Simple Delights giveaway

Simple Delights is celebrating her 1 year blog anniversary and she's having a giveaway from Lemon Squeezy Shop that I'm dying to have!!! Go check it out!

Dan Sculpts Again!

If you scroll down to here you'll see the first of my husband Dan's sculptures. This is a series of metalwork sculptures that he's been creating for some of the guys who are retiring from his workplace. He's been putting a lot of thought and heart into them. Each one is personal to the man getting the gift. This one is for Johny M. - he's an avid bow-hunter and has helped Dan out a few times with tips for the hunt. He got teary-eyed when Dan gave it to him today - his last day at work. I'm so proud of Dan - he's really growing as an artist.

Signs Signs Everywhere are Signs... well just in my workshop actually!

As some of you know, I've decided to make a go of this sewing business thing. I've ordered business cards, labels, picked up office stuff like a receipt book and made an appointment to inquire about the self-employement benefit through Employment Ontario. Today I spoke with a local business man who sits on the LAMBAC - Economic Development board for the town to talk about grants that might be available in town and he's putting me in touch with some other people to talk to. Very cool - kinda scary - we'll see how it goes.

On a more practical - doable with my hands sort of note, I'm working on a lawn sign for the front yard. I wanted to make a stencil of the "Sew Simone" name in the font by Billy Argel that I've used on my header and business cards - don't worry, I have permission! So I picked up an acetate sheet and x-acto knife and printed out my business name as big as I could. I stuck the paper to the acetate and cut out the name - a little off - but it should work. Today I've primed my wood plank and am waiting for it to dry so that I can paint it. I still need to cut out stencils for the other words I'm going to paint on to the board. I don't trust my free hand to make it look the way that I want it too. So all in all - I'm working at making this thing work. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I have a sign for the yard - even though I think I need to work out the business registration that I'm working on before I'm allowed to post it... So much to figure out!!!

Simone

Simplicity 2981 - A New Dress for Momma

As soon as I saw this pattern on ebay I had to have it! I love this dress! Now hopefully I'm able to sew it so that it looks as good as the picture! I had mentioned that I found some reddish-pink silk polyester at the thrift store the other day. I'm going to try to make the dress out of that. I'm pretty excited and a little daunted by the task - the project calls for over 7 meters of fabric! I've never made anything that takes that much fabric - that's a lot of sewing! I'm banking on the fact that it will help me learn some new techniques as well as give me a dress to wear for the holidays. I'll do my best to share the progress with you! Have a great day!
Simone

Thrifted Fabric Finds and BYWA Bag Designs

So I went to the Jarrett Centre - which is a goodwill-type thrift store in the city about an hour from where I live. I had to take my eldest to the orthodontist and it's just up the street. I found a nice cream colored 100% cotton sheet that I'm going to use as a quilt backing and I also bought a quilted mattress cover to use as batting. You know, the kind that you put on the mattress and holds on with elastics in the corners... anyhow, the mattress cover is also free of any markings and has all of the batting in it - as well as being quilted, it is a light weight fill for the quilt and I think will work perfectly for the Sew Scrappy Quilt I've been working on, in fact, I was tempted to buy a couple more to use for other quilts I'm working on. I'm so excited about using this stuff to make something that will hopefully last for years!

I really like thrifting for supplies. I find that you can re-purpose quite a few things and lower the impact on the environment with just a bit of creativity. I usually find GREAT deals at this place, they sell their bedding, linens and fabric by the pound, so it usually ends up being extremely well priced and the planet loves you for it! Today, apart from the sheet (without a mark on it I will add!) and mattress cover, I bought 11 meters of a lovely red silk-polyester and a 80% wool/ 20% mohair loosely woven fabric in a gorgeous flame-orange-red ombre color. All of that for $12.86. Now that's what I call a deal!


The person who first inspired me to think about thrifting for fabric and re-purposing items in creative ways is my friend Gwen. She lives in Langley, BC and when I first met her she had made a commitment not to buy herself any new clothes for a year, but to make it all herself out of thrifted fabric etc... At the time I didn't know anyone else who was doing this, now it's all over the blogsphere, but she opened my eyes to the possibilities. Since then, she's created Bywa Bag Designs Their motto is Live Creatively : Carry Change. I LOVE that! All of her bags are made of reclaimed fabrics like leather from old jackets, she uses things like leftover laminate flooring underlay from construction sites as interfacing/stiffner for the bags. She is soooo creative and her bags are INCREDIBLE!!! Here is just one example of her bags and a bit of the description;



This gorgeous red leather shoulder bag was made entirely from reclaimed materials, minus the thread of course. The exterior is made from a recycled deep red leather coat. The interior is a vibrant reclaimed red/grey/black patterned fabric. (I like to think these fabrics were from an old forgotten project that has been sitting all sealed up in the back of the closet just waiting to be remembered and made into something fantastic!) The stability of the base was created using reclaimed flooring underlay which also helps create a water resistant base to protect all your belongings.

Check out her website and buy some bags!!!

More Changes to the Polar Fleece Jacket

I didn't really like how the polar fleece jacket was fitting when I had it on, it was really big. So I added a button hole and a button and made it double breasted. Here is a pic;

Sew Scrappy Scrap Quilt Top Pictures

Here are a couple pics of the quilt top so far. I just need to find somebinding, a back and some backing and then i'll be done - man, this quilting thing is a lot of work! ;)

Sew Scrappy Scrap Quilt

I've been piecing together a quilt out of fabric scraps that I've had in my stash. I haven't followed a pattern. I just grabbed a few pieces of fabric and started sewing. I pieced together fabrics till I had panels about 2ftx1ft and then cut them into 7x7 blocks with my rotary cutter. I framed all of the blocks with a piece of flowered print fabric I had picked up in a yard sale a couple of years ago... I wasn't really even concerned with matching. I just wanted to make an old fashioned - put it together cause that's what you've got in the house kind of quilt. No fuss- no fabric buying, no color coordinating, just put it together. I've been reminiscing about the old school quilts that we had when I was a kid. Lots of colors, lots of different fabrics, held together with yarn knots that I would play with. I used to try to guess what the different fabrics came from. That's the kind of quilt I wanted to make - except that all of the fabrics I used are cotton... that's what I had! I've still got to do a wide border around the whole thing - not sure what I'm going to use for that - but I'm sure I've got something in the sewing room that's big enough to frame the whole thing... Then I've got to cave and spend some money on the batting... none of that in my sewing room, and something for a backing. I don't usually buy large pieces of cotton. If I do buy more than a couple of meters of something it's definitely a garment fabric... so we'll figure it out. I've been toying with the idea of using a silk charmeuse type fabric for the backing, but I'm not sure I want to use of the stuff I've got for the back of a quilt, it has to be durable. What do you think? I'll post pics of the top when I've got it framed.

Simone

Vintage Treasure

Tonight I had to go into the city (Sudbury, ON) for my eldest daughter's voice lessons. While she was there, I went shopping - of course! I went to Value Village to look for some thrift store treasures, but I didn't expect to find what I did! A beautiful Vintage Peter Rabbit crewel embroidery kit #3307 - new - never opened!!! It's by Jem made in the Lake District by Jem Patchwork Templates, Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. Includes background cloth, frame, anchor strand, Angora, crewel work instructions and backing card, all of the original thread, made in England, 1973. I did a bit of research on the net and the only one that I've found sold for $50.00. I paid $8.00 for it. I love finding treasure! The only sad thing is that I don't know how to embroider, and this one looks complicated - definitely not a beginner kit! I think this is going to be a gift for someone special... can you guess who?

Cornish Pastries and Blueberry Turnovers

I've been craving some Cornish Pastries lately - and then I was rummaging through stuff and found some dough presses that I had bought at a yard sale that I had never used. I got pretty much every size you can think of, from 6inches to a tiny little one to make little dumplings. So I broke them out today, cooked up a few pounds of lean ground beef with some onions, celery, potatoes, mushrooms and spices and made some pastries for dinner. I used one of the smaller rounds to make turnovers filled with blueberry pie filling. I'm just waiting for them to cool so that we can devour them! Yum! I can't wait!