Buttons

Well, my Flea Market finds yesterday were quite minimal! The market was huge but I just didn't find anything all that exciting. In fact, I only spent $5.00!

I found some pretty little vintage buttons and some little appliqués, all from the same dealer:



Usually, I find some nice lace and other odds & ends but not this time. Very disappointing! And I haven't seen a vintage iron-on transfer in months! Actually, I haven't seen any since last Summer! What's up with that? Now, it's not like I don't have any. Actually, I have a huge rubbermaid container filled with vintage transfers. I can barely lift it to get it off the shelf but it's one of my obsessions! I love them and I won't apologize for it!

Back to the buttons, it occurred to me that my plastic button collection would be more accessible if I separated them by color. At the moment, I store them in this huge 5 pound antique coffee jar:



They look really great in the jar but I when I want to use some, I have to dump them all out into a big cake pan just so I can find what I want! So what to do? I have a bunch of old blue mason jars that I could use. Yes, I love old stuff! Methinks I'll contemplate this a bit more!

For today, I'll be sewing up the Dragonfly Cellphone pouch. I'll also do the foundation piecing for my custom order, a Red Hat Lady cellphone pouch.

I worked on Maxine's quilt for a few hours yesterday. I have 3 more patches to replace the stitching on and then I can start embellishing it. Yes, I found 2 more deteriorated patches the other day so I replaced them. I'll have another update on that project for you soon.

A Gift From Gina

I don't know what it is about opening my mailbox and seeing a surprise package in there from one of my online friends. It's just so exciting to know that someone thought of me!

Yesterday, I received a package from Gina. Oooh, there's really something neat about about a package arriving all the way from Australia! Probably because I know that Australia is so far away! (No, I don't get out much!)

Anyway, Gina sent me a goody pack filled with gorgeous laces and buttons:



Are these amazing or what? Such lovely things to embellish crazy quilts with. I just can't wait to work them into new projects. Gina, thank you so very much for your gift! I love everything!

BTW - did you know that you can take the binding off of gathered lace? I just use a seam ripper or my embroidery scissors and clip the stitches. Once the binding is off, you can press it with your iron and you then have flat lace!

My mom also gave me a goody bag with all sorts of new fabrics and trims but the battery in my camera was about to run out so I'll save that photo for another day.

For now, I'm thrilled to tell you that my design work is complete! I did 28 designs in 3 days! They were mini designs but that's still a lot of work and I really pushed myself to get them done. I'm certainly happy for having the work but my true love is the hands-on stitching so now I'll be getting back to working on Maxine's quilt, my antique quilt and several other projects.

Coming later this week will be the completed Dragonfly Cellphone Pouch. That one is spoken for so I plan to get that assembled and ready to ship to it's new owner.

Also this week, I have a custom order for a Red Hat Society Lady Cellphone Pouch so I'll be piecing that block and stitching on that.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a new complimentary charted design. It's a pretty little design, perfect for a small gift or as a focal point on a crazy quilt!

New Leaflet Design

Just released by Imaginating, Inc. is my "Words Of Wisdom I" leaflet:



Check with your local needlework shop for availability. There are several more designs coming soon in this series.

Again, I worked late last night so I don't have any stitching to share. If all goes well today, I'll have my design projects done and should be able to get back to stitching tomorrow. Be sure to stop by over the weekend. I have new stash goodies to share and a new complimentary charted design for you.

Vintage Embroidery Patterns

If you're into collecting vintage embroidery patterns like am, you might enjoy visiting The Vintage Cat. Special thanks to Birthe for sending me this link.

On the stitching front, I worked on my computer late yesterday and just didn't have the energy to stitch after that. I may be working late again today so we'll see how things go. I really want to put x stitch designing on the back burner for a bit and focus on stitching but the work keeps coming so I do it.

A New Custom Purse

As ya'll know, I have this thing for purses! I don't know where it came from. I just love one-of-a-kind purses and handbags.

A year ago, I was looking around at Etsy and found a shop with the most gorgeous knitted purses! I sent Louise a message and asked her if she would consider doing a custom purse for me. She was happy to!

Well, I was looking around at her blog a couple of weeks back and saw a new purse style that I absolutely loved and again, sent Louise a message asking her if she would do one for me in custom colors. Purples & Greens. Again, she was happy to create a custom purse for me:



As you know, I like glittery things so I asked Louise to add some metallic yarns as well as some Pailettes. Isn't this gorgeous! It's so colorful and very funky! It's definitely me!

I thought you would enjoy seeing this. If you would like to see other purses by Louise, visit her Scarf It Up Etsy shop. If you would like to see more photos of my custom purse, you can find can find them here.

As for stitching, I now have all the deteriorated patches replaced on Maxine's quilt. I still have to replace the stitching on about 5 of them and then I'll be ready to move onto adding more embellishments.

This quilt is so large, that I'll have to go with some larger embellishments. Small things will get lost on it. Although I can do some small things, I need to create "moments" on this quilt. Things that will draw the eye in so it can then move around the quilt. The first step in my plan is to make some velvet pansies and some really cool sunflowers! I can also add some crocheted pieces which I can then do some SRE embroidery on. I'm also thinking of some velvet yo-yo's which I can use as flowers with buttons in the centers.

I have lots of ideas moving around in my head and I'm quite excited about getting on with the decorating part of it! One step at a time though, I'll finish the seams first!