I'm a material girl

Now for some of the recent stuff.  My husband said I had to use up some of the scraps of fabric I had left over from quilting.  So I have made countless other things.  I thought I would share some of it.  


I made this bag as a gift for a friend.  

This is the matching cellphone case.  My husband should be happy with this one, I used my leftover fabric to make this :-)

This was a birthday present I made for my Eskimo Princess....you know who you are

I made this for my daughter at college.  Now her girlfriends want one too.

A diaper bag I made for a friend.  This was just a quick design I came up with.  Getting better with creating my own products.

 Okay, here is a little bag I made with actual leftover fabric for quilting.   This is a little snappy bag that I made bigger as Aunt Jenn wanted something to carry to bunko.  The top closure "snaps together" using a broken tape measure.  Ghee not sure how it broke :-)  

This Geisha Girl bag was made for my Mom.  

I made this after I got my embroidery machine.  I was so excited to start embroidering.  Another project made with leftover fabric  This is a curling iron/ hot iron case.  The inside is lined with heat resistant fabric and 100% cotton batting.   Great for traveling or if you go to the gym. 

I made a bag like this for a friend who is a Nurse.  This is actually the bag I made for her mom who is also a Nurse.  This bag has great storage and looks chic.  

Well, this is just a little of this and that.  I have so much stuff I have done I don't want to overwhelm anyone.  I am having fun making stuff and now I am having fun sharing it with you. 

A creative mess!

A mess it truly was.  I am not sure why I am posting this other than I love what I've done to my office.  I thought I would share with you.


Since I've taken up my new passion of sewing I was able to phase everyone out of the old game room (which is now my office/craft room).  It was a tedious process....


My husband and son would complain about me having the lights on in the game room.  So one day my husband came home with a present.  Yeah I like presents!  It was a fancy little light for the side of my sewing machine.  Here, he said I will help you hook it up.  I love it, thank you!  Little did I know he had an ulterior motive with that purchase.   Honey, you really don't need the lights on in here to sew anymore do you.   Apparently they had a hard time seeing the TV with the lights on while playing their game.  Anyone familiar with Call of Duty?  My son would ask me if I could turn down my sewing machine because it sounded like a .50 cal going off while he was trying to play COD.   Sound effects I would tell him.  But it was all part of the plan..hehehehe


After a few month of this battle, my husband and son decided to move out of the game room as they were getting lost in my "creativity" as I call it.  Needless to say the great room is now the center for all video gaming not to mention watching countless football games.   It was a win-win situation I figured.  They got the big TV and I got my space.  


Like I said it was a bit of a mess, I didn't realize how much of a mess it became after they moved out because I was lost in what I was doing.  I knew where everything was but figured it was time to make it truly my space.


Here is what I did.....just a word of caution.  It didn't look like this all the time, but when my husband started to refer to my office as a "Sweat shop" I knew it was time for change.


I thought storage containers were good purchase for all my fabrics.  It worked for awhile.   The handy little holder for my embroidery thread, another good purchase I thought, until Zeppelin (cat) decided he like to play with my thread and figured out how to "get it and go!"  Then adding Chloe (dog) into the fun.  One day Zeppy had Chloe tangled in a spool of thread.  It's time to field day!!

My desk was overcome with creativity.  However, Dozer was not a bit disturbed by all the commotion as noted by him sleeping in the chair.  

I had my little stations set up now that everyone has moved out.  I strategically placed my machines by the windows so I could look outside.  Note the blinds are now shut...embarrassed by the mess!

A long weekend came up, and my son was home from school.  He was taking Tech Ed: Industrial Arts at the time.  So I decided to recruit him in my efforts.  As a  7th grader he was still pretty easy to recruit.  I asked him what kind of stuff he was doing in Industrial Arts and he said they were building things.  Viola' I am in like flinn I thought.  "You want to help me build some cabinets and stuff for my office?"  He said yes.  I was so happy!  




We moved EVERYTHING out....except my desk.  It was too big

Wow, look at all this space

And you can actually walk around in here without tripping over something my son said.

  


After choosing my paint which was not an easy task.  I love paint, but couldn't decide on the exact shade of the color I wanted.  I wanted something bright and cheery and this is what I ended up with.

So organized and my creativity is now endless

Now the guys want to move back in.......

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

How it all began

Add caption

My new passion started just a little while ago.  

The summers are gorgeous up here in the Last Frontier.  Long days and lots of sunshine.  I love working in the yard and look forward to going to the Alaska State Fair every year which is the end of August thru Labor Day. All the exhibits, shows and animals are fun to see.  I remember the first time I  saw the exhibit of all the quilts.   I was in awe of how beautiful they were and how someone could actually make them.  While engrossed in the quilts,  I noticed a name on one of the quilts, my neighbor.  A few days after my visit to the fair I went over to her house and she showed me some of the beautiful quilts she has made.   She put so much love and attention to each and every quilt she made.  I remember her telling me  that I should try it.  You'll love it she said and it will keep you busy through the winter.

A few days later,  I went down to the local fabric store and signed up for a quilting class.  The class was the following week: It's Elementary was the name of the class.  Yep that's me!  The evening of the first class I took my trusty old singer sewing machine, that I had purchased many years ago for the sole purpose of sewing name tapes on my cammies.   I remember being so happy and proud I actually had a sewing machine to take to class.  Maybe I won't look too dumb because at least I have my own machine, right.  WRONG answer!!!!  All these fancy schmancy machines.  Some even ran by themselves, how could that be I thought.  Ok be cool, take a deep breath, I said to myself and then I saw a friend.  Thank god, she came over and sat by me.  I felt so much better with my little ol' machine.  I sure hoped it worked as it had been all over the world during my travels in the military.  I was afraid to see if it still worked before going to the class because I am the type, if it doesn't work then I have an excuse not to go. And I knew I really wanted to learn how to make a quilt.   I got my machine all plugged in and ready to go.  I listened and followed the instructor, I was happy to see what we were making.  We started by cutting shapes with our rotary cutter.  How cool is this little thing I thought.  but mine isn't working very well.  Here I'll fix it the Instructor said.  You're a lefty.  I'll switch the blade around.  I cut out all my squares and triangles and was pretty proud of myself I kept up with everyone else.   Then the shock came :  Start your machines.....We have to sew the shapes together to form our finished block.  No problem I thought.  She showed us how to do this.  I heard some buzzing of machines going, ladies laughing and chatting.  I was ready machine threaded: check, fabric ready: check and foot in the down position: check.  I looked around and saw what others were doing and I knew I could at least sew two piece of fabric together, I mean how hard is that right?  Ok....ready to put the treadle to the metal!  What in the world is wrong with my machine... the noise my machine made, I was embarrassed.  Clunkity clunk!!!  Why is my machine so loud???  The instructor came over and said when was the last time you oiled your machine.  Uhhh, I dunno OIL?!?!?!  Here I've got some.  She showed me how to oil my machine.  I've never done that before.  It's Elementary, right!  Well, it was still running rough compared to everyone else's nice machines.  We had a break and I had to check out some of the other machines.  Bernina, Pfaff and, Janome...where in the world are these from I thought.  I knew of Singer and Kenmore.  My machine was like a old Pinto amongst these Cadillacs & BMW's.  


Needless to say I finished the four week class and learned a lot about sewing, binding and quilting.  Not an expert by any means, but enough to get me started on my own.  First purchase was a new machine.  I have to chuckle when I saw my friend's post "the Kingergartencrafter" about buying a sewing machine.  I remember looking for my new machine.  And I LOVE my Janome.  Got me one of those fancy schmancy machines.  My husband said if you are going to sew you might as well do it with the right machine.