Zakka sewing kit kaboom!

I've said it before and I'll say it again,

I LOVE MY ST LOUIS MODERN QUILT GUILD!!

We had another sew in this weekend, and it rocked the house!

Well, actually, the weather rocked the building.

Can you say 3" of rain in 2 hours?

Can you say marble to golfball size hail?

(some of the significant others were dealing with softball sized hail!)

Can you say tornado sirens going off?

Yep, never a dull moment with us!

But we didn't let Monther Nature crash this party.

We sewed from 9am to almost 10pm

(with a few dips out into the world beyond for food runs and hospital visits and various other things, and of course a trip to the basement to wait out the tornado)

and had a blast. Lots of neat projects going on,

quilts for friends and family and ourselves

in (literally in one case) all colors of the rainbow.

Hmmm, Mother Nature didn't provide us with one of those after her show, bummer.

Here's what I got done:

This is my next Zakka Style project, the sewing kit.

I'm pretty pleased with it.

I also got next week's project done, the pencil case.

 Not too bad. I only had to turn it rightside out THREE times to get it right.

I thought I was going to hurt my brain trying to understand the directions,

but eventually I just gave up and did it without thinking.

I did do more, but thats all I'm going to show you for now.

Mostly because I need to take some pictures and to do that I need to get some new batteries for the camera.



Pin Cushion Thoughts

I've been quiet, I know.

It's been busy and hectic with the end of the school year

hurtling towards us at mach speed

all the while feeling not quite ready for it,

not quite done teaching what needs to be taught

and there are changes (change is good, they say, but is all change really good?)

and some days it feels like there isn't enought time to do everything

let alone breathe

and you come home from work and all you want to do

is sit in the sun on the deck and enjoy a bit of sun,

stock up on Vitamin D the natural way,

and wish that sleep wasn't so fleeting.

But then,

you realize that life is good.

 You are doing what you dreamed about since 7th grade 

and you have friends and family and time to enjoy.

So here is my latest Zakka creation, the pin cushion.

Because we all don't have enough pin cushions in our life,

either to stick pins in (ala voodoo style)

or pull pins out to keep things together.

I'm going to an all day sew-in sponsered by the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild this weekend

so I hope to have much more to show you next week.

Happy sewing!



Tuesday's Truth

Travel light and laugh at the robber barons.

Tuesday's Truth

Life can only be understood backwards; but it can only be lived forwards.
                                                   
                                                                           - Soren Kierkegaard

House Pouch

So here it is, the second project from the Zakka Style book.

The front:

The back:

Floyd, the guard and helper.

"You aren't getting any of this fabric until I get some catnip!"

I like that my house pouch looks less like a house than the origional. 

I just couldn't do all the goopy lace and buttons.

Just not me.

Onward. Next is a cute little pincushion. 

Now, I don't have anything against pin cushions, 

but honestly, 

how many pincushions can one person have before 

you say Uncle??

Hmmm, maybe I'll fill it with catnip and use it as a decoy to gain access to my stash again.

Tuesday's Truth

Dinner is food. Dinner shared with friends is good food for the soul.

Zakka Rocka!

Its called Good Friday, 'cuz good God almighty Fridays are GOOD!

Especially when you get the day off to play.

I was a busy bee in my sewing room Friday wrapping up some projects,

starting new ones.

I'm so excited to be playing along with the Zakka Style fun!

Here's my new library bag, the first project from the Zakka book:

It zigs, it zags, Its ziggy zaggy!

I am very impressed with my domestic machine quilting,

not my usual modus operendi (check me out, butchering Latin!!)

And there's a coordinated pocket inside too!

Oops! Probably shouldn't have turned the camera. Oh well.

A super fun project that forced me to expand my horizons and tackle some new

techniques. And that LINEN!!! Its gorgeous to work with!

If you are on the hunt for that fab linen, I found mine on line from Sew Mama Sew.

I just hope the three yards I bought are enough to carry me through most of the

projects in the book.

I worked on some quilts this past week, finishing up my mother's

black and white jelly roll race (I added some yellow and it POPS!)

as well as two of my "use up the batiks" quilts

and finally quilted my Lemon Squares quilt.

I'll post photos later (tease, tease).

Oh, and I got a bit ahead on my Zakka Wow, and even have the next project DONE!

Gotta go mow the yard, a never ending chore to be sure.

Happy Easter, Happy sewing, and Happy April!

Tuesday's Truth

The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.