Mom's purse

This is the tote bag I made for my mom...she loves tropical prints, and I did a little special gold trim for an accent.  I have batting in it, and thought about quilting it, but decided against, and here's how it turned out.  I'm kinda proud of the front pocket, all lined up with the shell, just like someone who knows what she's doing.  :)

 

  

 

Ryleigh's quilt

This was actually the project that got me back into sewing.  I hadn't sewn in years, and one day I saw a program while I was in a doctor's waiting room that inspired me.  We had just found out that my daughter Lindsey was expecting our first grandchild, a girl, and I wanted to make her something special.  I had kept many of my childrens' drawings over the years, and I wanted to incorporate Lindsey's childish drawings into a quilt for her baby.  I didn't take photos when I finished it, so this photo was taken today, almost 11 months later, after being loved and washed and dried, and loved some more.  This quilt made the trip home from the hospital with Ryleigh, and goes everywhere with her.  What more could a grandma ask?  Lindsey says people inquire about the quilt everywhere she goes.  It was definitely a labor of love, my crazy sewing machine balking every stitch of the way.  For this reason, most of the applique work is hand-stitched.  It was all worth it, seeing how attached Ryleigh is to it.

 

 

 

 

I am a little obsessed...

I admit it, I am now obsessed with making baby things...some turn out well, some not so well.  But I have found that even the ones I don't like turn out to be something that other people do!  So I guess that's a good thing!  Here's a new taggie, and a kooky little taggie bird.

 

 

 

more taggies

Another taggie I made today, with a little surprise for Ryleigh on the back, a little stuffed satin heart.  She loves anything shiny and silky feeling.  Thanks to my great friend Tonya, for the tip on a better quality thread, which allowed me to use my decorative stitches for the FIRST time today with no problems!!! 

Taggies

My daughter called me Friday and said she had seen these "ribbon" blankets for babies at a kiosk at the mall.  They were charging $30 for them.  She wondered if I could make one.  I had no idea what she was even talking about, so I started by googling "ribbon blankets".  Eventually, as I perused websites and blogs, I discovered "taggies", which includes stuffed toys, small blankets, books, etc, made with ribbons sticking out for the baby to play with.  My granddaughter Ryleigh loves playing with any kind of tag, and apparently other babies do as well, judging by the popularity of these things.  I made a trip to my local Joanns, bought some flannel and ribbon, and sat down to make my first taggie blanket.  This is ridiculously easy.  I followed instructions that I found online, but when I finished, I thought the "tags" were too long, so on the next one, I will only make them half as long.  I have all these ideas in my head what I want to make next, and too little time!!   These are really fun to make, this one is 17" x 18", so it's a small little project, which takes longer to plan and pin than to sew!

Today I was worthless

So today I basically got nothing productive done.  For those of you who have migraines, you will know just what I'm talking about.  I walked around the house for awhile, sat down at my sewing table (otherwise known as our dining room table), and then took some medication and went to bed.  I am hoping that tomorrow will be a more productive day!  I have managed to learn a bit more about how to maneuver around this whole blog thing, though.  Good evening to all!

I decided to make a new blog for my photography, since it kinda has a life of it's own, ya know? I'll be putting a bunch of my photos over there.

I posted a link to it, it seems to be working....thanks for all your kind words, and please check out my photography blog. 

No way could I ever put all my photography on here, so I'll just put up a few a day. These are a couple of my favorites...

I have just discovered (again, thanks to Tonya) knitting looms!! This is my first scarf!! I'm so excited! I made another for my husband, Tracy, but his is boring black, so I didn't take any photos. :)

This little cutie now belongs to my youngest daughter, and was really fun to make...only took me a couple of hours!

Experimenting with webbing as handles...I liked the way it turned out. :)

Everyone seemed to like this bag. It has two large outside pockets and several pockets inside as well. I always try to at least put a cell phone pocket inside. Soon I am going to attempt a zipper pocket, lol. This bag went to my sister.

My middle daughter, Ashley, lives in Phoenix, AZ, and she loves Japanese Anime. I made these two bags for her. I literally tore these two apart several times and redesigned them until I had what I wanted. For the record, she loved them. :)

Purses, Totes, Bags...whatever you want to call them

My mom sewed all our clothes, and even some of my maternity clothes and my daughters' clothes when they were young. I learned how to sew at an early age, but never really got into it for fun until about a year and a half ago, when I decided to make a quilt for my new granddaughter. I'll post pics of that later; it is my biggest accomplishment! I have been making bags for members of my family, and I love it! I went online and picked out fabrics with specific people in mind, then designed the pattern accordingly. I have never followed a pattern, most of them I find too complicated, or I don't know the terminology, so I just "play it by ear". Can you "sew by ear"...or maybe I just "eyeball" it, as my mom would say. At any rate, here is my first bag, I'll post the others I made for Christmas gifts...and I will soon be making more!

My Drawings

Here are copies of some of my drawings, several years old. Keep in mind these are scans/copies, and are not representative of the quality of the originals.