A Creative Journey...

Simple but effective. It's a drawstring bag (9 of 50) for storing yarnie wips.

Flat...



Filled with a knitting project...

I've been admiring the galleries for numerous rounds of hoopla and finally found the courage to join. Embroidery isn't something that I excel at...but it was worth a stab (bad pun intended...) because the theme of silhouette/negative image appealed to me. While I'm not quite sure if my hoop (7 of 50) examplifies the theme, I did try my darnest. Based on my swap partner's interests, I chose to do something with Dia de Los Muertos/Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead sugar skulls are typically colourful and vibrant. I chose to do black on black embroidery on a colourful patchwork background. From a distance, it looks like a silhouette of a skull on patchwork:



Up close, you see the typical designs of a sugar skull!



And a requisite shot of the back of the hoop...

I have an enormous box of fabric scraps...odds and ends leftover from various sewing projects. It was getting rather unwieldy, and I decided to spend an afternoon sorting everything by colour. With my fresh stash of pink scraps, I decided on scrappy quilted hearts (2 of 50) for the mod swap.

A little rough around the edges...



Test model whereby all others will be based on...



Whew! All done!





Oh, and it just wouldn't be right if there was no candy in the packages, so voila!

More simple sewing and more destashing. I love baskets in all shapes and sizes, and lining them with pretty fabrics (44 of 50) makes me happy. It's darn near impossible to get one clear picture of the lined baskets, so I went a smidge overboard!









The ho ho ho one is for sis, but the other one is perfect for the growing stash of mitts that I've knitted in 2011!

Simple is good. These dishcloths and barmops (41 of 50) are spiffed up with fabric strips from my stash. The Christmas themed barmops are for my sis, and the rest will be gifts as well!

Meet Mikey, the mischievious monster minion (40 of 50). I found him hiding among my teacups and mugs...probably up to no good, per usual. He was made with the RevoluzZza Monster (aka Monster Ninni) pattern! Eep!!! Mikey has been shipped off to his new home (hopefully he'll be good and won't cause too much mayhem there...), but I will be making a couple more to hand out to friends and family because I think everyone needs a wee monster in their life!

Measuring in at 18" by 21" or so, it's a decent-sized tote (39 of 50) for a quick trip to the library or market day. The design of this tote is based on a beautiful pillow I saw online.

I adore buntings! There's something quintessentially festive about them...and just having one hanging in the craftroom makes me smile! I used this tutorial (okay, I'll be honest, I used the template but didn't read through the instructions :P) for the owl bunting (37 of 50). Hopefully, the recipient of this bunting will be pleased with it!

Made by my mama!!! I've hit a dry spell with sewing, but I'm glad that my mama hasn't. As an enabler, I've been fueling her growing interest in sewing by sending her gobs of fabrics from my stash. Mama's a lean, mean sewing machine...as evidenced by all the bags, pouches, etc. that she has made for me over the past couple of weeks or so. And this is only a fraction (I'm guessing 25%?) of what she has sewn lately. Go, mama, go!

This huge shopping tote (18 of 50) was made for one of my swap partners. It measures a hefty 20" by 18", with 30" reinforced handles. This is another destashing project of sorts since I've had the fabric in my stash for quite some time. I like the size of this tote, and I think I need to construct a similar one for hauling my library books!

I've had this table top ironing board since my grad school days (note the dated look and scorch marks). While I have since bought a full-size ironing board, this one's been great as my craftroom ironing board.



I love that it's the perfect size for crafting with, but I've always hated the cover. So voila! It was time to do something (17 of 50) that I've been thinking about doing for the past 6 years or so!! I added an extra layer of batting to plump it up further (since it was poorly padded anyhow) and made a new cover for it! The bright and cheery colours make me happy!

A couple more of these purses because I quite like the pattern that I used for the first one I made!

One's probably gonna be up for grabs in the STS swap, but I will be keeping one for myself. Question being which one shall I keep?!?

The mustard hued lovely?







Or the dotty cutie?

I'm getting a headstart here! It follows (by reason?) that a fabric lover must love to sew, no? I guess it's also possible that a fabric lover collects fabric for petting or for visual stimulation? Anyhow, I digress. For the fabric over scavenger hunt, the categories are as follows:

* Something local

* Something green

* Something lucky

* Something vintage

* Something tiny (under 2")

* Something related to the letter "M"

* Something sharp

* Something bumpy

* Something cozy

* Sender's choice

And I get to select 5 categories to fulfil! Well, I'm sending the following items because it's sewing-related.

Something vintage...



Something tiny...



Now I need to work on ideas for three additional categories!!

I think not *sigh* Either I'm incredibly pokey while sewing or I was sloshed (hey, it was only one glass of wine)! It took me closer to 1.5 hours to make the purse based on Jodie Carleton's pattern. I like the shape, long strap and button details (I have a thing for buttons, I guess). The fabric is from my stash, and I can't remember how long I've had it. But the fabric was definitely too awesome to remain unnoticed. Voila! It's now a purse (16 of 50).

The zipper on my favourite coin purse finally gave out...after 5 years of service. Rather than head out to the shops to buy a replacement, I decided to make one. I've always thought the flex frame style was neat...and I remembered reading (somewhere?) about using the metal strip portion of tape measures to fabricate odd sized flex frames. I searched online and found a couple of tutorials to that effect, but nothing that worked specifically for my purpose. Hence, I decided to make my own pattern. This coinpurse (15 of 50) is by no means perfect and requires a wee bit of tweaking...but it'll do for now until version 2.0 comes to fruition!

I've been wanting to play with kisslock frames for ages. Finally gave in to temptation and ordered a couple of frames to experiment with. After trawling the internet for tutorials, I ended up drafting my own pattern for the clutch. The sewing bit worked out just fine, but I think I'll have to splurge on getting the recommended glue for use with the kisslock frames. Apparently, E-6000 is good for many things but certainly not the best adhesive for this particular project. The little clutch (12 of 50) is off to live with my mama, but I'll be making another for myself pretty soon!

This bag (11 of 50) was made for a swap using a picture that my partner had in her list of favourite things. It's so much fun trying to reconstruct a bag based on a picture :)