Saturday, November 5, 2011

What I've been up to...



I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted. I guess I've been busy. Doing what, you might ask? Sometimes, it feels like a whole lot of nothing. Other times, I've got so much going on that I can't think straight.

Here's a little glimpse into my life this past month...



I was cutting out a pattern at church on a Sunday (a way to pass some time at work-lucky me) and a friend sees me and asks if maybe I could make him some wings. Hmmm..."Show me a picture", I say. He shows me this Disney character from the 90's...some cartoon called Gargoyles. I tell him that I'll try.

I only have 5 days to get them done. I think it's going to be fairly easy. I find great fabric at an outlet store for only $3.00 a yard! Woo Hoo! I'm in business. I find what seems to be an easy tutorial. My son has the exact wire I need. Everything seems to be falling into place. And then, it all goes wrong. I'm pretty busy Monday through Wednesday every week, so instead of 5 days, I really only have 2 days. On Thursday, I went to my sisters house for our last craft day of her vacation from work. I figure I'll get the wings done while I'm there. Hah! First of all, her house doesn't have a lot of room to be stretching out wire. So, I pack it in and decide to wait til I get home and ask for help from my son or husband.

Instead, I make a felt bracelet. Then head for home.


Ok, so it's not the most flattering picture of my arm It looks like I have no fingers and my arm looks like a tube of raw, ground chicken. :/

Thursday night, my husband helps me shape the wings and I figure it'll take me half hour at the most, to sew the casings into the wings and feed the wire through. Yeah right! I get up Friday morning with every intent of getting these wings done and then preparing for fun times with friends that evening. We were going to make pumpkin rice krispy treats for another group at church.

I shouldn't have been surprised when everything went downhill. The casings were easy to sew but they made the wings sit too far back. I couldn't get them to stretch out to the side. I ripped out a casing on each side and sewed them a little differently. No luck. I ripped out two casings on each side and tried another approach...still no luck. What the heck was I going to do? This had already taken me hours not the half hour I thought. I had to make a run to Joann's and buy different fabric and start all over again. Worked a little better but I still wasn't thrilled. Nor was I finished but I had to go meet my friends at church by 6pm. I took my sewing machine and everything I thought I would need to finish those darn wings.

My friends and husband start making the rice krispy treats and I continue sewing. I needed to be done by 7:30 pm and that time was coming fast! Well, don't ask me how, but I finished and here is Jimmy trying on his wings. He's a TALL guy and, while the wings looked ok on me, on him they just looked too small. He's holding the picture I was working off of.


Here he is at his Halloween/birthday party all dressed up. Wings=way too small! But, he was happy and I guess, that's what counts. :)
Also, during my non-posting month, I made a few scarves. This is one I made for a friend who likes cats. It's made with different pieces of fleece.

I also made a ton of tissue holders. Here are just a few...
I made my own buttons for this bracelet and used a fabric webbing to put them on.
I sewed a sheer ribbon on a satin ribbon for this look.
The same weekend that I had to make the wings, I also needed to make this frog cake. This was fun until it came time to cut pieces to make the legs and feet. The cake got all crumbly and I couldn't frost it. UGH! Had to make a late night run to the market for Ding Dongs and Twinkies to use for legs and feet.And here's my dear friend Jeremiah, who had no idea we knew when his birthday was. Such fun! There's an old song called "Jeremiah was a bullfrog", which is why I made the frog cake. :)

This is a laptop bag I just finished. This is only the second bag/purse I ever made. It got a little tricky but with Matt's help, I was able to get it done.

I lined it with zebra print fabric and used a red rose, black tattooish looking fabric for the pocket.
ALL that = reasons that I haven't blogged in a month. And that's just the stuff I have pictures of!

Happy crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!