Feb. Rambles

sassyfibersbySonja.etsy.com

Well the blog for February......Last Wednesday we had a going away party at my sewing workshop for my long-time pal Charlotte, who is moving to Florida. Dang, I am so gonna miss her, as I can honestly say that she is 1 of my best friends. Even though I have years of  "people I know" I only have a hand-ful of friends. I am so sad :( but I know she will be happy to be around her sisters who also live there. We all make a quilt block for her, so she can remember our fun times at the workshop. Of course I forgot my camera that day, so I didn't get a picture of my block (sigh)...but I made a cowboy boot applique with the San Antonio Spurs fabric as the upper boot. It turned out pretty nifty, as all the other ladies blocks did. I also put together all of the scraps that Gloria gave me to make quilted mug rugs....well they are all put together except for the binding. I have figured out a way to add a front double pocket on 1 of them, one holds your spoon or stir stick, and the other can hold your tea bag,sweet-n-low packet or dairy creamer. Neat idea right? Thanks for the scraps and the batting Gloria, as I will use all of it!

In other news about quilting...I have been going thru my prized quilt books and magazines picking out my very favorites to keep. Sadly the rest will either end up in my etsy store, or at my flea market booth at Trader's Village, as I won't have room in the new apt. for all of my treasured items. I also found out that my niece in Dallas is expecting with triplets, so I need to get busy making 3 quilts for the new babies. I am thing that the rail fence pattern would be the easiest, and the fastest to make, and I guess I'll use all pastel colors, as we don't know the sex as of yet.

Oh yeah, my birthday is coming up.....hmmm what to do?

February sales on my Etsy store are up to 10.....yay!!! Slowly but surely I am picking up....small items but it's a sale, and every one counts! Maria from our sewing group just opened her shop on Etsy too. I told her to call me, and I would help her finish setting it up. She is making wonderful beaded crotchet necklaces. She also showed me how to make easy travel pillows last week. I love simple stuff that is fast, and easy, that is economical for me and my future customers. Not much good news to report on the job hunting front.....I have signed up with a temp agency, and have applied for 2 civil service jobs through a gov. site as well. Also I have a resume posted on the San Antonio workforce commission, but so far no matches. What's a single person to do?

In closing, I have a question that has been bugging me.....If you knew that someone had taken something that didn't belong to them, what would you do? I observed something last week, and it has really been bothering me to no end. Y'all take care, and HURRY SPRING!!!

xo~Sonja~
PS....while reading some of the blogs that I subscribe too, I found a stolen quilt alert. Please be on the lookout for this quilt.

Paw Print Fleece Scarves

Well I missed my Wed. blogging about my hump-day happiness, and my Wed. workshop doings.....
I was cutting fleece scarves, assembly line style the entire day that I spent at the workshop. When I came home, I stayed up really late sewing them....& was too pooped to move! Here are a couple of pics of those that I did get fringed out, & ready to wear.

Paw Print Fleece Scarves

The one on the left is cut every inch....the one on the right is cut every 1/2 inch creating the fringe. That is my favorite one on the right.

Closeup 

On my mannequin...whom I found in a dumpster......isn't she great! The price was good too:) This scarf was cut at every inch to create the fringe. I had never worked with fleece before, so this was my initiation project. I found it to be quite easy, but it dulls your rotary cutter very quickly. Also you need a dedicated cutting mat solely for fleece......or use the backside that doesn't have the grids.
These measure 7 1/2 inches wide x 60 long. You can see the other scarves if you click on my flickr photo stream button.
I'm a little late on this as well, but Happy Veteran's Day! I support our troops, past present, & future! 

Progress Today on The Christmas Quilt

My Wed. workshop was FABULOUS!!!
I had enough time to not only get 1 project ready to quilt, but I also got an old WIP ready to quilt. YAY!!!
1st up~my poinsettia Christmas quilt.....I looked  through all of my yardage...& I have LOTS... for a peach color for the accent border....well no dice on the peach. Next choice was yellow that is found in the flower centers....I am so glad that I talked myself into it.....it really pops!
So the accent border is a yellow print, & the final border are more of the Christmas Trees. The quilt is now layered & pinned.

So what do you think about the yellow?

Project #2 is a Christmas Table Runner that Kimba designed for 1 of our Yahoo groups....I think it was from 2008.....so I have had this pieced for a very long time.....Now it's ready to be quilted too.

Today was a very great day! Happy Hump Day to all of you.

~Sonja~

The Christmas Quilt/Wed Workshop

Howdy bloggers!
I just don't know why, but Wed. is becoming 1 of my favorite days of the week. I am so blessed that I can finally say that I do have a special day, with a small band of women who gather in the back classroom of the local Hancocks Fabric store. We had a little Halloween party, and some good food on the buffet table, & Judy brought some little gift bags in for prizes for the fun little games that we played. I was the winner of 1 of them YAY!!! We had a terrific time!
Then it was down to some sewing business! Yes, I do post about the things I have been working on....when I remember to take all the parts with me, so I can.........(remember I forgot part of it last week...giggle)

Well here are some pics of the Christmas Quilt that I have been working on with the poinsettia focus fabric that I bought at least 5 yrs. ago that I could not bring myself to cut because it was so pretty. It is from a Michael Miller Collection, but I have had it so long that I don't remember the name of it (drats!!!) Anyway, all the strip sets are sewn together finally, & it's all squared up & ready to find an accent for the border which will be a 1 inch strip, so after it is sewn it will be a 1/2 inch....YIKES!!! Then I add the remaining green border, & it's ready to be layered & quilted. Which reminds me to go shopping in my stash for the backing....I hope I have something in peach, which is not only the lightest color in the flowers, but the least color represented in the quilt.....I think it will make it POP!!!
Note to self #1.....those Christmas trees with snow on them is considered a directional fabric....Do NOT do this again until you have had all of your morning coffee, & are bright eyed & bushy tailed.
Note to self #2.....make a list, & pack all of your supplies on Tues. evening, so when you re-make that giant bowl of pea salad for next week that you FORGOT today, that is all you will have left to grab before dashing out the door.
I hereby declare that today I have started my Process Challenge Pledge with this post. 
Please stay tuned for more pics of this quilt next week.

Hump-day Happiness

It started out as a strange day.....but ended up being a grand day indeed!

First of all, I had to finish up my housecleaning job from yesterday...All I had left to do was to vacuum the downstairs, but Big Fred, & Lance showed up at the house, so I promised to come back today when they would be gone, before going to my sewing workshop, which is my weekly ritual.
For those of you that don't know, I clean my best friend (I call her my sister) Carol's house every other Tues. because she works 2 weeks days, then 2 weeks nights, plus she is my partner at the flea market on the weekends, so she needs the help, & I needed the extra income being in-between-jobs....so it works well for both of us.
My front tire on the car was extremely low, so I go to the Valero up the road to put some air in my tire. Well a car is parked in front of the air machine, with a flat tire....I mean sitting on the rim flat, & the driver is no where to be found......(what a jerk)........so I decide to drive over to finish my cleaning job, because it's getting later, & I need to get back home to pack up my sewing stuff for my workshop........
I am almost finished with the carpet, & in walks Big Fred. After I finish up, I tell him the air machine story. So happens he has a portable air compressor in his trunk, & said not to worry.
He gets out the pump, assembles it & I hook it up....24 psi is what my tire had, & I think it is supposed to be around 41.....yikes. Now this pump plugs in to a cigarette lighter, so it takes a few minutes to fill my tire, but it's a nice day outside, so who cares! When the tire is done, & the pump is unhooked, he goes to remove it from the lighter, & the whole dang connector just falls apart.....:( We spent an hour trying to put it back together, to no avail, & I really felt bad that it happened, & now I am really running late for my workshop.
I make a mad dash home, let the dog out again, & gather up my stuff to take. I load up my sewing machine, then start gathering the Christmas Quilt I cut out, & a few other supplies. The quilt I am working on is from a pattern, which I don't normally use a pattern, but I had a Christmas print that I could never bring myself to cut, because the print was sooooooo beautiful, but this pattern was made for those kind of fabrics, so I bit the bullet
& used it. When I started sewing I noticed that some of the panels were not the same length so I must have read the cutting directions wrong....WOF...LOF....oh my gosh....so I knew I had to take my leftovers with me to cut more stuff, & adjust the pattern when I finished sewing the panels to make it work. Then I needed to take my camera to take pics, because last week I took the process challenge, & this is a great example of that cause I am having trouble with the project.
I finally get to the workshop, & unpack my supply bag....
camera....yes
pattern instructions....yes
extra material.....yes
panels I had started to sew....NO!!!

 I had finally taken my machine, & I left my project at home folded neatly in a stack on my ironing board....so I had nothing to work on, & no photos to take.
Well I did enjoy my time talking to my sewing buddies, got to see all the wonderful things they were WORKING on.....
Now to the Happiness of my day:

While at the workshop, I got 2 sewing baskets, & a brown bag full of sewing patterns for a very good price.
Then I come home & log in to my blog, & find out I have a new follower, & had some comments on my What's your name post.
One of the comments was alerting me that I had won a giveaway on The Quiet Quilter Blog post....YAY ME!!! I never win anything.
My Hump-day Happiness was complete.
Update: Before leaving for my Wed Workshop, I had a quishy in my mail box....Thank you Frances aka The Quiet Quilter. :)

Happy Saturday Morning!

Well it is a wonderful morning indeed! I am so glad that fall is finally here in Texas....& the heat is gone :)
I did get a few more fans on my new Facebook page YAY! I do have some real friends there.......so I thought I would socialize a little while waking up with my cup of coffee in hand.
Sadly in a few days I will be losing my Flickr Pro account, as at this time I can't afford that luxury. I have a list of things that used to be essential, but are now considered luxuries....(Strange how life is always throwing you curves like that.)
On my list to do today: I have at least 30 prs. of blue jeans to de-construct for my up-cycle projects. I have a Christmas quilt that I cut & started piecing at my sewing workshop on Wed. I have all those pink bags to make for the bank.....laundry....blah blah blah.....& stuff to pack up for tomorrows flea market adventure. My list seems to always exceed my time on hand LOL! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention to list a few more items on Etsy, drag out the UT quilt & see how much more work it needs........transfer some more pics to my fan page, before they disappear from Flickr......a girl's work is never done!
Oh and there is a a video I need to share from one of my newsletters that I receive from Joggles....let's not forget that!

Tell your friends and family, share this on your blogs. (permission to share from Barb in my e-mail)
Today we're playing with Tyvek.  Paint it, add some heat, and be amazed at what happens!  Tyvek is not new, but I find that many people wonder about what to do with it.  Now seemed like a good time to replace the old tutorial that only had still photos with a video where you can see the movement and fun things first hand.  Tyvek and heat play well together so long as you separate them with a pressing sheet or apply heat from a distance and you'll see both in today's video, which you can see here:

And I leave you with 1 of my 1st fabric postcards that I made back in 2007....Have a blessed day!

Pumpkin Pie

Appliqued pumpkin, with stenciled vine. My 1st try at using stencils, & fabric paint. This card was sent to a soldier serving in Iraq, thru Penny" postcard Posse.

Blue Jean Apron 2

Hot off the sewing machine is my second up-cycled blue jean apron. Bet ya can't tell who is my favorite basketball team in the NBA? The San Antonio Spurs of course.....

Well technically the jeans are black....I thought the print would work better than using blue colored jeans, but now that I'm thinking about it, the silver color in the print would go nicely with "blue" jeans.....

HMMMM, guess I better get busy de-constructing a pair of blue ones.

At Wed. workshop, I did quite a bit of un-sewing....not much fun, but the light was good, & I became re-acquainted with my seam ripper.

Focus Fabrics - a set on Flickr

Focus Fabrics - a set on Flickr:

Today is workshop Wed. at my neighborhood Hancock's Fabric store. They have a big classroom set up in back of the store, & a bunch of us ladies go there with our sewing machines & take some projects to work on. I was thinking that a good idea for today is to scrounge around for some uncompleted projects to take with me today. I haven't messed with my sassy lady blocks in a very loooooooong time. I am thinking that they might make really cute purses??? They just need to grow a little with some more scraps....a funky print back.....maybe some beaded dangles at the bottom....

I also found a Christmas table runner that I need to layer & quilt, so I can take it to Trader's Village, and some stocking that have been cut out and are ready to sew.....

I have sew many things that I have been started, but never finished....it is really sad :(

I also want to take those bags of thimbles with me, & my camera so hopefully I can get a better picture because of the lighting.

Time to go digging.....Have a sew great day!!!

'via Blog this'

Blue Jean Apron

This is a project that I have had laying around the house for ever.....

My friend Glo has had a blue jean apron hanging in her kitchen for years that someone had bought for her from a local BBQ joint. Hers where made from an old pair of men's wranglers. Well I finally got her to take it down, & let me see if I could make one myself....I've had that apron now for 3 months! She will be very glad to get it back.......

This is a pair of Mudd Jeans that the front snap broke, so I cut the rear out, & here ya go.....Definitely not your mother's old apron.....too bad I used a low-grade cotton, but I didn't want to waste any high-quality quilting fabric on an experiment, but in all, I think it looks pretty cool.

Where did 2009 go???

I just can't believe how fast this year went by, or how long it has been since I have posted to my blog.
I have spent this entire year trying to put my life back together again...well it has taken a few tries, but hey I didn't give up...which would have been easier. I have been working hard at work & @ home, & I have even managed to squeeze in some "ME" time.
I haven't quit smoking yet, but have cut down quite a bit. I rarely smoke at home, & not while driving.
My friend Charlotte & I have been going to a sewing workshop on Wed. afternoon, & I have quite a few X-mas gifts that I have been working on since July. We went to a quilt show, ( a 1st for both of us) a few Sundays ago that was sponsored by a local quilt guild. That was a fun afternoon, & we picked up a few new ideas there. I also picked up 2 new patterns while there. One is a cowboy boot quilt, & the other was a combo pin cushion, thread catcher that sits right next to your sewing machine.
I also made some Dallas Cowboy Christmas stocking, & working on some UT, & San Antonio Spurs stockings as well. No pictures yet...& since they are registered trademark fabrics, I don't know if I could post them anyway???
I also have 2 quilts in the works, another that I'm getting ready to cut, & a few that just need some finishing up. Looks like I'm just going make Sunday my designated sewing day, after I get everything ready for the assembly line.
Well this years' weather has not been easy on my right lung, & so I'm having some pulmonary issues. With all the humidity, the air quality, & the allergens, I just found it very hard to manage my lung problem. Oh, & did I mention that I had the flu for a few days in the heat of summer? I really am considering getting not only the flu shot this year, but also the swine-flu vaccine.
Well until next time, hopefully I'll have some pictures from my workshop to post. Can't wait for Thanksgiving, ...I keep eye-balling that turkey in the freezer, & I am cutting up bread cubes for the stuffing, & making cornbread...yummy!