Teaching Tonight :)

It has been a major push around our house for me to get over this lingering cold. Along the way I have been telling you that I need to make display items for the mini sweatshirt jacket workshop I am teaching. Well tonight is the night and I have finished all but the printing of the handouts... It had been 10 pages long... but I have gotten it down to 4 pages. Which is a good thing...

I also needed to make the parts of the jackets and at least one completed jacket. As I am off to another interview this afternoon, I need to have it all set to go now. Let me share some pictures with you :)

This is the box with everything inside, except for the jacket right now.

I will need to teach how to make a sweatshirt jacket in 12 minutes... Something that has taken me about 12 hours to put together.

Here is some pictures of the completed American Girl Doll sweatshirt jacket. This one is going to be Miss E's AG Doll, Sammi's jacket. The pattern you see in the back is from Liberty Jane Clothing which has a collection of 18" doll clothing.

This is the front of the jacket, notice the heart shaped button for closure, rather than a zipper.

Yes Ms G I did include inseam pockets on this jacket. You will be able to check it out tonight.

The doll stand can also be purchased at the Liberty Jane Clothing Website. 

This is the back of the jacket, you can see the inseam pocket open. 

The front, the pattern, the doll stand... all ready to be shown tonight! Yea!!!

So now I can take this off of my WIP list! {{Does a Happy Dance around the dining room}}Sweetness :)

Ok, off to get ready for this afternoon and evening...

Thanks for stopping by! Ciao for now :)

J :)

Amazing story from Texas

On Facebook today I saw this amazing story from another quilter, who shared this story The Blind Quilter. Really inspiring story.


On another note, I am trying to finish up the B-day quilts. As I went to pin the binding onto the photo quilt, I noticed that I am shy by about 3/4 of an inch of fabric in one corner and I have over 2 inches of the same block on the opposite corner... yep, it has been 'cut & pasted' and doesn't show (that much...). It is after all the bottom back of the quilt... maybe nobody will notice... yea, right, my sister (who reads this blog on a regular basis) will be checking to see if she can spot it...

So, I need to get finished on this quilt. And the WIP's are piling up and I need to have the American Girl jackets cut and sorted for the class in less than two weeks, I need to have at the very least 3 jackets. I think I'll make it into a tutorial... and share... I'll have to check that out...


In the meantime... today has been one of those gloomy winter days, typical New England weather in February... so I was thinking about sun, and sun catchers... and I cam across this idea for some sun catchers... 

You can purchase a sun jar here, but you can make your own for much cheaper! i am not good with technical things, like putting together a solar power cell, so i found the easy way :)what you need:a mason jar with a clear glass lid like this one from ikea, a solar garden light like the ones pictured above, which i found here, adhesive and glass frosting spray.start by spraying the inside of the jar with the frosting spray – this will help diffuse the light and give it a warm glow. don’t spray the lid though! it needs to be clear in order to work. next you’ll need to take apart the solar lamp – apparently this can be a lot easier than it sounds, depending on what kind of lamp you purchase.  certain kinds can simply be unscrewed and the solar/battery pack remains intact, whereas others will require some reassembly with adhesive. see here and here for examples.glue the solar cell, or the parts you’ve harvested from the garden lamp, to the underside of the jar’s lid, and you’re done! close the lid, put your jar in direct sunlight, and it’ll glow all night long!

More from Free People: http://blog.freepeople.com/2011/03/wednes-diy-63/#ixzz1mU3o5AAS

I think I might just need to make one or two of theses... 


Thanks for stopping by, Ciao for now!


J :)

Friday :)

This weekend we have the grandkids visiting thru Sunday. Tonight, my granddaughter will be going to FUF with me. Typically, she will bring some art project to do while I do a little bit of sewing. Now that she has an American Girl Doll, I wonder if she will be picking fabric to have me make some more clothing.

I am not going to mention that I will be making some sweatshirt jackets for the doll. I think that I may have to make her a jacket as well. At least one that matches the doll's jacket. Should be fun.

I have spent the day cleaning up the areas that we don't use all that often except when the kids are here. I also had to clean off the dining room table... That would be where I also sew... I have posted pictures of the table with stuff on it in the past...

This is what it looks like tonight... not guaranteeing it will stay this clean... just that it is...

 I have been working on a few mug rugs... yes, I have 'caught' the mug rug bug. I think that they will make wonderful Thank you gifts. So, I need to finish binding a couple and send them on their way tomorrow.

As is typical when the grandkids come to visit, we are headed for the Children's Museum tomorrow.

This is the Boston Children's Museum.

I would like to go to the Children's Museum of New Hampshire, which we have not go to in a while. It is about 1/2 the size of Boston, but it's different. I think it is time for a change. We will see... If we go here we would get to

Meet Mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Saturday, January 21, 10am - 2pm
Meet the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie as part of the Books Alive! literacy initiative, generously sponsored by Irving Oil. Museum staff will read the mouse's story aloud and kids can enjoy hands-on crafts, games and reading activities.  The costumed mouse character will make frequent appearances for hugs and high-fives.   

That would be different. I think the kids would enjoy doing something different.

Now it is time to get ready to go to Finish Up Friday.


Ciao for now!
J :)

Tuesday...

I woke up late this morning... suffering from sinus issues for the past few days... not fun. :/

As I am checking my email, facebook, pinterest, and twitter I was listening to the cars driving by and it sounded like they where driving on wet pavement. When I looked out the window I saw it had...

not a whole lot of it...

just a dusting...

Still enough that it had to be shoveled... I wish the people downstairs would say and do this...

No, they do not shovel... there is a 12 year old who lives downstairs, a bus comes every morning to pick him up, every day the bus pulls into the driveway, in back of our car and honks for the child. When it snows, hubby clears the driveway to the benefit of the family downstairs... Oh well, my complaining for the year about them.... nothing much I can do about this...

Still the last time we had any snow was...

Yes, it was Halloween...

In the meantime I am starting to work on my BOM's I have the additional Blogger BOM's that I want to do as the blocks are small, the Crafty BOM that I have to start... need to check my To Do list to make sure there is nothing I am missing...

I signed up to "Do" a mini workshop... I'll be showing how to make a sweatshirt jacket within a 15 - 25 minute presentation... Talk about biting off a large bite! So now I have to make a few jackets at different stages to show them off... what a thought... what a lot of work... hmm, I know, I'll make them to fit an American Girl Doll! Then I can finish the different stages at different times. Also shows many of the guild members that they can make one for their granddaughters dolls. Too cute and it works very well!

This is one I have already made and given away...

I like this one...

 

Off to continue working on the B-day quilt, BOM's, and start on the AG sweatshirt jackets...

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your coffee break :)
Ciao for now!
J :)

Once again ... Frustrated

I am once again frustrated ... yesterday was filled with a face-2-face interview and a couple of telephone interviews...

    

Yea, I have been getting calls... just no job offers... I really would love to have a part-time or 3/4 time job and be able to do my sewing/quilting on my off hours. Right now I am stressing about finding work and not getting any of my sewing/quilting done on a regular basis... I am so behind!

This morning while reviewing one of the many blogs I check regularly, SITS, I came across this interesting thought written by Kimberly Gauthier...

Your 2012 Blog Budget
JAN 10, 2012 BY GIGI  

One of the things you should be thinking about during these first few weeks of January is your plan for your blog in 2012. What most of us don’t spend enough time on is forecasting the expenses required to maintain your blog all year long. In fact, we tend to just get from day to day. That’s why this post from Kim Gauthier is great. It talks about what she’s considering as she plans her blog budget for 2012. It’ll get you thinking, too! 

If you’re like me, you just started blogging one day. I didn’t put too much thought into keyword research or monetizing my blog. It wasn’t until I heard about Bloggy Boot Camp that I stopped seeing my blog as a hobby and started to view it as a business.

While I don't see my blog as much more than a hobby right now, Kimberly had some very interesting thoughts, as well as a break down of the business of blogging. If you click on the title Blog Budget, you will go over to the article.

On another note... I am busy making some American Girl Doll clothing for my granddaughter who turned 5 today. It amazes me that time is speeding by! So I found a few patterns at Liberty Jane Clothing and the blog, which is so much easier to check into as their web site has been overloaded with traffic and been shut down by the server due to the volume of traffic... yea, not fair, but that happens all too often. Anyway, the patterns are cute as all get out!

 I did purchase this pattern, it is for the jeans. I have another that is for a jeans jacket. I'll be making those later this month when Miss E comes to visit for the weekend. Meanwhile I am off to do some finishing touches to the two dresses I am working on right now. One dress is fro Miss E and the other for her new AG doll. The quilt is for the doll as well. I did purchase a doll size dress stand as I figure I'll be making a few more dresses...

We are having dinner with the birthday girl and her family tonight, so I want to have them ready to be given as presents then.

Ciao for now!
J :)