Help Please!

I broke my sewing drought last night and made a purse. I cut it out months ago and it sat by my machine waiting to be sewn. Since NASCA was in rain pause most of last night I decided to put it together. (NASCA is my dirty little pleasure, it's all the pretty drivers going fast) It turned out OK, but I like the inside better than the outside. So, the outside needs some jazzing up. That's where I need help, so please, please offer some suggestions! (I'm looking at you, Mary Ann and Candi)

The outside:

The inside:

I could take it apart and reverse it, but the pockets are too short to be of any use on the outside, I would loose anything I put in them. I used scrap fabric to make it and I don't have enough to make deeper pockets.

Detail:

So, help me out. What can I do to make the bag less plain? Or is it OK as it is?

Pay it Forward

Yay! Now that I am home from my "Visit the Family up North" trip, it's my time to play "Pay it Forward" thanks to Denise at Mormar. The way it goes is this:

PAY IT FORWARD. The first three people who leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three others on their blogs will receive a handmade gift from me within one year (August 2, 2008) of this posting. I will read your blog and get the essence of who you are to come up with an idea.

So, Who would like a present from me?

Tick-tock

I'm making progress, slowly but surely on my sewing projects.

I've finished the pillow sham. Yay! There was enough fabric left over to make a bolster pillow so, now I've got to add that to my sewing list, but hey, I get paid for doing that, so I can't complain too much.

I've got the baby quilt cut and ready to piece.

The screens are cut and ready to be sewn into the proper widths, the trim has been bought and the frog is figured out and ready to be cut.

So, just to stress myself out some more, I'm going over to my friend Heat's house to help her recover the glider for her sister's nursery. In lime green cheetah print. I think the pregger hormones are messing with Joh's brains.

Either way, I'll try to take pictures tonight .....

Oh Boy! When it rains, it pours!

I've got more sewing on my plate than I know what to do with! Even better, I'm getting paid for some of them. Now the problem is time! I am a procrastinator, just call me Last Minute Mary.

Paid jobs have a due date of July 19th:

1 king pillow sham with trim. (1-2 hour project)

3 fabric trimmed hanging patio screens (your guess is as good as mine.) I've got the screens, but they need to be cut to size and I have to go buy fabric to trim with. I love the idea of the screens, but doing the math always stresses me out.

Personal sewing:

1 baby quilt for the niece (needs to be done by the 19th for the trip home to PA to meet her) she's scheduled to be delivered on the 17th.

1 stuffed frog in a tutu (due 14th for the baby shower) I've got a doll pattern to covert into a frog. Should be too hard, but it will take some time to do it.

I so need to light a fire under my own ass. I'll see how much I can get done this weekend. Then I will start panicking.

My 1st Swap

When it rains, it pours. I'm not talking about the weather, I'm talking about my time management skills, which are poor. I've been wanting to do a swap, I kept seeing the cool things others do in the craft blogger world and I wanted to join them. So...I found Swap-bot and signed up for a swap. The Handmade Bookmark Swap. I signed up in early February, then had to wait until the end of the month to see who my partners were. It seemed to take forever. Then in the first week of March I got my partners. That is when it started raining. I looked at the calendar. The bookmarks need to be Mailed by the 10th and on the 17th is Heats baby shower (for which I had/have huge amounts of sewing to do) Ack! Alas and alack. So I kicked my butt in gear and got the bookmarks finished and mailed out on the 9th. I had two partners and each one got a sewn paper bookmark and a quilted bookmark. For a little something extra I included a handmade note pad to each lady. I got the idea for the notepads at my house is cuter than yours! Mine are a variation on the theme, but I really hope they like them. (and my bookmarks!) I had fun making them.







This is what I received from crochetoholic debb a lovely crocheted pink rosette bookmark and a fun pink bookmark that has a sweet poem on the other side. Also a Leprechaun Pin (I'm going to wear it to the baby shower) some green tea (long gone now! yum!) and a really cool card. It is going to be cut out and go on my Christmas tree this winter.

From my other partner, Denise I received 4, count them 4 bookmarks. Each one a treasure. I really liked her metal stamping. Way cool. She also included a neat multi media handmade card. I shouldn't forget the dum-dum. (also long gone!) She sent her bookmarks in a cool sleeve to protect them.

I am so pleased with everything I got in my swap. I can't wait to do it again. I just need to get past this weekend, then clean up my sewing room before I can sign up for another. Nothing has been more annoying that look for all of my supplies. I hadn't unpacked them from the move, so I don't know where everything is. This will be remedied next week!

I did it!

I broke my sewing slump. I finshed a project! Yea!!! Of course, this one took me half an hour in front of the tv, but I like it. It's a bit crude, but for a first try it passes muster. It's about 2 inches tall, really it should only be about 1 inch tall. I found this project at blog that I surfed yesterday. The Pincushion Challenge She has a really cool Flikr tutorial. I'm going to make another tonight, but this time I'm going to make a mushroom. Which will probably be 2 inches tall too.