Today I noticed...Mess ups and mistakes are not always a bad thing.

My daughter, Bridgette, sent me a photo suggesting I give a new project a try. As if I don't already have loads of ideas that I'm wanting to give a try and can hardly make up my mind which to work on next! However, I did think it looked like a fun thing and something the granddaughters might like. So, I saved the photo and spent a couple of days thinking about it.

Link to product pictured above

Yesterday, I spent a little time digging round in my ribbon box and crafted something similar on a smaller level to add to the grands' and Bridgette's bag tags. I truly just used scraps of ribbon and rick rack and found a few beads to string onto some ribbon and thread. I didn't go for the gigantic size that was my inspiration because, after all, that could get a bit heavy in my mind.

Since Linley is basically a basketball player, I stitched up a little basketball bag tag for her. I know I said I had decided not to decorate the opposite side of a bag tag anymore. I guess I just lied. I just couldn't resist.

Then, I worked on Abby Lee's bag tag by adding a bit of ribbon and rick rack and beads. I found that pony beads really seem to work best and can be threaded onto a narrow ribbon that is knotted at the end.

Like previous bag tags and projects, I searched for tutorials and found one that I liked. I just looped the ribbon over a two-inch split ring and tied the ribbon off with a bit of thread and a a narrow ribbon wrapped round it to make a little tassel.

Knowing that Bridgette is a bit of a gypsy inside, I made hers bright and colorful. Much as I hate to admit it, I do like these little tassel additions! They are a great way to use scraps of ribbon.

My intentions when I went to my sewing room were make a wreath sash for a gift I need later this week and give the ribbon embroidery a try. Well, I had too many irons in the fire, as my dad used to say. I got distracted and made some mess ups.

I put the stabilizer on the wrong side of my fabric for one end of the sash. I didn't even notice it till I took it out of the hoop! My brain was not functioning on all cylinders or I was having a senior moment or something. Of course, I had already decorated the opposite end of the sash. I decided I could salvage it by just cutting off the messed up end and piecing a new end to it. The print of the gingham checks would be forgiving and make the splicing of two pieces together not so noticeable and I had plenty more yellow checked fabric. So, I hooped up another strip and set it up to stitch a second time. When the machine finished embroidering, I took it off and was trimming away the stabilizer from the back side and sliced right through the yellow checked fabric as well. Wah! Wah! 

Even though it was almost dinner time, I decided I was not going to let this project beat me. So, I hooped up a third strip of fabric, set it to stitching, and swept and cleaned up my workspace. When it finished embroidering, I stitched the wreath sash together and wound up with a cute, completed project. I had already stitched a cute patriotic themed strip to make the wreath sash reversible.

I think the finished product really turned out cute and was a successful venture despite a couple of setbacks. However, I did not tackle embroidering on ribbon. I decided that was a learning experience that could wait till another day. So, today I gave it a try.

Sometimes my mess ups and mistakes really frustrate me. Sometimes they make me more determined to see an idea through. Sometimes they are a learning experience that nudges me forward. Notice that I was smart enough to try with the granddaughter who has a short name! Since it was a quick and easy endeavor, I've decided that it is worth my giving a longer name a shot. What do you think?

Not Much Sugar for a Nickel

I remember my grandparents saying that phrase quite a lot. I've heard my Mama use it as well. Some things really are a lot of sugar for a nickel. Now, the English teacher in me comes out... For those of you who don't know the meaning of that idiom, it is saying that some things seem like more trouble than they are worth. 

Heart Bag Tag

I have been making Bag Tags.  I understand that some of the grands really like bag tags. So, being the grandmother that I want to be, I am trying to craft something they will like. Evidently, I am not so good at making bag tags. It seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to get one completed. 

Smaller Heart Bag Tag - 1st Side

I thought maybe I needed to use some sticky tear away stabilizer to make them sit tighter in my hoop. Oh my goodness! I wound up with my hands sticky from trying to get everything positioned just right. I found a tutorial that showed sticking the sticky stabilizer to the back of the hoop. Then, sticking the fabric to the sticky stabilizer. That seemed to work better. However, my question is do I just use two layers of the sticky stabilizer or do I baste a less expensive tear-away to the sticky tear away stabilizer?

Opposite Side of Small Heart Bag Tag

I like to have a finished look on both sides. The designs I'm using don't seem to include that option. So, I'm having to finagle around and make it happen. That adds a whole different layer of difficulty to such a small project. 

4" Square Bag Tag - Side 1

Today, however, I decided that I am not going to make them reversible anymore. That is just to headachey. Getting everything lined up and straight is a whole added level. I don't mind just adding a plain fabric back or a puffy foam back but a decorated back just makes it W - A - Y too much sugar for a nickel!

Opposite Side of 4" Square Bag Tag

Puff Foam Sports Volleyball Bag Tag

The Bag Tag designs that I am using include:

• Set of 10 In-The-Hoop Bag Tags by Embroidery Byte
• Sports Bag Tags by FabuloEmbroidery

I purchased them via Etsy and they have been a wonderful guide as I am learning to use my new embroidery sewing machine. 

3" Circle Bag Tag

Cute fabric back for tag shown above.

The heart, square, and circle bag tags are part of the 10 In-The-Hoop Bag Tag bundle. Again, I purchased them via Etsy. They feature just the outline or shape and the little circle to guide where to poke the hole in the tag. I've added the designs on each of the tags using other designs or fonts that I purchased. The designs include:

• Lamb by Rainbow Sublimation Company
• Cambridge Royal Embroidery Monogram Font by StitchMonogram
• Fishtail Embroidery Font by Stitch Monogram
• Maxwell and Merit Font by AnnMargaretStudio
• The Bow from Crossed American Flags by Tiny Treasures 804
• Split Paw Applique by RiverMill Embroidery

Maybe I am trying to do too much with one little project. Maybe I have my standards set too high. If I use a cute fabric that coordinates with what I have on the front, I think the tag looks finished and is still quite cute. So, I am satisfying myself and changing - not lowering - my standards!

I am enjoying making them and am still learning with each new project I tackle. I think the tags are cute and I think the recipients are going to enjoy them! I'm hoping to get a sweet hug or two and that might make it worth my while and not too much sugar for a nickel.

Just 3 Things | #35

Summertime is here at last. The days are hot and muggy but we have enjoyed a shower or two every now and again. On days like these, I'm just glad I no longer have fifty cows to milk each morning and afternoon!

- What I've Been Reading -

I truly love reading almost more than anything else in this world. I like to find a character that I enjoy or learn about a person who intrigues me. I love learning about events and places. I always have questions and look forward to finding the answers. My daughter, Bridgette, and I discussed this recently. She and her younger two daughters had a wonderful opportunity to take a bus trip out west and saw so many wondrous things. She messaged me and told me that she had sort of become like me and would read and learn more about places and things she was seeing or was getting ready to see the next day. Her reading would cause her to pose more questions and she would have to search and find answers to those as well. 

Luci, Bridgette, and Lydia on their wild west tour!

She would send me photos of the wondrous things she was seeing and I would have questions. Some of them she knew the answers for and others we wound up searching online to find some sort of answer. I've never travelled to the part of the world where they went last week. So, I was intrigued by the things she was photographing and sharing. Was Old Faithful 'on time' with the spewing? How hot are the hot springs? What causes the hot springs? Is that basically just like a volcano? How did they build the walkways without getting injured by the hot springs? Oh, I had loads of questions and she said she did as well!

I find myself doing that sort of thing on the daily. When I read my morning news feeds, I will question something related to what I am reading and go down multiple rabbit holes learning more in relation to the subject at hand. So, I'm glad to know that the pursuit of knowledge is working in the next generation.

- What I've Been Loving -

I am a firm believer that every single person needs to find something that brings them joy and engage in that pursuit of joy. I also firmly believe that we need to be grateful for the opportunities and blessings that are provided for us. There are so many things that bring me joy and I have so very much to be grateful for!

As I was pursuing one of those joyful opportunities in my office/sewing room this week, I looked out the window and saw a mother deer and her baby go strolling by in our yard. I guess that means I enjoyed a two-for. Daily, I find that I am thankful for the opportunity to be retired and enjoy slow days, days when I can just pick up and go visiting my children and grandchildren like I did this past week, and days when the only real work I have to do is picking up things the Mister and I have left out or sweeping the floor where we have tracked in or washing the mound of clothes we have dirtied. 

I've also been finding I'm thankful for the means to purchase a fancy sewing/embroidery machine and having the time to putter and play with it to see what sorts of things I can create. I believe we all sort of come alive when we are creating something or crafting something. I also believe that we truly enjoy time spent with those we love and I am ever so grateful for those opportunities as well. 

This past week I got to go watch our oldest grandson play ball.  I got to see him pitch a no-hitter and to hit a couple of home runs - true home runs. I was informed a couple of years ago that when he scored on errors, it didn't really count as a home run. He said, "You know Grand B, it's not really a home run until you hit it over the fence!"

Bryan, Jessica, Linley, and Harris, the homerun hitter

I guess I can say that this week I really and truly loved the retirement life more than any other stage I've enjoyed in life so far. We celebrated the Mister for Father's Day with my bonus son and his children, I was enjoying the updates from the travelers via pictures and text messages. Then, I got the pleasure of visiting with my son and his crew doing something the entire family seems to enjoy. What a great week!

- What I've Been Working On -

Maybe I'm a cheapskate but I don't like to throw away something that I feel certain I might use at a later date. That causes problems for me, though. I like for things to be organized. I seem to function better when things have a place and most things are in their place. Yet, when I save fabric scraps, that seems to cause me problems. I know that a large fabric scrap might be just what I need for a project and I would never think of tossing it in the trash. Yet, I'm finding that smaller fabric scraps can come in handy as well but, how is the best way to store all of those smaller fabric scraps? For that matter, what is the best way to store all of the larger fabric scraps? 

I love having the fabric scraps. For all of these projects that I have completed lately I have just been using my scraps. It is wonderful because I don't have to spend money on fabric and I generally wind up with something really nice. (Of course, sometimes a scrap of fabric is combined with a stabilizer and thread and winds up just being a mess. I will practice a couple of things on it. I will try out an idea there. Then, into the trash it is tossed. That part of having a stash of fabric scraps has been great. The storage of usable fabric scraps just isn't working out to my liking.

So, this week I have been trying to get my sewing supplies organized better. I'm not feeling very successful at getting organized either. When my mother was a seamstress, she had large bags of fabric scraps. She would take time and sort them by color every now and again. Then, when a project called for a small piece of blue fabric, she would dig around in the blue fabric bag till she found what she needed. I've tried doing something similar with large, clear, plastic tubs. I fold the larger pieces and sort of roll the smaller pieces of fabric. However, when I dig around in the tub, all of it seems to just become a jumbled mess. So, for the largest pieces of fabric, I've folded them and hung them on a hanger. Medium sized pieces get folded and stacked in a tub. Smaller pieces just seem to go into a tub as a jumble. 

There has to be a better way. I am determined to find it. I hope the idea comes to me soon. 

My Go-To

I've found that trying something out on my sewing machine in embroidery mode seems to nudge me toward making a wreath sash. I guess you could say it is my 'Go-To' product. 

My 1st Wreath Sash

Maybe it is because the designs are usually pretty quick projects.

Patriotic Wreath Sash

Floral Monogrammed Wreath Sash

Maybe it is because the designs are relatively small.

Patriotic Wreath Sash #2

Monogrammed Hydrangea Wreath Sash

Maybe it is because this is a pretty easy project.

Floral Monogrammed Wreath Sash #2

Pineapple Monogrammed Wreath Sash

Maybe it is because there are lots of ways to diversify designs.

Patriotic Monogrammed Wreath #1

Patriotic Monogrammed Wreath #2

Maybe it is because I want to try all the different things on my new machine.

Bandana Wreath Sash

Maybe it is because I have a lot of long, thin scrap pieces. 

Today I noticed...every attempt is a learning experience.

My daughter has been encouraging as I am learning to use my new sewing and embroidery machine. She knows that I want to create items that are simple, basic, and purposeful. I added embroidered names to my bonus daughter-in-law's gift of beach towels, for example. Simple. Basic. Purposeful. So, my daughter, Bridgette, sent me a couple of examples of wreath sashes and I gave that a try. Simple. Basic. Purposeful (if you count home decor as purposeful). 

Decor at our back doors

I love the concept of custom stitched wreath sashes. Just perform a search using wreath sash as the key term and thousands will pop up. Bridgette sent me a suggestion similar to the example pictured below. (I included the source in case you want to order one.) There are so many beautiful ideas out there. I hardly have an original thought in my head but I can copy somebody else's good idea and put my own spin on it. That is just what I did.

Source

When I was searching for sash ideas, I stumbled across several patriotic examples since we are in the patriotic season of July 4th and this is a big year for celebrating. So, I decided to give that a try. Bridgette had suggested that I look to etsy for reasonably priced designs and that was another good suggestion. I took the ideas that I saw for wreath sashes that were offered for sale and combined that with a couple of patriotic designs that I purchased and made myself some patriotic wreath decor.

Let me also add that the letter O - the letter that begins our last name - is not really a pretty letter. Making an O with a flourish, yet, still making it legible is difficult. So, when I see a pretty O, I am very likely to purchase that design. Otherwise, the O will simply be a plain, ordinary, boring circle. One option that I found on etsy did have a swirly, flourished, pretty O. So, I pounced on that alphabet quickly! Thank you Rivermill Embroidery.

Since we have French doors at our back entrance, I needed two wreaths. I like to have something that is similar but just a bit different whenever I can. So, I thought the HOME and LOVE designs which featured an American flag, heart-shaped design were just perfect for there. That let me use two of my new etsy purchases effectively. I had left-over striped fabric from creating the pillowcases for the basement bedroom that worked perfectly.

After making the first wreath sash, I realized that crafting one that is reversible is a wise move. So, I dug around in my fabric stash and found another scrap that would back the cranberry striped perfectly. For that side of the sash, I just stitched the same design.

I decided that the bandana print fabric was busy enough that I needed something simple. So, I chose a heart-shaped frame that came with my sewing machine designs. I used some of the control buttons that I had noticed and moved one heart up and toward the left a quarter of an inch and stitched it in white. Then, I used the same frame design and moved it down and to the right before stitching it in black. Then, on the other side of the sash, I used a Fishtail Font for the long and thin white O and a more ornate and rounder O that came with a different font package called Maxwell & Merit. for stitching with black thread. 

I love the flexibility of mixing and matching designs within a project and combining similar but different products. I also like having an item that can be used for different patriotic holidays as well as for an everyday look. Plus, I learned how to use different font packages and combine and center designs together as well as how to manipulate the designs that came with my machine.

I really liked the crossed flag design that was in the example Bridgette sent. So, I searched till I found one that I liked. Again, I wanted it simple but also versatile. TinyTreasures804 had a beautiful option that offered several different sizes as well. I had seen this example and knew that I had a scrap of yellow gingham that might work for a sash. I really liked the pop of red on the yellow fabric. So, I decided to give that a try.

In my search, I stumbled across another concept that I thought was versatile but truly beautiful. The sewists had used a bold floral print fabric and added a simple single initial. A couple of examples are shown in the photo below. So, I dug into my scraps of fabric and found a yellow floral to back the gingham patriotic option.

my inspiration

I was talking to my daughter-in-law and sent her a quick photo asking her for a suggested color combo. So, I was getting her opinion in a sneaky way for a gift I was creating for her.

My finished product

I will definitely be making myself one with another scrap of that bold floral fabric. It is just beautiful to me. I used a Two Color Fishtail Monogram for the B. As luck would have it, one of the cranberry red peonies or roses or whatever flower that is wound up right on the tail end of the other side. I could not have planned that better!

The reverse patriotic side is beautiful as well. I did learn, however, that with a thin, light colored fabric like the yellow gingham, it would have been better to add a lining so that the reverse design doesn't show through. Every attempt is a learning experience!

Another plus to these wreath sashes is that I can just use fabric scraps that I already have. So far my only expense has been for stabilizer and thread. I have a couple more wreath sashes on the drawing board. I cannot wait to get back to my sewing machine each day. 

Out of Pocket

I've been a little out of pocket for the past few days. Oh, I haven't gone anywhere - well, except for one night, when I visited my son and his family. I just have sort of been out of pocket. 

I was learning with my new sewing machine. Here are some projects I completed. Wreath Sashes. Kitchen towels. Placemats. Bag Tags.

Evidently bag tags are a big thing and I have been blissfully ignorant of them. Bag tags can be key chains, luggage tags, athletic bag decor, purse decor, backpack decor, and more. They seem to be very popular with the grands. So, I got a couple of patterns and embroidery designs and launched into trying to make a custom one or two for them. 

They are not as easy as YouTube makes them look! But, then, is anything really as easy as You Tube makes it look? They are really cute and I am going to keep trying to make them simple. 

Here is what I learned with the first few that I stitched up:

1. The embroidery/decor work needs to be done first.
2. Hoop the stabilizer and add the decorated piece of fabric after the applique stitch step has been outlined. 
3. The design needs to be pretty small to fit on the pattern well. 
4. Sometimes you have to stitch that outside 'boundary' a second time.
5. Maybe I need a heat gun like I saw on some of the YouTube tutorials to make the edges not have whiskers.
6. These little jewels are really labor intensive.
7. The youngest granddaughters really like them!

Projects, Pillows, and Putterings

Since I have been practicing and learning with my new sewing machine, I have worked on some projects as well. 

When I first began reclaiming the basement, I decided to turn the bedroom into a guest area. I had collected lots of ideas that included twin beds. So, I used the twin bed that had been Bryan's as he was growing up after I had stumbled across one while thrifting that looked sort of like it. I painted them out to be the same color and dressed them the same and they work together. 

I had a large chunk of fabric that my friend Kathy had given me and decided that would eventually become window treatment for the room. So, I have been planning around that as a color-way. I prepared the fabric for stitching to make a couple of panels for either side of the windows. I will take a bit and stitch up a hem and some rod pockets and finish that up soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to putter and practice with my new sewing machine. I dug out a remnant of fabric that I had picked up at a discount store. It is a nice percale stripe that is the same colors as the window treatment fabric. So, I decided it would become pillow cases.

I used the tutorial found HERE for my pillowcase dimensions and method. Before stitching it all together, though, I did a little embroidery decorating. I just chose a couple of the colors in the contrast strip that is floral (the window treatment material) and embroidered a couple of stacked Os as a monogram of our last name. 

Then, I stitched it all together. I think it adds a nice layer to the bedding. I love custom linens such as window treatment and simple things like pillows and pillow coverings. 

I think the pillowcases work well with the throw pillows I've already got on the bed. I bought the red one at a thrift sale, brought it home and washed and dried it. My plan was to cover it but it looks good with the bedding. So, it will stay that way and just provide texture right now. The checked one is an envelope pillow cover that I made out of another remnant I had picked up at a discount. The fabric is a nice upholstery fabric and I used one of the designs that came on my sewing machine to monogram it.

You can see in the photo above that I have been using soft white bedding. I think that is hard to beat and I have the pillows with the soft white cases in the room still. I'm trying to decide if that is overkill to stack them on the bed as well!

I like the added layer of the design on the new pillow cases and am now more inspired to get the window treatment completed! That is another project for another day of puttering.