Emerging from the Shadows

It's been a time of beginning again and taking inventory of my hopes, dreams, desires and wishes.  I was feeling pretty "burnt out" the last year from spending so much time designing, and after putting all of that on the very back burner, I just "vegged" for several months. I didn't even have a desire to put needle to fabric, which really concerned me, because since I have been 14 I have constantly been stitching. (That's over 45 years if anyone was wondering!).  I purposely put away all the stitching fabric, threads and accouterments, deciding I would wait and see if the "stitching bug" would ever bite again!

I was a bit surprised to find after several months the desire to go back to the beginnings of my stitching and sewing accomplishments.  My very first project when I was 14 was embroidering a set of stamped pillow cases, and it sort of crept up on me that I wanted to do that again!!  So off I went to the store and found a set that I liked well enough to bring home. It has lots of lazy daisies, which is what I had a real hankering to do!!  I've been working on those, and then I realized I wanted to do some craft sewing, which I haven't done in nearly 20 years...

Since I am a real sucker for purses, I found a great pattern for a purse.  And here is the result:

"Hampton's Handbag"

It took me about 5 hours to cut out and put together. This is a pattern is "Hampton's Handbag" from Pink Sand Beach Designs, there are some great handbag patterns that I am looking forward to making someday! Website: www.pinksandbeachdesigns.com

I also wanted to do some crazy quilting, and I had enough fabric left from the purse to put a block together:

The beginnings of a Crazy Quilt

I am really happy with how this worked up.  The little girl in the center is my Aunt Cora when she was 3 years old, about 1914, almost 100 years ago.  I printed her picture onto T-shirt Transfer computer paper and ironed it onto 100% cotton.  It's a little "grainy-er" than I hoped it would be, but it will do.  I have lots of laces and buttons and do-dads in a cream/off white, and they look so nice against the fabric!

My messy corner on the patio.

I've had an ugly spot on our patio where all the "debris" seems to end up before it goes to the land fill. I've been longing to have something to hide this spot from view (clutter and messiness really bother me visually), so today John and I went to the lumber store and got the materials for a sweet little fence! He's been a busy beaver since we got home, and it's almost ready to erect!

 We just set it upright, and its gonna be nice...but we need to go back to the lumber store and get a piece or two to get it secured to the rest of the fence!