Time to try and catch up.... well, maybe

Wish me luck that this will look nice and not all jumbled when I press "publish post"

And then we come to Christmas......We had a very beautiful and white Christmas. Christmas Eve we left to go to mass and the roads were clear even after it snowed all day. When we came out of church, the roads were snow covered and slippery and it continued to snow. My husband had to drive very slowly home. The main roads were clear in the morning so we were able to go to my daughters to celebrate Christmas. Dinner was GREAT and we went out with our grandkids, Ryan and Raven, to build a snowman and for snowball fight. Needless to say, they wore us out. lol Raven turned 14 years on the 26th, so we went out to eat at TGIF, which was her choice. I can't believe how my grandkids have grown. It seems like yesterday they were running around in diapers. lol
They are GREAT kids and we are quite proud of them. I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas. Next for the New Year 2011. What will it bring?
Here are three bracelets I made. Two are for cancer awareness and will be given away. I still have TONS to learn, but hopefully I won't go too"wild" with this new craft. If it counts, I always buy on sale:-) lol It still adds up fast.....During this time, before Christmas, I made a couple of fleece blankets. My daughter and I had found a cupcake fleece pattern and just had to have a blanket made from that fleece. Now we will probably crave cupcakes everytime we use it. I also finished two shawls. Worked on a quilt, which I hope to finish in the next couple of days. Raven and her friend came and made some cookies. I worked quite a bit and time flew. I also took up a "Dangerous" new craft I tell people. Why? It can be very expensive. Here are a few I have made. I did make a necklace for my dear graddaughter, but I didn't take a picture of it before I gave it to her.After Thanksgiving, it was time to get ready for Advent. This is my wreath that I made. When I saw the big purple flowers from Michaels, I just couldn't resist. I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving. Ours was really nice. My daughter and son-in-law made an early lunch since I had to go to work. Gobble, gobble:)

I hope these make you smile:-)

Fun with yo yo's. You can go to Arlette's blog and get lots of idea's. She is such a creative person. She amazes me with what she comes up with. I wanted to make some cute pins to wear to work. One can't always smile, working as cashier, that I let me little guys do that for me. ;-) If they make one person smile, it makes my day and I'm sure theirs too.
Have a Happy Day and smile! Hugs, Kathy aka Kela

Remember.......

Remember the crochet blankie I made Austie and he refused to even walk on it??? Well, I think he likes it now. lol

Please keep in prayer/thought.......

Please keep in prayer and/or thought my 19 year old nephew, Arturo, who was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer. He is on a respirator and has had 5 days of chemo. His xrays show some improvement. We appreciate all prayers/thoughts.
Thank you and God Bless
Kathy

Snapdragon patterned shawl

I finished the shawl using the rectangle snapdragon pattern by Trish. I used Red Heart Fiesta "Buff". It has different colors intertwined that one can only see in person.:-) A shell stitch is used. Very easy pattern. I do think, for prayer/comfort/friendship shawls, I should probably use softer yarn. Live and learn.... Trish had made me a shawl and it is soooo soft and comforting. I loved the yarn, I used, when I saw it. I also learned, that with this pattern if you want the pattern to stand out, you need to use a light colored yarn. The one I have started is a very dark violet and you can't see the design from a distance. I had this yarn and forgot why I bought it....LOL... so thought I would use it for a shawl especially since I have 3 skeins;-) and I just wasn't thinking about comfort. lol

Austie's crochet blanket?

I had bought a skein of yarn for $0.50. I thought I'd make Austie, my granddaughter's cat, a blanket while practicing a crochet pattern called the snapdragon. I thought I couldn't beat making a blanket for 50 cents. Now everyone knows cats like to get into/on EVERYTHING. I make quilts and he is all over them. Now who would think a cat wouldn't have ANYTHING to do with a crochet blanket? Austie would not lay on it for days! He usually lays above my head while I sit on the couch and when I put the blanket there, he would not lay there. Last night he finally laid on it, but today is avoiding it. What's up? I wish he could talk. I just don't get it. Is it the color??? LOL I think cats are color blind.
I have two Snapdragon shawls started. One I've used 2 skeins and need to get another, so I started another shawl. I'm on my second skein of yarn with that one. It is a cool pattern. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Have a nice day! Hope all are out of harms way with the bad weather hitting.

Hungry for cupcakes?

You might be hungry for the edible kind of cupcakes, but when you see these, you'll hunger to make one. lol Just hop over to Arlette's blog and see the delicious looking cupcakes she has made. She also has direction there on how to make them. I LOVE her blog. She is one very talented young lady! Thanks Arlette for inspiring me to give them a try. This is my first. I have 3 more in the workings.

Rag Fur Purse

So what do you do when you have some of that rag fur left over???? ya make a purse! I just threw this together.... no pattern. The zipper was the hardest. I need some practice in that area:-( but, I now have a matching purse to go with my jacket. yay! I had enough rag fur for the front of the purse, with a few left over, but not enough to do the whole back. That is ok, because the back showcases the fabric used. I made a braided handle, which I'm quite proud of myself, since I figured it out all by myself. lol I wanted to braid it to give it some strength and wearability. I couldn't resist posting the one picture.

Have a SUPER day!

Rag Fur Jacket

I finished another project on my list. I was going to wait until fall to make it, but had it started and decided to "just do it". Would you believe it has been on my "to do" list for at least 4 years.... probably more. lol So, while cutting this fabric I checked, checked and checked again before cutting into it. If I made a mistake, I wouldn't be able to find this fabric again. I had bought it way back when also. This pattern is by Ami Simms and you can find the pattern on her sight when you click on her name I have highlighted;-) And see lots of other Rag Fur Jackets. Now, what did I learn from doing this project? I would have loved having Ami right beside me so she could have guided me through some of the directions I had trouble comprehending. Not that the pattern was difficult. She has lots of pictures....it just takes ME time to figure out even easy things. The next thing I learned, was that if you use a fine point marker, have something under your fabric that you are marking. I won't go into what happened. lol What I hated was putting the cuffs on. There has got to be an easier way. I love it now that it is done. And I love the way it feels to complete yet another project on my list. I got my granddaughter, Raven, to model my jacket. Her hair even goes with the jacket, but the jacket is MINE!

Have a Great One!

Comfort/Friendship shawl

Have you ever looked at a pattern and said, "I'll never be able to make that."? "That looks to hard." We'll, I have said that so many times, but that doesn't make me not try it. The lesson I learned with this project was to take "baby steps". I hadn't really crocheted in sometime, so making dishcloths got me "practicing" crocheting again. Then I sat down and practiced starting this project with yarn I wasn't using for this project. It took me MANY times of starting over before I finally got it. I started the project and all went well, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do the edging. It looked just to complicated. But taking "baby steps" I was able to figure it out..... easy peasie. LOL What a wonderfer feeling to have finished it. I used the pattern from "The Prayer Shawl Ministry" from Leisure Arts. And used Homespun Nouveau by Lion Brand Yarn. I have a practice piece, I've done, for a Snapdragon pattern I want to do next. Another pattern that looked just too hard..... it's not.
But.... it is on my "to do list" that is pretty long. We shall see......

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This is a pin I made to celebrate the day.

To Market, To Market

I decided to try out another "bag"pattern I had bought. I was excited about my fabric choices and "almost" fabric choices. I was describing the tote project to my granddaughter and saw this look come over her face like she wanted to say, "Nana, Are you CRAZY??" (Well, YEAH at times! lol) I then said to her, "Oh, but I'm sure you wouldn't be caught dead with it." We laughed. Below is the yummy fabric I was excited about using, but found I was short the banana and "cutie" fabric.:-( so sad.... I just learned about those small tangerines being called cuties. Hummmm...... I guess they are cute.;-) LOL
I used the pattern Six Pack Tote by Susan Marsh. It is a reversible tote with 4 pockets. Below is what it looked like before I stuffed one bag into the other.

Below are the bags front and back. It takes 6 fat quarters. Finishes about 14" X 18" x 4" As always, it took me a while to comprehend the directions and make it, but that's just me. The pictures helped alot. I'm sure the next ones will go much faster. Don't you just love the fabrics I used? LOL

Glad I read the directions through before starting. Actually, I read them through a number of times. She stated the fat quarters HAD to be 18 X 21. Yes this is very important for the fabrics used for the pocket and handles because 2-6.5 plus 2- 2.5 pieces equal 18 inches. I guess if short some, you could make the handles narrower. The problem I came accross while picking the fabrics is that, I wash my fabrics first and they shrink making alot of them shorter than 18".

Lessons learned: Don't get too excited about fabric choices until you make sure you have enough of that fabric. lol

Pay more attention to the sewing process than to the TV. I had to do some "frogging" even when I had made a mental note, to self, to not forget to topstitch after appling fleece and before sewing the bottom and sides.... sigh....

Be thankful your daughter decided to bring pizza home for dinner so I didn't have to stop sewing to make dinner:-)

Thank you for stopping by. Have a Wonderful night and God Bless you....

Kathy

Fabric bulletin board

Well, I've been needing one of these, but didn't get inspired until I asked my dear granddaughter, Raven, if she wanted to make one. I needed to see if I could make one first so I could help her. I "googled" fabric bulletin boards and got a variety to choose from. I decided to put foam board on top of the stretched canvas so the thumb tacks would stick (stay) better. I love my fabric and the pictures of course;-) Thankfully, I had all supplies on hand. I might need a new heavy duty stapler before we make hers though. ...sigh....

President's Day....one day late:-(

I made up this pin yesterday morning. It's nice having all the materials on hand. I had made up some pins years ago and had some flags left over.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Happy Valentines Day! And Happy Birthday to a very special friend of mine, JoAnn, born on this day! She is a "sweetheart". I'm thankful the Lord brought her into my life about 16 years ago. She lives in the Dallas area where they got lots of snow this last week. It is snowing here right now and I have to go to work soon..... Anyway, yesterday I spent time making these pins. I started out just making the center part, but felt it needed more, so I made a large yoyo to put behind it. Lettie from Polka Dot Pineapple gave me the original idea. She is such a creative person. She amazes me with what she comes up with. The center pin is from the scrapbooking section of Hobby Lobby. Shhhhh don't tell anyone I went there, since I work at Michaels. lol What can I say, I was in the area when the idea hit me;-)

Have a Wonderful Day!

This one... that one... hummmm

I wanted to make a "grocery bag" for a friend at work. She admired the ones I made and used to bring my "stuff" to work. She also had given me some cotton yarn to get me started on making cotton wash cloths. I found some fabric I really liked and thought she would also.... that's a good start, right? I had bought a bolt of both fabrics, at a very good price, on an online store a few years back. I've used them for a quilt or two. I THOUGHT I would add some fusible fleece, that I had, to give it some body. I made it and said, "Naw" too much body. lol I'll keep it to use on trips. This is how it looks:

And then I made a bag like the ones I carry to work. It looks like this:

But..... I always wanted to take a plastic bag apart (make a pattern)and try to make one to resemble the bags we get at the grocery store, but never got around to it. but..... the other day, after I made the second bag, I read in an e-mail about this sight DIY BAG LOVER and guess what I found??? Yup, the grocery bag pattern I wanted to make myself. Yippee! It has directions to make a pocket to fold itself into when not in use and I did make it....(I took the picture with pocket showing) but I might just make the pocket for the sake of having a pocket. It is just too hard to fold the bag into the bag:-(. That's ok. I don't need to fold it up. I REALLY LOVE how it turned out and will make one for myself. This one will go to my friend.... I think. lol

After I took pictures of the first two bags, I put them on the bed. Austie, I believe, thought I put them there for him to "try"them out. I think he liked them because he slept on them all afternoon. Isn't he sweet? I just wanted to mention that I'm never sure how these pictures will show up on my blog because they seem to arrange themselves for some reason. lol I just can't seem to figure out how to make them STAY where I put them. lol

Have a Wonderful Day! More later.....

Kathy

dish cloth

A friend at Michael's was making a bunch of cotton dish cloths for Christmas gifts. So, I thought I'd try my hand at crocheting again. I bought some Fily Sugar'nCream 100% cotton yarn. I used a G crochet hook and chained 40, then used a double crochet stitch to get a 10 X 10 dish cloth. It took almost the whole 2ozs. It looks uneven, but it isn't. Actually, I am quite proud that I finally learned how to get the ends straight. I think I'll make more.....

Quick and Easy??

Hummmm..... it said for beginners.....I was beginning to doubt my abilities....... Well, I was looking for a quick and easy pattern to satisfy my craving to do something quilty and finish it quickly. A new magazine had a hot pad that said for beginners and looked easy because I already knew how to make a 9 patch and knew how to applique. It was just a matter of picking my fabric. I even had insul-bright to sandwich inbetween layers to keep hands and tabletops from getting too hot:-) I had my plan to cut 2" strips, (experienced quilter kicking in. lol) sew them, cut and sew them together(again to make 2 nine patch) to make a 9 patch instead of cutting 2" squares and sewing them together(like pattern said to do) PLUS for my applique I was going to sew fusible interfacing to applique pattern (turn)to avoid raw edges or hand edge turning. I had a plan, until the directions said my 9 patch, sewn, before adding triangles, would be 4.5". hummmm.... mine measured 5", 2+2+2-1 in my book is 5. That threw off the applique fitting right(the heart shaped part).... so after alot of ripping out and sewing over and over, because I was determined to get this right, I figured it out and was able to make the adjustments to the second one to make it work. The first one is ok.....I finished the second one the next day. I was determined to NOT have anymore UFO's. My cousin Gails voice was playing in my head to make sure I finished it. She is my inspiration to try and finish what I start because she does so much and finishes them before moving on. So, quick and easy for a beginner?? NOT!! Not for me anyway. lol The first one is always the hardest for me. Now I could probably whip one out alot quicker since I have it all worked out. I put notes on the pattern so I'd remember the changes if I was to make it again.... and I just might do that.

Until next time..........

Have a GREAT DAY ALL. Stay warm...