Another Quiz... sheesh

What color is your soul painted? Brown Your soul is painted the color brown, which embodies the characteristics of calmness, depth, nature, stability, tradition, poverty, roughness, down-to-earth, uncertainty, and neutrality. Brown is the color of the element Earth, and represents soil and, to a lesser degree, fertility of the Earth. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Thank you to Random Blethers for introducing me to a whole new website full of time waster quizzes.
"Hi, my name is Sarah, and I am a quizaholic"

Labor Day laborings

In the USA, today has been Labor Day. A day off for many. And a bit of an Unofficial End of Summer three-say weekend. It is often a say spent at backyard cook-outs, or cleaning up after that last camping trip. (And often a traffic jam that takes 4 hours to get through. Just to convince you not to do this type of thing again.)

My Labor Day weekend was nothing like that-
Yes, there were some similarities to a campsite: lack of basic hygiene, eating cold leftovers for my meals (plus BBQ Lays & Diet Coke), and a dog at my side the whole day. But I have been inside my house All Weekend.

I sewed!

I finally got all the blocks for my Starbright quilt completed. These blocks started as 2.5" squares, and are now (supposedly) 6.5" blocks.
I did a lot of sewing today, and spent about 15% of the time un-sewing. Not a bad ratio in my book!



My goal is to have this top completed and quilted in time to take it to Quilt Retreat on September 14. I don't want to drag a sleeping bag with me this year.
Even if I have to add binding the night I arrive at Retreat, I will feel like I accomplished my goal. But I am going for the Finish.
This will be first quilt I have completed that is larger than lap size. After 15 years of mucking about with the dog quilts & fluffy things, I have finally made something large enough to use myself.
I will tell you which I prefer after I quilt-wrestle it through my travel sized sewing machine LOL
...I may just rent out the Long-arm machine at the local shop.

A Dog's Life

Loyalty is a dog.

I don't know who said it, but they sure got it right.
My little pug munchkin prefers to be close to me-
At dinner, in case some food drops...
While visiting with friends, in case of walkies...
During TV time, in case of a need to bark of TV critters...
And while I sew, in case I want to do anything more interesting!

Pugs Gone Wild

So what do you get when you introduce a bag a fluff to an environment already inhabited by a pug dog?

Lilly thinks you get a party!
She grabs a big huge mouthful and prances around in front of me, enticing me to chase her and take it away.
When that game pales, she takes a rest, puts her foot on it, and drags it through her teeth.
Then when she is done with that, she leaves it there.
A slobbery mess for me to clean up.
Yay.
But it is a party, much like a new ball of yarn.
And it isn't as if she is entirely wrong.
And she doesn't eat it.
So it gets into the cute things category.

Even if said bag is now rather ragged and holey now.

The little owls are put up.

Wowls!

Everyone loves a flock of Wowls!
So we are making some for Thrifty Gift Maker Week 10.
Moonstitches blog has a fabulous How-To that will have you making swarms of these little cuties. Take a look at hers spelling out things at the end!

Just go to this Tutowlrial for the step-by-step photo how-to.
There are no templates or measurements or anything to download. But this is an easy one to just eyeball. (Once you try, you will understand how that works.)

Can't you just see them with a little elfin hat and a scarf...
Maybe a bunch of them all nestled together in a decorated egg carton, ready to swoop down onto some lucky friend's mantle. Or with little clips on their feet, ready to roost in a Christmas tree!

So please email me with pics of your flock, because I think these are just a Hoot!



Don't forget...
Thrifty Gift Maker chat hour is Sunday @ 7 pm & Monday at 10 am EST, via #Quilchat.com.
Bring your ideas to share!

Coffee Mug Mat

Coffee Mug Mat
Thrifty Gift Maker, week 9

SewingWeb.com is a fun site that I have found blogsurfing, and I really do recommend it. They have a number of projects to keep us busy, and some are perfect little handmade hostess gift type things.

The Coffee Mug Mat is this week's project: a combination coaster/ tea & spoon holder.

Load it up with cocoa or teas, or maybe coffee on the side... you have a cute little gift.

This is very quick and easy, plus it is quilted, and the binding technique is a little different than I am used to, so definitely a good trial project for the binding at least.

Here is mine!

Go check out the site and let me know what you think.
And Send Pictures LOL

Inchies

Week 8! I can't believe we started doing these little projects two months ago.

This week, I plan an taking us into the world of miniatures.

Inchies
What are inchies? They are as tiny as they sound. One inch by One inch quilts.
And they are all the rage at the moment. Just google the word and you will see crafty types from all around the world caught up in it.

Unfortunately, my inchies came out awful. Nothing like I wanted. All scrunched and mangled.
Soo....
Your challenge, and I know you can do it better than I... Make some Inchies!

Need a bit of inspiration?
Check out these sites, where creative people have done some amazing things with a one inch square.
http://quiltmoose.blogspot.com/2007/02/inchies-swap-1-squares.html
http://www.quiltingandpatchwork.com/2007/05/30/discovering-inchies-in-the-quilting-world/
http://friedaquilter.blogspot.com/2007/04/yellow-inchies.html

Then send me some pictures and tell me how you did it. I am totally annoyed at myself...
I am sure you will see something from me this week...

New-to-Me!

"Work like a farmer, Think like a hunter."

I don't know which training course has that line, but I feel like I am really getting that idea now.

My husband calls it shopping. Or collecting. Something like, I don't really pay attention.

I spent all day yesterday sewing, sewing, sewing.
It was great, my back was a tad achey, but I did get a lot of the stupid, blinking 1 1/2 inch squares sewn together. (Why didn't I go with 3 inch squares???) And as I was nearing the end of that looooong line of squares, my sewing machine went wonky. I opened it up and cleaned it and mucked about and sang songs to it and it was still wonky. So I took a break and when I went back it worked better than ever. (Love-love-love my Janome Jem 760!)

But I did have a bit of a scare-- What if!?!?

What if good karma wasn't enough to get my machine purring again? What if I had to take it to the doctor? What would I do for sewing? Because we all know darn good & well that a machine will not go wonky unless there are at least 3 projkects in the works and you have a deadline on at least one of them.

So... I decided to look around for a nice older, all metal, mechanical machine. And CraigsList provided. Amen. I had Choices!

This is my new baby! Found for a very reasonable price, complete with the solid wood cabinet it is housed in and the charming older chair next to it :)

It is a Singer Slantomatic 500A and it sews beatuifully. And Quietly! And it came with all the bits and pieces- this was a fully loaded package when it was new.

Thank you Kathryn for letting me borrow your mini-van to get it home.

Layered Felt Magnets

Magnets
Thrifty Gift Maker Week 7

Have you ever seen those cute little felt magnets?
Sometimes they are little stars, or dogs, or cats...
with bits of sparkle on the front...
or maybe a bead...
or a stitch or two of embroidery?

I happen to love them. I have them all over my fridge- thanks to my darling friends! And I love to gift them to others as a simple I Love You or as a little 'extra' thing.
But they can get spendy- I have seen them at $3 per magnet.
So let's make them ourselves.

Step 1

Get yourself some magnets (I prefer circular)
Some different colored sheets of felt
Some sparkly things (beads, baubles, findings, etc)




Step 2
Cut out shapes- these are 1 1/4 inch squares from three different colors.
Layer them and glue between (Aleen's is my choice).
Then add a sparkly thing to the front,
Then the magent to the back.




Step 3
Wait for it to dry, then hang them up!






Send me pics of what you make! I don't think I want to post any of mine, as I may be gifting them to some friends :)

I may need to make sets of multiples.
And maybe packaged in some of those Altoid Tins I have- just covered in some pretty fabric... Or in one of the little boxes I made from last week...
And I think some stitching around edges would be cute...
And maybe diferent sizes, or faces, or randomness... And Beads. I love beads...

Tiny Treasure Boxes

Tiny Treasure Boxes
Thrifty Gift Maker Week 6

We all need something to put our gifts into.
But I hate to buy wrapping paper.

I just cannot spend that much money on something that will be immediately thrown in the garbage.
So... I make my own wrappings that can be reused.


These Origami boxes are the simplest ones to make and really require nothing more than a bit of practice. (Do not be intimidated, these are easy enough kindergartners make them.)



What do you need to make these tiny treasure boxes?
Old greeting cards
Paper Scissors
Ruler






Here is a link to some very simple, easy to follow directions that I recommend.

Tip #1: Start with 2 squares of paper- A fancy colorful square of paper (or fabric or whatever) about 1/4" larger than a plain paper. The larger square will be the top and will fit nicely over the slightly smaller.

Tip #2: Tie a ribbon around the box and hang it from the branches of your tree as a surprise gift.




Tip #3: To make these, you might also try stiff fabric covered board, printed photos- basically if it is pretty and foldable, it will work.




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