Not Sewing - But Exciting Stuff

My friend, Caprice, gave us a house-warming gift 6 years ago this October. It was the beginning of what would some day be a Plumeria plant/tree. To be honest, when I first saw the stump in a plastic, I didn't know what to think, even if it was from Hawaii.



I am happy to report, with lots of TLC, our Plumeria (named Plumeria) is doing very well and has even blossomed for the 2nd year in a row.

Here is how Plumeria looked when she was at her best blossoming of the summer. (It's hard to tell from the balcony shot, but she is now taller than I am and probably stands at 5 foot 4 inches. Not too shabby for starting out about 6 - 8 inches with no leaves.)

Brother's Fun Gift

My brother loves Harleys. As a Sept BD gift, I embroidered a Harley logo on a auto trash bag for him. It's almost a shame that it will have trash in it.

Helping Friends In Times Of Need

Our sewing buddy Beth had some serious health issues this year. I asked the sewing gals if they would pitch in their own personalized squares for me to make Beth a tote. This way Beth would know we were thinking of her and lift her spirts.

The gals generously said yes. (Even Lisa's young daughter pitched in.)

After I got all the squares, I put together a tote for Beth to take to the hospital to carry her stuff back and forth. (Though when I saw all the flowers she got, I quickly realized she needed about 10 totes!)



Here is how the tote ended up -











I told my sew expert friend, Alicia, I didn't expect it to take so long to put together especially looking back and seeing how I ended up using a solid black background fabric. But she certainly understood when she commented on the different components... like working with satin (slippery) ribbon around all 8 of the squares and adding 4 pockets in the lining.

As is common with me, I thought I could finish this in 3 or 4 hours max. Instead it took me more like 10 - 12 hours. Live and learn.

As you might guess, I am not so anxious to make a 2nd memory tote bag. But it was fun to learn and create.

Gifts for a 6-yr-old

My little friend, Victoria, turned 6 at the end of August. She has become quite the artist, so I thought it might be appropriate to put together a craft activity notebook for her. I used her own artwork and printed it on fabric paper. Then I sewed it to fabric that I wrapped a notebook with. The notebook was filled with markers, stickers, special paper, etc. I was glad when I heard she really liked her custom-made gift.

Front with a photo fabric print out of a foam art work Victoria made for me last summer. I scanned the image into the compute before printing it on fabric.



The back had 2 of her Doodles that she made for me this year.



The inside with some of the fun stuff.



And using my new Kaleidoscope software (that I got for my BD), I made 2 bonus pillows. One if flannel with BD balloons. And the other is cotton in her favorite color blue (really aqua).

More Dining Room Curtains

As many times as I have made curtains for my dining room, you would think we have 4 dining rooms in our home. Truth is, I never could really find "the look" I was hunting for. It was half-started in my mind and I just could not put it together until I made these curtains this summer.


Finally! I found the tropical themed look I was searching for.


And I love my new curtains! Reminds me of Hawaii or the tropics. Some day, I may need a 2nd vacation home in one of those places so my curtains have the "perfect home". :-)

Rachel is a Good Teacher

Rachel taught us sewing gals how to make crazy patch purses. She was so nice in that she had her big table set up for all of us to bring our sewing machines and sewing fabrics and supplies. She was WAY organized.




Because I finished my "purse" a few weeks after I left her place (and on my own), it ended up being a tote rather than a purse. I was happy with how it turned out. With the big size, I use it to tote shopping bags, change of clothing for after-ballet-classes on Saturday, and other fun things.





Here it is-



It's hard to tell from this picture, but I did put several pockets inside. They are even in rows over each other.



I'm sorry I have to miss the 9/29 SGSG sew gathering lesson this time. I'm sure I would have learned a lot again.

Embellished Jeans 4 Me

Amy took me to a Viking class for embellishing jeans (my first ever class for any sewing-related thing). They taught us the best way to embellish jeans. All of us in class wished we had not brought our worse jeans (in case we messed up), as they all turned out good.

Here are how mine ended up.

Adding To Dress 4 Angel

Julia gave Angel a jean dress. It had a big red flower embroidered on the bottom. I thought it needed more pizzazz, so I added multiple flowers on the top (with crystals, of course)...

Another for Cook's Children's Hospital

I am so-o-o behind on my intention to make several pillow cases for Cook's Children's hospital. I made 4 or 5 last year (November) and have only made 1 this summer. It remains on my to-do list to make at least 5 in 2007, as I am sure the sick children love their special pillow cases.

Julia's Dolphins - July 2007

My friend, Stephanie's now 6-yr old daughter, Julia, was in love with Dolphins and on her way to SeaWorld this summer to see Shamu. So I put together a few dolphin-related gifts for her.

Here they are -

Friend's HS Grad Gift - May 2007

I couldn't post this one until I gave Laura the gift. Her Mom and I are 2 very busy CPAs and finally got around to visiting just a few weeks ago. And now Laura has her gifts that I made especially for her. Laura loves horses and even owns a horse, so my gift theme was horses.




One gift was a purse that I embroidered her initials on -


Lined with "horse" pockets, no less...





And the other was pillows for her dorm room with horses on one side and her name and coordinating colors on the back side.