Not as Busy as I'd Like to Be

Last week I accomplished a number of things.  First I want to tell you about the pile of pillowcases I made for a good cause.

I made 20 to send off to my blogging friend Rhonda in Chicago.  She asked for help in reaching her goal of making 900 ( yes, 900) pillowcases to send to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Puyallup, WA.
You can read her blog about her original request here .  I think know she can use more help if you are interested in making some for her.

Rhonda received my pillowcases and blogged about them yesterday.  Here is a picture of my pillowcases hanging on her clothesline in Chicago!

You can read about her progress here.

That was the beginning of last week.  Now what happened at the end of the week?  I ended up in a "boot".

This is a picture of my left foot.  I went to an ankle specialist because I've been having a lot of pain in my ankle and found out that I have a torn achilles tendon.  I'd like to say that I tore it while running a marathon, but if you know me, you'd know I was lying.  I really don't know exactly how it happened, but I'm stuck in this boot for a month and then I still might have to have surgery.

In the meantime, I'm knitting.  I finished the black and white stole below and started on a blue one.  The blue yarn has a metallic thread running through it that doesn't show up in the picture.

The yarn is Paton's Lace and takes 2 balls.  Here are the directions.
Use size 6, 7 or 8 circular needles.
Cast on 120 stitches ( use 108 if you want it longer).  Knit 4, *yo, K 2 tog, K 2, repeat from * to last 4 stitches.  Knit last 4 stitches.
Repeat this pattern until almost out of yarn.  Knit one row and bind off.

I'll keep you posted on my knitting progress and let you know when I finally get the boot off.

New Toys

I didn't go to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival this year.  Usually I go, spend the day, and spend a couple of hundred dollars on books, fabrics, maybe a class, lunch, tolls, etc.  Why am I telling you this?  Because its the reason I was able to justify spending money on this box of fabric.

Its all Fossil Fern fabric and there are 90 fat quarters.  And what am I going to do with them?  Good question, I don't really have an answer.  So far, I haven't even taken them out of the box.  I just run my hands over them and marvel at the colors.  Dan saw me and said "if it makes you that happy, buy another one and I'll pay for it,"  I didn't.  If I bought another box I'd feel I had to do something with them.  This way I can just stare at them for awhile.

Blog hop Winner

The winner is crafter1953!  I've sent her an email and hopefully she will send me her shipping information.  If she doesn't send it, I will draw again.

I put everyone's name on a slip of paper and then drew.  There were several "Sandra's", so I used the date of the comment to tell them apart.

I enjoyed learning where everyone was from and am happy to have my new followers, welcome.

I've been away for a few days visiting my daughter in North Carolina, so I'll have some new posts coming out soon.

It's Time for the Blog Hop

Forget your winter blahs, and hop around the internet.  No need to get dressed, wear your robe and slippers.  To find the other participants, just click on the "Blog Hop Party" sign to the right of this post.  There are over 100 and all of them are offering a prize.  The party officially begins March 8th.
Here is the prize I am giving away.  You don't have to live in the U.S., I'll ship it anywhere the postal system delivers.

Yes, its one of the recycled jeans purses I described in my last post.

I haven't done one of these Hops for awhile, but its fun to see how many people stop by.  It's also fun to see where they are from.  So here are the rules:

• To be eligible for the prize, you need to leave a comment on this blog.  In the comment, tell me where you come from.  
• In order to leave a comment, you must follow my blog.  If you try to leave a comment and you are not a follower, it won't go through.  (See my previous post for the reason for this.)
• I will have the drawing on Tuesday, March 19th, so you can leave your comment any time up until midnight on the 18th.  I'll announce the winner on the 19th and you can send me your mailing address.

Good luck to everyone!  If you don't win my prize, maybe you'll win something on one of the other sites!

I plan to visit as many of the others as I can.

Recycled Jeans Purses

Front of purses

Back of purses

Yesterday I finished six purses that I had been working on for some time.  I used the back pocket of old blue jeans to make the back of the purses and some of my Seminole patchwork pieces to make the fronts.  The shoulder straps are adjustable, see the photo below.  I used small D-rings.

The longer strap is 42" (fabric width) and the shorter one is 12".  Over all the body of the purse measures about 8" by 12".

I took three of the purses to Beach Glass and Stories in Cape Charles, where I sell some of my art crafts.

I also finally finished the crewel embroidery that I had promised my mother I would finish for her.

You may remember that I blogged about it here.

Here is the finished piece, although I still need to block it before having it framed.

If you have tried to leave a comment recently and have not been able to, its all because of "spam". Over the last couple of months I've gotten a ton of spam comments so I have changed my settings so that only followers can leave comments.  A lot of the comments are simply promoting other web sites, most of which I don't wish to help promote.  So if you want to leave a comment, please join as a follower and I'll welcome your comments.

Links

I've got a few links to share with you all today.

Number one is my guest blog.  My friend, Rhonda, from Rhonda's Creative Life, asked me to do a guest blog, based on the make-up bag/lunch bag/purse tutorial I did a few weeks ago.

This is the bag I made especially for her blog.  You can see the tutorial here http://rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2013/03/fabulous-free-pattern-friday.html
I'm so grateful to Rhonda for honoring me like this.  Be sure to check out some of her other posts, especially the Free Pattern Fridays.  I've used several of her patterns and she really knows how to draft patterns.

My number two link is political, but its Diana's new job.  She has gone to Boston to be the videographer for Ed Markey's campaign.  This is a link to a video she made a few weeks ago.  She'll be working for him through the election.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wtvXMuGWhc&feature=youtu.be
We are really proud of her.  She just graduated from college last spring!!!!

My third link is to my new real estate agent's blog.
http://www.easternshorevablog.com/
Scroll down to the second entry and you'll see my old house, which I have been trying to sell.  Hopefully, the new agent and new publicity will do the trick.

And my last link is the to Princess Cruises and the cruise I have decided to take next year.  I'm doing this by MYSELF.  Leaving Dan at home.  It occurs to me that I've never been by myself for seven weeks at a time in my whole life.  First I lived at home, then college (with room mates), then husband #1 and 3 kids.  As soon as the last child left home, Dan and his 2 kids moved in to my life and we moved in together.
http://www.princess.com/find/cruiseDetails.do?itinCode=VSA490&voyageCode=3408C&resType=C
So I'm going to spend the next year getting ready for this adventure.

And now you know why I need to sell the old house.  How else am I going to be able to afford this cruise?

Thinking of Spring

I'm tired of the cold and wet winter.  Snow would have been nice, but all we got was a bit of slush.  So I started thinking about making something to wear when the weather finally warms up.  I'm also thinking about clothes to take on a cruise that I've booked for next year.  More on that later.

I've had this pattern for a couple of years but never got around to doing anything with it.  Last week I showed you some silk that I brought back from China.  This is another piece from that trip.

I thought it would look good with black slacks and a tank top to wear to dinner on a cruise, but I wasn't about to cut into it until I tested the pattern.  Besides I wasn't sure I had enough fabric.  I bought 2 meters, which is 2 yards 6 inches.  The pattern for the shorter version needs 2 1/2 yards.  Usually I can make it work, but since I hadn't tried the pattern I wanted to be sure.

I found a piece of light weight denim that someone must have given me. (I think when you sew, you attract fabric like a magnet.)  It was about 1 1/2 yards, not enough for a jacket, but enough for a vest to test the pattern.

This is the front.  It looks a little stiff because I still haven't hemmed it or tacked down the facings. I used bias to face the armholes.  The pattern went together beautifully and I plan on cutting out the silk tomorrow.  As you can see, I added a bit of embellishment to the vest, the denim was just to plain and boring by itself.

When I brought it back over to the house to do the hand sewing, I remembered this scarf that my friend Linda brought me from Italy last fall.  The colors are perfect and I really had not planned it.
Serendipity!