Sewing with the Girl's

Sew yesterday we had a sewing meeting at the house. Meg & Trish came over and we worked on notebook covers. They both completed theirs, and I have just a bit left to complete mine. I took a couple of pics. Like a duffus I forgot to take pics of their finished products. (Duh!)

P.S. Chubby, Emily, & Callie played lincoln logs for their entertainment.

T-shirt Dress (Sienna Dress Pattern)

Sew, I did get behind the machine yesterday to complete a dress for Miss Demi's b-day. I figured it was safe to post because I don't think she has the "blog bug" yet??? If so, Mom cover her eyes. This is the same dress pattern that cuz Holly posted a week or sew ago. Hoping it fits since the model is miles away.

I can't get over how easy the pattern is and how fast it makes up. I thought all the tips she gave really helped the process to go seamlessly versus figuring out these little helpers on my own. Pattern credit http://lilblueboo.blogspot.com/ (Sienna Dress).

Comfort in the Storm

While this post is not about crafting or sewing, I have a strong urge to post it.

This past Tuesday I joined a small group through our church. The leader emailed me the book we would be using and said if I could pick it up and read the 1st 2 chapters before our 1st meeting that would be ideal. The book is Believing God by Beth Moore. I was excited about the title and the author, I can hear her voice, conviction, and excitement when I read her books and can usually visualize myself with her style.

To my surprise late Thursday evening I was notified that my position was part of the most recent reduction in force. Another layoff and this time I didn't survive. I was offered some options most of which included relocating and all of which included a large pay cut. Through the 24 hours of discovering the news and securing a position in the end I felt blessed to obtain a position with out having to relocate.

Now that I survived securing a place of employment the fear of how to make ends meet and how to adjust to my new responsibilities, panic, anxiety and other emotions have reared their ugly head in my constant thoughts.

Today I started reading the book assigned to our small group instead of fast forwarding to the 1st chapter I decided to read every page including the copyright and Dewey decimal classification? Within the Introduction I found this from the author......
"I am convinced that Christ is always the initiator of matters concerning faith. (Heb. 12:2). So if I'm on target, you've neither stumbled onto this book nor accidentally found it in your hands. Christ is initiating a fresh anointing of faith in your life, Dear One." This of course brought me immediate comfort and positive emotions.

My course ahead will be bumpy I know. I know myself well enough that I will have the battle of battles in front of me to control my thoughts of fear. But I'm confident that the author was right "Christ is initiating a fresh anointing of faith in my life". May Lord give me strength to accept yet another precious gift from Him.

On the Wings of White Dove

Hello - I really liked the way this card turned out, I was struggling with completing it because you couldn't really see the dove cut out and then my friend Meg says well "how about putting some white card stock behind it?" Perfect. I'm working on the on the road so I wasn't able to travel with scissors to trim up the ribbons yet, so will do when I get home. Here's a quick look from my camera phone.

Hedge Hog Pin Cushion

Sew my friend Trish made mention early December she needed a good/cute pin cushion. My first plan after the Christmas rush to complete projects was to make Trish a pin cushion.

I had a different pattern in mind originally but after surfing http://craftcherry.blogspot.com/2009/12/cupcakes-for-lunch.html she references the Longthread which has a list for pin cushion patterns (the actual pattern came from http://urbandebris.typepad.com/urban_debris_journal/)

Once I saw this vintage hedge hog pin cushion I thought I must! Trish is an animal lover and I figured she has probably never had a hedge hog before, sew below was the end result, I must say it is much cuter in person but you get the idea and Trish loved it, which is what mattered most.

Sewing Machine Covers

Sew I finally got a picture of the machine cover I had made for Mom for her birthday, it the one with the Kitty Applique. In addition is the crazy quilt version that was in our Graham Christmas auction. Grandma was the winner of this item. She is so cute! (oh and look you can see one of PD's quilts on the bed in the background)

The Christmas Stroll

Well the Christmas Stroll came and went. This year my friend Megan Daves joined me. She had learned how to sew just a few weeks before the festival and decided she was going to make these fleecy boas to sell along with a few dozen hair bows. I made the hunk holders again and the curling/flat iron holders. Last year the economy was better and the top two sellers where hair bows and hunk holders. This year we only had the 4 items, the ones listed above and didn't make as many knowing spending would most likely be significantly less this year. Well not at our booth. Meg sold out of the fleecy boa's around 3pm. We had Boppi bring up a sewing machine and her materials. I sat in a camping chair and sewed with the machine on a TV tray for the next 3 hours and Meg cut for the next 3 hours until we ran out of material. We couldn't make them fast enough, people would buy them and then come back and pick them up. We had one hunk holder left, and a couple of curling/flat iron and hair bows, but all together it was a success and we didn't bring back a lot of inventory. It was special because it was Meg's first sewing adventure and she hit out of the ballpark! And she made a pretty good deal of $ while doing it. Below are some pics that show what the fleecy boa is in case you have no idea what I'm talking about. Sorry about the quality of the pics, I work with what I got :-)


At first I was very concerned about how empty our booth looked, last year it was so full we could barley move around. Turned out they don't care if it looks full.