Back At It

Hi Everyone and Welcome to My Blog,

I’ve taken some blogging time off during the Holidays in order to focus on my family and friends here around my home. I hope that all my blogging friends had a wonderful time over the last couple weeks.  I am hopeful that I will be able to catch up on everyone’s blog and see what they’ve been up to.  I feel a bit overwhelmed however, since I have 400 emails in my box right now.  

I have an update in my employment situation.  If you’ve read my about page you know that I work for a major oilfield service company.  It has been a rough last couple years with the price of oil dropping.  I have seen quite of few of my coworkers laid off.  Five ladies in my division were let go and I still had my job and there’s.  It was always in the back of my mind that I would be next.  There is only two of us left.  The other lady is very good at her job and has been with the company from what I understand for nearly forty years.  She announced a couple of weeks ago that she will be retiring as of February 1st.  The next day I received a call from our division manager of his intent for me to take over her position.  I am very happy and grateful for her.  She has a new Granddaughter and wants to spend her time with her.  This has given me a better sense of job security.  I mean if she could retire from her position after all these years and market fluctuations that is where I want to be.  There is only one thing that makes this less than perfect.  Her office is 2 1/2 hours away.  I haven’t been asked to move, but there will be some sort of rotation for me to work there and my home base.  They are going to make this as painless as possible for me.  We have a driving service that brings our guy’s to the docks for them to catch helicopter or boat to the offshore rigs.  I will be able to use this service to travel back and forth.  They will also put me up in a hotel when I have to work for consecutive days as well as pay for my expenses.  For me this is better than having to move.  

 

Well, that’s enough about that.  Let’s see what I’ve been up to in my quilting studio.  My last post was about my December goal and my new studio setup.  I have to say I’ve been having a great time in there.  It is really one of my happy places.  

My goal for December was to finish up a few gift items and a cute table runner.  I made some car caddies, some oven mitts, and some pot holders.  I posted a picture of the car caddies here but I forgot to take  pictures of the oven mitts and pot holders.  I still have some fabric with grapes on it that I will make more from.  I’ll get some pictures then.  

I was also able to finish up the table runner.  I made up the dresdens and they came out very nice.  

I laid them out in a pleasing arrangement and sew them together. 

Then I laid them on the white fabric and appliqued them on.  I didn’t do anything fancy.  I just used a straight stitch.  The dresdens were pretty busy and I didn’t want to add any more to focus on.  

Then I put it all together and quited an easy stipple.  And taa daa!

 

 

A Sewing Studio Rhyme

Hi Everyone and Welcome to My Blog,

There once was a boy who lived in a room.  He didn’t know much, how to use a broom. He grew up and moved away, his mom then said what a new day. Mom kept his things in case he came back to seed, but Grandparents flooded and had a need.

Well, I never claimed to be a poet, but this just popped in my head yesterday.  We spent the weekend bringing the bed that was in my son’s room to my husband’s parents home.  A couple years ago they were flooded with no insurance.  They are still recovering from this.  I have been sewing in 2 rooms.  My machine was in the office and my ironing station was in my son’s room.  With lot’s of fabric and stuff stored on the bed.  So I’ve been wanting to take the bed out and merge all sewing items in one room to have a convenient place for my craft.

So now I have the beginnings of a studio and I am ecstatic.   There was a bunch of cleaning necessary after moving the bed.  Apparently, son was using the space underneath as a trashcan.  At least it was only papers and not food items.  I might have had to give him a call to fuss.  Urrgh!!!!  I still have some organizing to do.  I’ll be looking on pinterest for ideas to manage my stash, but for now it’ll be amazon boxes and what I have on hand.  Here’s a look at it so far.  Isn’t that afternoon light coming in so bright.  It was wonderful until the sun was shining directly in my face, but I’ll be able to close the blinds at that point to cut down the glare. 

Do you notice that wonderful 8 foot table?  I’m hoping to keep the junk off it and have room to baste my quilts on it.  I’ve been crawling around the floor in the living room and it is not nice on the knees and back.  I’d like to give this method a try I found on You Tube.  I have the supplies ready to go as well as some quilt tops to experiment on.  I’ll let you know once I give it a try if it works and I like it.  I am open to other suggestions on this.  This will be goals for the new year.

Well on to my December OMG,  after I moved my machine in the room I  decided to try out my new space.  Back in September I received my Sew Sampler Box from Fat Quarter Shop.  It contained the makings for a cute table runner with dresdens on it.  I decided it fell in line with quick November and December projects that could be gifted for Christmas.  I haven’t tried dresdens or applique yet so this will be a new experience for me.

I sewed the charm pack and started marking off the dresends.  I decided to mark it then cut to make sure the little template wouldn’t shift.  I used the Fixion pens since I would be cutting on the lines and didn’t need to worry if the mark would stay since it would be in the seam allowance.

Once I got them all cut out, I had a nice little stack ready to be sewn and turned.

Here is the progress, lightly press in half and sew the ends.  I then flipped them out and pressed again.

Sew, my goal for December is to finish this table runner in time for Christmas as well as a couple other items I’d like to make for gifts.

The linky parties I usually participate in can be found by clicking this link.  Please visit them and see what others are up to and  leave some comments and encouragement.  There are many bloggers out there who share their tips, projects, and tutorials to inspire us.

Thanks for stopping by,

Cherie

 

Christmas is on the Way

Hi Everyone and Welcome to My Blog,

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.  At my family’s house we ate too much then lounged around the living room visiting and watching football in the back ground.  We caught up with everything we have missed since the last visit.  It was a wonderful day with no drama or stress.  Everyone brought a little something so no one was over worked.  I am truly thankful for those people.

Now I’m in Christmas gift mode.  I love to give hand-made doo dads to my friends and family.  I think it is very personal and hope they appreciate the effort involved with the gift.

One of the things I’ve made so far is a car diddy bag.  I think it’s a nice bag that will hold things handy in the car.  I like that there is an almost hidden zippered pocket on the back that could stash a couple of dollars for emergency situations.  I am the worst about carrying cash in my handbag.  It seems to disappear awfully quick and then I don’t have any cash if I need a quick water or other small item.

I found this nice tutorial on Pinterest that would do just fine.  The tutorial expresses some concerns regarding the strap hanging on the shifter.  I measured to my car but I don’t intend to put anything heavy in it.  So I hope that won’t pose a problem.  There is also a part that shows to put velcro on the bottom to hold it in place.  I did try that on the first bag I made, but it didn’t stick to the carpet in my car.  Hubby said that the new carpets they are using now won’t work with hook and loop.  So I didn’t waste my time with this on the others.

Just a few pictures from my progress.  Here are all the pieces.  On outside bag  pieces I used some fusible batting and it kept it in place very nicely.  You can also see the outside pockets for the bag.  It looks like it would hold a pen and small pad of paper.

This is where I was measuring for my zipper using this tutorial.  I’m not a big fan of inserting zippers, but I must say this one wasn’t so bad.

I made the strap and sewed up the sides.  I then needed to close up the corners and put it all together and flip to the outside.  

Here is the back sides of the bags that show the zippers in place.  The first bag I measured wrong and find the zipper is a little close to the top of the bag.  It works so I just left it.  There was really no way to fix it.  Cest la vie.

After doing this a couple of times.  Taa Daa!  I now have three gifts ready for someones in a couple of weeks.

The linky parties I usually participate in can be found by clicking this link.  Please visit them and see what others are up to and  leave some comments and encouragement.  There are many bloggers out there who share their tips, projects, and tutorials to inspire us.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cherie