Been Doing Some Thinking...

Hello out there in Blogland! (yes, it will be a real word someday)...

I have been reorganizing, my brain mostly, and thinking about what I want to do as I enter the next stage of my life.  Life is a constant series of new beginnings and I am at another one.

I LOVE to quilt, that is my main passion.  I have urges to create in other mediums but I always come back to this Love, and my quilting waits patiently while I cheat in other areas always knowing that I will return to her. ( Yes I am using the female tense and no I don't swing that way...)

I guess I should explain a little better.  For a while we have been busy with my daughter who has had some health problems.  Although she is 22 and it has been mostly moral support, it just drains you.  Anyone who has been through this knows what I mean.  During all this she has wanted to do something to generate income and feel useful.  So we started going to thrift shops and a few garage sales when she has been up to it.  She has a fashion sense that I will never have.  She knows prices and brands.  So she has been selling things she finds on Ebay to give herself pocket change.

So what does this have to do with me?  Well as I said my first love has been quilting.  I am also a huge fan of Bonnie Hunter.  I decided to create my own sewing product.  It is almost ready to be shown and I am VERY EXCITED about this.  I also have a new love, vintage stuff.  Hats, clothing, jewelry etc.  So from time to time I will be selling some of the best things I find on Ebay.

If you have noticed, I changed the name of this blog, I have a FaceBook page that is of the same name and my Ebay name is almost the same name (I goofed on the spelling and cannot change it for another 30 days, hey I am human too).

So this is wonderfully scary for me to put myself out here but I won't know unless I try so stay tuned for my wild ride...

And because I know that all posts should have pictures...

     This is my daughter, or part of her, modeling this fantastic pants that I came across.  I knew they were something special when I saw them and although they didn't fit me and are a tad big for her, I know someone out there will appreciate these wonderful pants from days gone by.

     I did some research on them and the designer is Jack Winter.  Here is a picture of the tag:

     Isn't it fabulous?  So since I don't know much about designers, I researched and the info I found just made these pants more special.  From the New York Times:

"Mr. Winter was the founder of Jack Winter, Inc., one of the first manufacturers of women's slacks and one that set trends in women's sportswear and knitwear. The company also operated 100 Clothesworks Stores, a nationwide chain of discount women's clothing.

He founded the company as a men's pants manufacturer in the late 1930's but in 1953 began to design and manufacture women's slacks. He retired in 1986."

Mr. Winter has passed away, but imagine what a pioneer!  I watched reruns of the Dick Van Dyke Show when I was little, I wonder, did he design any of the pants that Mary Tyler Moore wore?  I wonder if who ever wore these thought about things like that, that when they bought these they were part of a trend that would change the way women wore clothing.

So, I am going to be putting these up for sale on Ebay shortly, I just know there is a woman, a tiny woman, who would love to have these great vintage pants.  If you should happen to be interested in them just go to Ebay and search Jack Winter pants and I am sure you will find them.

Thanks for sticking with me in this very long post and I hope to post more frequently in the future!

Create Something Beautiful Today!

Susan

Getting Ready for the Mystery!

Hello All!

     So those of you who are Bonnie Hunter fans know that each year she publishes for free a mystery that usually begins sometime around Thanksgiving and lasts anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks.  She gives us a color palette but we are not required to stick to that and we don't know what the quilt is gonna look like until it's finished.  For control freaks like me it has been a good thing, relinquishing control of something, trusting another to the outcome of a project.

I did my first mystery with her last year, it was a blast and the completed quilt is on my bed.  Well, the almost completed quilt is on my bed, the binding is not done but that connects with the story here.

In preparation for her mystery I decided to clean my sewing room and by clean I mean actually put stuff away, not just move piles of stuff around. (Which I have been known to do.)

It took me seven hard working hours to clean my room.  I don't think it has been this clean since I first moved my stuff upstairs.  This first picture is where I sew.  I think I have a pretty sweet set up, my fabric behind me, my TV and DVD player and my Singer machine.  I use the system of wrapping my fabric around magazine boards for 1/2 yards and more, the baskets hold smaller amounts and are sorted by color.  I have tried other methods of fabric storage but this works for me and really didn't take that long to do.

In front of my sewing table is my ironing board which I made from 2 carts that I bought at Sam's club and then put a piece of board on top, hubby helped fasten the board to the cart and then batting on top and then the silver iron fabric that you can get at JoAnn.  

 

The last picture is how I keep my rulers organized.  In this room there is this little odd wall, what happens when you have rounded corners in your house, anyway, I use the Command hooks and positioned them to accommodate the various sizes.  I was worried about scratching the wall up but I am careful when I remove and put them back.

The boxes stacked on the left hold all my crazy quilting laces, threads and trims.

So that's a little peek into my sewing world and I hope you enjoyed it.  If you see something that inspires you and you want to use it, feel free!

And the good thing about spending 7 hours cleaning is I found the following:  binding for the quilt that is on my bed, a pattern for a table runner that I had started but could not finish because I lost the pattern,  another fabric that I am going to use to bind the quilt that is on my mid-arm machine, and a TON of batiks that I honestly don't remember getting, it's like finding buried treasure.

  

If I don't talk to you all before the mystery starts I will be posting my progress here and on the Bonnie Hunter yahoo group.  Try the mystery, I highly recommend it!

Catching Up!

Hello Bloggers,


My mom has been in the hospital, well, actually 2 hospitals, and will be having surgery on December 28th so to say things have been a little crazy around here is an understatement.  I did get some sewing done and experimented a little with the lace stiffener (more about that next time) so I thought I would post a picture of my Bonnie Hunter mystery pieces that I have done so far....

It has been so much fun.   And obsessive as I am, I discovered that on Thursday night, well Friday morning really, at 2 am I can get the next clue and at least read it before I go to bed.  It's like peeking at your presents before Christmas when you were a little kid!

Here's hoping your holidays are much calmer than ours and that you are having fun.  We are still managing to fit some fun in between all the mess.  ;  )

EASY STREET....STEP ONE

Hi All!

So hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend, I did.  Did a little shopping and some sewing and spending time with my family so for me it doesn't get any better.  I think I was lucky cause hubby and I went out Friday morning and the traffic wasn't bad and the places we went were not crowded.  Everyone was pleasant too.  To finish it off we went to Denny's for breakfast and I had french toast.  It's not the best in the world but not bad either, and I am a french toast snob and have tried it almost everywhere we go.   But onward, so after my nap on Friday I started Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street and here is my Step One finished:

192 four patch units!  Well, actually I have over 200 because I plan on making the quilt larger but I am not sure how this will be done so I would rather make some extra now and take the chance that I won't have to go back a make a lot later.  Clear as mud?

The ladies in the Yahoo Group have been posting pictures of their finished patches and we have a festival of color going on over there and it's been a blast to see.  Bonnie will be having a linking party Monday so if you want to see what's up, take a look at her blog.

Talk to you all again soon!

Getting Ready for Easy Street...

Hi!

Well I have my second pincushion done, except for the rhinestones which are coming by mail.  So, onward to my next project, getting ready for the Easy Street Mystery with Bonnie Hunter.  Bonnie is an amazing quilter, teacher and has published books, articles, patterns.  Her blog and website, Quiltville, should not be missed.  I also have rarely seen such a famous quilter be so generous with her time and give so much of her patterns.  Someday I hope to be able to attend one of her classes.

Back to Easy Street!  The Mystery begins the day after Thanksgiving and I am hoping to go bigger and make this pattern fit my king sized bed.

I changed 3 of Bonnie's colors, so starting at the top my background is creams instead of Bonnie's white with black, Bonnie's constant is grey and mine is copper, I am using turquoise and lime green same as Bonnie, and I am using blue instead of Bonnie's purple.

This will be my first mystery with Bonnie and the Yahoo Quiltville Group and I am very excited!