A New Twist on an Old Design

First of all I want to thank all of you who asked about my sprained ankle(see last post) from a couple of wks. ago. It is much better now, I am able to put a shoe on and walk fairly normal for the most part. It still hurts now and then, but not as bad and still swells a bit later in the day, but not nearly like before.

I have been making good use of our rainy weather we had last wk. by sewing quite a bit and wanted to share some of what I've made lately. Some of you might remember that I made lots of project pouches last yr. in all colors and sizes, but this yr. (well, actually last fall when I had my giveaway) I came up w/a new twist on making them.

After much thought and recalculating on my part, I decided that most stitchers would probably like the zipper on TOP of the bag and not a few inches lower on the front side. It just makes more sense to me to not have to 'tuck' your items in under that 'flap', thus making it easier to slide your project or goodies inside. SEW, I made them bigger, added a pocket for keys, cell phone, scissors, etc(or whatever), and also a handle for easier carrying. I finished out the ends of the zippers(w/a 'tab') for a more professional look, and LOVE using contrasting fabric to give it more 'pizazz' and wa-la, came up w/a new design.
I just sold my last one awhile back of the 'old' way of doing them, so I wanted to make some more to sell of the new design.........(would make a great Mother's Day or birthday gift) hint hint. :))

***IF anyone is interested in buying them, I am selling them in my Etsy shop. Just click HERE or on the right sidebar, near the top~My Lil' Craft Room. I also added some wool applique patterns recently and am getting ready to 'kit' some of them up for those who are interested.


I use good quality quilt shop material and these first two are from the 'Civil War' Reproduction fabric. I love these color schemes. Black/tan......

Look closely~there really is a pocket on the front...........I also made a matching Kleenex tissue cover to fit in the pocket....And added a charm.........see the finished zipper 'tab'??Dark red/tan......the pocket shows up better on this one......This is a totally different style of fabric, but I thought the colors looked good together......Flip it to the other side for a completely different color scheme............yep, this one actually has TWO pockets ~ one on either side.....

I do need to make some smaller ones too and if anyone wants one in a different color scheme, just ask ~ I have TONS of fabric!!!

On a different note..........This past Sat. our youngest son decided at the last minute that he wanted to go to his Senior prom w/some friends of his, so he quickly got dressed up and I had to tie his tie for him. Hubby was gone, so I did the best I could. He's never worn one before in his life. (Our church is very casual).I still thought he looked so cute, even in his 'tennies' and spiked his hair just a bit. LOL

Well, May promises to be a very busy month for us~we have our oldest son's b'day in two days- May 2nd, he'll be 21, then my dad's is the 10th~he'll be 91, then our son's girlfriend's mom is the 13th, (which is also Mother's Day here in the states), then my MIL's is the 14th and my niece's is the 19th, plus a couple of good friends thrown in and it's almost like Christmas!!! LOL Oh, and our youngest son is graduating on May 25th~so we have a very full month indeed!!

Hopefully I'll get to put my new cake decorating skills to good use, since I just finished up the 4 wk. Wilton Cake Dec. class. But, boy do I need to PRACTICE!!!!!!!!! LOL

SEW, who knows when I'll get back on here, but I am in the midst of making a darling wool pincushion and also some Americana items, so when they're finished I'll try to post pics of them. In the meantime, happy crafting!

**Tanya**

This and That and a Book Review

I'm back with a few pics of what all I've been up to lately.  Is anyone else out there liking this new Blogger format, cuz it's driven me crazy trying to do this post.  My pics were all over the place and I played around w/them till I got them somewhat straightened out, but they are still a bit out of order, so just hang in there and hopefully at least some of it will make sense, lol.

After the quilt I finally finished in time for our granddaughter's b'day, I finished that 'special order' ladybug purse that looks exactly like the one I made for myself last yr.  Here is the brand new version and I also made a matching kleenex pouch.  The gal was thrilled w/both pieces and I told her to keep me in mind if she ever wants me to make her more 'ladybug' items for her MIL, cuz I have several more pieces in mind.  She told me her MIL/FIL live in a trailer that is totally decorated in ladybug decor.  Never heard of that one before, but 'to each his own' as my mother always said.

I even added some tiny rick rack to jazz it up a bit....

 Sun. evening I was coming out of our camper, had my arms full of pillows/sheets to wash up, couldn't see my feet and totally missed the last step.  I fell to the ground and knew I had twisted my left foot/ankle.   This is what it looked like last night!!  It actually looked worse 3 days later than it did the first nite.  (Our 18 yr. old son told me to 'get that thing out of here' when I showed it to him in his room last nite)~LOL!!  We had a good laugh over that one. (I normally have a long narrow foot, so I wanted to show you what a difference it made).  Even my toes get swollen.
 The strange thing is that it looks almost back to normal by morning, then as the day goes on, it swells up pretty bad by late afternoon/early evening.  I have been propping it up a lot late in the day, and try to stay off of it as much as I can, but it still hurts across the top and I can't wear regular shoes yet.  Good thing the weather is warmer, cuz all I can wear right now are slip on sandals.

Onto the book review.
 Awhile back Bethany House Publishers asked various people to post a book review(good or bad) and they would send you a book for free to read and write a review on your website and then write one on theirs.  Well, I jumped on the bandwagon cuz I saw the word FREE, and so I chose what I thought would be a great book to read.  Sorry to say that I wasn't as thrilled w/it as I had hoped.  Now, keep in mind that I did NOT read the first book in the series and maybe that would have helped, but I was very confused in the first few chapters as to who was who and how they were related.  It seemed like the story jumped into the 'middle' at the very beginning.  At times I really did like the characters, but other times I thought they were a bit lame.  All in all, if you like historical romance (Christian Fiction), you certainly may want to try this one.  It wasn't one of my favorites, but it wasn't the least favorite I've ever read either.  The author has written many other books that I would still like to read.  I sure hope she doesn't mind my honesty on this one.

On to other news~ my oldest son's girlfriend and I have become quite smitten w/one another, get along great and have regular girls' day out adventures, so I asked her a few wks. ago if she wanted to take a cake decorating course w/me.  She was more than thrilled!  I have always wanted to do this, but could never find anyone to take it w/me, until Bekah came along.   The class runs for 4 wks. in a row and the second wk. we had to take a cake to decorate.  This is what hers looked like.  Really cute!

 This is what mine looked like..... I had it in the cake carrier and as I was coming through our front door it just plopped out of my hands and landed upside down, but boy did it ever taste good!!  My DH said it was the best icing I'd ever made!!!  LOL

I wish I could say that I made this darling cake for our granddaughter~Brooke, but they ordered it from a bakery.  Her favorite color is bright green, so they made it a 'frog' theme.  It was a square cake and really cute, plus tasted great!!

Here's a better view of the candles.... and look at those 'shells' on the side, made w/icing.  Mine don't look quite that good......................YET! ha

Here's the b'day girl herself at her great aunt's house.

Anxiously awaiting the opening of gifts..........

If you've hung in there till the end of this rather long post, hats off to you!!!  Happy Spring!!

It Is Finished!!

Christians all over the world are celebrating the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ today and I hope you are one of them. Sunday we will celebrate his resurrection!! I hope this Easter season is more than just a bowl full of jelly beans, colored eggs and the Easter bunny. Tho' I love all of those things, this is a time to reflect on what He's done for us on the cross.
I'm so very grateful for God's Son and what He's done in my life. If you don't know what I'm talking about and would like to learn more, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Another reason for the title of this post is......I finally finished the quilt for our granddaughter's b'day, which is tomorrow. Miss Brooke will turn 10 tomorrow and they are coming into town for a cookout and b'day party.

I started it way back in January, thinking I had plenty of time to get it pieced and finished way before the big day, but then I put it aside to work on some other things and well, I hate to admit it but I just finished it late last nite. LOL Does anyone ever do that besides me?? I really put pressure on myself the last couple of weeks to get it finished on time and since this is my very first pinwheel quilt and my first quilt in over 20 yrs, I think I kept putting it off because it intimidated me just a bit. Now I feel like I can breathe a little. (now I know I showed you all the Thimbleberries quilt blocks from last yr., but I have never put it all together yet, so that one doesn't count)ha.

I knew I would NOT have time to get it machine-quilted, so I had to come up w/another idea. I found some really cute flower buttons that had matching colors, so I used those to 'tack' it down(in the center of each 'pinwheel') and hold it together. Then I followed the quilt book's instructions for stitching on the binding, etc. and here's the finished product......ta-da......

They recently painted her bedroom really bright colors, so hopefully this will hang on the wall and blend in.

I enjoyed working w/such bright joyful colors.....I love prairie points!!

I had to clear off our big 8 ft. island, so I could pin it together and put the binding on. The fabric is 'Twirl' from Moda.


On another note, I have put lots of new goodies in my Etsy shop recently(the new Lizzie Kate kits are here) along w/several other new graphs,and wool applique patterns are on the way, so take a peek if you get a chance.

I wish everyone a wonderful Easter!!