New bag...

This bag was cooking in my head for a long time, but it wasn't until last week that I was able to sit down and make the idea come to life.



In fact, lots of ideas are cooking here lately and I hope soon I will find enough time to bring them to this world.. :)



Back to the bag - I won Ashley's wonderful giveaway sometime last year and was in love with all those tiny scraps, well I still am. This bag is the first of the many love affairs planned.



Simple and shorter messenger style bag to fit my love of big handbags. The brown is a random purchase from Jo-Ann's clearance sale last year, the inside is polka dot re-purposed bed sheet and batting leftovers from quilts.



Nothing new was purchased for this bag, therefore it fits in my challenge of this year.

Thanks Ashley! I love my new bag..

Mindless sewing...

Two nights ago, I was a bit frustrated with life and so I sat down to my sewing machine, emptied the box with random little bits of fabric and did some mindless sewing.
I have not done this for a long long time and needed it so badly. My mood changed instantly as I just pieced and pieced.



It was maybe midnight when I looked at what I had and started thinking to myself, "OK, so what will this be?"

a quilt?

a bag?

The next morning I knew...
Last nigh I sat down and finished quilting..



... and now I have my own and very first, much needed sewing machine cover to replace the ugly white plastic one that came with it...





And it is reversible... I chose one of my favorite vintage fabrics... "Screen printed... Militaire"







I am having a feeling that there would be much more mindless sewing in my near future.

More handmade presents....

I refused to buy presents this year. I feel that we all have stuff we need and if we don't we buy it for ourselves anyway because it's needed or because we really want it. And who knows better what we need than we do.
With little ones it's different, I understand, but also only from certain age. Babies don't care if it's made or bought.
So I made almost all my presents this year. I said almost because there are certain people (two in my case )around us that just would benefit more out of something else.
My presents for family in Slovakia are all packed and will be revealed later (from Slovakia).
There were few more that I was missing for people here in U.S..
These are throw pillows that will go to a home where handmade is loved. There is going to be quilt coming later, but that would really have to wait until after my trip.





The last one still in works. Let's hope I'll make it. Not today though, spending all day in school - finals.



Also, dont't forget to Freda's Hive today! Don't know what I am talking about? Check this out!!!

Edit:
Another great 100th post giveaway is going on here!

I caught second breath.../ Tutorial for a super quick scarf.

I was certain that I won't be able to do any more sewing before my trip. I also got over the fact that some presents will be given after Christmas. And then, this weekend, I packed my suitcases (Yes, I am taking two, but one is straight Christmas presents - making me feel like Santa) and did loads and loads of laundry and ....

I went to pick up " My sister's quilt" from the quilt shop this weekend (I love it quilted, but will post about it from Slovakia, OK? )and stopped at Jo Ann's on the way back to search for binding fabric. I found three, so I need to make some decisions. But I also found very cool fabric in red tag fabric shelves. It's kind of silky, batik in green/ brown shades and turquoise/ browns. Front is a bit shinny and a bit fancy, back is just batik. Fabric is all crinkled too. I am sorry that I don't know the proper name of it.
Well, idea was born and I was working on the super quick shawl out of both (two for presents and one for me.
This is what I did:
I bought one yard of each. From the first one I cut it lengthwise (1 yard length)into 8 strips (width is approx. 44" divided by 8, since I made two out of this fabric). This fabric was crinkled, so it was hard to measure exact width. I sewed two of the together to make it long enough for shawl/ scarf.



Then, folded them over and sew one more time along the edge. Next, turned over and sewed the ends in. Super simple, but I am no tutorial writer, so please ask if you have questions.



I made the two bluish/brown scarfs thinner to wear with a nice dressy shirt or with a simple sweater to make it look more dressier.



I kept the green and brown combo for me. Well, I have a very cute hat that I need to wear more, but was missing a perfect scarf to match it. This way I satisfied my desperate need for more presents and also I had a nice scarf to wear in my hometown. I made mine a bit wider - I only cut it four times the width - 44". I also made mine reversible I may say. One side is more shinny to wear for fancy occasions and the other is simple batik to wear daily. That's on the picture.
Please, imagine that the splotches on the mirror are snowflakes. Thanks! :)

I made more presents, but I will leave this for tomorrow.

Owly Day....

Finally, I had my productive weekend.
This is the project I started a while back.
It was inspired by this.
Mom that had a baby shower yesterday, show me the catalog and we both instantly fell in love with the owls. I don't have kids, so my excuse to make them was to make the owl for her daughter. (Well one of them.)
All the credit for fabric choices must go to her, since she picked it and supplied it. I just got to play.

I was afraid to cut into those cute fabrics without any pattern. So I created scrappy Mr. Blue.



Now, he is was a successful, but lonely prototype. So his lovely friend was created.




They like to hang out together, but soon will be separated and will go into homes of their own.

Christmas Giving...

I try to stay calm and give priority where it's the most needed right now.
Therefore,
my house is still messy, we ate out this weekend, quilts are still missing the binding (most of them, but not all) and other gifts are still only in my head.
School was the highest priority this weekend. It's just that time of the semester when big semester projects need to be turned in, last quizzes need to be written and professors are summing up everything we worked on so hard for final exams.
BUT,
I was able to fit in a little, tiny project and probably would have finished it if I wouldn't run out of thread. And yes I did at least vacuumed the house.



No, don't worry I am not that quick. I had all the coasters and placemats pieced since last year (project that didn't get done on time for Christmas. Boy, I hope I won't have any of those this year). All I was doing this weekend was quilting and yes ran out of thread, so I have still five placemats waiting.

Scrapy Birds...

My good friend gave me this magazine and ask me to make her some wild birds for her son's nursery.
I start playing with it and pulled up some of my scrapy, vintage fabrics.




They are super easy to make and kind of addictive. She asked for any colors, bright colors, scrapy look, but I already have some favorites and some that I am not sure about. I'll see once they are all finished and together. That is the whole fun about scraps, hey dn't look good until a lot of them mixed together.



I love this vintage fabric.

Modeling...

How was your weekend? It was probably the most beautiful fall weekend we had over here in IL and I was covered up to my ears in bed with cold. All of my plans were canceled. Feeling miserably, not even able to sew. I hate that!! Oh well, but what you do.
I have few photos to share...
Couple of weeks back my friend mentioned she would like to find a smock for her little girl...
Ok, I started to search right away. I found a lot of images for inspiration, but no pattern in sight until I found this.
One trip to Jo-anns, few check measurements and couple days later little K had her first fashion show.



I love it even more now that I know she likes it!




I am glad to have a little girls like this available for modeling whenever I decide to make something for them. Thank you K.

Family Reunion = Connections...

We headed to Pennsylvania last month for our family reunion. When I first heard about family reunion I didn't know what to expect. There is no such an event for families back home. Of course, families do meet, but those are mainly the closest family members. Anything close to this size of family meeting is usually only during funerals or wedding, which is sad. Therefore, I became a huge fan of family reunions. Another very fun part of our family reunion is that there are several events happening during that weekend. One of my favorite is Chinese auction. Everybody (almost everybody) brings something to be auctioned there. We buy tickets and place them next to the items we like and then numbers are drawn. Luckily there is a lot of older members of the family that are crafty (painters, carvers, woodworkers, cooks,.... and now quilters and sewers- is this a word??? maybe )
Well, I am explaining all the process, where you all probably know what Chinese auction is anyway.
On the top of this every year during family reunion is Gramma's birthday.She is the oldest member of the family and doing great. This year she turned 90. This is what I made for her. The inspiration came from this book.


She liked it, but not only she. And here is where "connections" comes to place, but that would be for the next post.

And this is what I brought for Chinese auction. The Gourmet set included: reversible apron, two potholders, and reusable shopping bag.

Busy Bee....

Well, I disappeared again, didn't I. It was a little crazy around here for a while, but I am back on track again. Maybe even more then ever before. I promised some pictures (better pictures..) and updates on my finished projects.
1. Pictures : I tried (you'll see), but anything better than that requires a better camera, which is not happening for a little while.
2. Projects: I've got those ready to show you.

I've been slowly making my way through all of my unfinished projects, but it was slow... and didn't really worked that well. After some alone time and cleaning, organizing my crafty corner of our little house, I was determined not to start anything new until the most important projects disappeared.I am going to create a list of some sort to keep me even more on track.






These are little onesies, receiving blanket and play tote (with a toy - frog) for my friend BJ. She gave a birth to her beautiful baby boy Ben on September 2nd. Picture of him laying on my blanket was posted on the hospital website, I was in seventh heaven. I also made a matching baby sling to a play tote, but I will post a picture with a baby in it, since it doesn't look like much without a model.
I have a lot more to show you, but that is for more than just one post. Check back tomorrow...

Alive!!

I am alive and here, just not posting. I was thinking, creating, studying, working hard.... not sleeping enough, getting bit by way to many mosquitoes. Here are some sneak peeks on what I was working on while gone from HERE...