a clever cuff

Is it OK that I at times feel clever?

I tend to have a lot [piles] of these ruffles ‘laying around’ and as I was looking at them yesterday morning I decided to try to create a cuff with them.

With the ruffles already made, I sewed the layers together added a piece of jewelry and it literally just took minutes.  It comes together with a tied bow, which is not very convenient but I do like the look of it…for now anyway.

I’ll have to try to find a better option for that…maybe a small piece of pretty elastic…is there such a thing as pretty elastic?…guess I’ll add that to my fancy clip~board shopping list for the city.

I’m wearing this sweet cuff right now {as I am decorating my house for Christmas and listening to a wonderful Pandora Christmas mix} and I love how pretty and feminine it is with a touch of vintage tatted lace and rhinestone jewelry.

Sewing, painting, charming….

On the day after Thanksgiving I went thrift store shopping with my girls.  We had so much fun.  We were in the city so the selection was good and we went to 3 or 4 great stores that were all pretty close together.  One of the things that I bought was a framed piece of needlework.  I pictured sewing it to the front of one of these Market Shoppers.  It was too big so I cut it in half, added a little trim to both halves and put them on the fronts of two bags.  They both turned out very fun.

It was perfect timing.  I was hoping to get some of these made anyway for this weekend’s show so this motivated me.

I painted the frame from the needlework and added a RED chalkboard to the inside of it.

These bags usually have just a painted label on the front.  They are a nice, deep bag and fully lined, often with vintage barkcloth.

I found the perfect RED paint!  I’m painting a fun little {Ethan Allen} cabinet that I also bought that day.  All of these goodies will be for sale this weekend. 

A winner has been chosen for the charm give-a-way.  Comment #10, Carole! 

I don’t say it often enough but I really love your comments. There are so many thoughtful gals who visit me here regularly and your sweet words often make my day!  thx.

hand quilted with love : <3

The past several weeks have been a blur of commotion!

The last few weeks I’ve had our kids coming and going a bit here and there…

My daughter, Lauren, had a week off of work and chose to spend that week with us!  {yay}  She brought another one of her baby quilt creations with her so I just have to brag a little.

She has a gifted eye for fabric and design and she loves beautiful fabric! 

{it makes me a little giddy that I might have had something to do with that}

When she orders fabrics online she goes to quilthome.com.  It is our favorite place to shop.  They have a beautiful {actually AMAZING} selection and great customer service.

They also happen to be very local {for me}.

I told her that we could go up there for a visit while she was here.

She and I would both agree that walking amongst such beauty feels like a little slice of heaven.

Here is another one of Lauren’s quilts…Oh, my!…and look at that cute little guy.  He’s 5 months old today!

a new vintage{y} apron…

Yesterday I slipped down to my little sewing area.  I haven’t done any creative sewing for a while and it felt good to just…create!

I took a beautiful, old tablecloth, two embroidered doilies, some pink rick~rack and ended up with a {actually two} cute, little wrap-around apron.

too much fun!

Timi has asked me to join in on the fun on September 9th, 4pm~8pm, for a kick-off for ticket sales for her upcoming Ruffles & Rust Show.  She asked me to bring aprons so I’m going to try to get some fun, vintage{y} aprons made up for it.

btw…I haven’t forgotten that I have a give-away still going on…jump over HERE and leave a comment to be entered

Sewing in AK…

Each time I go to Alaska I like to take a project.  Generally it’s a big project.  Last time I took a quilt and I wanted to get the top done…beginning to end.  I got so close but I had to bring it home unfinished and…it still isn’t done.  {sigh} 

This year I just took a couple of little things to work on.

On the trip up, with all of our luggage in tow, we had 6-7 hours of waiting in a ferry terminal in Ketchikan.  The ferry is about 2 miles from downtown so I decided to walk into town…I thought that sitting there for that long just might make me a crazy-girl. 

Ketchikan is a beautiful place with a bit of a small-town feel.   Tourism is high during the summer months as the cruise ships fill up the harbor each day.

Ketchikan has a sweet little fabric shop, The Silver Thimble.

I quickly worked my way past the enormously, not-to-mention impressive collection of wildlife prints and found a beautiful yet small selection of contemporary prints. 

I love to touch and feel fabric and envision what this print would look like with that print.

can anyone relate?

As I was meandering {and taking my time doing so…because I had a lot of it} I saw an adorable grab bag made up as a sample {wish I had taken a pic}.  I noticed that there was a slip of paper attached with the website for a free pattern download for it.  I began to clumsily navigate my fairly new iphone to see if I could find the pattern.  I think the lady working there was feeling sorry for me so she went and got her laptop to see if she could find the pattern.  As she was looking, I put on my best whiny-yet-sweet face, telling her that if she found the pattern would there be any way {I may have added a kind of squinty-smile here} that she could also print it for me?????…I’m pretty sure that I told her I was heading to the ends of the earth for over a week and there would be no internet connection….AT ALL!  …and I would have no way to print the pattern once I left her store. 

Such a sweet lady that girl was!

She not only printed one for me but also one for her and a few more….not realizing that it was a 9-page pattern until after she picked them up from her printer.

Sweet lady, indeed! 

With my FREE pattern in hand {I LOVE free}, I picked out everything else I needed  to make these cute little bags {even with that FREE pattern these were not inexpensive bags…about $20 each}.

It added a little something special to the over-all look when I hand-stitched around some of the detail in the fabrics.

…and, I have to just say that everything is made better with polka-dots!

Here is that oh-so-wonderful {and easy to make} free pattern!  allpeoplequilt.com  and the pdf that takes you right to the pattern.

Quilts for Little Ones…

Can you ‘spy’ the baby in that picture?

As I see my little grandguy all snuggled in his beautiful quilt, I find that I swell with a little lot of pride, not only at the precious sight of…HIM but also the fact that the quilt was hand-made by my girl.  This past year she has found a new ♥ love…making baby quilts.

Here are some pictures I took recently of some pretty things that Lauren has been working on…

Although my photos didn’t turn out the best {so much light and so little time}, I know you can see that she is gifted {buttons are flying off my shirt}.  I think her favorite part is picking out the glorious fabrics {so much like her mom} and she does a truly amazing job with that.

A couple of weeks ago she sold her first one on etsy {clap, clap, applause, applause, smile, smile…} and she now has another one listed.  {see it HERE}

She also had a birthday yesterday.  {Happy Birthday, sweetness♥}

It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to this SweetMan {9 days} today!

Here’s a picture of Lauren and the LittleMan that she spent the weekend with in Palm Springs!

Market Shopper ~ Sweet Rustique

I have had so much fun making this new Market Shopper.

It is a bag that measures 13″ x 27″. 

It’s nice and deep…perfect for that special sale or farmer’s market.

I have been collecting vintage barkcloth {old drapery} for years and it teams perfectly with the rustic burlap.

I always prefer to hi-light any special characteristics…{i.e. time-worn holes, care instructions, etc…}

This one is just too much fun!

I took a part an old oil painting and hand-sewed it to the front of one of the bags.

Oh, My!

This was a pretty perfect way to spend my Mother’s Day…

Chic Rustique Market Shopper

I’ll side-step a bit here from my Retreat Reports as I wait for more pictures to arrive…  🙂  …and show you a fun shopping bag that I made yesterday.

It’s large and perfect for your trip to a shop, show or market.

…and it’s oh, so chic…Chic Rustique!

Apron entry…

When I first heard about this opportunity I got very excited about the idea making an apron to enter into the give-a-way…

I’ve had to just keep the ‘thought’ tucked away so I could get past some of the craziness of this week.

Since the deadline is December 1st, this morning when the ‘thought’ resurfaced to the front of my mind I knew that if I didn’t get it made today, it wouldn’t get made!

i made it using three vintage dresser scarves {that were gifted to me by Auntie Joy…thx. Joy}.  i then added a little linen tea towel that is sewn into the waist band and a vintage crocheted pot holder into the hem line…for that last minute hot-dish that needs to be removed from the oven…

It turned out great and I love it…and I’m SO hopeful that it will be a WINNER!

thanks to my brother Marcus for indulging me this afternoon to take some pics of it for me…

Vintage{y} Cuff…

We have a family wedding this weekend and my daughter said she was going to ask Trish to make her one of her fun, fun cuffs.  Well I asked her if I could {try to} make one for her instead.

sorry Trish but I know that you wouldn’t make much $ off of my girl because I’m thinking that you wouldn’t even take $ from her…

Last night I sat down and had fun with all of the hand-work that’s involved in making one of these.  It is so relaxing to me…to create something beautiful with my hands.

I used mostly vintage things to make it.

Now I want to make one for me…

I have made one other cuff and I posted about it here….