A new sewing machine!

Well, the 30+ year old Singer sewing machine that I have used forever finally sewed it's last seam. I considered, briefly, of having it repaired but I didn't think it would be worth it. So, off we went to JoAnn Fabric's and even though I intended to just buy a simple replacement machine, I ended up with a wonderful, new, does everything under the sun, sewing machine.

We bought the Singer 350. It sews and embroiders. I've got the sewing part figured out pretty well, but I need a little help on the embroidery part. They offer free classes so I'm going tomorrow to learn all I can on this great machine. I can't wait to do the fun stitches and embroidery patterns.

Mother's Day crafts

Thursday was craft day at Grandma's. We decided that the kids would paint birdhouses for their moms for Mother's Day These were re cute, little, wooden houses that I bought at the dollar store.
We used washable paints and set everything up in the garage. So after school we got started. As you can see we had a wide variety of techniques.

Josh's birdhouse was a kaleidescope of colors. He wanted to use every color in the paint box on the house with an emphasis on black. Kelly's house was very typically Kelly; pink and purple. She's such a girly-girl. And Erin's house showed her personality as well. Blue with white polka dots and white with blue polka dots. Erin is more creative and steps out of the box. All in all it was a good day and the mom's were surprised with their gifts. I don't know who enjoyed craft day more; Me or the grandkids.

Be careful what you wish for!

Well, I wanted to sell aprons and I'm selling them now! Thanks to my wonderful daughter who Twittered about my Etsy shop and got me an instant sale! How's that for instant results? And then when the buyer Twittered about her purchases I got more inquiries. So, I'm pretty happy. I've been busy cutting, sewing, photographing and listing aprons. And I've done one custom order and the customer has asked me to do at least two more custom aprons!

So, if you need me I'll be sitting at my sewing machine or at JoAnn Fabrics!

Etsy mention!

Anda from Etsy purchased three Christmas stockings from my Etsy shop and she was gracious enough to mention them on Twitter! How nice was that? After the first mention I got a sale within the first half hour! Wow !

Aprons for the grandkids

I started out wanting to make new aprons for the grandkids. We've had plastic ones and fabric ones, but I though I would make something really cute and personal for each one. I saw cupcakes on a black background that I thought would be so cute, and I found other cute, food-themed fabrics but none I thought the grandson would like. There was the red chili peppers but didn't think the five year old would want it.

So that got me to thinking that I needed something else. Well, I have that huge stash of squares from the quilt so I decided to make alphabets and spell their names on plain cotton, canvas aprons.

It was easy once I got started. I ironed HeatnBond

on the backs of the fabric squares and then placed stencils on them, traced the letters and cut them out. Simple - right? Wrong

The letters were way too big! Back to tracing the letters. This time it was trial and error until I got the sizing right, but I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out.

Now I was going to finish this off by doing a zig-zag stitch around each letter, but I think I may just leave them the way they are for right now because I'm anxious to move on to another project. And, anyway, the kids really like them the way they are.

Stockings are done!

Well the Christmas stockings are all finished. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out. I've been getting some hits on Etsy of people looking, but so far no buyers. Maybe it's just too soon to think Christmas. I think I need to go back and tweak the descriptions of some of the stockings, but that can wait another day. Now I'm thinking about another project. (Of course I haven't worked on Mom's quilt in a while - oh well.)

The next thing I want to do is make aprons for the grandkids. This will probably be the third set of aprons they've had, but I've never been happy with those. So, I'll let this idea swim around in my head for a bit longer and then I'll dive in and start them. I'll post pictures along the way. I can't wait too long to finish - the grandkids love to help me cook when they're here. And I love them helping me in the kitchen. The best thing we're making........memories.

Vintage stockings

The stockings have come out better than I'd hoped. I'm so pleased. The quilt patterns show beautifully on the stockings. Each one is slightly different from the last, but when hung, they will look great. I've listed the first one on my Etsy shop and hope to have the remaining seventeen finished and listed soon.