Busy

 I made apricot freezer jam with some apricots a friend had given me. Besides on the traditional english muffin it tastes great on grilled chicken. I want to make another batch of freezer jam and I am  thinking it might be peach. I'm wishing I hadn't missed blueberry season.

A friend needed some birthday presents so yesterday I had an assembly line going on crayon rolls. I only needed to make two but the first two ran into problems so in an attempt to get two perfect ones it grew to a total of four. All of them will work but two will only hold 15 instead of 16 crayons. I don't think 2 or 3 year olds will notice.
I've been working on some big projects for customers and hopefully some will be coming to an end soon.  I'm enjoying whats left of summer but really looking forward to fall. Some evenings when I'm walking the girls I can feel a tinge of fall in the air.

Happy Valentine's Day

Thanks to all of you I made the cutest Valentines this year. This is the perfect example of why blogs are so great. I watched everyone sewing on paper and I just had to jump in.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Finally All Finished

The ladies I make baskets with always exchange creative small presents. This year my friend Linda and I came up with a great present. Her husband drew the beautiful pictures of the baskets and we put them all on one piece of 8 1/2 X11 paper. Our copy center copied them, cut the pages into 4, and made them into note pads. We had 24 made and they came out to $2.58 per pad. Very reasonable ! I'll be thinking up more ideas for note pads.

Today I made my last Christmas present. Yes it is December 27 and I'm not early for next year, I just ran out of steam. It's a shoe bag from the Martha Stewart Sewing Book. My brother and his partner are coming for a post Christmas celebration tomorrow. What do you get for the men who have everything ? Now they'll each have a monogrammed shoe bag for traveling.

The day before Christmas I made granola for the Christmas Eve bunch. It made the house smell great. Sadly there wasn't enough for us. I'll get some more ingredients for us when the snow melts a bit. I saw the labels on Stitching under Oaks and made them right up.

So that's the Christmas wrap up. It was all good fun now I'm ready for a little rest.

Merry Christmas

These are one of my major accomplishments for All Stitched Up. A lady called about six weeks ago and wanted Christmas stockings for her family. Crazily I said "why not!" She purchased the fabric and trim. I used a friends needlepoint stocking to make the pattern and the monogram shop down the street did the embroidery for the names. I'm proud of them. They are the first Christmas stockings I've ever made. I see more sewing in my future. I enjoy it.

I marvel at all that each of you do. I enjoy all the great ideas you share ! I'm so glad I found this blogging world. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas !

This is my next sewing discovery. Last summer when I was visiting a friend I saw many tissue box covers. Some were beautiful lace, some monogrammed and some very expensive from fancy linen shops. Some how every where I went I saw them. So it's been on my list to conquer. We all have that feeling "I can do it myself". Well I finally did it. A friend brought me one as a sample and after some consideration I did it. It really uses that geometry we learned in high school. There are probably a million variations too with monograms, old lace, ribbons etc... I looked on etsy to see f I could make my fame and fortune sewing them. Sadly what I saw was covers for $10.00. Clearly this is another craft to be enjoyed by myself and friends.
Maybe the next thing I'll conquer is a tutorial on tissue box covers.

Without a Car Part 1

My first project was to make fall pillow covers. A few weeks ago I realized that instead of buying new pillows or pillow forms all I had to do was take the covers off the pillows I have and make new covers. Luckily I had purchased the fabric before the car died so this was the perfect time to sew. I just made envelope closures on the back, no zippers. Some of the backs don't quite meet because I was too scrimpy on the fabric purchase but I'll figure out a way to keep them closed. I'm thinking buttons or bows. I have a plain gold one that I'm going to take to the monogrammer to have an M put on. Now I'm thinking of Christmas/winter pillows. I like dreaming up the ideas as much if not more than making them.

A Good Week

You've got me hooked on freezer jam. Our friend Jeff has a fruit of the month club gift and he had apricots ripening too fast and nothing to do with them. I knew just what to do - freezer jam. It came out great and I'm off today to get some english muffins. I think it also might be a good barbecue sauce on chicken.


I don't know why I got hooked on making these shorts but I've had fun this summer. A friend gave me this fabric for some shorts for her grandson. I'm thinking of getting more fabric and making a duvet cover for Hillary's room here.
It was a good week, some jam, shorts, All Stitched Up projects, lunch with friends. Who could complain?

More Fun

I have been caught by the sewing bug ! I saw some shorts that the Mom of www.flythroughourwindow.com had to make them. Luckily I know Elliot and he needed some shorts for summer. After some searching locally I called the store that the Mom of the blog used and they were very kind and sent me all that I needed. If you get the same bug the store is The Smock Shoppe in Dothan, Alabama. This was easy, fun and in an hour or two and I had a completed project. When I was a teenager I sewed everything. As a Mom my strong suit was Halloween costumes and a few Easter dresses. Now a little bit of this and that. More napkins are lined up for this week. Of course I had to go to the quilt shop for tracing paper and more fabric just leaped into my hands. I think I can make something every day without a problem.

Napkin Swap

I'm a bit late in reporting my good fortune from the napkin swap. My new friend Jodi from The Jolly Bee sent me these great napkins. They are making a great setting along with some forsythia from the yard. This swap got me back into sewing. I loved making her napkins and with leftover fabric I went on to make some tissue cozies. I went on a girls oveernight and brought the cozies as a party favor. Now I've got the itch for Martha Stewart's new sewing book. I'm sure there's some projects in the book to keep me sewing.
My thanks to Lisa for getting me involved in the swap.