Jinxed!!

Here I was patting my sewing machine actually I named her Joann since its a Janome.. and told her how great she was.. when suddenly KABOOM broke! Thats what I get for personalizing an object.. and giving her a compliment.. Now maybe I will kick her in the foot pedal! I was just in the midst of making another skull purse and loving it.. listening to Lisa Scottelines--My 3rd husband will be a Dog and just laughing by head off when darned old Joann quit on me! OHHHH NOOOO.. Just when I told the person that was expecting this purse that I am speedy!! I had even went to Joanns my favorite fabric store to get the lining for the billfold. I decided I wasn't going to let Joann get me down so I got out my husbands antique Singer--I call her Silvia and used her to finish up the purse. Of course my husband was happy as could be since he thinks "they just don't make machines like Silvia anymore". Well actually they don't. Silvia would never have had trouble with the zipper that Joann did and took a dive off the deep end of the bobbin. The problem with Silvia is that she cannot do zigzag only a straight stitch. I was able to finish the purse but not the billfold.
  So this morning I rushed Joann into the sewing repair shop and the man said "what did you do to her now"?!! Guess he remembered me :-P I was told that I needed to respect my machine more and quit using the wrong needles and the correct bobbins! I told him I learned my lesson and realized I cannot use just any needle on Joann that she is special!! I assured him that wasn't the problem. I told him this time I may of accidently hit a metal zipper piece while sewing... I got the hairy eyeball for that remark. He also mentioned that I may be using too thick of material while sewing.... ya think?! On the purses I like to use fleece lining to help them be more stable.. when you have sometime 2 pieces of lining.. and four pieces of material..--such as the side panels and throw in a zipper or two you get a pretty thick area to sew. Poor Joann.. so abused!
I assured him I probably needed a new bobbin case and I was good to go... He checked it out.. basically told me I was screwed and gave me a ticket on my way out the door. I think maybe the metal through off the timing.. dang. He did say his turn around was generally 4 days unless he has to order parts. I have my fingers crossed. Maybe I need to stick to plastic zippers or better yet when shortening them do it the correct way and hand tie them off !!
   Anyway not all is lost. I went to Walmart on the way home and a cashier fell in love with my purse and asked me to make her one... Woohooo I love those kind of sales!!! Now to just get Joann back and promise no more sewing machine abuse!!!

Another Purse

Here is my new purse that I just got done. I love the new billfold. The purse not so much but since I get bored with them very quickly it won't be used for long anyway. I used some extra stiff fusible web stabilizer and its a bit too stiff. I didn't realize it kind of shrinks the material so thats why the back is alittle taller than the front but the picture is alittle decieving. I put a stabilizer on the bottom as well so its more laying foreward. The front is actually only maybe an inch shorter than the back. I also am now doing a bit of embroidery with my machine and I made this picture. Its suppose to be a butterfly on a cone flower. It looks better in person. I  also did a vase of daisys but it wasn't until I was done with it that I realized the material had a yellow discoloration on it.

I am taking an embroidery class online with Quilting University starting next week. I am looking forward to that.

Here is the billfold I made.The first couple of ones I made the card holders too small. This one is better and even the clear plastic for the DL!! So excited I am happy that I am learning more and more.. Great for my latest stress reliever :-)

My new Purse

My new purse!! I do really love it and makes me smile when I look at the rose. The was a hanky that I picked up at an auction. Heres a close up.

I think for the next one I make I am going to embroidery something for the pocket. I have decided to quilt my own material since I pretty much have bought all the limited quilted material that is at my local Joanns. I have a Julies material shop of my own but most of it is cotton material.

 I did make the billfold and coin purse of this material. I really like having matching billfolds with my purses and since I am making it why not?! I do need to readjust my measurements though. The last one was an inch too short for the cards. dummy me!
   Last week I wasted a couple of yards of material being real stupid. Everything I touched I screwed up. I was working on something for a friend and finally decided to give it a break or Id never get it done. I finally finished it last night other than the shoulder straps and the billfold. Since this is my "easy week" at work and only work 1 day until next weekend I should get it done this week. I go through alot of zippers so I found a great deal on ebay. 50 zippers--7 inch for $6 including shipping!! Woohoo what a deal. So I have been waiting all week to recieve my package of zippers and finally got on my ebay page to ask the seller when it was mailed when I just happened to realize these zippers are coming from Hong Kong!! Damn I guess I was so taken with the price and didn't even check where they were going to be mailed from. I guess I will be waiting awhile.
   I found a wonderful website http://www.quiltuniversity.com/ You can take online classes and it gives you great help for any sewing or quilting issues. I plan to take the embroidery class for my machine. I have a nice machine but very little knowledge on the embroidery part.

I can't wait to start the classes and I will see how the first one goes and then if I like it I will take more. Apparently you don't have to be available during the class times. The make it available for several weeks and you can print it out and also do the class assignments and then upload the pictures. I was hoping they would have a serger class but I don't think they do. Maybe I can find one of those later. It would be nice to know how to use my serger.

Well time to go finish Terris purse.. I must say when I bought the material I did get some questions and looks!!!  I assured them it was for a friend that believes in things that are bloody and creepy :-) Pictures in the next post :-)

Halloween Purse

I made this purse for one of the ladies I assist with in a group home that I work. She is totally infatuated with my cat shadow which is pure black so I made her a "shadow purse". This has a billfold and coin purse to match it ,but she grabbed those up before I got the purse done!  This isn't quilted material since its just meant for a fun seasonal purse.

Purses

Here are a couple of the purses I just completed. This one is a quilted one and small. I generally put a layer in across the middle to give it more room but this person requested it to be small.

It has a pocket there in front and a zippered one inside as well as a cell phone pocket and pocket for spare pens and a couple other skall pockets.

Here is the cosmetic bag and billfold that matches it. Another give away!

Cat and Dog Quilt

This is my dog/cat quilt. That seemed to be the never ending quilt. This one was alot of fun to make. The three dogs are screen prints of our three and they look amazingly just like them. Chico has a bit more hair now but that looked like him for this forst two years. Alot of the material on this quilt is made from t-shirts or other clothing garments.  I trolled Goodwills to find different clothes that had cats and dogs on it for the quilt. I wanted something totally unique instead of store bought material. I think I got it. Most of the blocks are 4 square. The problem is I got alittle carried away and made it too big! Once I had it made though it was impossible to cut down or I would be cutting some of the larger blocks up.

We did try to use it but with the batting in the middle we decided it was best as a winter quilt. Its alot heavier than it looks!! Well its something to look forward to this winter.

Creativity at the Fair

OMG where did all those people come from? Small people, big people, wheelchairs, strollers, walkers, wagons. Made for hard to get around at the Iowa State Fair. We were there 4 hours and it was time to go back home! Thank God we rode the shuttle so we didn't have to pay for parking and only a $2 round trip bus ride. A shower and a nap--now sitting down to eating pizza and life is good again!
 I did see some wonderful quilts. I even found a place where they had a sew in where they were making quilts for charity. They were strip piecing some quilts which was nice for people to come in and sew alittle while and when the quilt gets completed they give them to children in hospitals. Ed and I found the place that I like to drool over the machines and the people were quite pleasant this year. One of the guys there told me he would help me if I needed my machine worked on and would help me to thread my serger for $50 an hour. It would be alot cheaper for me to go to Ames where I bought it for a lesson if I get the time. There was a couple machines there for $4G that was the long arm for quilting. They were really nice, but I am not ready to shell out that much for another machine. I can across the Blue Ribbon quilts and this was my favorite.

I doubt that I could make one like that, but this was inspirational. One lady had hand quilted a king size quilt that was just so detailed and perfect. I wonder how long it took her to quilt it. It took me a year to get my dog and cat king size quilt completed so I can just imagine how long it took a person to hand quilt. I will finally get to use my dog and cat quilt this winter. I finished it this spring then using it one night we realized it is definetly going to be a winter quilt! I am looking forward to it this year. Now I am going back to making my blocks. One of these days I will put them in a quilt but right now I am enjoying trying different blocks.