UFO's No More!

Hello Blog Friends,

My pile of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) is growing!  This is the view behind my craft room door...

The front quilt is the newly finished Town Square.  Backing is ready, it awaits quilting.  The red and white quilt top is Seeing Red, the top I made in January.  It is waiting a few pieces of applique, then quilting.  The poor black/grey in the back is waiting quilting and finishing.  It has been waiting patiently there for over two years.  Frankly, I need the space...these quilts have to get done and go to their respective places (my house...these are all for me!).  Quilting and finishing will begin in earnest next week.  

And, yes! I have been sewing this week.  An interesting story, a mystery and whole lot of half square triangles.    A show and tell will follow before I start the big quilting jobs.

Till then...

South for the Week! Florida projects

Hello Blog Friends!

It is Florida week here in Susan's Craft Room.  I've been working on some smaller project this week.  

This first one is a birthday gift for my middle daughter, Kim.   It is a beach bag made from vinyl mesh and fabric with dolphins.  Dolphins are her favorite animal.  Kim and her family go to Florida at least once a year.  This will come in handy on their next trip to the beach.

Here is a wall hanging for Kim's mother-in-law, Helen.  Helen owns a house in Kissimmee, Florida.  She was kind enough to let us stay there for a week in early February.   It was nice to stay in a home setting, instead of a hotel for 7 days.  This cute little wall hanging is my way of saying thank you.  She has a few flamingos as a decoration already, so this one will seem right at home.  All fabrics and buttons were from my own stash, except the pink for the flamingo and the backing.  The large yo-yos add an interesting dimension to the piece, don't you think?  The pattern is called Simply Flamingo by Marcia Layton.  I found the pattern quite by surprise....one day we traveled from Kiss to St Augustine, but by way of Hwy 1 and A1A.  While passing through New Smyrna Beach, I spotted Seaside Sewing and Quilts.  The ladies within were very nice.  I found this pattern there...how perfect was that?   And don't you just love the backing?

Here is a pillowcase using Florida postcard fabric.  Also for my daughter Kim, so she can dream Florida dreams at night.

Finally, two more pillowcases, only these are for us.  The yellow one will be mine and the blue one for my husband Denis.  Now we, too, can dream Florida dreams all year round!

Up next...UFO sightings!  Till then...

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS CARD ALBUM x 3!

Hello Blog Friends,

As I mentioned in the last few posts, I made a Vintage Christmas Card Album not only for me, but as a gift for a friend.  In all, I made 3 such albums, each one unique to itself.  The two books with black covers are similar, using the same pages as bases.  The smaller, brown cover book is a slightly smaller size, and features both printed pages and clear pocket pages.   Each book also includes a title page, a dedication page (to Edna and Elmer, of course!) and a brief history of Edna and Elmer and how I found the cards.  Here is a photo of the three:

Some pages from the second book:

Some pages from the third (brown cover) book:

 This book also featured printed vellum pages.  "Christmas" is such a page.  The white area is a card mat adhered to the back side of the page.   The backside is shown below:

 Even after making three albums, I still had leftover cards.  I used them up by cutting some images and sentiments to fit into the clear pocket pages, like this one.

An example of the cute pre-printed pages in this book.

As you can see, all different and unique, as paper colors and page layouts were dependent on the cards.  This was such a fun project and I just love how they all turned out.  A nice respite from scrapbooking with photos!  Now to wait until next December to gift them at Christmas.

It is back to the sewing machine for me this week.  I'll give a report next post.  Till then...