New GIVE-A-WAY! ...

Kaaren, at The Painted Quilt, is having a Give-a-Way for an AccuCut GO cutting machine & three dies!

WOWZER, this is not to be missed.  Also, Kaaren offeres a beautiful BOM embroidery showcasing Raggedies [see the button on my sidebar]... just lovely... go ck it out! I have no financial offiliation with her patterns, but I do think when someone goes to all the trouble to make, post, and offer tutes and free patterns that we should all make an effort to promote their blogs. Just my opinion.
Good luck,
Hugs,
Cyn; -)
ps: There's a cute little vid about a another new product... click on the link at Kaaren's blog... no, I have no affiliation, but love their products.

Happy Mail from Germany! -- Thank you, Brigitte

Four beautiful DJ blocks -- all perfectly made -- sent all the way from Germany! Thank you so much, Brigitte.  Brigitte's needleart skills are amazing... every seam perfect; every seam intersection, perfect! Golly, sure wish I could sew like this. 

Look carefully on the right side of the photo: A lovely and darling handmade card! All hand-painted, colored, calligraphied... wow! I'm lucky if i can legibilly sign my name to the monthly checks when i pay the bills! LOL.

Thank you, thank you, Brigitte. Here are some closeups of her beautiful blocks:

Perhaps I shouldn't try posting so late at night... can't seem to get the photos to line up where I want them. It doesn't detract from their beauty however, but I apologize that it might make it more diffiuclt for you, dear reader.

That's all for now... I just wanted to share these gorgeous blocks... I'm so excited!
Night nite everyone. . .


Oh, BTW, while I've been on this sewing hiatus, I have been working on other handcrafts that are easier for me to manage right now.  I have some new projects to share of knit, crochet and tatting items I've been working on lately. Pictures to follow soon. . . . Thank you for stopping by and visiting. . .

Many hugs,

Cyn; -)



More Lovely "HAPPY MAIL" - Thank you, Tich!

Isn't this T-Towel puuuurrrrty? I love it!  It comes to me all the way from Orkney Islands,Scotland from my dear friend, Tich! I will get a better pic of it up soon to share [after I get it framed], but right now I'm just so excited that I can't wait. *smilies*

Tich sent me the most lovely Comfort Package: It included this beautiful Tea Towel, some scumcioulicious Orkney FUDGE!; several Dear Jane blocks and two packages of Seed Beads!  These seed beads will be wonderful on my FF blocks... I am tempted to take the others apart and put these on all of them, not just the new ones!
Oooops, the secret is out... see the Open End of the Box? Yup.. we've all been at it, for sure! LOL. Everyone here sends big "Thank Yous" from their sweet teeth! lol

Tich, your piecing skills are fabulous... thank you for such beautiful DJ blocks; these will make a perfect addition to my DJ. 

OMGoodness, am I the lucky ducky or what?! That you, Tich... I love everything.  There is NO way that I'll ever use the tea towel in my kitchen for anything utilitarian! lol... NO WAY... I plan to have it put on bars and it will hang proudly in my kitchen. The colors are fantastic. Talk about brightening up one's day. I am Happy Dancing, here! LOL

That's it from my end of the keyboard. I hope all is well and happy at yours!

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

TICKLED PINK!! . . .

These shoes are made for walkin' . . . .--feel free to hummm along here-- lol, but these LACES are for pure F-U-N! 

These laces came recently as a "Happy Mail" surprise from my good friend, Rosa.  Aren't they fun?  Thank you, Rosa!  Now I'm Pickled Tink!

This is just a quickie post so everyone doesn't think I've fallen off the edge of the planet--again! lol.  As soon as I learn how to better read and post from my iPod, I'll be able to post more regularly, even while laid up.

See who's keeping me company? My darling little kitty Miss Diva, who follows me from room to room now. LOL... it's really cute! To show what a dainty little kitty she really is: the LC quilt she is laying on has finished blocks of less than 9 inches and Missy weighs less than 9 pounds! She's tiny. She's not to be messed with, however, for whatever she may lack in size, she more than makes up for in "attitude"! lol

Hope everyone is having time to stitch and enjoy the last benefits of summer!
Hugs,
Cyn; -)

BookMark is Fini! . . . & Shirt Sleeve Squares

Oh, I am so happy! Thanks to the wonderful and friendly advice from Jane in the UK and Susan in Texas, my bookmark is finished and all the ends are tidied up! Thank you, thank you, ladies!

I put a little pink ribbon through the middle, but now that I am looking at it -- the ribbon might actually be detracting from the tatting. Shoot! I'm not sure... what do you think?

Today was a massive sewing and laundry day.

The set up: while straightening a bit in DD's room [read: looking for some of MY stuff, as this room used to be my sewing room! lol] I "found" four shoeboxes full of strips, bits, and Shirt Sleeve Squares... sort of a bazillion of these squares. This could be a no-brain and no-cutting sewing day, so I sewed and sewed and sewed until I had a stack of "two-sies".

I thought about it some more while folding a laundry load and decided if I put them into "foursies" [4-patch] I could either use them that way, or sub cut into "wonky" pieces and mix with other bits to make wonky-blocks.  "Wonky" really appeals to me today. LOL.  I now have a fairly large stack of 4-patches and I will decide their "fate" tomorrow! lol.

Now all of these 'squares' are "sort of the same size" but not exactly the same size. What to do? Sew into 4-patches matching the center seams -- both ends -- as much as possible knowing that later they can be trimmed up. That last was my "process thinking".  I'll make them CaveMan style, as Ricky would say. . . but actually I am just being a bit lazy and only want to trim up these blocks ONCE! lol.  I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Oh, I am sure the Eagle Eyes among you have spotted the larger-than-normal seam allowance. As this Shirt Sleeve material has a looser weave than the cotton we all know and love, I thought a fat 3/8" [almost a 1/2"] seam allowance would be a good idea. It does like to fray a bit. And. . . if anyone's interested in how I came to be the caretaker of 100's of Shirt Sleeves, I can tell the tale in another post. ; -)

I hope all of you had a wonderful day and were able to spend some of it on the crafts we all love.

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

GIVE-A-WAY. . . . Gorgeous Mug Pouch!

If you want a chance to win a Mug Pouch, made by Susan of Season's From My Window... hurry on over to her blog and SIGN-UP!  Susan does beautiful work... you'll love it! Drawing is next Friday... don't wait.

Made by Susan of Seasons From My Window, Sep 2010

More later... I'm sewing a ton of squares together and only have about 100 more to go! lol
Hugs,
Cyn; -)

Reducing the UFO Piles. . . . Crochet, Tatting & FF Blocks

It is time to reduce the UFO pile that has grown in leaps and bounds! Past time actually... lol.  OMGosh, the holidays are almost upon us and I have yet to begin making those projects. LOL. So, here is what I've been working on finishing up lately:
Saw a picture of a clutch purse on the LionBrandYarn website that was the inspiration for DD's crocheted clutch purse:

PROCESS: Began with Cone of cotton yarn; crocheted a rectangle of sorts & blocked it; wove sides together & made a lining; crocheted a button and completed finishing work. Ta dah... done!

The two pockets inside were made to fit and accomodate her cell phone and the small personal size of Kleenex tissues. I had also made a loop inside to clip her keys to, but she decided she didn't want that so I removed it.

Three Frosty Flake blocks completed & the forth and fifth ones printed, cut out, and ready for sewing. Because I think it's good to try different methods, I used EPPing on the Green one, but have returned to Inklingo as it is so much faster and precise. I am using a small drop of Roxanne's Glue Baste It on the outside s.a. edges to facillitate the applique process--I love this stuff!

As you can see in these photos,  the beads I used are too BIG and the blocks look a bit gaudy! Just because the package says "Seed Beads" don't believe it! lol.  If this continues to bother me I can always take a hammer to every other bead, and embroider a French Knot in its place! LOL.  Also, made a couple of bad embroidery mistakes on the green one, so perhaps I'll just do that one over. . . yeah, sure, in my  next life time. lol
.

The other two recent finishes are a potholder that is so bad that I won't even share the picture with you. . . and some Tatting. 
.
This year I've taught myself how to Needle Tat and more recently Shuttle Tat. I like them both but am able to do finer lace work using the shuttle. Here is a little bookmark that I finished yesterday:

The end of the Bookmark pattern says, " ... then cut and tie". Well, I understand the 'cut' the thread from the ball part, but tie what to what, and then what does one do with the ends? Hmmmm, hopefully someone out in Blogland is a Tatter and can advise me... that would be wonderful! Meanwhile, I think some severe blocking would benefit this little item greatly!
.

That is all for now. . . I hope everyone is having a wonderful day full of working on the crafts we all love.

Hugs,

Cyn; -)