Three Hour Project

Sometimes it's just fun to do a quick project. So today I made a new purse. From start to finish it was 3 hours (and that was with a lunch and tea break). Yesterday I was at a fabric store and saw some remnants for half off. They had some cute ones so I bought a bunch. Most of them cost me between 65 cents and $4.00. What a bargain! I needed a gift for my sister's birthday so today I sewed her a new purse. I didn't have a pattern -- but who needs patterns. I looked at some bags in a quilt magazine and started cutting and sewing. It turned out wonderful. The fabric was decorator fabric so it was heavier than quilting cotton. I lined the whole bag, put an antique button on it, took some photos and now it's ready to be shipped off for her birthday. Happy Birthday, sister! (I hope you don't read this before Friday)

Quilt Backs Can Be Interesting

The beauty of a plain back is the whole cloth quilt look that can be seen on a beautifully quilted top. Sometimes, though, the back of a quilt can be made more creative than just a plain back. I've had customers who have added strips or squares from the top fabric. One customer put a large label across the back with the person's name and date embroidered through the center. Extra blocks can be added to the back for a more interesting look. Sometimes new blocks are even used which could make the quilt reversible. A centered square in the back can add interest but is also a bit of a challenge to get centered when the quilt is being quilted. My only caution is not to let your quilt get too thick with multiply layers on both top and back. It's a machine quilters nighmare to be quilting along (at a high speed) and hit a spot where many layers come together on both the top and the back. It's only happened to me once but the noise of the needle literally exploding when it hit this spot, caused a shriek from me that could probably be heard all through the house!

Valentine for my granddaughter

I'm not a scrapbooker or card maker. It's not that I don't think I can do it or even don't have the supplies, but it's all a matter of time. At this stage of my life I have to carefully choose where to spend my spare minutes (and believe me, many days it's just minutes). I hope that someday I'll have the time to make lots of scrapbooks and cards but that will have to be somewhere down the road.

Today I was going to stop at the store and buy a valentine for my granddaughter, Kyla. I know how much my kids liked to receive valentines in the mail or just anything addressed to them. Then I thought, "I should make one". As a child, I loved to make valentines and those were the days when it was a big thing at school. There was always a contest to see who had the best decorated valentine 'mailbox'. I don't think mine ever won but it was always something I looked forward to doing. Then there was making the valentines. We didn't usually buy them. Probably my mom couldn't afford to spend money for every child to buy valentines, or maybe store boughten valentines weren't really an option. Whatever the reason, we made ours and it was fun and I think better than store bought. So today I made Kyla a valentine. It was still fun and better than store bought. Now I'm off to get it in the mail.