Wedding Crafts - Part 1

For Patience and Brian's wedding, I did do a few crafty things.    First and most important, I put together Patience's birdcage veil.  We made it together.  We did a mock up of the headpiece on my "ham".   

When we had it sorta perfect, I glue gunned it down to a felt base then trimmed.   It was just sweet.  We added a few crystals to give it a twinkle.  When we get the photographers pictures next week, I'll show you how perfect it looked on Patience for her big day.

Baby Phoebe was the youngest child.
Just 2 months old.

Since there was lots of kids coming to the wedding from the age of 2 months to 15 years, I thought I'd do a little something for the kids.  For the girls, these pencil case sized pouches were so girly and fun to make.  You have seen me use this same pencil case idea here and here and here.   I sketched out each of their names on the light muslin with my friXion pen.  Then free-motion machine stitched over the flower stems and drafted names.  Buttons from my collection for the flower heads were then machine sewn on.   The pouches were filled with fun treats and given to the kids before they went home.   I ran out of steam by the time it was time to make something for the little boys, so they got a nice cello bag with candy with dinky toys.
 

14 little pencil cases with cute bead zipper pulls

I'm back!

We had a beautiful wedding here over the weekend.   It was really beautiful day is so many ways.   I have no bride and groom pictures to share today and the professional photographer will get them to the bride and groom in all good time.  

But I do have a couple of pictures of yours truly taken by our grandson Mitchell who was operating a photobooth.

The groom with all the kids

Caitlin and Grammie

Me and Scott... Great friend of the Bride

Me and Carli.  A sweet girl from Ontario

Almost Wedding time!

It's almost wedding time. Our youngest daughter is getting married on August 23rd.   We've been working on some crafty things for this little wedding for a while now, but now it's crunch time.  We are in the last 10 days and this week we'll be working on house decorations, food planning for our small at home reception.

So, no blogging for the next little while.  I'll be back after the wedding.

 

Making Dog Biscuit treats

 
Kiddos are here for a little visit.   We decided to bake up the rest of the dog biscuit dough that I made up on Canada Day.   The kids each took one third of the dough, rolled to about a quarter inch.  Then started cutting out the little circles with my large icing tip.  Then with the small round end of one of the icing tips, we made the little paw prints.   So cute.    Then bake...







We made up 4 packages to give to the dog friends of the kids.  After talking about what dogs like to eat, we worked up the nerve to taste them.   No sugar, butter or chocolate in them, so they were a little bland...  Good for Dogs though!!

A tester Wallet Class

I've been preparing to deliver a "test" Wallet class and we had the class earlier this week.   The purpose of this test class was to figure out how long it takes to make the wallet in a class and what my traps as a teacher are.  Well , 8 people took the class of varying skill level.   We did it two mornings this week.  Just look at the wallets.   One person had to leave a bit early and didn't get it done, but I will help her finish soon.  Just look at the beautiful wallets below.

Jeannie Kaye's Wallet.   The first one in the class done!!

They are all so beautiful using batiks.    The metal finding and the extra top stitched piece on the flap give this a very professional look.   Click on the picture to see Jeannie Kaye's fine top-stitching.

Look below at the nice idea Myrna had by putting the red frame around her wallet cover.  Such a nice detail.    She used fabrics from her stash, and was short on the outer fabric.  How nice that she turned a bit of a problem into such a nice idea and option.

JoAnne's and Alta's Wallets

Judy, Joann, Myrna and Lucy's Wallets

Judy S.'s Wallet.  Beautiful !

I'm pleased with how the wallets are very consistent.   I really want to thank my tester students who spent the two mornings sewing with me and helped by giving me constructive feedback as we went along the class.    This will make a smoother and more enjoyable class for my future students.

So, I'm officially putting this class on my "to Teach" list.   It is a class that has lots of fine detail but nothing too much.

A Garden Flag or two

One of the activities we did last week at Grammie Camp was to paint Garden Flags.   This is a picture of mine.  I love sunflowers.  I've tried without success to grow them at the cottage.  So if you can't grow one.. draw one.     We used a blue glue technique to draw our design on the lightweight sheer fabric.  Then after the blue glue dried, we used water based acrylic paint to paint the different sections.  The fabric under the dried blue glue lines will remain white.  Then let it dry for a few hours and then wash to get all the glue and excess paint off.    I happened to be at the drug store today, and they had garden flag holders on 30% off, so yippee for me.    This little sunflower will hang in my little cottage garden for the rest of the summer.     

I had an extra blank flag prepared so I made it into a quilty style flag to hang at the church.  It will be used when the hand quilters are there doing their craft.  The first quilter in hangs out the flag.   That way, less mobile quilters will know somebody is in and they won't make the trip up the long staircase to a locked door, only having to turn around and take the long way in to unlock the door.    I think this is just darling.   See the cute "A" I drew for St. Anthony's Church.     

The garden flags drying on the line. 

Grammie Camp 2014

I'm back and have had two days to rest from Grammie Camp 2014.  We had an awesome Grammie Camp this year.

I can't thank my sister, Donna and brother in law, Terry enough for  helping me do the five Grammie camps.   My sister organized "Minute-to-Win-it" games, that the kids love, and she did so much research with me on various crafts that would be good.  She entertained the kids with her amazingly funny accents which was modeled after some of my dear old Aunts!   While he has made many contraptions for Grammie Camp, this year was the first year for my brother-in-law Terry to actually come.  He made and brought a wildly fun dunk tank; did a GPS scavenger hunt for the girls which had them peddle boating out to a dock to get a clue, and he did lots of prototype testing of the stick bomb.    And a big thank you to my hubby and Grampie to all these kids, for all his help in organizing food and supplies logistics, cooking, cleaning, being a fair (or unfair) judge in the games.

To see and hear these kids laughing, and screaming as they are doing the activities, is just heart warming.  I wish you all could have been there.   My Facebook friends got a glimpse since my sister did an amazing job updating facebook every day!!

Thanks so much from the bottom of my heart, Donna Terry and Grampie.    

Christmas in July - Knitted Chrismas Stocking

If you had power last week, you probably saw that I had a good opportunity to work on my Christmas in July project last week.   I had this kit ready to work on after Grammie Camp which is Scheduled for this week.  If you are a confident knitter you might enjoy this small project.   I found it helped me pass some time last week while feeling captive by the No Power situation.   

This is a free pattern that is offered on the simplicity website here.    Give it a try, I'm sure you will love it..

Now I'm full steam ahead on Grammie Camp activities.  Our lakeside program starts tomorrow.   I'll be back in a week!

We have Power - What a Relief!

It was evident at 5 pm last evening that something was happening.   Big power trucks rolled in on our street.   People were out on their lawns excited.  We have been waiting for this for a whole week.   By 8 pm we had lights.  I can't tell you how elated we were.  What an experience!   Ahh, now to get back to normal.

No Power - Get Sewing (somehow)

Power or No Power, I need to find ways to do final preparations for Grammie Camp, which is scheduled for next week.   I still have a few hours of sewing to do, and baking of cinnamon bread and cookies etc, for snacks.

Most places around us have power.  I hope we will get ours back today. I thought that yesterday, but I can't wait any more.

My plan for the morning is to take my sewing machine out to a friends house to sew.   Before I go, I'll prepare a cinnamon bread to bake while I sew.    If I get those two things done this morning, I'll feel like I'm making progress.

Meanwhile, my Christmas in July knitting project is coming along.  I now have 6 of the nosegay pattern repeats done and moving on to the next stage of this project.  No more bobbles to knit..yippee.  I'm now into the second skein of yarn, and the next part of the pattern will see this project take on a new shape.  
I'll show you when I'm done... probably after Grammie Camp.

No Power - Get Walking

I've been totally distracted by the power situation. (into day 5 by the way).   I carry my iPod and listen to the radio on my daily walks.  The iPod counts my steps automatically and  I look at the step count occasionally.    A couple of weeks ago, I knew I was approaching 4 Million steps.    But totally forgot about it over the last week.  It would have been a couple of days ago that I missed my 4 Million step milestone.    I thought of it this morning and snapped a picture on the walking bridge.  Yippee.   I love a milestone.    

No Power - Still Knitting!

We are into Day 4 of no power.   Many people have their power back and we are glad for them.  Friends who live handy got their power yesterday, so they invited us for supper.  So nice.   And the other good news is that most stores have power now, and are open normal hours.   Gas is readily available now, but ice and propane are still a in demand.  Lineups are long.  

We are out of propane.  For supper tonight, we are having a cold plate.  Simple...

Yesterday, I finished knitting another 10 rows of my Christmas in July project.  Each nosegay (with the bobbles) has 10 rows to complete the pattern.  So for me it's a good goal.   Will work on 10 more this afternoon.

 Do you see my cute stitch markers.  I use them to separate the rows of the cables etc.    In this project, there is a total of 85 rows and I now have 50 done.   I've been doing 10 rows a day. It's very complicated and slow going.   But I like it because it's a distraction.