Wee Braw Bag

 I might have had a moment a few weeks ago when I purchased three PDF sewing patterns.

God knows I dislike PDF's. Having to print out the pattern myself, tape it together.

I need to sew a dress up for myself and the pattern I liked only came in PDF form.
In a moment of madness, I went with it.

This wee drawstring bag is only five pages of instructions. It's all rectangles so you don't need a pattern piece for this. For the dress - more than 80 pages. Thank goodness it came with a copy shop option for a commercial printer to print it out on the big sheet of paper. That will be another blog post right there.

i was in a mood to sew something new and for once, I didn't have the energy to figure out the dimensions myself.

I took the pattern and ran with it.

It's fairly smallish but will hold a sewing kit. With pockets on the inside as well as the outside, it organizes small items quite well.

I just happened to have that orange and black striped trim in stash (think OSU Beavers possibilities). which jumped on the zebra bandwagon very nicely. The blue fabric is a cotton/poly that coordinated well. The zebras were purchased at the recent SewExpo so that's nice to use one item I bought already.

The picture on the wall is a needlepoint purchased at a garage sale. In fact, I recently found another that is similar. It's isn't framed, so now I'm looking for a similar frame at a garage sale so I can hang the other sewing-themed needlework art.

 WeeBrawBag: A Sewing Pattern by Laura Zuckerkuss   https://payhip.com/b/gmI4

The other two pdf patterns I purchased are The Fringe Dress  and The Augusta Moto Pant


I almost forgot to add dd's newest Study In Blue photos.
Byron Glacier, Alaska.

The Missing Gift, Part 2

Supposedly this gift to my son is in a parcel locker at his apartment complex. The postmaster geo-tracked it, it must be so.

We are still in 'negotiations' to get the postmaster to get off his duff and go open the parcel lockers.

My sister also sent ds a christmas package and it too is in a parcel locker.

We blame everything on Lester.

Lester is a postal worker who threw everyone's packages into lockers and is holding the keys hostage.
We might be making that up. maybe. Not the Lester part. Who names their kids Lester nowadays?

After ascertaining that the package(s) are in the parcel lockers, the son's girlfriend actually got home in time to meet Lester. He threw all the keys on the ground amidst serious grumblings and moanings and basically refused to find the package.

Then ds met two newish postal carriers on another day who tried to open what lockers they could. They didn't have all the keys.

What keeps us hopeful on this 9th day of January is that two packages for my son are in there. Not just mine. With the handmade quilt. But my sister's (his auntie) as well.

In my despairing moments, someone else got the locker key and is now in possession of beautiful handmade gifts.

We are still negotiating with the local post office for the release of our packages.

Inside were another of my handmade gifts this year. Both my kids are amazing Instagram photographers. I took their photos and printed them and then attached them with double-sided tape to quality A4 paper and made notecards for everyone.

L to R: Bridge in Nevada, Yosemite, Seward, AK hwy. Top left is Mt Jefferson Wilderness

 Another image I printed: My daughter in our Stearman biplane.

 My niece in Glacier National Park.

My kids still write letters. My mom was a noted letter writer (haha - pun!)

These are all gifts I can re-create.

My UPS package arrived safely to my son but we have had trouble with the post office at this apt complex. I probably will utilize UPS in the future.

Sewing, Sewing

 I finally finished these QAYG (quilt as you go) bags.
Finally.

 I added a pocket specifically for essential oil storage. I have been on a scrap clean-up in my sewing room. I was guilted into sorting my scraps by color by two very OCD sewing friends and it came in handy when I needed four clothesline bowls in a hurry for gifting.

I figured I would sew together these turquoise and purple scraps too and enter Elm Street Quilt's Bag It   competition. Like, maybe, try to win some awesome prizes....

This project used up (not enough) scraps, one thread spool and one bobbin. 

 Last Saturday, I was able to hook up with Pencil Girl and I made her one of these super quick Pyramid Pouches. They are the size of a coin purse or a small  special pouch to hide some candy. (or a check for the 1/4 beef she lugged over for me)

We met up at Fabric Depot. They were running their warehouse sale. Pencil Girl was looking for fabric for Simplicity 1108. She almost suckered me into buying these two fabrics for the same cardigan. The floral would be the very drapey cardigan with the aqua blue being the bands.

Except I have little time to sew and this cardigan would force me to go buy a black/white tshirt and black jeans. Or something.  She is such an enabler.

I had a hankering for my Apple Cider Caramels. Recipe is from Smitten Kitchen.  ( I might come back and laboriously cut & paste all the hyperlinks in, or not)

 These are THE BEST caramels. They always turn out. They have that apple cider flavor from boiling down a quart of fresh northwest apple cider for 45 minutes to a thick syrup. The recipe is awesome.

 We were at Fabric Depot to buy materials to make this gingham flannel throw.

It's gonna be 70 inches square and we found the fabrics very quickly. But then, I remember WHY I DON"T QUILT. It took nearly an hour to pick out the binding. Not to mention the backing.
Good golly.

 

I washed all the flannel when I got home. Hung it to dry and started cutting my big 10.5" squares right away. No problem on the 'white' which is actually a textured light gray. 

 Then I started on the black and realized it had shrunk widthwise. Instead of 44" wide material, I had 40" wide material. Grrrr,... The "white' had shrunk lengthwise (which is typical!!!)

Screaming texts to Pencil Girl found a solution. Piece the squares. No one will notice - it's flannel.

And the Gray - the medium gray - did the same thing.

I spent most of today sewing all 49 squares together - see - that was the appeal of this throw. Only 49 squares. What could possibly go wrong?

Let's just say my seam ripper and I had a bit of closeness today.

And did you know that flannel stretches when you rip a seam out? And also when ironing? grrr.
Note to self: No more quilts.That's when I found this:

 

Yes, a gray gingham Pendleton throw. At the church rummage sale.
Alas, when I got home and shook it out, it had wool bugs. With some minuscule munched holes.

It did not save me from making this throw.
However some interesting texts back and forth put the thought of felting it into my brain for an unknown at present project. Felting it would take care of any lingering bugs. It's sitting in the garage while I catch my breath from all this sewing inspiration.

 Anyway, my quilt top is finished. All seams sewn, and pressed open.

Leaving you with some more stunning photos from the kids.

Photo credit: DS, Donner Lake, Nevada 2017

Photo credit: DS, Lake Tahoe 2017

Photo credit: DD's friend. Cloud's Rest, Yosemite, California

Travel Purses; Part One

 My daughter is traveling soon to Sweden & Finland. I think Russia too. Instead of looking through the family photos and finding the Swedish relatives and addresses, I chose to make her a purse set.

This first purse is the 2 Zip Hipster sewing pattern by Erin over at Dog Under My Desk Patterns.
I haven't made one since my trip to Japan over a year ago.

At the time, I wanted the bag to be a bit wider and I thought I took good notes but found I could be more specific about writing down which changes I made. A couple of mistakes in cutting were easily fixed because I sewed this in Cork fabric.

If you haven't worked with cork fabric yet, order some. Very easy to cut and sew. The edges don't fray. It's easy to add a short piece on if you made a cutting error.
Cork fabric is also weather resistant & mold resistant. This cork fabric comes from Portugal and is a sustainable natural  product. It's seriously awesome for bag making.
I bought mine here.

I had to pet it for a year before I could bear to cut into it. I have mostly used up my natural color cork and still have some of this sea foam color. I need to order more but it's pricey.

 I found some Paris map fabric last year with dear daughter (the traveler) in mind. Along with it is some world map fabric that coordinates. I hadn't bought the seafoam cork yet so it all added up to serendipitous sewing

.

This bag has an outside zippered pocket and behind that a slip pocket - perfect for traveling. It also has a zippered pocket inside - the pattern only calls for a slip pocket but I add a zippered one inside because it's more secure.
The top zips shut easily with a big purse zipper and the strap can be worn over the shoulder or cross-body.

In fact, I didn't have enough natural cork for the strap and I didn't want a seafoam color strap, so I robbed the strap off my Japan bag ( which I had robbed from a garage sale bag). Never say I am not into recycling.

Yesterday, I received some small tassels - God bless Daiso - from Janine in Japan. They are too short for my bag. However, Kyle's turquoise tassel is too big. Need to make one. Then this bag will be done.

Except, I'm making two more bags as a set. The coin purse which attaches to the inside dangly strap (airplane ribbon) and a passport wallet.
I have the coin purse done to blog about another day. Need to cut out the passport wallet tomorrow before work.

Does anyone else hide from their trip photos? I probably took 1600 photos when hubs and I went to Sweden and Finland 4 years ago (Summer posts in 2012). I was supposed to put the family ones in a photo album and send to the 2nd cousins in Mariehamn (Åland Islands between Sweden & Finland).
Did I? ..ahem...shhhh...I'm sewing.

If I can get them printed, I could send them with dd and save on postage.

Don't even talk to me about  my Japan photos.

And here's a gratuitous photo of my work apron. Pencil Girl sewed a front panel for me as a birthday gift. How sweet is that?

Of course, it will be ripped to shreds in a few months (unsafe equipment).
Don't look too close - this is the guys restroom - it looks marginally better than the gals bathroom.

Sunny

DS and DD take photos differently than me. In a focused, memorable way that excites me.

They are much more in tune with what other people are doing online on Instagram or SnapChat. Other online platforms that make me feel old trying to figure them out.

My blog is more of a photo-journal 'cuz my memory is going.

I take photos and write from there. And it's mostly to get stuff out of my brain.


Koko Head


They are trying to recreate awesome photos by putting their own spin on them.

They are acting because of a photo they want to take.


pu'u manamana

Oregon Monsoon

Another random post of random stuff that is gestating/fermenting in my head:

1. My spring flowers are being beaten to death by the never-ending  monsoon.
2. On a fantastical note, I have discovered how to get a sun break.
3. I stuck  my houseplants out on the patio to get watered and wash off dusty leaves. Two hours later, they were still dry and in danger of getting sun-burned. Try it.
4. Just because it is Spring and just because it was sunny and dry this morning does not mean this is the day to wash some outside windows. As soon as I started, the wind started blowin' and the sprinkles started getting icy. I did five without removing screens and it does appear to be brighter inside.
5. I want to sew but cannot drag my sorry butt into the sewing room.
Too many projects - can't settle on one.
6. My new boss? the one who is n i c e? got sent to another workplace on a work detail probably because it was too good to be true. However, I am working more at the job with benefits.
7. Which means I can pay the hairdresser to 'do' my hair.
8. Thursday at 9:30am
9. Lots of thought-provoking copyright issues out there in sewing land.
10. I'd be interested in what you think.
11. Like this one about Pinterest from DDK portraits.
12. or this one from The Free Motion Quilting Project.
13. Or blatant selling of free sewing tutorials, uncovered by The Selfish Seamstress and her readers, Part 1 & Part II.

14. More on Pinterest and images of children by Made by Rae.
15. I've been contemplating the creative journal (aka THE BLOG) again.
16. The above might have been lurking in my sub-conscience because I am thinking my decision to not post tutorials except in the loosest terms is still holding true. There's another reason too. But I can't find the minimum words to describe it succinctly. It has to do with tutorials posted about how to lower your pressure foot or how to pop your bobbin into your machine and then the blog writer claiming ownership of the material. Simple tutorials for things sewn I recognize from forty years ago but because they are 'written' now, the writer claims ownership of the design.
17. definitely not simple thoughts in my brain this week.
18. Unlike my dog, Rusty, who only owns one thought at a time in his brain. "Ball" and "food". Fetching trumps food btw.

19. Missing my other complicated dog, Rocket, like crazy this week because I read this post. I miss Rocket being the willing model to my creations.
20. The monsoon continues, the rivers are still rising, flooding is eminent. Again.
21. Those people who have the horses (3) by the bridge in Aurora? They now have four horses on not enough grazing land. The Pudding river has flooded several times this winter forcing them to buy hay and NOW they have another horse? More volunteers helping evacuate?
22. Have just read yesterday the Alabama Stitch Book (library). Pretty book. Interesting sewing concepts which I have tried before but would you wear something with thread knots on the outside? With threads dangling?
23.Now reading The Help. Libraries2Go, the e-book resource for Oregon Libraries had my mom at #723 (!) on the hold list back in January for her Kindle. Glad we discovered using my sister's library card in MN got my mom on a much shorter list @ #4. I received an email this morning telling me she can have it from Oregon today. --too late--
24. Monsoon and icy winds - might just finish The Help. Inside, where I can see easier with the winter grime off my windows.
25. Or, I could write a couple of blog posts to post later as I am working full-time this week too.