gift at the end of spring classes.   Some will soon be gifted in the state of New York and some will celebrate some special birthdays.
  

Here is where I learned how to make these cute little bags.  Debbie, from A Quilter's Table,  created this very detailed tutorial for the Triple Zip Pouch.  It is very easy to follow and I really respond to a project that lines up every piece in an order, Step 1, Step 2, and so on. 


My outward appearance may seem scattered, but my inward brain likes Step 1, Step 2, etc.   Everything moves along smoothly until the end where Debbie just has to stop taking photographs because everything is crowded and a little fumbly with three zippers and three pockets. 

    What? Do not despair! Just a little pause for a mental review! 

A very kind person, Marci Girl, at MarciGirl Designs, has created An Alternate Ending Tutorial to Debbie's Triple Zip Pouch tutorial. She picked up the original photo tutorial and, with this little addition,  carried me all the way through turning wrong sides out and it all made perfect sense and I haven't stopped making Triple Zip Pouches! 

                                                                                       

They are so much fun to make!  I use different combinations and colors from my stash of novelty prints and fun zippers.  I even added my handmade ribbon label.  I did have to pick up a few bags of zippers from ZipIt .It got pretty expensive buying single zippers at the local craft store.  And, as we all know, I cannot pass up a 1/2 half yard cut of a cute novelty print. 

Hope you will give it a try!  Or, hope you get one as a gift from one of your stitching friends!

Thanks for stopping by!