Century Plant

I was out walking one morning when I saw this Agave (agave americana), or more commonly known as a Century Plant, in bloom. These cactus send up a tall stalk that looks rather like a giant asparagus, and then they bloom. Once an agave blooms, the plant dies. They actually only live 10-30 years, so calling it a century plant is not exactly right.

This is what the agave looks like before it sends up a giant stalk. This was an agave that was growing along side the  agave that was in bloom.

It's so large I had to take several photos showing each section. These always remind me of the trees in Dr. Seuss' book, The Lorax.

Here is the agave at the base .

You can see the thorns and how succulent the leaves are.

The large thick stalk.

I had to stand back far enough to get the entire plant in the photo. You can see how tall it is compared to the house next door. The agave can average 26 feet in height.

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Tammy Bag Blog Hop: My Day

 The Tammy Bag Blog Hop starts today, which is another Madame Samm Blog Hop of  Sew We Quilt. Thanks Madame Samm for creating and being our cheerleader for this hop. I love this bag!

I had this large metal purse closure on hand and so I used it without really thinking. I sewed it on by hand, which took a long time to do. Then I realized the closure was too large.

As you can see this is as wide as it will open, making it hard to get at the pockets inside the bag. I thought I should take photos of my mistake so that perhaps others might learn from this and so I won't repeat this mistake in the future either.

Here I sewed on the proper size metal closure for this bag. See how she sits up taller than the  first photo, which looks short and fat.

Now she opens up wide so that I can get to the items I place in her pockets.  Please don't look at my pink thread stitching that shows on the inside. That's the only thing I have trouble with is hiding those stitches.

I quilted my bag and added contrasting pockets and faux piping.

I quilted the inside pockets too and also added a contrasting faux piping.

I didn't have another metal hardware closure, but thought I would make this bag without it. I added a braided handle to carry her. I also added a hook.

This is the other side, which looks a bit different. I quilted the tie dyed fabric.

The hook is so that I can hook a pair of scissors or keys. The fabric tab then can be placed inside the bag pocket to keep them safe and so I don't lose my scissors.

I tucked in the sides here to see how it would look. I am thinking of adding a snap on each side  so that the sides stay like this when I am not using it. what do you think? Do you like the sides snapped in or not?

The other side of the bag with the sides tucked in.

The lining inside. I quilted the turquoise pockets and added the faux piping. To keep the bag closed I added a magnetic snap.

I also wanted to show you what I do to protect my scissors and seam ripper points: I use knitting needle point protectors. These silicone ones are made by Clover brand. The smallest ones are green and they fit perfectly over these small scissors. The purple ones are the next size up and work on my seam ripper and Fiskar scissors. I made a beaded leash for one pair of scissors so that I don't lose the point protector. 

The point protectors come in a set of 4 for these smaller sizes. They make large and extra large protectors too, but those come in packs of 2 and they are a rubber material and not silicone. There are other brands out there, but I don't know if they work as well as these. I am not affiliated with Clover in any way, I just like a lot of their products.

                                                                                    Here's the Full Schedule: 

June 12th  (Wednesday)

Tina

Melinda 

Mary

Frederika

Thearica 

Liz

Grethe

Daryl

Patty

Inga 

                                     

June 13th (Thursday)

Les

Marlene

Lisa

Anjeanette

Kristen

Marica

Lynn

Gingini

Linda J 

Nicole

Judith

June 14th (Friday)

 Bente

Jane

Wendy

Geta

Julia

Jan

Loralynn

Selina

Joan

Mara

Jan 

 June 17th (Monday)

  Rosemary

Pauline

Kris

Karen

Pauline

Roxanne

 Vickie

Cherry 
Marga

  Martina  

Jane

June 18th (Tuesday)

Felicia

Dawn

Carol

Britt-Inger

Kiera

Sharon

Jeanie

Mandy

Theresa

Mdm Samm

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The Tammy Blog Blog Hop Starts This Wednesday

The Tammy Bag Blog Hops starts Wednesday June 12th, which is also the day I share my creations here. You will also find the complete schedule for all 5 days listed on my day. I hope you join me as I share my creations and hop along to see what the other ladies have created too.

The Tammy Bag is a bag designed by Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt.

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Our Ocotillo is in Bloom

Our ocotillo is in bloom. It doesn't flower every year, so this is special. 

Oh I see a little ant crawling around the flower. Hmm...I guess the ant knew how to crawl in between all those thorns to get to the flower?

Reminds me a lot of the Bottle Brush flowers we had in California.

Had to get some photos before they were gone as they don't flower every year here.

Cactus flowers are amazing.

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Fabric Wallet

My daughter needed a wallet and I told her I could make her one. In fact since I just made her the small Savannah Bag, I said I would make the wallet using the same fabrics I used for making her bag. I ended up using a hand dyed brown fabric as the exterior, since I thought it would work the best. I didn't want to use the batik print with the palm trees for the exterior of the wallet because it was a directional print and the the trees would be upside down on the flap as it closed. So I decided to use the palm tree print on the inside of the wallet. I will make another wallet with some changes, as I perfect this design a bit.

I appliqued a paisley on the flap and hand embroidered it too. My daughter loves paisley and so do I. The purple is a velveteen fabric and the olive green fabric was a fabric that had some machine embroidery on it already and it is some kind of shiny polyester fabric.

4 credit card pockets and the last one in the back is for cash (folded cash).

I wanted to add a coin pocket under the Velcro, but it got too thick to fold properly..

My daughter likes smaller wallets like this size and I do too.  Neither of us haul around a checkbook, so we don't need those larger wallets that hold a checkbook. The bigger the wallet, the bigger your bag has to be too, right?

I put the coin pocket on the back of the wallet instead of inside the wallet because it worked better here.

I never see those linty pieces when I take the photos. How come they show up later? Lol.  Oh well my daughter has this  wallet now, so I won't be doing any photo re-shoots.

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Toys and Dolls I Made Years and Years Ago...

In amongst my grandson's toys I noticed some familiar faces. These are the dolls and toys I made for my daughter when she was a baby or little girl. My daughter (my first born) is going to turn 30 years old this October!!!! I can't believe it's been that many years ago that I made these. It was a sweet trip down memory lane to see them again. So I thought I had better snap some photos now, because I never took photos of things I made or at least not many photos before I started blogging.

Made these when I was pregnant. I wanted to be surprised as to whether I gave birth to a boy or a girl. So these bears were a perfect choice either way. What did my daughter name them when she was old enough to talk? Why "Boy Bear and Girl Bear" of course!

I even appliqued a bear on Boy Bear's tee shirt. Yes my applique skills have much improved since then.

This Waldorf style doll was actually made for my nephew when my sister had her second son.  Then when my daughter gave birth to her own son, my sister sent this to her.

The green is a velveteen fabric and so soft.

Just a simple embroidered face. I don't think this little doll got much loving because it's still so new looking.  Oh well some boys aren't that cuddly with dolls.

This bear I bought for my daughter. She named him Floyd. I knit Floyd a  rather spiffy pullover sweater with a collar out of wool yarn too.

Back of Floyd and his sweater.

Close-up of the fair isle knit pattern.

Isn't he the cutest bear?

This is a bigger Waldorf style doll I made. My daughter was about 3 years old when I made this doll for her. She named her Bambi.

Bambi is large enough to wear a newborn's size onesie. I even made the  bonnet, which my daughter wore when she was a toddler.

Bambi and her bonnet. My daughter put lip gloss on Bambi when she was little and so that's why Bambi's mouth has a stain.

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