Have a Happy New Year!

I want to wish all my friends and followers a safe Happy New Year's eve and a joyous New Year in 2020.

Thank you for following me on my blog adventure. I have been blogging since March 2008, which is a record when you see all those who have left the blogging community for other social media or just stopped blogging for other reasons.

I blog to document my work and hopefully inspire some of you along the way. I know I have been inspired from other bloggers and my readers too.

It's so hard to believe tomorrow is the start of 2020! 20 years ago we were all worried about computers crashing as we heading into the year 2000 and those 20 years just flew by!
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Makerist $2 PDF Sale

It's Makerist's $2 pdf pattern sale going on now from December 25-31. Thousands of patterns are on sale from knitting, crochet, sewing, quilts and more.

I have listed all my patterns to be included in this sale. Not all patterns are on sale; some designers are joining the sale and some are listing some of their patterns or all of them for the sale. So go and check them out. I already bought  few pdf's myself.

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To all my friends, I want to wish you a joyous holiday season.

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LED Arc Floor Lamp

I was contacted by Brightech and offered a lamp in exchange for a review and posting on social media. I had a choice of 5 styles of different lamps and I chose the LED Arc Floor Lamp.

When it arrived in the evening on Wednesday, Mr. P assembled it for me and put it in my sewing room. It is rather a large and impressive lamp, but with the arc of the lamp I knew that it would be good lightening over my sewing machine in the corner (where it's usually a bit dark). It illuminates that corner very nicely.

The lamp has a large heavy marble base and comes in 3 metal finishes for the pole. I chose the satin nickel finish. It has a push button switch on the cord that sits on the floor, so you can step on it to turn it on, however I plugged my lamp into a power strip. The arc can be pulled out all the way, or if you want less of an arc, not pulled out as much. Overall it is a very attractive looking lamp!

The lamp comes well packaged and shipping is free on any order from Brightech. The prices for all their lightening seems very reasonable, and when you go to their website you can click on pop ups for additional discounts. Below is the diagram with measurements of the Arc Floor  Lamp (photo from Brightech).

This lamp would look great in a living room. It is very sturdy and puts out a nice amount of illumination. The LED is a warm more yellow color, but the bulb can easily be replaced with a white daylight bulb if that is preferred.

Thank you Brightech for the lamp!
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3 Small Diamond Pouches in Hot Air Balloon Fabric

A few months ago I made these Diamond Pouches in size small, using the last of this hot air balloon fabric. I used a different color accent and different linings for each bag. I though they would be  sell at the October and/or November craft show I did. one sold at the October show, but I still have 2 left. You can never tell what will be a good seller from year to year.

I made this bag before in small, medium and large. and I love how ingenious this bag is to sew together! It is unlike any bag I have ever sewn. It opens up nice and wide and you don't need a frame either. The linings fit so nice and snug (like all of Liz's bag patterns do) and you can add strap tabs and a strap if you want to make any of the sizes into a purse. No instructions to do the strap, but if you have some bag making experience, it wouldn't be  hard to do. I plan on making some more of these in all one fabric next time.

The pattern is a pdf from Liz of Moments by Liz and she is finally on Etsy, so you can find this pdf and all her other pdf's on Etsy.

Inside all the bags is a zippered pocket too. See how nice and wide this opens up?

This is the one that sold.

All 3 small Diamond Pouches.

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Name Tags I made for My Knitting Group and a Few Quilters too

A few years ago I made name tags for the stitching group I belong to (mostly knitters). As with most groups, we gained some new people to the group and some of the other women who used to come had moved away or stopped coming. The new ladies asked about the name tags they saw some of the other women wearing, and was told that I made them.

I wanted to make sure that these women would continue to come to the group before I made more name tags, because the first group of name tags I made, 2 of the ladies never came back and never got those name tags at all, so I didn't want to take the time and make them if they never returned. Since they inquired again about the name tags, I wrote down their names and decided I would make them name tags and while I was at it, I made myself a new name tag and I made some for a couple of my quilt friends too.

Here are the name tags I made. They are a necklace style with a pocket to hold your glasses or knitting tools like stitch markers or a cable needle, or a pen and a small pad of paper. I gave these out to the women a couple of months ago, except for 2 who weren't at the meeting.

This is my name tag.

I used double stacked buttons to attach the neck strap.

Tara is not part of the knitting group I belong to, even though she is a knitter, but is my friend from a quilt group we belong to. I added the Day of the Dead buttons on hers because she likes and buys fabric with that motif, but she took the buttons off for some reason. Had I known she would take the buttons off, I would have used other buttons. Oh well, it's her name tag and she has to be happy with it. I know she likes the name tag and has been wearing it.

I made Teri a name tag when I made the original name tags years ago, but I spelled her name incorrectly with 2 "r's" instead of one "r". So since I was making name tags already, I decided to make her a new one with her name spelled correctly. Even though Teri said she loved her name tag, I know only too well how people misspell my name all the time by spelling it with 2 "r's" instead of one "r' too. She wasn't at the meeting when I gave out the other name tags, so I hope she shows up in December.

I made this for my quilting friend who is a long arm quilter. We had a craft show at her home last week and I gave this to her a few weeks before we had the show. She said she loved it and really needed a name tag, but never got around to making one for herself. So I was glad it was a nice and useful gift to give her.

Helen wasn't at the meeting when I gave the others their name tags, so I hope she and Teri come to the December meeting.

I decided to make this name tag for a women in my quilt group who moved to another state. We all gave her batik fabrics (her favorite fabric and mine too), but I decided to make her a name tag in batik fabrics too (all these name tags were made using batik fabrics). I figured she would be joining a new quilt group where she moved to and might want a new name tag.

To show you the pocket from above.

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Norah Handbag in Autumn Leaves Fabric

I made the Norah Handbag over a month ago. The pattern is by SOTAK Patterns. I chose Autumn leaves for this bag and love how it looks.

The pattern is well written and easy to follow, but of course I had to add my own extras like I added purse feet and a zippered pocket inside the bag as well as the slip pocket it called for.

One side of the bag has a slip pocket.

The other side of the bag has a zippered pocket with a slip pocket behind it.

Inside the bag I added a zippered pocket that wasn't called for in the pattern. There is a slip pocket across from it and the bag closes with a magnetic snap.

Slip pocket.

I added purse feet on the bag too.

I hope this one sells next week at the last craft show I am doing this year.

I like this bag and will be making some more in different colors and prints. But I cannot sew until my shoulder impingement is gone and then I will be slowing down so that I do not injure my shoulder again! Had the pain for 4 months now! I am so bored and want to sew so badly! I have a lot of things I haven't posted that were made earlier this year, so I will post those when I can. Must limit my computer use too.

This bag has SOLD!

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Hot Stuff Travel Case for Curling Iron or Flat Iron

Another pattern that I tested for Around the Bobbin is the Hot Stuff Curling (or Flat) Iron Travel Case. This case has a silicone insert. This one I made twice because all of us testers had trouble with one area that we sewed and Lisa rewrote the instructions so that the insert is now removable. It wasn't hard to sew and sewing through silicone is easy. Since I have curly hair and don't need a curling iron, I used my heat gun as a prop in the photos, lol!

This was the first test I did. I had just enough of  this piece of Geisha fabric to make this too. I thought it was a perfect fabric showing the Geisha women primping.

There is a front pocket to hold the cord.

This is the back side of the case.

The silicone insert inside.

Updated sewing method for one section of this test version. This one has the silicone as a removable insert. The front pocket holds the cord.

This is the back side.

Silicone insert.

Heat gun used as my prop, lol!

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