Mom Gift!

My mom has been bugging me to come over to her place to look through some craft stuff she's getting rid of.. you'd think it would be easy. She lives five minutes away! But I kept procrastinating. 

Bad me.

So tonight I ran over to pick up some frozen bones for Levy and decided to take a moment to look at what she had (and I ignored Levy's "WOOF" from the tracker because she wanted to play with an old saint bernard!)

Some of the fabric is not great, but some of it is FABULOUS.. like the Christmas fabric!

And some florals and solids. Some shiny scary stuff too as well as a piece of my prom dress YIKES!

 I really liked these two, I think they will go well with some fabrics I just bought!

And here are my Japanese squares. I decided to do something a little off kilter so I've angled all the squares when squaring them off! I hope it looks good when I start putting them together!

And here's Mr. Black!

Learning to drive to get fabric!

So, it's odd to admit but I never really took to driving. I had my license for many years but let it expire when I was living in another province (ontario) and I was NEVER going to drive in Toronto. But then I moved back here and met the cowboy, who is a professional driver. He inspired me to take the driver test again and this time I'm actually driving, something I never did when I had my license before.
So of course where do I drive? For FABRIC of course!

Oddball Projects

So a couple of years ago we purchased a tent trailer to go behind a 4x4 vehicle. Some people think this is odd because we also have a full size camper and truck (and we kind of have a third camper too)
So we got the tent trailer and I instantly wanted to redo the interior, making the cowboy crazy. Because of course he thought it was A-Ok, all we have to do is sleep in it, he says.
Here's a before shot

Gross right? Like the 70's puked inside the tent trailer! The floor had a bit of shimmery gold going through it as well!

Here is the new and improved (though not finished) The fabric was in the discount section in Fabricland. I had some help stapling it in as my wrists couldn't deal with it, but I did most of the floor myself and the painting. I still have the other side to finish and the bench seats for the table need to be re-built which hopefully will happen this year. Who knows, one day I may attempt redoing the canvas!

It's ok to have more then one project - REALLY

So I was a bit worried about having more then one project on the go until I read how many other people have going.. now I feel free to have multiple projects!
I have my japanese quilt. I have to finish sewing some blocks together and then trim the blocks down to be square, then comes the big sew - when I sew the blocks all together. Then I don't know what I'm doing hahahah. I'll have to figure out how to do backing and quilting for something that large. I suspect I will pay someone to do the quilting on a machine as the old wrists can't take that kind of work.
I want to do a rag quilt from denim and some mixed fabrics (this involves me ripping apart something I started after having wrist surgery on both wrists for carpal tunnel syndrome - not my brightest move)
I also have my dog toy projects. I think I figured out how to make the bottles replacable and I've cut out two that I need to try sewing together.
I also have two "dear jane" block patterns I've done up using CAD (the program I use to design at work) and I've actually cut one of them out in fabric. I just need to sew it now. That project is a long term one though.

I'm also just cutting scraps into two size blocks for a random project, you know, for when I'm not busy (rolls eyes)
This weekend I will get some work  done on SOMETHING

storage ideas

So I have a sewing room downstairs in our basement, and it’s quite lovely. The few times I get to work there. Why can’t I work there you ask? This is the guilty party.

She’s attached to my hip. And I don’t mind (mostly, though I’d love to go to the washroom by myself) but it makes it hard to get sewing done. So though I have a sewing room, my sewing machine resides on the dining room table and the table was covered with scraps and scissors and pins and the like. 

Last weekend though, I decided to change that. I had a vague recollection of a drawer unit at Costco so I sent my mother off to buy it. 

Hey, she was going anyway, I didn’t just force her to there!

This is the unit. I read the reviews and the worst comment I saw was that sometimes the drawers don’t slide well. Well I decided to risk it anyway! And it’s awesome! It rolls, it holds all my tools and even has extra drawers to hold my cut squares. I bought a bunch of containers from the dollar store (dollarama, I love you!) and that organized things within each drawer as well. Worked awesome!

Loved this article!

Popularity of sewing and crafts are on the rise!

dog toys and doggies and other fun stuffs

I took some time a week ago to start working on an actual pattern for my indestructible dog toy. Yah right! I know, there are no indestructible dog toys!

Well I am trying to make a water bottle dog toy – you know, those ones that crackle. I think it’s a great use of recycling or reusing. The problem I am having is I want to make the bottle replaceable. How to make that happen? I’ve thought of a draw string (dogs will chew the strings) Velcro and I’m thinking of using a system like a pillowcase. I started outlining the bottle and just making a plain cover.

Later on I made one with feet. Ha!

 Here`s a little face hahaha

Ideally I want to make them out of fake fur, something with a tail. I got a great deal of fur pieces from Dressew during their sale.

I also decided to whip up a little place mat to practice my machine quilting. I still have to finish it off.

And while I was having fun, Lazy Levy relaxed with me!