Oh, Yeah, I Won . . .

I won 

this giveaway by 

michele made me

you can read all about Michele and her giveaway.

Oh, my ! ! ! 

Michele's Denim Tree Pencil Case

was just the beginning.

It's stuffed with such gorgeous goodies.

Wait, I'll get to those in a minute.

But don't just glance at this lovely.

Click on the above pic to embiggen it to check out the details.

Isn't this gal just oozing with creativity?

She has taken used denim and created this character of a tree.

Enlarge the tree photo below . . . . 

Don't you just know it has an historic tale to relate - - if

you'll only take a moment to listen to it's story.

This Denim Case is going to be used for something special

and if not special

it certainly will be when stored within.

Here's the overhead view of the special zip pull and zip.

Have you ever ? ? ? ? 

And then, there's the four

Fat Quarter's of Japanese import, no less.

Afternoon palette of Market Fresh 

by Hokkoh House

See this denim pocket

with

Handmade wooden painted buttons.

Click on the photo to see the handpainted dippity-dots.

Creativity at it's utmost!

Here's a close-up of the stripped FQ and buttons made of wood.

Can't get enough of this button pocket.

Michele's entire giveaway - - - 

handmade.

Can't believe my fortune when I found this vintage hand made lace.

Swoon ! ! ! ! 

This was Michele's first giveaway and I count myself lucky to be one of two winners.

Take another minute or two and visit 

michele made me

to learn more about this creative, talented, generous gal ! ! ! 

BTW, I found her blog via her sister

at

Ariane's crafts

Ariane's blog is another blog I enjoy

you may like her, also.

Now it's time for me to really,

REALLY look at my giveaway winnings 

and look at them again.

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

Double Scoop of Vanilla Sox

 Sock Progress:

I have two pair of just plain vanilla basic style sox on my needles.

This Forest Green pair has re-enforced toes

with ribbed instep and leg.

Yarn:  Lambs Pride SuperWash Wool Sport yarn.

Needles:  #3 forty-inch circular

They're ready to begin the gusset

then on to the slip stitch heel.

I'm following Wendy D Johnson's

method as seen on page 41

of her book

Socks from the Toe Up

This striped pair are at the same point -
ready for the gusset, also.

Ribbing on this pair will begin at the leg.

Yarn:  Austermann Step SuperWash Wool
Needles:  2.5 mm thirty-two inch circular

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

Sew Day Aprons

DD#2 and I had one of our

Sew Days over the week end.

Using already-made aprons from Hobby Lobby

and several orphan blocks

we came away with these

Patriotic Aprons.

Not certain what DD#2 is going to do with hers
however, mine [the red one below]
could end up being wall art.

 

Hugs & ♥♥♥

Tablescape?

Have I shown you this before?

I don't remember
but I do like the looks of this table top.

I made this Mystery Quilt
designed by Pam Oliver
several years ago.
I added the raw edge appliqué
to fill in the wide border.
I like the way it turned out.

Here's my little Vignette.

Found Annie while on a day road trip with some Chicks!
She was hanging out at a Mennonite-owned fabric shop
and was game when asked to join our road trip.
I enjoyed her company so much that I asked if she'd like to stay at my place for a while.

 

Time for a little Tea

for me and thee.

Sally had a garage sale.

Gerry stopped by.

This little vase came home with me

for the price of one thin dime!

Hugs &  ♥♥♥



We have a Winner here, folks - - -

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

twodraftmom said...

Does the giveaway come with prepared cupcakes?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Well, Claire, no, it does not.

But no matter – you are the winner of Easy Cupcakes 

now you can bake your own dee-lish cupcakes.

Your Apron and book will be out in the mail just as soon as you provide your mailing address.

Thanks, everyone, for entering and know that there is another giveaway brewing.  And you all will be the first to hear about it.

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

Want a Better Look?

Thought you might enjoy another look at your new apron.

And,

Here's a look at the pocket detail.

All the giveaway details 

are

here

I'll be waiting for your Comment

~*~*~*~*~*~

I was in Google Reader reading TwoDraftMom where I found her link to this pretty cool idea

in video.

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

Easy as A B C

A is for Apron

B is for Book

C is for Cupcake

I've cooked up a theme for this giveaway.

Easy as ABC

What's not to like about these three?

Aprons - evoke nostalgic images of Mom.

Books -  friends to many of us that enable our minds to ponder a myriad of subjects.

Cupcakes - to satisfy our sweet cravings.

I just put the finishing touches on YOUR Cupcake Apron and I'm ready for us to begin my fourth Pay-It-Forward giveaway.

Here's the way we're going to play.

This time it's all for you

my lovely Followers.

I want you to know how much I love reading your comments and, at times, exchanging conversations via email.

If you are among my FOLLOWERS

you are eligible for this giveway.

Any and All Followers.

If you want to enter

leave a Comment.

I know I don't have to remind you that

your Comment must provide a means for me to be able to contact you

via your email

should you be the lucky winner.

Let's run this giveaway through this coming Wednesday,

sound good to you?

Good Luck

to you all

I'll be chomping at the bit 'til then

because I can't stand the anxiety of learning whose name will be drawn.

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

Carryall for my Netbook & More

Recently one of our quilt guild members
issued a challenge to the rest of us.

Her challenge:
using the home dec samples that she rescued from going to the trash
[they were out-dated].
we are to make some thing from these samples,
show and tell about it,
and
make some thing from them to donate to the guild as a $$$$ maker.

Earlier I posted about a Roly Nester zip bag made from the samples.
I donated one to the guild
it was part of that evening's giveaway.
[Actually, my dil won it - fair and square - and she was thrilled]

My next project in this challenge used FOUR of the samples
I made another Simply Chic Carryall

 

I made it for my netbook

- - - pretty neat, huh ? - - -

 

As you can see in addition to my netbook

I've a place for my ear buds, surge protector and

wireless mouse.

 

I used store bought handles this time.

They just seemed to go with the wonderful carpet bag samples.

*******************************

I've finally picked a theme for my next giveaway.

I'll work on it a bit this evening, hopefully, to finish it up.

Okay, FOLLOWERS, my next giveaway will be just for YOU ! ! ! !

If you are one of my FOLLOWERS

[and want to participate]

ANY OF YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE

are eligible to enter.

I'll be posting about the giveaway any day now.

Hope to see your name there.

**~**~**~**~**~**~**

Speaking of Giveaways

I have to tell you about a Great giveaway D#2 alerted me to.

Yes, you all know that she and I are attempting to win.

WE WANT A GO! CUTTER ! ! ! ! !

We've entered one-point-five zillion giveaways ! ! !

With no luck so far

Sooooo,

taaa-daaa

Millie's Quilting

has been given the okay by Carolyn at AccuQuilt
to have her own GO! & 3 DIES giveaway.
Even though I do want to win one of these babies
I'll let you in on Millie's wonderful giveaway.
If you want to try to win too, go on over and enter ! ! !
.  .  .  .  there's room for all of us.

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

Nature girl

Nature Girl,

I'm not,

but couldn't resist taking a couple of pics of these

today after a late lunch,

stop at the library for more audiobook mysteries,

&

a stop at Central Dairy

where we had a small dish of

Cinnamon for me
&

Extreme Moose Tracks for hubby.

As long as I'm writing about dee-lish desert.

This past week was D#2 birthday

-----

won't say hold old she is .  .  .  but .. .. ..

-----

oh, well, better not say any more about age.

We had a dee-lightful

chocolate cake.

More chocolate than even this chocolate lover could take.

 I made her these three wallets using my new-found knowledge of sewing with vinyl.

Oh, how I love making these !

They're quick to make,

can use scraps,

and are great keepers for coupons,

tablets and pencils,

etc,

I think it's time for me to let you,  my Followers,  know how much I appreciate

that you return to my blog to read and leave a Comment.

Soooo, I'm thinking of a way to show just how much I do appreciate you gals.

Hmmm, what shall it be.

A giveaway fer sure - - - -

well, you'll be for first to know

when I figure out just what this will be.

Followers, it won't be long 'til I come up with something.

 

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

Some pink

I love my Sedum.

They never let me down.

Even after being neglected this Spring and Summer

they behaved, as you can see, wonderfully.

You may remember that early this summer

I tangled with Poison Ivy and got a really, really good case of Poison Ivy ! ! ! !

For some thirty days I itched, itched, itched . . . .

And wouldn't you know it,

this was the wettest Spring and Summer we've had in a number of years.

Our Flower beds thrived. Well, they were GREEN and LUSH.

However, EVERYTHING GREW ! ! ! !

I mean everything ! ! !

We're having some one come in to 'take care of' the flower beds. Yes, they're aware of the Poison Ivy, they said it wouldn't bother them.

So after next Tuesday things should look different - no errant Redbuds, Mimosa or PI. Yippee ! ! !

With the beds bear and the yard minus three big trees things should really look different.

Last month at Bernina some one shared their project of making travel bags.

With air travel what it is today I thought that Daughter #1 could use some.

Her work requires regular travel

plus she's been traveling on her vacations.  Flying off to the Middle East.

So, I thought, why not use my newly learned techniques

-  in the Simply Chic Carry All class that Linda B. had at Zede's Sewing Studio.

You remember my Simply Chic Carry All.

I learned to sew with vinyl and to custom size zippers using

Sullivan's Make-A-Zipper.

BTW, using the Make-A-Zipper is quite a bit less expensive than buying regular zippers, generally speaking.

I bought five reels of zippers online

[hot pink, zingy green, and yes, white, beige, black] 

they come in 5.5 yds with twelve pulls on each reel.

I'm ready to put in another order.

Anyway, I thought this would be a great project for me to use my new skills.

So I began to plan,

vinyl - check

Make-A-Zipper - check

fabric - check

Labels - - - - okay I need labels, so I made a list:

** panties

** bras

** sox

** hair

** teeth 

[hey, don't snicker.

by teeth I mean tooth paste, floss, tooth brush, mouth wash, etc. what else could I have named it ?   :^) ]

** face

[okay, use your imagination on this one]

** shoes

** laundry

Looked like a pretty good list, hmmmmm - - - - -

now what - - - - -

how to make these labels without an embroidery machine.

That's where my pal Dianna came to my rescue.

After she spent an evening picking out fonts she thought I might like from her embroidery software

we were ready to spend an afternoon stitching.

That we did. 

I think they turned out GREAT.

I love PINK.

So here they are.  Fed Ex delivered them to D#1 in time for her birthday and

she was very surprized and pleased.

I was going to write a little more but this post has taken my twice as long as I had planned because of stupid Live Writer that wasn't any better after the Windows Live Upgrade that was SUPPOSED to improve not only Live Writer, but also Live Mail, and Live Messenger and that took fifteen minutes to download, install and restart the computer.

So I aborted my attempt to blog using Live Writer and came here to Google blogger and promptly lost all of my post to cyberspace.  So had to re-create.  Gad ! ! ! !

Hope to have better luck on tomorrow's post.

i love my computer

i love my computer

karma

karma

Hugs & ♥♥♥s

What ! ? Another ?

I'm on a roll now ! ! ! !
Second finish in as many days.

Carolina Carry All

Studio Kat Designs 

Seven pages of instructions

fifty-nine steps of instruction ! ! !

Sounds overwhelming, doesn't it.

I thought so too but found that this is a very easy bag to make.

 

Having this many steps facilitates the process

even if you have several days or several weeks between sewing stints. I made it a point to stop at the end of one step before I quit for the day.

  By doing so I was able to pick up exactly where I left off.

No time spent trying to figure out where in the pattern I should begin again.

Step by step it was easy to make progress with each sewing session.

 

I used a couple of really cool batiks with just enough color to keep me smiling.

This bag has a gusset as the bottom and part way up the sides in both the exterior and in the lining.
I love it's baggy style.

Here you can see the 'secret pockets' at the center of either side of the bag between the exterior and lining.

Studio Kat's method of making the handles is one I've never tried so gave her way a try and found it went together easily.
They're long enough to carry on my shoulder or
if I'd rather I could shorten the handles by making a cute knot.

You can see the interior is roomy.
The magnet snap holds it closed.
This bag, like the Simply Chic Carry All, I'll make in a couple of different fabrics.

So . . . . . . .
what's next ?