One Flower Wednesday and another tote bag

 Inspiring Quote for today----

 The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart.   --Thich Nhat Hanh



I have been working a little on parts of the Yellow Brick Road...........I added some pavers to the flower I had made awhile back of Toto on the Yellow Brick Road and made another small piece to go near Dorothy's house.....

 Last Wednesday I showed you some flowers that transitioned from the Munchkinland houses to the sky and so here is how all of the flowers fit into the Oz Hanging......I had thought that the hanging would be more or less 24" high by 36" wide....I hope it isn't going to be a lot bigger than that but historically many of my projects seem to grow as I work on them.....lol.....

Each week Karen from Journey of a Quilter opens up her linky for OFW where we can all post our hexagon flowers....please go check out the rest of her garden by clicking HERE...........

I made another bag last week.  This is another Christmas gift.....and it is made from the same pattern as the Radiology Bones Bag I showed you last week................

The quilted fabric lining is really a darker brown than the photo shows..............

Ok that is it for today...............I will talk to you again next time  so Ta-Ta for now..................


  

Now this is more like it......

What lies behind us & what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.  ---Ralph Waldo Emerson


I got another bag done....and as my post title says, "this is more like it"....more like the crafty quick-sewing person I used to be before I began to visit the land of "UFO'S".....lol...I used to start on a project and have it finished in no time......anyway, I finished the Celestial bag last night.  This makes 4 bags started and finished within about a week and a half!  I have to admit these are all small projects, and not like a whole quilt or anything, though............my UFO's still glare at me from their storage areas wondering when their turn will come......

 Again, I adapted a pattern because I wanted a larger opening at the top for better access.  This pattern is called "Sweet Pleat" from allpeoplequilt.com  In retrospect, I wish I had ordered a little more of this fabric so I could have allowed for the pattern run and not had to cut off some of the motifs....a lesson learned....
  

  The pleat in the center starts on one side and continues underneath the bag to the other side.... 

 

I struggled with the decision on how to place the straps and what to make them out of and finally decided to use only one strap because I had a gorgeous braided belt that was perfect for this bag and I wanted to use it..........
since it was nylon and thick I inserted the ends into an envelope made of the same fabric I used for the pleat.  This made it easier to sew onto the bag.  Then I added some wonky yellow star buttons.....
 and also some smaller wonky stars above the pleats...                  

 

 So there we go....all the bags for my ladies are done....still have one to go for my Sis.  I have a couple of nice things to show you tomorrow that came in the mail.  I'll post them with the progress on The Mystery QAL after noon tomorrow when the next clue comes out.......so that's it for today....

Ta-Ta for now..........talk to you tomorrow.....

 

One Flower Wednesday and some Christmas Gifts....

You can never do a kindness to soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.   --Ralph Waldo Emerson




It's that day again...........the day when Karen at Journey of a Quilter puts her linky up for One Flower Wednesday and if you will click on the link I provided you can see all the beautiful hexagon flowers growing there..................
Here are the hexies I have to show you  this week.  This is one of the flowers that transitions from Munchkinland houses to the sky......That is a Munchkinland Rooftop you see in the bottom center petal and you might remember the bubbles coming down and around Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.....

The flower fits between these two partial flowers.......

Like this.............

So next week remember I showed you all the equivalent of two flowers today in case all I have to show you is where they fit into the wall hanging......lol......and I have a good excuse if I don't get another flower ready because I have been busy trying to work on all those Christmas tote-bags I told you about on my last post.......

so far I have finished two of them...............a "Frieda Kahlo" bag and a "Radiology Bones" bag..............One of the ladies on my staff loves all things Frieda Kahlo and another loves all things having to do with bones and Radiology............so here they are:

First, here is Frieda...................and this is the same pattern I used on the "Pink for the Cure Bag" I showed you on my last post....

 Both the outside and lining have this cool bottom part..... so it sits nice and flat when you set it down...

 Inside of Frieda Bag------>

I used the same fabric inside as I used on the upper portion of the outside of the bag.  Although I love the way it looks and matches and I believe this was the right fabric to use on this bag I still like the ease of using the pre-quilted fabric, as well as the stability it gives the bag  when used for the inside.

And here is the Radiology "Bones Bag".......(I would NEVER pick this fabric for me but she's gonna love it!  Would you believe the fabric even glows in the dark???  Yep...it does...)

This pattern is called "For Pleats Sake" and is a free U-handbag pattern .

When reading the instructions about the "V-openings" I was a bit lost and wasn't sure what was meant by that (I do not love reading instructions...)  but after finishing them I was so amazed.  These so-called V-openings.....(I prefer to call them "side slits" haha) give so much more access to the inside of the deep bag.....you can see EVERYTHING clear down to the bottom!  As you can see I used the pre-quilted fabric on the inside of this bag.....

I have one more bag to go and this one will have a celestial theme to it......I finally picked a pattern and, of course, I couldn't just use the pattern "as is" but instead made a few changes.....I'm all done except for the handle and the closure..... ............I'll plan to show that finish to you on Friday so Ta-Ta for now......................




 

Totes and Mystery and Free Shipping, Oh My!

“ Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. ”  ― Jules Renard  I love that quote!  hahaha........and I will have to remember it......when I get lazy....feel like resting...... Today I want to show you a tote I made as a donation to our local "Pink for the Cure" campaign where I work.  I found some fabric which was so different from all the pink fabric you see for the "Pink" campaign that I just had to buy it............I found a fabulous, not so difficult, free pattern called "Gathered Bag"  which I found on the  SewSheCan  website but the creator originally posted on her blog at  Bumble Bee Bliss. I confess that I changed the pattern a bit........I added two inches to the length which made it a wee bit deeper and used a pre-quilted fabric for the lining which I really love.       I added some rings to each strap end (but forgot to photograph them before giving the tote away) so that you could clip maybe your key ring, etc to the outside. There is one pocket on the inside and I added a magnetic closure.  The pattern calls for more ruffles on the handle straps but I had decided to leave the ruffles off.  I didn't like the way the color of the strapping I chose for the handles looked with the bag so I wrapped them in the same fabric I had used for the tote instead....... I have three wonderful ladies on my staff at work on the weekends and I am going to make each of them a tote this year for Christmas.  I think I will use this same pattern for one of them but I may make the opening a wee bit larger on the next one...............   Now the second part of my post today is just to tell you that I am waiting for Clue#3 for my Mystery Quilt....the Jack of Hearts Quilt QAL I am doing.  We were supposed to pick three fabrics;  a dark, a medium, and a light.......here are my choices.......  I actually changed the light fabric later because I had "stolen" it from a future project......and after clues 1 & 2 here is where we are:     Clue#1  Clue #2  I was not really wanting to do a heart quilt, in spite of the name it was given (Jack of Hearts....named after the recipient of the proceeds) but Clue #2 certainly looks like hearts to me................... Well we get Clue#3 today at noon Pacific time so we shall see......... Finally the last part of my post is Free Shipping!  For those of you who don't get the Green Fairy Quilts newsletter I just wanted to let you know that Judi and Clint are offering free shipping on their website for 4 days only............I believe you just enter "freeship"when you check out and for international sales enter "discount" for a discount on the shipping............. Ok my blogging friends..........upstairs I go to make a totebag...............Ta-Ta for now.........................

Witches in Bubbles.....One Flower Wednesday

“ Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. ”  ― Mark Twain 

Last week I teased you all with a flower with a whole lot of pink in it.....and this week I will show you who it is!  

My lovely blogging friend, Kat, from Made with Love and Ladybug Hugs is two for two now! (Me thinks I am not the only Wizard of Oz Groupie around these parts..).......

When Dorothy first met Glinda, (The good witch), Glinda came floating down in a big bubble and when I made the original Glinda flower below, I was trying to sort of make her look like she was in a bubble by using the bubbly, swirly fabrics.....

 

After finding the new Oz fabric which included more of her body, I decided to switch out the center of the flower with a different view of Glinda.....

 And I also took out one of the petals above and moved another one down using it as a paver, instead, in an effort to try to make it look like she had just"floated" down in the bubble.....I don't know how successful I was but I think I can see it if I squint and hold my head just the right way.....lol......

Here she is in her place next to the Lollipop Guild........

 I am continuing to work on this section of the quilt and next week I will show you the flower that will connect the Munchkinland houses to the sky.....

Some of my followers have asked if I have been following some kind of "Master Plan" or if this is coming to me as I work on it and the answer is "Yes"......LOL

Let me explain;  I do have a plan in my head but when I first envisioned this plan I didn't have much of the Oz fabric that I have found since starting the project.  I learned that Timeless Treasures printed about 6 different Oz collections which are now out of print but I have been able to get my hands on quite a few of them.  These great Oz prints  have lent themselves so well to the idea in my head.
 At times, I have had to kind of adapt the flowers I made at the beginning and I have several flowers I made at the beginning that I'm really not sure where I will put them......til I get there.......

So, just like Dorothy did......I am exploring my way through Oz and at the end of my adventure I will have a wonderful Quilt to hang in my Dining Room that says, "There's No Place Like Home".......

Ta-Ta for now......talk to you again next time.........

Don't forget to go to Karen's Flower Garden at Journey of a Quilter to see the other pretty flowers growing there..............

  

 

Reminiscing.......of Halloweens gone by.....

The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become. -Heraclitus

I was blog hopping the other day from my dashboard and I was drawn to a post by Jann at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Jann put up the cutest decoration she made from her daughter's collection of skeleton keys on her bulletin board.   But what really caught my interest (aside from the cool deco) was some photos she posted of the Halloween costumes she had made for her children when they were younger.....

Well that sent me on a trip to "nostalgia-land"....(otherwise known as old photographs) and I began picking out all the Halloween costume photos I could find of my own creations over the years.....and here I am shamelessly going to copy Jann's idea and show you the photos of my darling children, nephews and nieces over the Halloween years.......


 Here is one of the very first costumes I made for my son, Jeremy....I would say this is probably around 1977.....

 Jump to around 1983 and here we have Mr. Patrick the clown on the left, Jeremy Scarecrow in the middle and Count Luke Dracula on the right....don't think there was too much sewing done with these, and my Sis, Barbara, was the face-painting expert for the makeup.....

Just below is Josh, the King of Clubs.....and standing with his mother, "Chiquita Banana"........around 1989...
 
 

 

 













Here is one of my favorites of Luke and Patrick the Jailbirds...................also around 1989.....notice the wrist chains and jailhouse window bars???   
 

and here is Count Josh Dracula around 1992.....

One of my favorite Halloween Costumes was of Patrick as a Pirate, complete with peg leg and parrot on his shoulder but, alas, that photo wasn't to be found today.....I think it may be in an earlier batch of photos I was scanning......But I digress......

After my own kids were no longer having Mom make their costumes, I began making them for my nieces......here are a few of those..... 

Here is a sweet little Snow White (Erin) and Rapunzel (Jessie)

And here are the same sweet girls as a harem girl and the Queen of the Nile.....  

.....and as a cowgirl and Indian Maid.......














I mentioned to my Sis, Lynette (my niece, Sara's, Mom) that I missed making these little costumes and she said, "Sara would probably love it if you still made her costumes!..."
My own kids still dress up for Costume parties and visit the second hand stores to come up with supplies for their own creations, some of which have been quite inventive!

But without further ado I bring you the Lovely Sara as Queen Amidala and as Jeannie, the Geni........

 

and that completes our show for today...thank you all for coming and Ta-Ta for now...............see you again on One Flower Wednesday.........

One Flower Wednesday...Talking Tree and another Sneak Peek....

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.   -Lao-Tze

 I think I may have posted that quote before but I think it bears repeating, don't you?.........


Wednesday is the day the lovely Karen at Journey of a Quilter has a link-up for us to post our hexagon flowers and today I am posting to OFW with our Aussie friends.  (one day early for the USA but it should be Wednesday somewhere!)

Ok last week I showed you Dorothy and part of the Talking Apple Tree and I promised to show you the rest of it but first.......look at this:

"But, Ida", you say....."that isn't even a whole flower!  Look...there is a petal missing"......well yes that is true but I can give you another hint.......It fits just to the right of these little fellows....remember the Lollipop Guild?

 




  















ok, ok.....one more hint but that's it........this partial flower fits underneath it.......

I know some of you already have this figured out, right?

Well that's all the hints you get and there you have nearly two new flowers from me this week....(well you all already know that Ida's flowers are not your usual hexies, right and you will let me get away with posting some partial-hexies????)

What???  I'm forgetting to show you the rest of the Talking Tree I promised last week?  How could I forget a thing like that.....here it that mean old tree.....

 Don't forget to check out the other flowers at Karen's OFW page.....Click HERE

 Alrighty then...........I am off to work....one more day and then off tomorrow to hopefully get something done on my Mystery Quilt and other projects...............talk to you later on in the week...........Ta-Ta for now.....................

Mystery Quilt and Happy Mail today!

Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you.    -Heidi Johnson

Amazing how looking at the same thing and realizing how much we have done rather than how much is left to do really works....I have to try to remember that.......

So here it is Saturday and I have already done one of my  graveyard shifts this weekend.....one more to go!  This week the Mystery Quilt-a-long I joined sent the first clue.....here are the 3 fabrics I have chosen.....we were to pick a dark, a medium, and a light.....the one on the left is what I decided was the medium print.  I bought a lot of in the spring thinking it would make a good quilt backing......and I should still have plenty of it for that purpose on this quilt.  I found a companion print online for the "dark" choice and got the light at my local fabric shop:

 Actually, this photo shows the light print which I "stole" from another future project and photographed it before putting it back with that project and buying the replacement which is similar in color but a little different pattern.....
As you probably know, the mystery quilt is revealed as we get clues each week.....I still haven't started even though we received that clue yesterday but I will.....I am still quite distracted with the Oz quilt for some reason.....
In case you might be interested....just click on this pretty flower to find out more info....it is still early enough to start.....and it is for a great cause.....

 I got this snappy scrappy block today in the mail from my Block Swap Adventure partner, Ann, today.  Out of several patterns I chose this seems to be the most popular, which is great because it is going to make a fabulous quilt, don't you think?

 
 Here are all the blocks I've received so far:

And just for grins I mixed them in with my 2.5 inch postage stamp blocks:

I really like photographing the layouts because they allow me to see the patterns emerging in the blocks better.  I'm thinking I will have to see what other blocks I get before deciding on the layout....the blocks with the diamonds really pop so I'll have to be careful how I place them.....

Ok I guess I have rambled on enough today.....I will say "Ta-Ta for now" and will catch you all on One Flower Wednesday.....
 

It's Still One Flower WEDNESDAY and More Talking Trees

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you. -Sri Ram

Ok  I still have 35 minutes to get this posted while it is still Wednesday......so here goes:

Do you remember when Dorothy and her friends got to the forest of Apple trees and Dorothy reaches up to pick an apple to eat?  Well, the Apple tree slaps her hand and says, "What do you think you're doing?"  Dorothy replies that she was hungry and wanted to pick an apple to eat, to which the tree replies, "well how would YOU like it if somebody picked something off you?"

Next week I will show you the rest of the tree!  See the tree's hands grabbing Dorothy?  If you all haven't already, don't forget that each week Karen hosts a linky where we can all post our flowers........she has more pretty flowers for you to see at One Flower Wednesday..........click and see!

I got a lovely scrappy block from my swap partner at the Block Swap Adventure this week.........Karyli sent me this pretty block to go with my others:

I have been swapping postage stamp blocks recently......and started sewing them together.....I think I want to just sew them altogether without any sashing but for now I am making 8x8 blocks..........(actually what I have so far are 4x8's so that I can switch them around easier if I'm not happy with the layout) 

Here is what I have so far.........

Did you all notice the pretty pink flower at the top of my right LEFT sidebar?

It is the button for a mystery quilt along to benefit a little boy named Jack who was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  At first the doctors said it was inoperable but a second opinion changed that.  The surgery has been done but recovery has been a challenge so the proceeds of the mystery quilt along will go to help him with his recovery.  If you are interested in joining just click on the pink daisy above.....I did!

Ok I have four minutes to get this posted before Thursday so I will say Ta-Ta for now..............see you next time.....