Finishes

I did some sewing yesterday and finished up this little cellphone pouch that I made for my mom:



I took it over to her this morning and she absolutely loves it!

Julie asked me if I still sell my cellphone pouches. No, I won't be making any items to sell anymore. I am however, planning on offering classes on the art of crazy quilting out of my home eventually. It'll be a little while yet as I prefer to wait until we get our big house built.

I also finished up these little cat dolls yesterday:



These will go to Pat for The Comfort Doll Project. I'll mail them off to her later this week. I put some dried lavender in this batch! My whole living room smelled like lavender for the rest of the day yesterday!

I also thought you would enjoy seeing these cards that I made. I started them last week and finished them up the other day:



The little houses are one of my vintage embroidery transfer designs. I printed them on cardstock and then colored them by hand with colored pencils. Then I added glitter to the trees. You know how I am about glitter!

Seascape Cellphone Pouch

I finished up the embellishing on this yesterday during the ballgame:



I don't think I've ever done a seascape in these colors before.

I'm going to assemble this today along with the cat dolls that I made to send to Pat for the Comfort Doll project. I also plan to sew up a few new button blocks.

Seascape Cellphone Pouch For Mom

I started on this yesterday while watching the Cubs game:



I stitched until my husband came home from work and then we went up to see my dad. He's doing very well and looks much better every day now. Thank you again everyone, for sending positive thoughts his way!

Scott and I are heading out for breakfast and a flea market. I should be able to finish this up later today. It just needs some more beads and a few little fishies.

Orange Seascape Cellphone Pouch

My mom asked me if I would make her another cellphone pouch. I've only made one for her so far because she's never needed to use her cellphone too much but under the circumstances, she has it with her all the time now. She would like another one so she can alternate. I asked her how she felt about a seascape and she loved that idea so this is my next little project:



Using Heat & Bond, I first added one of my painted dryer sheets to a piece of muslin. Then I added some Angelina Fiber and a bit of pulled silk cocoon. This technically won't be crazy quilting but rather a mixed media project. I have a few things to take care of then I'll start adding some stitching and embellishments to this.

I was asked how to dry pansies in the microwave. It's actually quite simple. I laid out some pansies on a paper towel, covered them with another paper towel and put a heavy glass pot on top of them to weigh them down and keep them flat. Then I microwaved them for 1 minute on 50% power. I repeated that 2 more times and then removed the pot. Then I microwaved them for 30 seconds on 50% power another 2 or 3 times.

You can tell when they're done because the paper towel will be dry and you can only do a few seconds at a time or they will burn. They do keep their color well in the microwave. All microwaves are different so you'll have to experiment a little bit.

Button Block #19

It's been a busy and I must confess, an exhausting week! My dad is doing better. He's been moved to Rehab now and they had him walking a little bit yesterday. He starts Physical Therapy today. I won't be going up there today. I'm going to get my house in order and bake a batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies to take to my dad tomorrow when Scott & I go up there to see him. Yes, I am going to bake! I hope that doesn't tear a hole in the Universe or anything! Ha, ha, ha!

Anyway, my stitching, sewing & crafting time has obviously been at almost a stand-still but I did finish up on this button block the other day. I was able to catch Part 6 of John Adams on HBO so I took that time to park myself on my sofa and finish this one up:



Certainly, I could stitch in the evenings, but I've been so tired after driving around all day, seeing to it that my mom has everything taken care of that she needs to and seeing my dad, that I just pretty much crash when I get home. When I can keep my eyes open, I just do some reading.

Anyway, things will balance out little by little. As I said, I'm getting some cleaning and straightening up done today, I'll make some cookies and then see if I feel like stitching.

Hang in here with me everyone.