Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Catching up...

Today I spent most of my day catching up on overdue projects. I was totally lazy this weekend and didn't do any sewing at all! It was kind of nice, but I had quite a list of projects that needed finished this morning. I had a good day of working, and three projects crossed off my list. The first one was a pink dress that I was asked to make for a wedding. Not my cup of tea, but it's ready to go for hemming and I can move it out of my sewing room - always a good thing! The skirt had 8 panels with 8 gored inserts, so it was a lot of sewing to put together.
The next project was a fun one. It involved taking an old needlepoint cushion apart, stitching the front onto a new piece of fabric and making a buttoned back for it. Don't you love this beautiful peacock? So pretty, I wish I could keep it! The buttons for the back came out of my button jar - so that's two down! At this rate, I could use them all in...about 10 years!










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Speaking of buttons, I finished the journal for my givaway - isn't it pretty? I got it mailed out today, so excited to see what Mruna thinks of it when it arrives! It's so much fun to send my creations out into the world, and this one is going all the way to India - very exciting!







Nothing quite like the cheerful combination of blue and yellow, I think - especially when we've had such a damp and dreary spring.








Now it's off to bed in hopes of a good nights rest and a productive day tomorrow!





Pamela

Friday, May 27, 2011

Bunco, Rain, and the blahs...

Do any of you play Bunco? I have a wonderful group of friends that get together on the fourth friday of every month and we spend a few hours laughing, eating, and rolling the dice! There are prizes to be won, and lots of catching up to do as we don't see each other much except for this one time a month. So much fun! But afterwards, I really don't have the energy to do much else. It's exhausting to enjoy yourself that much in one day...

We let the hostess give us a lesson each time, this time our hostess talked about having a joyful attitude. Not just when we are having fun with our friends, because that's easy, but having a pleasant and cheery attitude with our husbands, children, and families. She talked about those people being the ones that we care about most, but we tend to treat them not as well as we treat the others that we only see occasionally.

It was a good lesson for me, and something I've actually been working on this week. I have a really bad attitude about certain things, and I've been thinking about why I feel the way I do, and why I react the way I do to certain requests. I am not always nice, and I really do want to treat my family in a more gracious way because that is how I want to be treated, right? Anyway, I am working on it.

The weather is blah today. Rainy and windy, feels much more like January than May. This has been one of the coldest and wettest springs I can remember for years. We did get outside to work on the yard some earlier this week, but there is still a patch of really long grass in the backyard that needs to get mowed. The ground is still really wet, too so I haven't planted anything yet, I want to work on the herb garden I've been threatening to put in for several years now. I guess that's why quilting is so nice - you can work with flowers and bright colors all year long.

I suppose I need to shake the blahs, go to my sewing room and get something done before the afternoon is over, I think there might be something bright and colorful that will lift my spirits waiting for me there. May all of you have a wonderful weekend, and don't forget those who have sacrificed so that we have the opportunities that we have today!

Pamela

(sorry, my pictures don't seem to want to upload today....)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Giveaway Winner - Blue and Yellow Journal Cover

(sorry if my pictures aren't the best...it's raining....again...) I told you all there were a LOT of buttons in my jar! There are some larger ones, but there are tons of small ones. I counted them all this weekend before the giveaway, and thought that I better start using some of these!



Don't you love the buttons on the card! So cute! I think they would be nice on a needle book or something sewing related, don't you? Since they were on a card I decided to write the number of buttons on the back, because I knew I would not remember if I didn't. And sure enough, when I turned the jar out this morning to take a picture of the card for you it was a different number than I thought it was! If I had made my own guess this morning, I would have lost - isn't that hilarious?




Sooooo, with no further ado (or blabbering) the winner of my giveaway is MrunaMistry with a guess of 789! She was only 8 buttons away from the correct number - good job! She has a blog and an Etsy shop: Kalatirth and makes the most amazing fashion illustrations! Congratulations, Mruna, I have e-mailed you with details so I can send your journal to you!


I have had a blast doing this, so might have to another one soon. It was so much fun seeing all of you guess - and it was purely a guess, cause I didn't give you much of a clue. Thanks for playing along with me and I hope to see you back here for the next one!



Pamela


Sunday, May 22, 2011

May Giveaway - Button, Button



Welcome everyone! I've been wanting to get together a giveaway for a while, so when I saw that there was an official Sew,Mama,Sew May Giveaway Day, I thought it was the perfect excuse for actually doing this. Giveaways are so much fun, and I'm sure there are going to be a lot of great ones, so I hope you will hop over there and check it out.


Since most of the people who read this are going to be new to my blog, I just want to introduce myself briefly - My name is Pamela and I am a quilter. I love to play with fabric and thread, and I enjoy writing. So the natural progression was for me to start this blog, and I have really enjoyed writing and documenting my work. I am a pretty busy wife and mother, have a dog and a cat and work part time at a quilt shop. I enjoy fabric of all kinds, and also work as a seamstress doing alterations and custom sewing. Mostly I like to write about quilting, but I do add other things from time to time.


On to the Giveaway! I will be creating one of my custom journal covers in blue and yellow with a monogram for the winner - I will ship this anywhere in the world so everyone is more than welcome to enter. I've been making these journals for a while now and just added the blue and yellow version to my Etsy shop.
Isn't it pretty? These are so fun to make!

How do you win? I thought it would be fun to have a little guessing game. Just leave me a comment telling me how many buttons you think there are in my little button jar:





Just a little help for you - the button jar is about 6 inches high and 4 inches in diameter. It holds quite a few buttons (hint, hint!). The closest guess to the actual number of buttons wins the journal! You have through May 25 to guess, so have fun trying!


Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you again!



Pamela


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Week 20 - 52 Week Challenge






Wow, time goes by too fast these days, and it seems like most of the time I don't have much to show for it. I'm really glad to be able to report that I have finished quite a bit this week, though! I've been working bit by bit on this rather large set of bags, bins and totes for one of my favorite customers. She has lovely taste in fabric, and I really enjoy working on her projects. The first one here was almost forgotten, but it was a simple one, it's called a Folder Holder. I was so tickled to find that button, it was absolutely the perfect color for the fabric!







This one was the most complicated, but my favorite! It is called Carol's Convertible Purse and is by The Creative Thimble. This is the second pattern I have made from this designer and they are wonderful! Very detailed and take you forever to finish, but the bags are so nice when they are done. I made the Professional Tote for my trip to Paris and it is the best tote bag I have ever owned by far. So many pockets it makes being organized easy, even for me.










Here is the rest of the pile - three fabric bins, a satchel, a sewing machine organizer and an art bin. I'll tell you more about those later, though, can't use up all of my blog material in one wild post!





Also, I am participating in a Giveaway next week, so be looking for that - it's going to be lots of fun, and I have a great prize for the winner!

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The Possibility of a Laptop going through the Window


My computer is driving me nuts today. I deleted some pictures, pressed a button to clean up un-needed files, and deleted a whole lot of stuff from my unused desktop shortcuts file. And now I can't download anything off the internet. And worst (or possibly best, haven't decided yet) of all I can't play Zuma Blitz on facebook. I might have to resort to Angry Birds on my phone.

I really do have more important things to do than figure out why I can't print a coupon for $1.00 off produce. I have quilting and sewing, and house cleaning. But I can't seem to do any of it with peace of mind knowing that my computer is going nuts on me. Not to mention that I just realized that I will probably have to save this post, then open firefox to even be able to post it. I don't think I like the new version of IE. (Because of course, I upgraded to that a few days ago also.) Does anyone else spend more time time than they would like trying to figure out why the computer is messed up again?

On the other hand, I did finish the cute spring bunting I've been wanting to make for my sewing room. And there is sunshine today, so I think I will turn off the computer and go do some sewing. Because that will make me happy!