February Stash Busting "for someone you love" Report

Well, I am just getting in under the wire, but I did sew a lot all this month. All of it was for someone/something I love!! It has just been very hard getting to the computer to write a post.  Of course I have had a lot of time at the computer looking around blog land at every one else's great creations and ideas! That kind of browsing makes it hard to get anything done around here!
I did however get a few projects off my sewing table so here is what I have been up to:

These are the new sheets for work that I talked about last time.  All out of my stash flannel, eight sheets at 2.5 yards each. That is 20 yards done and OUT! These count for me as "love sews" because they are not only for me and my job (which I love!) but, for the comfort of my patients, who I also love. (Just not the "Valentine's Day" kind of Love!
Awkward...and moving on!

This little journal cover is for my sister, Barbara, who I love a great deal.  I was asked by my sister, Linda, (who I also love a great deal!) to make this for the journal that she bought for Barbara. Barbara's husband is also very sick, he has ALS, and they were given a cruise to Greece from their church as a "bucket list" kind of thing.  So, since she draws and writes beautifully, Linda thought she needed a special book for this memory making trip, but she wanted it to have a pretty cover (like the one I made her) because Barbara is a "pretty things" kind of girl! Since I was in the middle of making a tote bag for Barbara, I used the left over material to make the cover.  The tote bag is not done yet.... but when it is, it will match! This used about a yard of fabric from my stash left overs pile.

These are pocket chair covers.  There are 27 of them and they are for our very favourite teacher.  Both my children had her and we all love her.  She sang at our wedding and I attended the birth of her twins.  They have been in my to do pile for months but with hubby sick I just couldn't get to them!  So I am thrilled that they are finally done and she LOVES them!  They used up another 15 yards out of my stash!

These are bibs for Craft Hope's project 20, bib's for China. This is a group I love being a part of.  Sewing for others is a great way to give back and make good use of lots of fabrics left over from other projects too! I used about 2.5 yards of fabric for these. They are three layers thick.

Here you can see the bibs in front and the chair covers in behind my 301.  I am so excited that I finally figured out the tension adjustment for this machine and I got to use it for a couple projects!  I had to adjust the bobbin tension, I almost never have to do that! However, it sews like a dream now.  I also set it up and tried it out for free motion quilting....beautiful!  I cannot wait to put a quilt through it!

Maybe this one, that I made this month as well. We are donating it "with love", too the hospice in memory of my daughter's music teacher's mother, who passed away from cancer just over two weeks ago. A beautiful woman who left as her contribution to the world, an extremely talented and beautiful daughter who we are privileged to know and learn from.

 Well, my sewing room is a mess, there are scraps and fabrics everywhere, but I got a lot of sewing "for love" done and used up some of the stash! 38.5 yards used but...I added some too (Yikes)! We won't talk about that right now though!
Have a great Sunday!
I am linking up over at Cation Designs - February Stash Busting Challenge!

January Stash Busting "Itty Bits" report

So, January is over and it is time to repot in on my progress after my epic fail at the fabric store the other day.
The theme for January was Itty Bits for stash busting and so in the few days I had left after I signed up (late!) I pulled together a couple small projects.  I still have one on the go (journal cover) but not done so I will report that later.  For now, I have made two tag blankets for my friends twins using left overs from the owl tag blankets I made them, a couple fat quarters from my stash and a bunch of ribbon bits.

 I also had a whole mass of scraps from straightening edges, clipping corners, odd angles from patterns, the thread bin, and small fabric bits that had "issues" (like the first cut off the bolt that has the ink stamp on it and the store clerk and I didn't notice it)! So with those and some other fabrics from my stash I made dog beds for the animal shelter here in town.

In total I made four dog beds and one cat bed. The dog beds are fairly big. Three are 30x24 and the 4th is 24x18 ish, that one is made from all the corners we cut out making fleece tie blankets at Christmas so more scraps gone there! The cat bed fits the bottom of a small travel kennel. That was a LOT of itty bits out of my sewing area.

I also sewed up several of the flannel sheets out of the project pull pile that were intended for my office so that is about 20 yards of fabric ready to move out too.  Not a bad start to the stash busting project.
I can't wait to go see how everyone else is doing, this is very motivating!
Have a great day!

Confessions and Commitments

Yes, I have some confessions regarding a brand new commitment I made.  I also have some confessions about my fabric hoard stash. I will warn you that this post is picture heavy!

Just a few days ago, I made a commitment over at Cation Designs (see link on side bar) that I would use up fabric already in my stash this year and that I would do my best to limit any new acquisitions to just what is needed to complete the project that I am making from my stash. I cheated!  We were out of town to see a Doctor for my husband and I went to the fabric store and purchased three fabrics.  Two tiny pieces that will go into an art quilt that is rattling around in my brain and then 10 meters of fabric for chair covers for my daughters school. So guilty!

So, to make myself more accountable, I took pictures of my stash to post in hopes that it would help me follow up with my commitments on the stash busting sew a long. If it is all here in colour, maybe I'll remember to use it!  I am also posting the fabrics that I pulled to make projects with in the near future.

So here goes:
In the cutting room,

A change table full of interfacing and a few bolts

The batiks underneath

Two drawers of Fat Quarters and such

Shelf ONE

Shelves TWO and THREE!

Bins of Fabric Under the Cutting Table

In one Spare room:

In the Laundry Room! 

In the Other Spare room!

 
Every spare surface is covered!  And, I'm not done!!

There is more in the room where I actually sew, which is also the kids play room.

It is bad, really bad!  And I didn't pretty it up for this confession!

So here is my stack of very soon to be sewn, fabrics from my stash.

Some of it is already cut up into the projects they are going to become, so I am on my way to wrangle this stash into something reasonable!  Also, if you look back at the stack of flannels on the Featherweight table, it is going to become sheets for my treatment table soon too, so that will be gone as well. In total it is about 62 meters of fabric. It is a good start, but I better not get all happy about it, I have a serious de-stash ahead!
If you need to get in control of yours too, go click the button and check out the program, I'd be happy to have more company!

Have a great day!
Penny

It has been Forever....

It seems as though I have not posted on here in FOREVER!  Although it was April and not actually FOREVER, it still feels like I have been gone a long time.
We have had a very rough year and it appears things are going to get worse before they hopefully get better. Briefly, because I don't want to make this a sad blog space, my husband is battling cancer yet again.
We thought he was done and good to go, but at his six month check up, they found lung cancer.  Not metastasized from his colon cancer of last year, but a new and totally different type of cancer. Stage three and inoperable. They felt that it would be treatable with chemo and radiation if it hadn't spread too widely so they did a PET scan to check.
Well, they found the lung cancer was treatable (curative or palliative is yet to be seen) but not until they treated the colon cancer that the scan found had returned.  A double dose of cancer, two types squamous and adenocarcinoma was very hard to swallow.  It also initiated a very busy schedule of appointments and surgery and a two month "semi" recovery. So that in a nut shell is why I have been away so long.

I have been sewing still, but just in the brief moments in between higher demands. I can't say I will be writing with any regularity but I am hoping that I can find some time to just check in and post up things that I find joy in.  Somewhere there needs to be a memoir of the joy otherwise life would seem very bleak.

So for some happy thoughts to sign of with:

Kodi and Pedro, our new family members

A few of the chair covers I made for my daughter's teacher

A few of the things we made for Craft Hope

As I scroll through my photos I am reminded that there are many things that I want to share.  I hope this will motivate me to a place where I can come and share and be happy, realizing that over all, life is good!

Enjoy the day.

Penny

Just invited!

I know it is late on Saturday but I just found this invitation so I am going! Jump over to Sew Many Ways and join us! I have so many things to sew since I have started Christmas sewing already!  Yes Christmas! We are hoping to renovate our house this summer so I need to get done my Christmas gifts as we will be most likely living on our boat.  There isn't much room for sewing on the boat so I am getting my act together now!
Have a great evening.
I will post what I made soon!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter.  We had a wonderful weekend with family and friends.  Even Asia (our dog) had her sister over.  The weather was reasonably "springy" and the sun was out so I am not about to complain.

Morning at the park

As always, we seem to be crazy busy here and I have decided it is not going to change any time soon!  So I will pop in and post when I can, as much as real life lets me! I also want to try to get some of the tutorials I have been photographing finished and posted.  I have a multitude of projects done and given away but no time to post!

Then there is always this type of adventure that sucks the time out of your free days....

Who know these things could explode like that?  It certainly was a big mess to clean out of my top corner cupboard!  Picture me standing on my counter trying not to fall off, wiping this mess off of the lazy susan that wants to turn every time I touch it....  Ya, that was fun!

Anyway, life is good!

Be back soon.

Penny

Long Time Away

Hello there.  It has been a long time since I have been able to post in my blog, but I am back finally!

Life has been very busy here but I think things are about to settle into a nice routine in anticipation of Spring.

Christmas and New Years went well this year and thankfully quiet and uneventful.  My sister travelled home from BC and arrived safely in Ontario.  I have to say that winter driving across Canada in the winter is not the safest idea, but all went well and I am happy to have her home!

The fall was full of sewing projects, just not stuff that was for us.  As you all know I was sewing for the production of Annie that my daughter was in, which went very well.  Then our group was asked to go straight into helping the ladies who were sewing for the production of The King and I.  It was CRAZY busy and very different from sewing for Annie.  You might say from Rags To Riches!  Sewing silk and Satin are not my favourites as I don't like the "fray factor".  However, it all turned out well and the show was a great success.

On health notes, my hubby is doing remarkably well and has been able to stop Chemotherapy!  This is a huge relief and a great blessing.  He is recovering from the side effects and has been able to go back to work.  That has made him so incredibly happy, he is like a new man.
My best friend Bee also had her latest surgery and all went well.  She is home recovering.

Aside from sewing for Christmas gifts, which I really didn't get a chance to take pictures of due to the severe lack of time left after The King and I, I spent a good deal of our holiday time sewing a quilt for Bee to take to the hospital with her.  It was her birthday gift, just a little late, since her birthday is boxing day and I didn't get it done until the first week of January!  It arrived in time to go to the hospital though and that was all that mattered.

The quilt top was a "rescue" from our local Value Village and was originally intended as a practice quilt for learning free motion quilting on my new sewing machine but it was her favourite colour and she needed it in a hurry.  Since it was already in the machine and underway, I just changed what I was going to do with it to something that suited the occasion.

Her "people"!

Encouragement

I stitched the names of all her family, friends and pets into the boarders along with some words of encouragement and added die cut GO! Ribbons in the colour of the Endometriosis campaign along with an official ribbon to the centre of the quilt.  This worked great and was a total relief because before it was going to be Bee's quilt, I had NO IDEA what was going to happen in the middle of this quilt!


I wanted her to feel wrapped in the love of everyone close to her during her stay at the hospital and she loved it.  Each stitch reminded her of how much she is loved and why she needed to pull through this surgery.

She is now home safe and snuggling up with her quilt healing.

I'll be back soon to fill you in on the project that is consuming all of my time now shortly!