Holidays in July

Today was the American Sewing Guild Sewing Inside the Loop Group meeting.  Everyone was to bring ideas for sewing gift items.  Here are the suggestions and Sew and Tell items that the sewists made or intend to make:
1. Curling Iron Cover
2. Express Style Totes from Nancy Zieman's Sewing Express Book
3. The Zip Away Tote  from http://craftyady.blogspot.com.
     The tutorial is at: http://www.box.net/shared/co7pb53eqa
4.  Kid's tote bag to hold a coloring book and crayons using cheater cloth
5. Scarf made from a tie as show in Altered Couture Magazine , May-June 2011 p.13.
6.  Baby onesies with appliqued ties and bow ties for new little boys
7. La Fred Athena blouse made with pink linen and lined with cotton organdy
8. Steering wheel cover
9. Pot holders
10. Snappy bags
11. Wedding Quilt with pictures on white fabric made with micron pens.  The white fabric was ironed onto   f freezer paper.   The alternate blocks were nine patches.
12.  Reversible placemats usable for different holidays.
13,  Christmas tree napkins
14.  Gift Bags
15.  Sachets with lavender picked from a lavender farm
16.  Cloth purse with Ghee's hardware
17. Spa towel set
18.  Slippers as shown in Sew Stylish, earlier shown in Threads
19.  Covered hangers
20.  Remote control holders.
21, Butterick Pattern 3345 View D Jacket
22. Project Linus quilt tops

Sewing Websites with lots of free holiday projects from the bookmarks of Phyllis Finger

http://www.allfreesewing.com

http://www.babylock.com/projects/

http://www.berninausa.com/news_detail-n392-r0-i1924-sUS.html

http://www.brother-usa.com/Homesewing/DesignStudio/Projects/ProjectList.aspx?cat=160

http://www.craftbits.com/sewing-crafts

http://craftstew.com/sewing/free-clothes-patterns

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SewingGiftsOnTime/links/

http://www.husqvarnaviking.com/us/507.htm

http://www.marthastewart.com/sewing-index

http://sewing.about.com/od/holidaysewingprojects/Free_Holiday_Related_Sewing_Projects.htm

http://sewing.craftgossip.com/

http://www.retrosewing.net/

http://whipup.net/2010/10/04/bags-bags-bags-roundup/

A New Year

This week was my birthday and even though Dave and all my kids were out of town, I had a really nice day. I had at least twenty Happy Birthdays on email and Facebook from family and friends new and old (or should I say long term).  I also had a great Skype with my California grand kids.  It was the first time I ever heard little Sean say Happy Birthday Grandma.  Just priceless.   My girlfriends bought me lunch at the Chinese Buffet and gave me a giant birthday cookie.  The only problem was, I ate most of the cookie.  It was delicious. Then I drove out to Quilter's Emporium to deliver my Project Linus quilt tops.  I hadn't been to that store before and I enjoyed looking around.  I think I found an idea for my Cherrywood Fabric Jelly Roll strips that I bought a couple of years ago at the Quilt Festival and sewed together at the ASG Retreat.  I was happy to be able to buy the spool cap for larger thread spools for my Jem as the store is a Janome dealer.  I still want to be able to use that little light sewing machine for traveling and schlepping to meetings and retreats. 


Today I am working on finishing up my blouse.  I top stitched all around and shortened the sleeves. Now I just need to get up the courage to make the buttonholes.  I'm going to try one of the souvenir notions I bought somewhere and never used, Space-Tape by Dritz.  It's a stick on tape that lets you mark and stitch up to 62 evenly spaced buttonholes.    I'll let  you know how it works out. 

Travels and ASG

Last weekend I traveled to California to my Great Niece Shelby's Bat Mitzvah. It was wonderful. My sister Shelly hosted a great Lu-Wow party at her backyard pool, and all around the house. We got to spend time with our son and his wife and my California grandchildren. It was wonderful to see my nephews and niece, and the new Glasser grandkids. Altogether it was a wonderful weekend.

On Friday my new induction burner range, Microwave hood, and dishwasher were installed. They had to cut the countertop and floor boards a bit and we spent all last night cleaning up the sawdust. Now I need to learn how to cook with the new appliances, but it sure was nice having a quiet dishwasher.

Today at our ASG Neighborhood group meeting we had a farewell party for Mary. We had a wonderful turnout, gave her a gift certificate and some cash, and had nice refreshments too. Some of the girls gave her hand made gifts. It was really nice to see Joanne again. She brought some of her scrappy flower pins and dolls. She is definitely one of the most creative people I have ever met.

We all sewed quilt tops for Project Linus. I didn't get much time to sew, so I brought my squares home with me to finish. This is good practice as my DDIL wants me to make a quilt for my DGS to hang on the wall to replace my DGD's baby quilt. That will be my next project after I complete some of my current UFO's and challenges.

This week I hope to finish my blouse, decorate my skirt, do the Texture Magic challenge and finish my Project Linus quilt tops. I'm so busy I'm sure the week will go quickly.