Thursday, March 31, 2016

Thrift Store Find

I was at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago and spotted this handbag there. The price on it was $3.99, but I had a 30% coupon off my total purchase and I found a couple other items to buy too. So this bag cost me $2.80 (plus sales tax). I took the bag apart because the reason I bought it was for all those rings, 34 rings in all; plus I can use the zipper and the magnetic snap again also. Score! I will be able to make quite a few handbags using those rings. I have black D-rings and bronze colored D-rings already, so now I have silver round rings and should be able to choose the best color ring to go with whatever fabric I am using.

Look at all those rings and rivets. Too bad I cannot reuse the rivets!

After removing what I could reuse from the handbag I ended up with this: 34 rings, a zipper for a pocket and a magnetic snap.

34 rings should last me a while. They ended up costing me less than 9 cents apiece including sales tax!


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Sunday, March 27, 2016

Woman's Knit Hat

This was a nice hat to knit and the yarn is so soft. I bought one skein of this yarn last year at a garage sale and the label was missing, so I don't know what it is. It is soft and has a nice drape to the yarn.

I bought the Styrofoam head and the wig at a thrift shop (different days). I thought it would look nicer to photograph hats this way. My hair is dark and curly like this wig too (except I have a bit of gray now too). Now if I can only find something to photograph a scarf well. The thrift shop has a few mannequins, but they aren't for sale, darn! Maybe I will find a cheap one some day. I wanted to show several angles so there are several photos of the hat.

If you would like to purchase this knit hat please email me. $20.00 + postage.








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Friday, March 25, 2016

The North Pond Notebook Cover

I recently tested a notebook cover for Sara of Radiant Home Studio. This is a really cute and useful cover with pockets and a closure to keep everything secure. There are 2 sizes to choose from too. The larger size fits a Composition Note Book and the smaller size fits a Moleskine planner. I had to look up Moleskine to see what it was exactly, since I wasn't sure, lol!

You can add 2 pockets sizes to the inside of these covers or choose just one or not add a pocket at all if you don't want one. These were easy to make, but of course as a tester I found some things needed to be a larger size, or a smaller size or just needed to be clarified more, etc. That's why as a designer it is so good to have others test your patterns. By the time a customer buys a pattern that has been tested, the instructions will be perfectly clear. To see all the covers from the testers you can go here. Here are Sara's links to her shop and Etsy if you would like to purchase this or any of her patterns.

Here are the large and small covers that I made:
This is the large cover to fit the Composition Notebook, shown here.


I made these brown smaller pockets a bit differently than the pattern instructions say to make them. It was a bit thick though on the sides and bottom for turning. I usually make my pockets like this if I were sewing binding around the outside. So on the smaller cover I made the patch pockets as per the instructions.


This is the smaller notebook cover.

I made my own notebook to fit this cover using card stock and paper. I sewed the patch pockets here as per the patterns instructions. The patch pocket was easier to sew this way. Although mine is a bit crooked, lol!!! Oops.



I used a key ring for the ring here. You can use whatever ring you have on hand. 



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Thursday, March 24, 2016

Knit Baby Hats For Charity

I knit a few baby hats for a charity called Caps for Good. One of the women in my knitting group told us about this and several of us knit a few baby hats for the cause. We all have yarn already and this was a good way to use some of it up.
This is a really soft yarn.


I knit 2 different hats using this soft mohair-like yarn.


This hat has a wider ribbing on the brim.


This is a fun hat to knit. It is a diagonal lace pattern and the flower is part of the pattern that is knit separately. 


No small mannequin head to photograph these hats, so I used a balloon. As you can see it was a red balloon!
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Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Happy 8-Year Blog Anniversary to Me!!!

Hello friends. I can't believe that today is my 8th year blogging here. I have met so many wonderful people through blogging from all over the world. I enjoy writing my posts for you to read and see what I have been creating, but I also love to look at so many other blogs that I follow too. I know I have been inspired by so many of you and I hope that you have found some inspiration here on my blog from me. I feel like I belong to a virtual quilting guild, knitting guild, and bag making guild, etc.

My very first post was showing a handbag I made from some fabric that I hand dyed.
I hand dyed this fabric and then made the Essential Diva Handbag using this fabric.

Click HERE to see more photos from my first blog post March 22, 2008.

I sometimes amaze myself at all the things I have created in the past 8 years! But there has been so much more that I created before I blogged and even more before I took photos of my work. Way before there were digital cameras and the internet and computers. I guess I am a bit of a dinosaur, lol!!! 

I love to share what I have created here with you. I hope that my blogging has inspired you to try something new. I know that I am inspired every day by my blogging friends and I feel blessed to be a part of such a wonderful creative bunch of people from around the world. I want to thank all my followers for sharing this blog adventure with me.
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Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Patriotic Banner

At the end of January, the Patriotic Banner that I made using the Patriotic Primer fabric line by Henry Glass Fabrics, was featured on the Henry Glass website for their Desire to Inspire series. You can go there to read more about me if you are interested.

 I wanted to post these photos here on my blog now too, in case you didn't see them. I was sent several fabrics in the line and a panel with the flag and other smaller prints. I used the fabrics to add borders to the flag and faux blocks. I added rickrack and crystals to all the mini quilts I made and strung them up into a banner that hangs in our living room up high.















I added a crystal to the center of all 50 stars, and on some of the border flowers.

I added crystals to the center of the flowers.


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