Bag Lady ...

I think I may be the official Bag Lady.  

After I made DIL's purse for Christmas my mom 'needed' one.  

And my aunt could 'really use' one too.  

My mom got hers first of course.   I mean, she is my mom ya know.  

I also made on that was going to be for me, but as soon as I posted a pic of it, someone wanted it so I sold it on Etsy.

(I hope to be posting more of them soon, so keep checking back)

I finally finished one for my aunt this week.  My mom and dad are having lunch with my aunt tomorrow and will gift it to her for me. 

I also made her one of those cute little dumpling pouches.

And I made this pillow case for a friend's daughter, AB.  

AB recently started having night fears and is having trouble sleeping.  AB and her mom pray every night and have asked for their friends to pray too, so when I saw this fabric earlier in the week I knew it would be perfect for a pillowcase for AB.  

I'll be gifting it to her (via a friend of a friend) this evening. 

(The indoor iphone pics do not do justice to this beautiful fabric.)

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Linking up with Kelly for Needle and Thread Thursday, and with Richard & Tanya's Link-A-Finish Friday, and Gettin' My Whoop On with Sarah @ Confessions of A Fabric Addict, and Finish It Up Friday with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts, and Fort Worth Fabric's Friday Frenzy.

Dumpling Pouch

Small, and cute.  

The bottom is about 1.5 inches wide. 

When I finished, I found out it actually holds quite a bit more than I thought it would as I was making it.  I think I might try one with a wrist strap.  

Made from this tutorial.

Lots O' Fabric!

I'm excited to be a part of The Sassy Quilter's Triangle Quilt Along starting in just a couple of weeks.

I ordered my ruler from Joann Fabrics (they had it on sale for $7.99!) and it came this week.   And I used my eBates account (click here to sign up with my referral link) and earned 4% cash back.

Today I went shopping at Hancock Fabrics to look for fabrics for the quilt, and to use the gift cards my kids gave me for Christmas.  I went with a turquoise and pink palette in mind but after perusing the fabrics I abandoned that idea and ended up with this:

Though there is some turquoise and pink in there, I was mostly searching for fabrics that had a bit of black to tie them all together.  I think I "done good" if I do say so myself! 

I did not however get backing and binding yet.  I usually take a while to mull over the fabrics for the quilt then decide on backing as I'm nearing the completion of the top.  On the ride home I was kind of kicking myself though for not getting enough of that middle fabric on the left, (the colored shapes) for the backing.  Oh well.  

And afterward I stopped by Walmart for a few necessities and of course walked down their fabric aisle.  (Only one Walmart within 50 miles has a fabric section, and it's really only about 3/4 of an aisle).  They do have some decent novelty prints (I got the fabric for Sadie's diaper bags and changing pad there) and occasionally something like this will grab my attention:

I saw the print and it screamed DENIM ... but it's not, it's really just a quilting weight cotton, but I just had to have it.  So I got some solid to coordinate (it looks a little funky in this pic but 'in real life' it just looks like a dark denim, the same shade as the dark in the print). 

I'm going to make myself a purse out of it.  I am after all, a denim gal.  (I actually got enough to make two bags so I can share the love!)

Long Time No Blog ...

 I've been kinda busy late with non-sewing stuffs.

But I've loved every minute of it.  

I did make another bag, showed it off on facebook and it got snatched right up.  

This is the Words fabric from the On Time Collection by Windham. 

I also have some of the Clocks fabric from the same collection I am going to make another one from.  I was kind of liking this one and going to keep it for myself, but when I got a chance to sell it, I thought "hey, I can buy more fabric!"  :-)

I'm going to be joining a quilt along with Paula at The Sassy Quilter.  You should come join along too. I've sort of an idea of what fabrics I want to use, and am hoping to get to do some shopping next weekend, but I realized I have a fallback if I don't find anything I want.  

I got this bundle of Keep It Sassy by Olive Sandwiches a couple of months ago and I think it would be great for this quilt.  

Looking forward to getting back into the quilting and blogging worlds.  Though I'll certainly still be taking some cuddling, snuggling, playing with cute kid breaks along the way.  

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Hey Toto, I Don't Think We're In Alabama Anymore!!

This is not your typical Alabama situation. 

We were taken unawares.  Expecting a dusting, we ended up with over two inches.  Roads iced over.  If I'd lived more than two miles from work, I'd never have made it home.  Many of my coworkers did not.  They ended up stranded in their cars, or thankfully several were able to stop once they realized there weren't gonna make it at homes of friends and coworkers, and in a couple of cases, with strangers (who were friends of friends of friends, sort of).

This is on my way home from work (at about the 1/2 mile mark of my adventure.  Another half mile down the road this SUV in front of me spun around and slid into a driveway.  Fortunately he slid right into the driveway (backwards) as if he'd purposed parked there, and after I an another car passed by he was able to resume his journey.

And thankfully there was NO traffic on the other side of the road ... hadn't been any, no tracks at all in the snow.  (No, I did not take a pic of that I was too busy driving, I am stopped when taking this pic - and yes, I did leave that much room between me and that vehicle because it's on a hill and I'm over-cautious that way, which is also what kept me from hitting him when he spun!)

This is my driveway as I was coming home. 

And just for some perspective, Hwy 280 is about 12 miles from me ... and my daughter had to manuever this roadway for about 1/2 mile to get from her business to the turnoff to go home.

My daughter left work at 11:40 am.  At 2:00pm she had gone less than three miles and was finally able to get to a church (in spite of this highway being a main thoroughfare, the road she was on, 3 miles away is very rural).  She was pushed up a hill by four guys who were helping each car get the added traction / momentum they needed to get up and over.  She pulled in at a church and stayed with some very nice ladies who were setting up to cook soup and prepare as a warming shelter for about two hours til a family member who drives a service truck was able to get to her and take her home.

We have seen sooooooooo many random acts of kindness by complete strangers in this mess.  The guys that helped my daughter on a rural road.  Drivers who were immobilized on the interstate helping each other keep safe and warm (letting strangers in your car to warm when theirs has run out of gas) ... in neighborhood areas folks were going out of their homes to give folks hot coffee, blankets, offers to let them come into their homes and get warm.

Now, I've had enough snow to last another 21 (or more) years.  

(Last time we had measurable snow was 1993.)

I received my order from fabric.com Monday, so I think I'm going to get back to work on this WIP this afternoon!