May 2013 Class projects

May 2013 Class projects:   

My creations based on someone else's design and credit will be applied when I post the supply list later.  I liked them, hope you do.  The tie card was to be a June card but I didn't quite get the other one ready for May.   I think you can make either of the flower cards into a Mother's Day if you need to.  Tie card could be Father's Day.  

Where is the year going.  It's hard to believe that it's time for new catalogs already.  Here it is May almost and soon 1/2 of the year will be gone.  Is it my age but time is flying by.... when I'm having fun. 

Want to have some fun, consider calling for a seat in the May class.  Cost is $15 for 2.5 hr. of girl time and I'll supply everything you will need.  If you don't like glue sticks, bring your own adhesive and be sure it's labeled.  I can seat up to 8 people for a class.  Call for a seat 336-764-3546.   Classes: http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/joanlowder/events   I will be adding a morning class so check back for that date.

If you want a new catalog, please let me know as they are arriving this week.  $5 for past customers. 

Say Goodbye to your favorites. The retiring Stampin Up Lists are here

It's that time of year where Stampin Up retires many items in preparation for the new catalog that takes effect in June, 2013.  http://www.stampinup.com/home/  will allow you to view the retiring list of stamp sets, colors, etc.  There is also an accessory list.    I would encourage you to mark your catalog with the retiring items.    There's something for everyone.

You can place your orders directly on line by going to my Stampin Up website and they will ship directly to your home.  I'll be place a May order if you are interested in that.    You can also see the retiring lists here, at the bottom of the page.  http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/joanlowder/

Keep in mind that retired items, especially in accessories, are while supplies last.    Once the items are gone, that's it. 

Remember Mother's Day is around the corner and perhaps your mom would like some of the retiring items. 

Call me if you have any questions.  Joan Lowder  336-764-3546

Framed tangles donated

I made these two tangles to donate to the Cancer Services for their auction.  I hope they get some bids. 

Each took probably 15-20 hours to do but the Believe took the longest.    It's a fun new hobby that I'm really enjoying.  Thanks for letting me share.

Another baby quilt finished

Well my goal is 12 baby preemie quilts for the hospital this year as part of Forsyth Piecers and Quilters.  I'm going to also add this one to my last quilt post to see the difference in how the came out with the different colors, and I started with the same squares.    I also got to practice my free motion quilting more on this one.   This one makes #4 on my donation list.  I'm having fun.  Thanks for letting me share.  Later, I'll remove this post as it will be added in with the last one. 

April 2013 Stamp Class Projects

I'm ready for Spring, are you. Hope you have a wonderful Easter Weekend.

Are you coming to my place for stamp class this month.  Below are the projects for this month.  One card of each.  Class is $15 and I'll supply everything.  It's around 2.5 hr. and I think you'll have fun.  Consider bringing a friend. 

Due some doctors appts. I had to move a morning class.   I still have seats for the afternoon class Monday 4/8, 1 pm;  Tuesday am class, 4/9 at 9:30 am.  and if that doesn't work I can work you in with the Club class which is Wed. night, 4/3, 6:15 as I don't think those gals would mind. 

  If you are interested in the Wed. class, I need to know by Sunday morning, 3/31/13. 

If you are interested in the morning or afternoon class the following week, I need to know by 4/5/13.  Of course always feel free to call at the last minute as I may have enough cut or someone may have cancelled. 

 I'll have a selection of yarns, ribbons, for the basket - bucket card.    The girl with the umbrella is a current hostess set in back of the Spring Mini.    They all say Spring to me. 

March & April baby quilt finished

Well around the end of Summer 2012 I could not find the group I wanted so I started a Quilting Bee, BusyBees and we meet every Thursday at Georgia Taylor Rec Center off W. Clemmonsville Road.  Check in if interested.

Now when it comes to sewing and patterns, I fly by the seat of my pants.  As I mentioned earlier with the "Birds in Fall" piece, I'm more of a cut and sew as you go gal.  Don't do well with patterns and directions.  I for sure can't cut straight (even with a ruler) or sew straight.     Susan drew me the layout.  I'm a visual person.

My 2 new friends at the bee, Susan and Becki have been helping me along.  They may soon give up on me.  Susan showed me how to do the Diappearing 9 Patch.  So I thought another baby quilt would be a good place to start and practice and off I went.    No pattern, just cut up some fabric and put it back together. 

Same blocks with different sashing.   Yellow sashing one finished in April, 2013 and is #4.   

 

Now that I see it on the screen, with white sashing, humm, it could have been better but you only learn by practice and for my first not so bad and hey, it's not a panel and I used a bit more fabric.    Luckily I had 4 extra blocks so I can try again and make another one and change it up a bit. 

WOW, now I see that Don was right.... the bunny label should have been in another color.  Maybe I'll add some stitching around the bunny label to make it pop. 

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share what I've been up to.    I just looked over and on my desk is a quote from a magazine.....

Remind yourself that it's okay not to be perfect.

Baby quilt story...... will tug at your heartstrings

As part of my 2013 goal, I plan to try to use down my fabrics without having to buy too much to go along.  Seems I have very few solids so I might have to make a run to the store. 

Took the easy route and started with some simple panels I had.  The quilts are for the preemie's at the hospital.   THis all started with a very nice email for 2013. 

Around January 2013 I got an email from Stampin up and I thought I had a new customer.  When I followed up it was someone trying to track me down.  Seems in 2003 when I was in the local guild I was making preemie quilts.   Turns out that she received one of my quilts and wanted to send me a note to let me know what it meant to hear.   

Here is a bit of what she shared.      Better grab a tissue.

Jan 5, 2013: 
  "My daughter was a premee, born in April 2003. The tag was handwritten
with Joan Lowder 196 Ju. -Lenor Dr. I will send a pic of the tag."
 
Jan. 6, 2013
   Shes beautiful!    My daughter was born on Easter Sunday(4-20-03). I was only 17 and
scared to death. She weighed just under 2 lbs.

 The only time I left her side was when a surgeon from Baptist came to perform heart surgery. I was so scared! I was was crying, sitting in the floor of the hallway that lead to where my daughter was. Needing to be as close to her as possible.

 A nurse, Alli, came to me and took my hand. I followed her to the big cabinet where they kept the quilts. As she opened the door, she said, "here, would you like to pick one out? It might help." I found a quilt that was bright on one side and had a heart stitched to the middle of the other side.  I sat in a rocking chair beside her for a few more weeks. Using your quilt to cover myself as I took cat naps. On the day we headed home, I put her in her carseat, and tucked the quilt in around her.

 Haley Anna is now a beautiful, smart, 9 year old. She still have the quilt and is very proud of it. Thank you so much for your kindness. Your quilt came into our lives at a time when I needed comfort more than ever.  I will send a picture soon. And yes, please feel free to post it.
    Thank you and God bless!   Lindsay Smith & Haley Anna

January 7, 2013
We live .. about 40 min south of Winston Salem. Over the years, ive taught my daughter the importance of giving and volunteer work.   

 Every year at Christmas time, she cleans out her room and closet, to donate out grown clothes and toys. This year, she had a friend over,  helping her. I overheard Haley say, "no, ill never give that away". I  walked around the corner to see her sitting in her closet explaining to her friend how special the quilt was. At that moment, the thought came to me that I' d love to say thank you for it.

Jan 7, 2013
I'm so glad that we reached out to you. I will send a pic of the quilt as soon as I can. Its not frayed at all! We have taken very good care of it. Please contact me any time! God brings people together for
reasons only he knows.


And that is how the story goes when lead me back to a reason to use up my fabrics and starting making preemie quilts again.    My goal is to make at least 12 this year.    Her story is what started my year off  on the right foot. I appreciate her allowing me to share the story with you.

Haven't sewn in so long I took the easy route and started with 2 panels and now 4 pieces of fabric are in a better place.   It was a good way for me to practice my free motion quilting.   I just finished one that is pieced that I'll post shortly.

Revamp the sofa pillows for a new look

In addition to trying to get my act in order in 2013, I thought about all the times Don and I share taping on the tv and then there is little time for me to watch what I've taped.  Love that DVR.    Yep there is a TV downstairs in the craft room but no windows. 

On the top floor are 2 rooms and a bath.  One is a bedroom and the other is like a sitting room.  Both very pretty but we rarely get guests and what a waste of space.  So I've decided to take it over and have my own woman retreat.  It has windows, nice furniture and a place to hang out, watch a hallmark movie, quilting, take a nap and I might let him visit. 

While laying on the sofa I was looking around at how I might make some changes.  I do plan to make some pillows for the furniture but thought how could I make it more up to date, as it's almost 20 years and hardly been sat on.  I decided to take the ruffles off the pillows and stitch them back up.  Takes up less space and I think I like it.  1 more pillow to go.  Just another one of those projects I can do while watching a movie. 

Well of course I thought of sharing when I was down to just one pillow left to remove the ruffles.    Now with the ruffles removed I can easily make slip covers for the 4 pillows and change the look of the room.  Keep you posted.

I'm having fun in 2013.. 

Plant Dreams...... Stitchwork piece

As I said, I discovered Pinterest in Fall of 2011.  While I've been busy seeing what other people have been doing, I was just daydreaming and not doing.  

One of the first things I did was get ruthless and admit that I didn't need to keep all my quilt magazines so I went thru them and tore out what I thought I might use.  If other directions on the back, I just made a copy of that page for me.  I also traced off some cute templates and put them in a notebook noted below and now my daydreams for quilting, sewing, needlework are in one notebook instead of the two boxes of magazines I took to my quilt guild..... never to come home with me again.    Hey... it's a start and anyone who knows me knows even this was hard. 

For 2013 I made a goal to try to get more things done and not just think about them.  Now at age 65 it does seem it takes longer to get to the end result but at least I'm moving more than just the brain.

 

Needing some take along hobbies as eye appointments take at least 3 hours, I need variety.    Years ago I discovered that I could no longer do cross stitch and finally gave away all my books and patterns as well as fabric.  I kept the thread thinking it could be used for other things.    While on Pinterest, I found some sketches that I thought would look cute on fabric.  Here's one of the pieces I just finished.  Not sure if it will be a pillow or a wall hanging.  Hope you like it.    Can't wait to start another one. 

Store and seminar "Totes refashioned"

Lately I've been obsessed with refashioning all those totes that I've collected over time from various seminars, grocery totes that advertise for a store that is not paying me to advertise for them.    Then I was offered some fabric samples from the furniture store.  Oh my..... stuff to add to my stuff.  Well you can imagine that I took them up on their offer. 

I quickly came home and divided them up into batches, keep, share.  Don asked which was the keep stack, being funny I guess.  Of course it was the bigger stack.  Ok, so maybe I kept too many.  Not knowing what in the world I would do with them, it was just too good to pass up.

My first thought was to cover the grocery totes.  Of course I've since used some of my fabrics from my temporarily halted growing stash. 

Well the black one was a gift from Lowes Foods for wine.  Turns out we don't drink wine so I just cut out the inside dividers. 

Of course none of the fabric from my new stash worked so I found some old scraps that were just perfect and I made use of the raw edges.  There is now a pocket on each end and with cardboard in the bottom, I'm set to go.  Small bag to carry my journal and zentangles if I have to go sit at doctors office, etc. 

This was one of my first bags to alter.  I discovered that sewing the fabric on was better than heat and bond.  Ask me how I know..... because these bags will melt.... on your iron. 

This green tote, of course I love the green, carries my sewing supplies back and forth to my sewing bee weekly.   Just a great size and sturdy.

Now this is a great size bag for shopping.  I once again love the green.  This was from a different seminar.  What I like about this one is that if folds up nicely and if shopping I can put my purse down inside and just add to the green bag.    I have another one just like this one that matches the one above with green polka dots on white and another cute flower.    Remember.... DON'T use head and bond, you must sew onto these bags that are not really fabric. 

  Keep in mind that just when I think I'm done, along comes another tote that was hidden away.  Don thinks they are having babies just begging to be altered.   

So look around at all those totes you've aquired, pull out the scraps and do some altering.  Have fun.

  Hey, a tote could now be a gift when taking something to a neighbor or groceries to mama. 

Come back from time to time and perhaps I'll just add some of the other totes to this post.