Miracles Really Do Happen - Deep Ellum Flea!

I haven't been as excited about something as this in a long, long time. Cassie of Cassie Cakes has a booth with some of her gal pals at the Deep Ellum Flea. She invited me to join in the fun. Wow! Double Wow! It is held every 3rd Saturday of the month. Take a look at the beautiful table of wares. What a treat!

The new business cards came in just in time.



Clutch for Sandy the Dog Sitter

I had been saving that little butterfly for something. I had orginally envisioned it appliqued with some cool stitching on the bottom corner of just a plain tailored clutch. But it was super late and I got all crafty crazy and ended up with some kinda weird triangle thing. I didn't account for the seam allowance so some of the butterfly is clipped off. Hmmm.... As Mr. Bokies my 10th grade Geometry teacher used to say, "If you fail to plan, plan to fail." Of course, there's always a secret on the inside.

The Owl - A Wise Old Teacher

This cooky little owl is the latest in the collection of modern clutches. He is all scrap-happy with his googley eyes and jaggety wings perched on a polka-dotty branch.

 

This old owl taught me a really simple fundamental of applique. Who knew?

See the branch in the top picture? Well for the longest time (probably a befuddled hour or two on a Sunday afternoon) that branch was facing the wrong direction. You see in applique everything is reversed. It is not "what you see is what you get." Oh no! Applique is opposite day! When you draw your design on the Wonder Under, make sure that the drawing is the reverse of what you want it to look like on your project. If not, it will be backwards. I scratched my head over this one for awhile. Hmmm...

On some pieces it doesn't matter if it is reversed. For example, none of these pieces needed to be reversed because all of the shapes are interchangeable. There's nothing that needs to go in a certain direction.



But on this branch when you draw it on the Wonder Under, iron it on the fabric, and then peal the top layer of Wonder Under off, things go wonky because it will be going the wrong direction when you lay it on the project.

"Tsk, Tsk..." says the Wise Old Owl.

Here's my little reminder to the Wise Old Owl to not be so darn judgy. Right?

A robin for Robin

Robin's 50th birthday was October 12. We celebrated the day Southern-style. Salad drenched in cucumber dressing (literally, to die for) crunchy fried chicken, buttery mashed potatoes, and melt in your mouth biscuits at Celebrations.

I'm happy with the way this turned out. I stayed up really really late to make it. It was around 11 p.m. and I thought, "Hey, I'm a big girl." I can do whatever I want. So what if I stay up a little late." Famous last words right? Ugggg, is all I can say. This big-40-year-old girl needs her zzzzz... I felt hung over the entire day after even after 2 Emergen-Cs and Diet Dr. Pepper (which is really a cure all for just about anything). Cracks me up! But it was fun to be in the zone and sew and create something special for Robin. I really like the proportions and the colors. I even got snazzy with the handle and scrappyfied it.



The inside has a thought that we could all use from time to time.

Ahhhhh... Breathe peace.... and know that staying up late and eating fried chicken and laughing and creating from time to time are what life's all about. Why get too tangled up in our to-do lists, schedules, planners, meetings, and what-not? All of the externalities of life eventually fade away. What matters is the inside--the happy heart.  Happy Birthday, Robin!

6 Days of Sewing Challenge

I'm challenging myself to 6 days of sewing. A sew-along with myself. Six clutches in six days. Tonight I made the gathered strips for the scrappy flower clutches. I'm going to work assembly line style and see how it goes.
Step 1: Make the scrappy flowers, cut all pieces
Step 2: Gather the front panels and stitch on the bands.
Step 3: Install the zippers
Step 4: Applique the lining quotes
Step 5: Sew around and finish
Step 6: Marvel at the greatness.

A Little Birdie...

It's important to work on conquering your fears... whether it be afraid of the dark, spiders, the boogey man or even applique... This simple tutorial helped me conquer that fear. Now I am mighty over of the applique! Applique Queen Goddess High Priestess! Her Royal Majesty Applique! I read lots of tutorials before coming across this one. It's really simple. And don't be afraid to boss your machine around a little. It is not the boss of you. Move that fabric where it needs to go! You are not a push-over! :-)

The quote is borrowed from one our teacher's email signature. Sometimes we need a reminder to sit still, take the time to hear the birds chirp and sing, smell the flowers, and breathe peace.

I used a little blue bead for the bird's eye on the other two that I made. I think it gives it a little more personality.

The next step in the evolution of this clutch is to think about the birdie's legs. Probably some simple stitches in brown embroidery thread would do it. But hand sewing is so 18th century (heh!). This is when I really need an intern.

Introducing... The Scrappy Flower Gathered Clutch!

Is this the cutest thing ever or what? The scrappy flower gathered clutch. I adapted a flower tutorial from Sew Serendipity and tweaked the gathered clutch pattern from Noodlehead. I love the results! So cute and girlie! In the flower tutorial, the creator Kay Whitt uses a fancy dancy gathering foot on her machine. I called Richland Sewing Center and they cost $59 bucks--sorry not this month. I found it is just as do-able to gather the old-fashioned way. I just ran two basting stitching down the entire length of the pressed over fabric and then gathered while watching Parenthood. Kinda therapeutic. The strips gather up nicely to about half the length of the original strip.

The original pattern for the gathered clutch uses a 14 inch strip for the front and that gathers down to about 9 inches. I used an 18 inch strip. I like the puffier-ness of it. I also reduced the width of the front band that hides the gathering stitches by an inch. I like the proportions of the way it turned out.

My only dilemma with the piece is how to attach the flower to the clutch. Right now it is fastened on with a big ole safety pin. Probably the best way to do it is to hand sew it on, but I have no patience for that. I'm part of the microwave generation, you know. I thought about using fabric glue. Is that too tacky. It's very frowned up on Project Runway. A crafty friend suggested velcro, but I'm afraid it would pull off. What to do, what to do, what to do???