Cellphone Pouch

I'm really running late today! I've been grocery shopping, been to WalMart, went up to Richmond to put a few more things in my showcase and stopped at the Post Office on the way home. It's a bitter cold day here and I'm frozen solid!

Among my other finishes from earlier this week, I completed this bookmark:



Last night, I did the beading on top and bottom. This is one of the items I took up to my showcase. I can't say that I would enjoy doing a bunch of these. The horizontal piecing made it difficult to handsew the opening shut after turning right side out. I added a piece of heavy duty interfacing to the inside to give it a bit of body. And as you can see, I kept the embellishing to simple flat beads and seed beads.

My next CQ projects will be several more little cellphone pouches. I have three of them sewn and ready to stitch. Here's the green one:



Like the last one I made, this one will measure 4 inches wide X 5 inches high. I want to start on it tonight but I first want to make a tassle for my Girl With A Kitten purse. WalMart didn't have what I was looking for and I didn't have time to run to the fabric store in Crystal Lake. I bought a few things that I think I can work with so stop by tomorrow (Saturday) to see what I come up with!

Well, I'm off now to curl up on my sofa with one of my warm patchwork quilts, one of my cats (whichever one will stay) and a cup of hot tea! More tomorrow!

Completed Projects

As I mentioned yesterday, I planned to do a bunch of finishing on my sewing machine. And that I did! I love days that turn out to be so productive!

First is my Blue Painted Lady pillow:



I just love this one! The lady has a sort of sassy look on her face! And I love the colors too. I might have to use the lady again on another piece for myself.

It's an 8 inch pillow and a gift for a friend.

Next, is my little cellphone pouch:



It measures 4 inches wide X 5 inches high. Jo in NZ asked me for the dimensions and to take a photo of it with my cellphone. Here you go Jo! I lined it and backed it with the black fabric that I used on the front and I added a snap for closure. I'm thinking of making a couple of these for either my booth up in Richmond or for my Etsy shop. It worked up very quickly and who couldn't use a cellphone pouch? Well, I don't think I would use one because I just keep my cellphone in my pocket but I'm sure there are lots of ladies out there who would love to have something like this! This one is a gift.

Last, is my Girl With A Kitten purse:



This one is almost done. I want to pick up a pretty gold tassle for it. I'm hoping I can find something at WalMart tomorrow. I would love to use this purse this coming weekend. And what I would give to have a regular fabric store here in McHenry! We have a Michael's so I don't understand why we don't have a JoAnn's or a Hancock Fabrics. If I want to go to a regular fabric store, I have to drive over 1/2 an hour into the next town. Arrggg......ok, enough moaning! This is why I have such a large stash. But I don't have any big gold tassles!

I did a few other things yesterday too but I'll save those for tomorrow. I think today, I'll sew up another CQ block to stitch on. Maybe a few cellphone pouches too. I have a few boring things to take care of first!

On a final note, today is Pearl Harbor Rememberance Day here in the US. Several years ago, I came across an interesting website called, "Ginger's Diary". Ginger was a 17 year old American girl living at Hickam Field, Hawaii at the time of the attack. Published on this website are her diary entries from December, 1941.

Blue Painted Lady Complete!

I completed this project yesterday afternoon:



I just love this one! But it's a gift so I have to part with it. If you're having trouble finding my little signature cat, he's in the bottom left-hand corner sitting on a branch!

After I finished the embellishing on the Blue Lady, I stitch up this little project:





Apparently, I either scanned the unstitched block upside down or I stitched it upside down! Oh well, it's a crazyquilt so it doesn't matter. This will be a cellphone pouch.

I'll be sewing together these two pieces today so tomorrow, I'll photos of the completed projects for you!

On another note, judging by my blog statistics at Statcounter, it looks like there's a serious search going on for my Moonlit Peacock quilt:



The Moonlit Peacock quilt is no longer available in my Etsy shop. It's on display and available for purchase at:

Auntie Libby's Cottage
10331 N. Main St.
Richmond, Illinois 60071
815-678-7733

Hours are 11:00 - 5:00 Thursday - Sunday

Ok, I'm off to run my sewing machine and get these last 2 gifts completed and ready for wrapping.

Eye Candy

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. I really love blogging every single day! I just needed to get a few Christmas things taken care of. I've never been a "last minute" person! I also had some orders to pack up and send out so as of this moment, everything in that department is caught up.

Anyway, I did do some stitching on my "Blue Painted Lady" piece so I have some eye candy for you today:



I did the grapes using vintage beads. And I did something a little different with my signature cat. I have him sitting on a tree branch!

This is almost complete. I have one more tiny seam to cover and I want to add a butterfly charm and little gold Victorian shoe button that I have. I guess I could have completed this last night but I was getting tired so I'll finish it here shortly.

I'll be running my sewing machine in a little while and want to sew up another small project to stitch on so I should have more photos for you tomorrow.

Blue Painted Lady and Questions Answered

First, I want to share an update on my Blue Painted Lady CQ block:



I've added alot of beads and still have plenty more that I want to add. I'm thinking of doing a spiderweb on this but haven't decided for sure yet. When I finish my post for today, I'll be working on it some more so I expect to have another update for you tomorrow.

I was asked several questions this week and I thought I would answer them here. The first question is what fabric dye do I use?. I've been using DynaFlo by Jacquard. I've always purchased the small packs at Michaels but now that I'm dying larger quantities of things at one time, I'm ordering them online in larger quantities.

The next question is since I use my graphic software alot, do I have any tutorials? Actually no, I never thought of doing tutorials on how I use my software. I can tell you that I use the Corel Graphics Suite 12 on this computer and I use Paintshop Pro (whatever the newest version is) on my laptop. Quite honestly, I've heard that Corel software is challenging to use. That's all I've ever used and I guess I'm just used to it. To me, Paintshop Pro is too fussy. That might be because I don't use my laptop alot. I much prefer this computer which my brother in law put together for me.

As for tinting the Painted Ladies, what I did was to create a new soft brush with 99% transparency. That gave them some color without changing the image. I just ran the brush over the areas that I wanted colored. For the sepia tone, I simply altered the "Hue" to golden brown.

I hope that answers your questions. I never use the tutorials in any of my software. I just click on buttons until it does what I want it to. I know that sounds silly, but that's what I do.

If anyone else has any questions for me, please drop me a note and I'll be happy to answer them.

Ok, I'm off to answer email and then to stitch the rest of the day. DH is making dinner tonigh and we just bought the new Superman movie (which we saw in the show last Summer and loved) so we'll be watching that later. I love action/adventure special effects movies!