To Market To Market!

Er...Well off to the American Cancer Society's Casino Night this Saturday in Lakeland!
Here's all the finished goodies that were all packed up today and tucked neatly in the mail - 1/2 letterpress - 1/2 sewn...


The reversible Owl bag... outside...

And the inside... or... is it out side and inside? hmm...


The super fun pencil roll-up...
Easy as 1...

2...

3!

The Amy Butler Fabric purse with matching key ring!


Detail of the funky flower on the front


And my favorite - the little blue and cream horse wondering how it can snack on its apple treat..

Shoed a Blue Horse Today!

So I'm putting together a nifty package to be auctioned at the American Cancer Society Casino Night in Lakeland, FL next Friday. I'll have hand made goodies and a nice stash full of letterpress cards and such which should be a nice variety i think. They'll be a big Amy Butler fabric bag, an owl tote, a colored pencil roll-up case and then a plush toy horse - which I made today! He's blue and cream and as cute as his little button eyes! I took a series of pictures planning out the pattern and cutting and sewing and stuffing - seeing as how I'd never made a toy horse before. All the parts and pieces were planned out in my head, just had to take some time to plan and figure out how to get him just the way i pictured him. Am hoping he will make a child very happy!


Here's my paper pattern that I cut two of, ears, shoes are sewn on, button eyes and tail. The mane is beneath the rotary cutter. and started with fabric and a sheet of paper to draw the pattern.


Ears, shoes, mane and tail stitched to one side so they wont slip when the two main sides are sewn...

Sewn, but flat...

Stuffed and hand stitching the belly...

Sewing on the button eyes...

All done!

On the Line

One of the many little goodies I've been working on for Christmas....

Pins and Needles

I got all inspired about a month ago over a good green tea latte. I found myself sitting on the scratchy carpet at the Bridge Street Barnes and Noble in the crafty section pouring over and through all the sewing books I could yank from the shelves. After 3 1/2 hours or so I had enough ideas to charge my engines and launched straight into deciding that I was going to hand make all of my Christmas presents this year (with a few exceptions of already purchased gifts) - be it sewn or otherwise crafted... painted... snipped...snapped... printed, etc.

I have quite a few folks already crossed off my list - which is pretty wild for October. Feels as thought I'm a bit ahead of the game. But I'm glad I started early... (I kinda have a tendency to go overboard when I enjoy/like how the project turns out -and I did, so i am)...eventually doubling the size of the original list...hehehee. The kitchen table seems to now have the permanent fixture of a giant green cutting mat, sewing machine, pin cushions, iron and at any given time fabric themes appear and disappear over the course of several days - from cowboys, to owls, to pirates, to silken pinks and purples,to trains, to wild animals, butterflies, tie-dye, strawberries, teal & chocolate, dinosaurs and even bats. Every theme an idea crafted for a single person - completely different - completely original - completely theirs. And each gift as special and as differnet and original as the person who receives it.

Hanging out to Dry

So the other day when I decided to actually hang the laundry out to dry instead of using the dryer (go green!) I hauled the line out, grabbed the bag of clothespins and tromped out into the back yard, only to loose half the clothespins in the grass because there was a huge hole in the cheap fabric-ish bag. It had to have dry rotted or something because all I had to do was poke at it a bit and the whole thing was in pieces. I pitched the clothespins in the basket with the wet laundry and went inside going directly to the fridge to write "clothes pin bag" on the grocery list.


Yesterday I wrote something else down on the list and thought...you know, I could make a clothespin bag as easy as buying it in the store, couldn't I? ( jeez...how domestic does that sound. Hope this post doesn't ruin my tough caver image....LOL!) That way it won't be ugly - like the one that fell apart - and it hopefully WON'T fall apart - and I can make it in whatever cool fabric I see fit. Couldn't take that long, right? I could wing it. So I did. I recycled - and tore the wire (that hooks onto the clothesline) off what was left of the old bag, used pliers to pry out the grommets, picked out fabric, measured, cut it, found a little "Brina Bat" tag in a bin, and finally thought it'd be fun to add some quirky circles for decoration. I even used the button hole setting on my sewing machine for the very first time - that was kinda cool. And now I have a fun little clothespin bag that won't fall apart any time soon.

Lavender the Lovely Little Monster

Lavender hiding in the garden amongst her favorite purple vegetable: eggplant.

I'd read a great post/tutorial earlier in the week over at Lucky Beans - Simple Monster Softie and was inspired! I needed to make a monster. I chose a great 100% cotton bed spread my Mom had owned in her first apartment that had been reduced to a junk blanket for the main fabric. When I discovered it last year full of holes in my Dad's truck I pilfered it so I could salvage what was still ok. The woven pattern and great purple color was just too fun to not use. I cut out her general shape late last week, bought some felt, and stitched her up late Sunday. I decided I wanted two eyes, some fangs and a dark purple tongue and then decided to make Lavender the Lovely Little Monster a little skirt with the great woven border and used a small scrap to make the added pocket.

A little detail of her pocket. I think she turned out rather cute, don't you?