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 ?

Finally, A TA-DAAAAA ! ! ! !

I've finally a finished project that I can show you.

Here's my version of the Simply Chic Carry All

that we did in the class at Zede's Sewing Studio in Columbia a couple of weekends ago.

This Simply Chic carryall, I've decided will be used to carry to sewing classes.

The pocket on the front of the carryall is Sun/Moon fabric I've had for some time
- just awaiting a perfect project to show it off.

Here's a great place for me to stash the current class pattern.

The base of the front is corduroy that is years and years old,
I LOVE this beautiful blue - again, awaiting a perfect project.

The back is a really good look at, I love this gorgeous fabric.

I did some quilting - just enough to hold the batt in place.

For the handles I chose fabric rather one of the plastic/pre-made handles
I used a short piece pvc flexi-tubing  on each handle

where my sometimes grubby hands will hold and not soil the handles.

As you can see, the inside has one vinyl zippered pocket.

A place for all my cutting tools - rotary, small scissors, shears, seam rippers, etc.

The fabric zippered pocket at the bottom of the vinyl pocket can hold tape measure,

and my chocolate stash.

On the other side of the inside there's one ruffled pocket
 a great place to store my pre-cut pattern pieces.

The smaller divided pocket at the bottom of the ruffled pocket is divided to hold markers, 6" rulers, a packet of kleenex and other goodies.

This is the front of the removable insert [held in place with velcro]
it has the two larger vinyl zippered pockets
while the bottom half  has a dozen zippered pockets
to hold all my sewing feet.

The removable insert can be hung by it's tab for easy access.
Had to make certain all the pockets opened from the top.  :^}

The reverse side of the insert I decided a couple more pockets were needed

 so added two vinyl zippered pockets and two fabric zippered pockets.

Lots of zippers - a dozen in all! ! !

I used Sullivans Make-A-Zipper for this project.

I was able to cut all these to size and used every zip tab on the reel.

This project used vinyl and lots of zippers. 

While I've put in a zipper or two during my sewing years,

the class instructor gave us a couple of options for inserting 'em.

They were easy-peasy !

This was the first time I've ever sewn vinyl.

Turns out it wasn't all that hard to do.

To my surprize the instructor had us use #12 needles throughout the entire project.

I never would have thought it was big enough to handle sewing through vinyl, fabric and zippers.

But it worked just fine. 

Yep, you read right, I was able to see right over those zipper teeth!

No broken needles.

Easy-breezy ! 

Now, that I've got this first carryall under my belt

and I am pretty well satisfied with it

hmmm, a couple of small things I could improve upon

and will work those out on my next carryalls.

I going to cut at least two more and production line 'em.

Wait 'til you see my fabric choices, yee-haa.

Now that I've shown you mine,

What have you been working on?

Google Voice Free Phone Calls ! ! !

Just got online this afternoon with Google Voice.

First call went to DH's cell phone.

Worked like a charm - great sound quality, no lag.

Second Google Voice call made from my gmail page using 'call phone'

went to a fellow blogger in TN.

She had already used her Google Voice 'call phone' to call her sister.

DH's Google Voice 'call phone' didn't come online until this evening.

He used this new google feature to phone our youngest son in California.

Oh, do you know this service is provided free until the end of the year.

Google has not spelled out what or how charges will be at the first of 2011.

In the meantime, we will be able to phone friends, relatives, etc., within the U.S free - - - - - -

no long distance charge, no using monthly minutes.

This new feature that Google has given us is as great as their Gmail Video Chat.

Now,

who will I phone tomorrow and over the weekend  ? ? ?

Yep! It is the week of the GO!

Heather at A La Mode Fabric

is having a GO! Giveaway ! ! 

This give-a-way will run until Friday 27th 9:00 pm PST

Heather has made is simple to enter.

and given us three chance to win this baby.

I know you want it

give Heather's link a click.

A La Mode Fabric

Be sure to take a few minutes to peruse her great blog posts! 

This Must Be the Week to GO!

Paulette at Sweet P Quilting and Creations announced 

her GO! giveaway begins now

and goes through the 31st of August ! ! 

So GO! on over and join Paulette's blog by Following  and see what Paulette creates with her GO!.

I turn green with envy.

Aw, GO! on over - visit Paulette

-------

'course you don't have to enter 

for her AccuQuilt GO! Giveaway

that way MY chances improve if you don't 

BUT

why miss the fun ????

GO! GO! GO!