With or Without Wings: That is the Question

Over the holidays I made 3 owl clutches. One for Wendy's niece, one for a birthday present, and one for my sister. The question became: With or without wings? The first ones that I made in the fall had wings but that creates a lot of parts to appliqué: head, body, 2 wings, 2 feet, beak, and eyes (background and pupil). It takes me (because I'm so slow) about an hour to do the appliqué. So I switched things up and drew an owl with just a body, feet, beak, and eyes. Less is more, right? But the last 2 I made seem to lack the character of the others. Is it the wings?

Game Set Match - Clutches for the Tennis Team

Wendy's mom Donna is a member of a 70s ladies tennis team. I was flattered when she ordered 12 gathered clutches to give as Christmas gifts. So after Anna-Jane's birthday party, I took a 24 hour R & R and then hit it hard Sunday and Monday until the wee hours. We designed them to match their skirts which are black, gray, and pink. I found cute ribbon with tennis rackets on it at fabric.com. Cute and not too gimmicky. I took a picture of the prototype. The actual clutches had a polka-dot front and black linen back. I ended up making 13 (of course) because I totally messed up the first zipper. I decided to get all jiggy wit' it like the blogging pros and not use a zipper foot. Bad idea. The stitch was so close to the zipper, it wouldn't zip very well. Ugh! At midnight on Sunday, I realized that I was running low on black thread so I was checking and praying every 2 minutes that it would last. Then when I got to the quote part found that I had just enough of the transfers so no mess ups allowed. Towards the end I forgot to sew in a strap so had to do some seam ripping. But on the bright side, I figured out a way to pin the zipper when you are sewing around the clutch at the very end to ensure the lining gets sewed right. And it was super fun to have my first order and make some $$$. :-)

"Being Crazy Isn't Enough"

Dr. Suess once said, "Being crazy isn't enough!" And he's right. When it comes to anything except a scarf or maybe a square, you have to count stitches and know where to put your hook. Do you see where I changed putting my hook between stitches to putting it under the stitches where it's supposed to go? Look carefully... It sorta just looks like ribbing or something fancy like that. When I first started this little hat from Posh Patterns, it looked like a pancake, but I kept going and luckily it turned out hat-ish... Now if Anna-Jane will just wear it. That's the real trick.

Here she is...

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!

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.

Handmade Gifts

What's the quote? Idle hands make for the devil's workshop? Or something like that. Anyway, it's been a busy week of handmade gifts. Donna Dee's birthday, Nonna's birthday, Jessica's birthday, and something for my Momma any day of the week. She is my dearie. Of course, there's something for Wendy too.

Secret messages are appliqued on the inside of these.

"You Are My Sunshine"