Angel Mug Rug

Isn't this angel adorable, yes!! 

Her  wings are very lacy looking.  She included hearts on her socks. I found her at PLB Designs

I love it when I stitch out a design and it stitches as designed, no problems!

 I decided to stitch her out and gift her to a friend. I know she will not see this post until she opens her package, so I am safe. In the digital world, posting of blogs, FaceBook, we could let all our secrets out.

This little project is a crazy quilted mug rug. I have added lace and ribbons with some fancy stitches.

It is a bit larger than I planned at 8 x 10. Before starting I asked Laurie about the things she collected, she answered, "angels"; what is your favorite color, she answered "purple".  I think this is just perfect for her. It  will look good on her desk while she is at her computer.

I have several more Christmas projects waiting to be photographed and wrapped. It will be awhile before those photo's are posted. I know those guys are in here peeking. Shhhhh, it's the time of year for secrets.

Merry Christmas to all of  you

I am Stitching for Pink

The Stitching for Pink website needs your help.  Every donation that is received goes directly to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Breast Cancer has touched our lives in one way or another.

Read all the benefits you will receive with this small donation you can make and you will receive much more in return.  Digitizers like Janet Sansom - Garrison Graffix - Misty MT & more have committed to donate projects!

Please make your donation today - perhaps the donation YOU make will make the difference in finding a cure:

But a donation gives something far move valuable than money: Hope.


Our Goal is One Million Members by Oct 30, 2010.

Can we count on YOU to be one of those members? Will you click the link,

make a donation and ask your friends to join you? No matter who you honor by doing this, Please do it Today!


Once you choose hope, anythings possible. ~ Christopher Reeve


ATTN: Digitizers wishing to donate a project, place an ad, can contact our

Promotions Director at: mail to sewcraftyme@gmail.com

Baby Sewing

I have been baby sewing the last few months.  We are expecting our eigth grandchild on March 8th.  Her name is going to be Kennedi.  She will be born in Japan and she will be about 9 months old before we get to see her.  Way past that new baby stage.  With an older brother and sister I bet her personality is going to be "outgoing".

For each of the grandchildren I have made a quilt.  This one is for Kennedi.  I am putting it in the mail today in hopes it arrives before she does.

The front of the blanket has  the cutest bunnies on it. The center bunny is dressed in a hat and apron surrounded by flowers.  This block is hand embroidered.

The back of the quilt is dainty pink rose buds with a creamy yellow background. 

The finished size is 55x42 and will be perfect for her crib.

The New Year and New Projects

Along with the New Year I have started several projects already. I hope I save time for new things I find to do.

I have been baby sewing. One of my brothers is expecting his first grandchild two weeks before our eigth one is born. I have purchased prefolded diapers and put flannel around them for burp clothes and changing pads. I need to embroidery the stack of onsies and finish up both babies quilts which are made from panels.

This is the first year I have joined BOM's. So I picked two. One is black and white 9 inch blocks. The other is blue/green batiks using thangles.

A project just for me too! I have taken a quilt stores challenge using a Crab Apple Hill pattern, Pieces of the Past. An elegrant looking quilt which requires, crazy quilting, embroidery and applique. I loved the pattern and techiques immediately and passed on the project.  Another look and I was hooked!

The challenge is easy:

• Finish the quilt top by December 2010.
• Hang the quilt top in the store
• Quilt store customers will be voting for a favorite.
• Then a prize is involved.

Three new projects and I have not even been to the Sewing Expo yet! Maybe a long winter should be ordered. Look for updates on all my sewing projects as they are completed. COMPLETE is the key word here.

Anyone up for a New Handbag after the First of the Year?

Henrietta's Handbags  I Belong to a caazy quilting group (no not a group of crazy ladies) and came across this site.  I had to share it with all of you.

Save this link if you are wanting that new purse for yourself. Give yoruself a treat after finishing all the hours of christmas sewing.

When the hustle and bustle makes way for calmer days, treat yourself.

A Special Gift

 November was a very different month for our family. Both of us were sick for several weeks and a very close family member was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Breast Cancer. It was a very emotional time while desicions had to be make as the gamot of medical tests were done.

Stuck at home, I went to my sewing room and pulled fabrics, thinking I was sorting.  I came out with a group of fabrics and announced I was making a quilt for the patient and it was to be done before any surgeries. Now I was on a mission.  This was November 12th.

Our families decided to have Thanksgiving together, so that date became the day she would recieve this.  I chose the Dresden Plate pattern I had been doing as table runners.  I made 12 plates placing 4 lengthwise and 3 across. Adding the borders made it twin size. I needed to work quickly and time allowed for everything to go just perfect.

This picture is a closeup of the peices that make up each plate. They are topstitched to the block with a feather stitch. The center circle is hand stitched in place.

The border of the quilt was done in a patchy fabric bringing the colors together. The actual quilting was done by machine which saved me a lot of time.  I placed double hearts in between the plates and stitched around the blocks of the border.

Now it is almost Christmas and I have her pillow case done. I used all the same fabrics and chose to use french seams. The fabric on the end of the pillowcase, purple roses isthe same fabric use to back the quilt. It is going in the mail this afternoon so she has it before her second Chemo treatment.

A Special Lady is so deserving of a special gift.

Pocket Pal Donations

Aren't they just adorable. Here is the link to a machine embroidery site Swak Embroidery .
Watch the video on how to make these adorable In-The-Hoop Pocket Pals for the little ones to cuddle up with.

The real reason I am bringing this up is the pattern is free to download. They are sending them to the military saying, "I support you".

I encourage you to download the file and send the Pocket Pal to your military families.

Red Hat Ladies

Time has just been flying by around here. What have I been doing? Keep up, slaying all the dragons getting in our way.

My weed pile is getting taller, and already turning into dirt, it's a good thing. I will reuse all this dirt next year in the garden.
I even have more weeds growing. Speaking of gardens, I have really fed the Elk this year. They had a smorgasbord out here and have ended up with more goodies than we did.

This week I dusted off my sewing machines and embroidered some gifts for a friend leaving work and becoming a full time snow bird. She is a red hatter so she will add these items to her collection. The next step is to make my base so I can crazy quilt them to the red bag. The RW needs a tassel on the bookmark.

Time to hurry they need to be done by Saturday. In times like this, why do I rush myself???????????? If anyone is interested, this link will take you to the "Red Hat Ladies". Would you believe that they were freebies!

I Revised My Tree Skirt

A great project for all snowmen and gingerbread lovers.

This photo shows the center embroidery I stitched for the center motif. The fill stitched snowman ladies dressed up for the weather. Underneath a "Merry Christmas" greeting. On each side is rework snowmen families posing for a photo.

Then on the left side are single red work snowman with a gingerbread friend done in fill stitches.

The right side shows two addition rework snowmen with another gingerbread friend.

When the tree skirt was completed I placed it under the tree for the final picture.

The fabric i used for this is two sided quilted fabric with bias tape to finish the edges. I did that part of the tree skirt many years ago but placed bears and poinsettia's on it with wonder under. The edges were coming up here and there and this is the make over. The snowmen and ladies are stitched on various scraps of tone-on-tone white and off white fabric, Then I hand stitched them on with red pearl cotton using the button hole stitch.

Since I started machine embroidery I have purchased many designs from different digitisers and collected free designs along the way. The filled snow ladies were a Christmas gift.

The red work snowmen I have collected come from this site. Right now I have collected each one of them. This week there is a new one every day! Oh what fun, since I love snow and that includes snowmen. http://www.charmingstation.com/ Oh what fun it is!!!

Another embroidery site I visit way too often is http://www.DesignsBySiCK.com/?pointsfor=rainagade
They offer free designs that stitch out easily and as professional as the designs you purchase. If you are in need of embroidery designs check them out. I am addicted to this site.

Merry Christmas to all. May all of you have a warm and safe holiday celebration.

More Fishing Grannies

It's the end of April I am getting ready for that annual fishing trip. The weather still has me inside most of the time so my machine is still hard at work.

In a previous post I had showed you my new fishing shirt. This fishing shirt is done for another one of the ladies that always goes too. I had to have her try on her shirt so make sure of the fit. She knows I am up to something but is used to me doing this.

Please note, on her shirt I did not give her a fish, nor did I put any line on her pole! Yes, I did this on purpose. Let's see if she notices. She does have red hair so I tried to do that. It's a bit on the orange side so maybe it was a bad dye job!

I purchased these embroidery designs on line at Julia's Needle Designs. She has so many "grannies" to choose from. She camps, she......check them out

Heart Motif

I have stitched a heart motif on an RR I am participating in.

I used Ed Mar rayon threads. The flowers are bullion roses and daisy's. I added a heart crystal in the center. There are a few beads too.

Week Five of TAST

By now Sharon has had her Sunday morning coffee and browsed all the photo's for Week 5 of TAST. She didn’t find mine because I failed to take the time to photograph my stitching. So here I am. I really need to train myself to take the photo's as soon as I finish the stitching so I can have things posted on time.

In doing this stitch, I first used pearl cotton #8 in variegated green. Then added the purple pearl cotton making it a bit longer than I did with the green thread. I added lazy daisy's and a bead to dress it up.

This is week 4 of the TAST Challenge, the cretan stitch. I used it as a seam treatment on the main seam. Again, for decoration at the bottom of the fan holding down the piece of knitting ribbon.

Use this link to join in with the stitching.
http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php/archives/category/take-a-stitch-tuesday/

This link will take you to the flickr photo gallery.
http://flickr.com/groups/56846286@N00/

Week 3 of Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge

About a month ago I had recieved an envelope with several designs to use for motifs. I decided to use the tea pot.

The peacock was emailed to me. The process I used to transfer the motif was simple. I layed "Press and Seal" over the design, then traced it. I placed the Press and Seal over the fabric and stitched. I did need to spend a few minutes removing the Press and Seal, but the results are woth it.

I used the Lazy daisy stitch on the flowers of the tea pot then as a running stitch below.

There two colors of thread used doing the lazy daisy stitch in the feather, a single one for the running stitch.

The feather was created by placing a bead in the center, adding a bullion wrapped about 35 times, then the lazy daisy stitch was added.

This link will take you to more photo's from stitchers taking the TAST Challenge.

http://flickr.com/groups/56846286@N00/

This link will take you to the TAST Challenge web site. Go ahead take the challenge and follow along with all the stitching.

http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php/archives/category/take-a-stitch-tuesday/

Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge

This weeks Take a Stitch Challenge was the butthole stitch. I decided to include two variations today.
One as a motif, making a wheel centered with a single bead. The second as a simple seam treatment.

The thread I selected was a blue varigated floss. I felt this did not show adequately in the photo. I am sure if I had selected the lighter blue varigated by DMC I would of seen the results I was looking for.

I am again sorting out this blog in hopes of getting it going again.

All the previous posts are gone so bear with me and I will be updating entries to include my crazy quilting.

Yes, that is me in the photo with my two older brothers.