Crochet Sampler Afghan

This last July, I finished my Crochet Sampler Afghan. I started it almost 2 years previous and just worked on it as I had time, mostly in the evenings when I was too tired to be creative in any other way. It took me a long time because I found since this was my first afghan I tended to rip things out and start again. It also took me some time to figure out the stitches, gauge, and how to put it all together!!!!

This is a Lion Brand Company Pattern and you can find it by clicking on the link above. I also used Lion Brand Yarn called Vanna's Choice, in Espresso, Dusty Green, and Burgundy! I found the yarn easy to work with and enjoyed the feel of it in my hands. Love the colours and how it turned out.


The three different stitches!!! Espresso was a single crochet going through the back loop. Burgundy was a row of double crochet, followed by a row a single crochet. The Dusty Green was one row of cluster stitch followed by one row of single crochet.



Picot Edging in Espresso!!!

The Finished Product!!!! I loved making it! I love that it looks great in our master bedroom on our bed. It is also wonderfully cozy and I reach for it on cold winter nights when I need some extra warmth.

I Have A Secret...

...Or rather I should say that My Hubby has a gift that he doesn't want anyone to know about.....he can free hand cut beautiful paper snowflakes that look like lace!!! Here is a photo of one of the most recent ones he has made. I am hoping to get them framed in the next month or so.

Dolls and Messenger Bags.

Good Morning,
I can't believe how time has flown since I last posted. I have been busy doing lots of different things. For Christmas I made each of my daughters a Wee Wondefuls doll from the Kit, Chole and Louise pattern. My girls loved each doll and messenger bag that I made for them. Their eyes shone like bright copper pennies, so it was definitely worth the lack of sleep it took to get them done on time for Christmas.

Meet Dolly Sally and Shaela.
The pink one is for my youngest daughter, and the orange one is for my oldest daughter. I have one in the making for my son.



I made matching messenger bags for each doll. Check my previous post for a link to the messenger bag pattern.



A close up of the design on the flap of the bag. I used my big shot and some dies from Stampin' Up! to create the appliques, then adhered them to the fabric, and did a combination of hand stitching and machine stitching to finish them off.



Here is the pink messenger bag and Dolly Sally.



Here's a close up of the pink one.



How about the rest of you, did you get a chance to make any home made gifts this year? Baking, sewing, stamping, scrapbooking, etc?
have a great day,
Marcia

Hello,
About two weeks ago I went to another bag ladies night. We went to the Quilted Cats Studio, and had such a fun evening of sewing, yummy desserts, laughter and friendship.

This time I made a messenger bag out of some denim that I had bought probably well over 10 years ago. I also used some of the pixie bella fabric from my reversible tote and crochet roll from my previous post. I used a bigz die for my Stampin' Up! Big Shot (check out my sil's SU website to purchase all SU supplies used in this project) called butterflies to die cut the butterflies out of fabric. I then used steam-a-seam to adhere the appliques onto the flap of the bag. I also hand stitched the appliques on using a back stitch, then added some of SU's rhinestone colored brads for the body of the butterflies. I used SU's crystal effects to adhere the clear rhinestones onto the flap, we will see how sturdy that is as I use it. I just love using this bag. I love the pockets that are included in the pattern and designed/added an additional pocket to the inside for all my little goodies that I take with me when I am on the go. Other than the alterations I already mentioned, I followed the rest of the pattern to make the bag.



After I finished my messenger bag, I cut out the pieces for a wonder wallet, using left over fabric. I can't believe how many projects I have made with these 4 pieces of fabric (1/2 metre each). That is awesome how you can come up with or find different projects to use up all those scraps. This is such a cute little wallet when you want to just take a few things with you and not a big bag/purse. It was also super fast to make.



For the front of the wonder wallet I used a SU button from button bouquet, from last years cataloge, sorry it is no longer available. It was a perfect match.



Thanks for looking.
Have a great day!

On November 14th we bag ladies are attending an all day sewing/craft day. The sewing/craft day is at Cindy's church, her friend Michelle is the gal who does all the behind the scenes organizing for the craft events for their church. The cost is $15.00 which includes both lunch and dinner. If you would like more details, check out our Bag Ladies Strike Again facebook group or check out our Bag Ladies Blog. Details regarding the sewing/craft day will be posted in the next week or two, so stay tuned to the previous mentioned sites.

Bag Ladies Strike Again...

A group of friends got together at Sarah's (my sil) house last night and we sewed up a storm. Cindy and Rhonda worked on making a bag from the latest Quilts and More magazine. Alexa made a messenger bag, Sarah made 3 music bags, two were reversible and one was a reversible bag with 4 patches on each side to make up the outside of the bag. I used the same pattern that Sarah used for the reversible bag. You can find the pattern for the tote I made on Cindy Lou's blog.

This is the new reversible tote that I made for my crocheting projects and a crochet roll to hold all the essentials that I need for individual projects. I used the Pixie Belle line of fabric from Fabricland and Stampin' Up!'s chocolate 5/8 grosgrain ribbon for the tie. Check out Sarah's blog if you are interested in buying any Stampin' Up! products. She has some awesome classes and clubs happening this fall.

The crochet roll tied up.

This is what the inside of the crochet roll looks like. I got the pattern for the crochet roll from the Sew Mama blog. I followed her instructions for everything except I didn't add binding to the edge I top stitched instead. For the first 5 pockets on the right side I used her measurements but for the rest of the pockets I just sized them for my tools.

Stave Lake

We went boating this past sunday with a couple of other families. We went out to Stave Lake on two boats. We drove around until we found a little rocky nook to park and bbq hot dogs. We saw some wildlife on the side and also some campers who were tenting on the shores here and there. The kids had so much fun tubing while the Dad's all went wake or knee boarding. The water was so clean, and this beautiful green colour. It was also just the perfect temperature for cooling off, not too cold and not too warm. Since this was made by flooding a valley there were lots of trees poking out of the water, it was really important when going through the channel to stay within the bouys. All in all it was a really fun afternoon. Here are a couple of pics.

Me and Juliana

Shaelyn

Daddy and Shaelyn


Nathan all cuddled up with U. Steve

My Weekend

Hi Everyone,
So far I have only been posting about how I have been organizing my scraproom. However, this weekend was our 16th wedding anniversary. So we stayed in Friday evening and ordered out our favourite desserts from local restaurants.
On Saturday we went with our oldest daughter to the Cultus Waterslide Park compliments of our realtors Larry and Marlene Siebert. They invite all of their clients each year for a bbq at the waterslides. We had a thunder/lightning storm with a torrential downpour, however once it passed we had a fabulous time with hardly any line ups at all, and we stayed until closing.
Yesterday we went to an amazing concert in our local area to see Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Brian Doerkson. But first we went out to dinner with my hubby's brother Steve and his wife Sarah to Greek Island's Restaurant. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!!! Great food, awesome concert, and wonderful company, made for a wonderful night.
What a great anniversary weekend we had together!!!! Sorry I don't have any pics this time.