A Little Organization

While my daughter was busy packing, I decided to sneak into my sewing room.  I knew I did not have much time to do anything, so I looked for something small to do.  Now, I am a pretty organized person and my room is fairly organized except for my box of loose ribbon and loose floss.  I never plan on changing my loose floss bag because they are all leftovers from kits and I do not have a need to organize them.  However, my loose ribbon box...

from leftover projects needed an overhaul.  So I took a few minutes to...

organize them.  I still have a lot more to roll up and store like this, but it's a start.  I wish I could say that this is my only ribbon box, but I would be lying:(  

Vacationing in Myrtle Beach

Last week, we vacationed in Myrtle Beach.  It was absolutely beautiful every single day.

These are some of the pictures...as you can see, beautiful weather.  Of course, I found the local quilt shop and made some purchases.  

I purchased some fun color rick rack, a few colorful fat quarters, 2 black and white fat quarters for my collection, 5 yards of a colorful orange fabric, and a red wide width fabric.  I purchased the orange fabric for our fabric swap (at the firehouse); I bought enough for swapping and also for the back of the quilt I will make after the swap.  The red wide fabric is for the red circle quilt that I am sewing at the firehouse.  This is what I have done so far...

Unfortunately, I will not be sewing for a while.  I will be spending as much time as I can with my girls; they will both be off to college before the end of August.

Little Critter

I was on Needled Mom's blog when I found out about a pet contest on SewCalGal's blog.  So I decided to enter my Little Critter wall quilt.

I do not have a pet, but thought I could enter this little critter which was free-motion embroidered on my Janome sewing machine.  It was my first attempt on machine embroidery and I enjoyed the process.  I completed it about a year ago.

New Rag Doll and An Old Project Finally Framed

I bought this table runner a while ago; it is a bit worn with a few holes here and there, but the two embroidered ends are in very good shape.  I was wondering what I would do with it when...

I realized that it would make a really cute dress for a rag doll.  So I ended up making this doll.  I finally got up enough nerve to embroider the entire face.  I usually use buttons or purchased eyes and draw the nose and mouth.  I am okay with the way it turned out, it's kinda cute in an ugly way (if that makes any sense).  

On an entirely different note, I finally purchased a frame for a project I completed back in October 2009.  I am not ashamed... 

In the past I have tried a variety of ways to stretch and frame embroidery/cross-stitch projects, but I have found that sewing it is the best way.  This is what it looks like in the back.  It is a bit messy, but it seems to retain its shape better this way.  Gluing the projects tends to form puckers in the front after a while and stapling the back distorts it.  It takes a bit longer to sew it, but it is worth it in the end.  I use dental floss or upholstery thread.

Well that's it for a while.

Journal Cover using my dyed seam binding, old crochet tableclothes, etc...

Here is my new journal cover.  I think it's really cool because I used a lot of stuff that I bought at garage sales and some projects I started a while ago.  The rose is embroidered on a garage sale linen napkin and the base is a garage sale runner.  The beige with red stripe is a tape that I had left over from when I reupholstered my couches.  The red ribbon is the garage sale seam binding that I dyed just a few weeks ago.  The buttons are from my collection and the crocheted stars on the left side are from a tablecloth that I had purchased last September.  I salvaged what I could (made a smaller tablecloth) and then cut out some of the crocheted blocks to use in this project.  I embroidered some flowers and designs where I could.  The saying to the right lower corner is Take Time which I plan to do.  I really like the way it turned out...now to insert the journal.

Here are a few closer looks...

A Nice Summer Bag

I made this bag using decorator fabrics.  It is quite large.  I used a really thick interfacing which was really stiff, so that the bag stands up without any trouble.  I ended up using ties because I thought it looked nicer than snaps/zipper.  

On another note, I have been working on a journal cover that I will post pics of when I can.  It is turning out really cool and different than my other journal covers.  Till then...