Merry Christmas

Hello All

Merry Christmas from Disneyland!!!!
I am so happy, having all 5 kids here. The above pics are of New Orleans Square


Here's a few for Janet, I thought she would appreciate them

And the castle of course!!

No family picture yet, we can't get the kids all together long enough!!

Later,
LAuri

Finally!!

Hello All,

This is Nancy's block for the Fairy Tale RR. This RR started in January. We have been PLAGUED with some really bad mojo on this one. There have been a few people who have not held up their end of the bargain. They were in several groups and received blocks to work on and kept them for months, we are talking at least 6 months if not more. This block is finally getting back to Nancy. I got my Last Unicorn block back from this group, ( I forgot to post pics of it, I will soon)but my Little Mermaid is still missing in action. We know where it is, but she refuses to respond to any of us to return them. Anyone want to play enforcer for me in Portsmouth, Virginia?
AARRGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Anyway................................

Here is the block now. I wanted to do more but this is a huge block and I just could not finish it. I added a long evergreen and berry seam on the left.The blue candle seam in the middle, plus the red and green tree one at the top. the star seam and the white lacy one by Santa. I also added the plate of cookies and carrot, the mice, Ho Ho Ho and the big silver star. I have had that for a while, it is pretty big , but I knew I would find a home for it some day!LOL

I hope you enjoy Nancy.I would do a RR you anytime, none of the duds in these groups were your fault and you did all you could.

Later,
Lauri

Lesa's Favorite Song Block

Hello All

Lesa's song was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Now you would think that might be easy to do as there are a lot of images but I ask you, "What the heck are rocking horse people?"

So I took the easy route and did the bridge by the fountain and the flowers that grow incredibly high.

The first pic is what the block looked like before I worked on it, The second is how it looks now. I particularly like the knight statue in the middle of the fountain. But I that might be cheating as all I did was sew it on.

Hope you enjoy it Lesa


Off to make overalls

Later
LAuri

Katie's Christmas Dress

Hello All

Here is a pic of Katrina in her Christmas dress I made for her last week.

I also finished my pirate shirt, which you won't see a pic of me in, cuz I DON'T do pictures of me. Then I made a Jacobite shirt for the hubby to wear with his kilt to the company christmas party. Which didn't happen because the cleaners closed at 12 and I went at 12:30. I weren't a very happy camper!

Later
LAuri

Lydia

Hello All

Here is the work I did on Flora's block. Lydia the Tattooed Lady. I incorporated my tattoos into my work. First I sewed on the applique of the Chinese dragon. My 7 dragons are Celtic but I couldn't find any like that.I just did not have enough umph to thread paint a dragon.
Then I added a silkie of Tinkerbell that I printed out. This is the exact tattoo I have on my leg.
I also did the butterfly border because I have one of those too. Then I put on the "Jesus Loves me AND my Tattoos" I have T shirt that says that. Some people at my old church used to give me a hard time and dirty looks when they saw my tats. So I wore the shirt and they had to at least be quiet about them
BTW I am having a hard time resisting the urge to get another one ( or 5) It is a very addictive thing to do. I am thinking of putting Cinderella's Castle behind my Tinkerbell, then I can add stars and fireworks around it to represent Grandkids when I get them. I also would like a mermaid but I don't know where to put it. I don't want any on my arms, ( Don't want to look too freaky) And I am too cheap to put one on my back. If I pay that much money for something I want to be able to see it

And now a really boring picture of the bunch of ties I bought at the thrift store for 50 cents each. I don't know what I will do with them yet, but I felt the compulsion to buy them.

Well off to try another pair of overalls. The last pair I made was so huge I could be 12 months pregnant and they would still be too big. ARRGGHHH


Later
Lauri

Beaded RR- Carol's Block

Hello All

I am involved in a Beaded RR on CQI, all the seams are supposed to be beaded.
The top pic is of the block after Leslie's work when I got it. Don't you love the peacock? The next 2 are of my work. The feather took about 8 -10 hours
I hope Jo doesn't mind I snitched her pics of my work, my camera was set to internal memory and then I couldn't transfer to my computer, ( couldn't be one of 2 young girls played with it do you think?)

More sewing to do

Later
Lauri

Christmas Stocking

Hello All

Here are a few pics of the stocking I just finished for the Victorian Boot Swap over at CQN. I really enjoyed this one. I almost kept it for myself. The bottom pic isn't the greatest , I was trying to a closeup of the spider. I still haven't gotten used to the new camera.
We are going to Disneyland for Christmas so hubby bought me a new camera. Which is nice but the batteries keep dying, especially with the memory card in. I don't want to replace them each time I go to take a pic.
Any ideas?

Off to make me some overalls for the trip. I will post pics of them. They are a LITTLE different. At one point I had over 30 pairs of them but then about 4 years ago I gained about 30 lbs do they don't fit. So it was lose 30 lbs in 6 weeks or make new ones. Hmmm... what would you do?

Later
Lauri

Even More..... You Know Whats

Blue Lady
( duh)

This pink one I sold to a lady I met at the Fabric store as I was buying the bead trim to finish it.

( Note to self........ NO more bead fringe...... unless I charge $15 more)

Red Lady

My Mom would have loved this

Pink Fairy in a Tree

Blue Oriental
( Very original names, huh?)

Hello All

So here we go. The last of the gypsy purses I made for the Craft Show.
The local Art Center has a juried Art Craft Fair. Janet and I are going to go check it out this weekend to see what they have and if our stuff would be up to snuff for them. If so maybe Janet and I will do it next year. We have heard that people who go to this show expect Art and they are willing to pay for it. So we will see
Just a warning,... I plan to post pics of my cell phone purses next so be prepared!

Off to finish my Victorian Christmas boot, I don't want to give this one up. I wonder..... do I have enough time to make a new one by the 20th? Probably not


Later
Lauri

As Requested... More Purses

Hello All

Here are some more purses. Susan asked if I had any purple or black and purple ones.
Also here are a couple of the cell phone purses. They aren't crooked it's just the way they are hanging. My 13 yo daughter volunteered to take pics for me, so at that age any time they volunteer you go with it.
Real interesting text this time huh?
More pics later

Later
Lauri

Back From the Edge of the Earth

Hello All

No, I did NOT fall off the face of the Earth. I just took a detour to Craft Show Prep Land. A fun place when you first get there , but the last few days are always too hectic and not long enough.

My friend Janet and I did a craft show together. We worked our behinds off. I made almost 3 dozen purses. Sold 3. At least I made my share of the booth rental back but not by much. We had lots of ohhs and awws over our work, but no buyers. I really thought they would go as Christmas presents.People have no taste. They would rather spend $50 on a piece of fence board painted as a moose or a snowman, or some mass produced piece of crap someone bought in bulk from China or Mexico than an actual craft at a craft fair. I could go to a flea market or the dollar store and get most of the crud they sold.Including all those stupid Yankee Candle ripoffs they sold at the booth next to us. They had one sale for $618!!!! My God, what an idiot

Enough of that.

Here is our booth. My hubby built the tree for me. It was perfect to hang our purses on. It showed them off perfectly. I am surprised that the fringe is left on any of them , everyone played with it






Here is Mata Hari, I think this one got pawed over the most

I call this one "Lilliana". I don't know why. It just seemed to be her name

This is my Honking Orange Fairy Baby purse. Ing in CA wants to buy this one

And this one is"Magpie" The only ones of the gypsy purses I sold. I think it was my favorite

I dyed most of the laces myself, all had at least some beading ( or quite a lot in some cases) and took at least 8- 10 hours to complete. I don't think $35 is unreasonable.

We have been thinking about consignment shoppes and trying some of the boutiques here in town. So we will see what happens with that.

I have been doing lots of other things as well. Lots of RR stuff, which I post very soon. Right now I need to go work on "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady"

Later,
Lauri

What Happened to September?

Hello All

Huh? How did that happen? Where did September go? No I haven't been on vacation or sick or even just been lazy.I've just been busy making things for a craft fair and keeping up on my RR obligations. I have done 4 blocks for RRs and about 3 dozen items for the fair.I will post on the craft stuff when I get some pieces actually sewn together.

Here is just a small look at what I have been doing. Sorry about the fuzziness of the pics.

First up, Leslie's block for Beaded RR on CQI

I have done featherstitch in green beads with flowers done in peach and yellow, on the edge of the yellow patch.
Next an alternating chain treatment done in light pink and a dark mauve on the olive green patch

Then a half buttonhole wheel done with gold bugle beads, pink beads and pearls

Last but not least, I completely encrusted a butterfly I had dyed with beads.

I do love to work with beads but it can very time consuming. Probably the worst part though is certain little dachsie who has to sit in my lap as I sew. It isn't bad when I am only using thread, but when I have containers of beads sitting next to me? Not so good. I bet there are hundreds of beads embedded in the carpet under my sewing chair, we won't think of the ones IN the chair!

More pics and a MEME soon

Later,
Lauri

This and That

Hello All
I just haven't felt like sitting down to the computer to blog for a while. I didn't seem to have any coherent thoughts to put down.

The first two pictures are of Jaki's "Frogs Bring Rain" for the Fairy tale RR. As I said this block was pretty darn empty.
Siw had done the crane in the corner. Nancy appliqued the frog, added the bead rain around it and did the seams on either side of that patch.Leona added the frog and pink bird buttons and the tiny fire.
So needless to say I couldn't leave it empty so I did all the rest you see. I am not real happy with how it turned out, but I ran out of Umph.
I hope Jaki likes it.
I am so glad this RR is almost over. It had been a real bear.. I haven't received the block back yet from this group and the other block is about 5 months behind. I just don't understand why people sign up for things if they really have no intention of doing it. I know life happens but my God, can't they at least put everything in a big box and send it back to the RR hostess so she can sort it out. I would be so upset if I kept others waiting that I would stay up days in a row to get things done.


Anyway.....

Here is my block for Your Favorite Song RR. I picked "Stairway to Heaven". Not my favorite song, though I do like it good enough. It's for my husband, I plan to do 3 more Zeppelin themed blocks for him.
I had this block all pieced and pressed, then I made a mistake and went to the fabric store. There I found the fabric on the left side with the mountains and trees, so no stopping me I took the block apart and added it in. So now it is partially machine pieced and partly hand basted. I couldn't help it. The fabric screamed "rings of smoke through the trees'

This is my contribution before I sent it on it's way. I decided to do the May Queen, along with the hedgerow where the bustle occurs. As a bit of whimsy I added her broom which used to be the MayPole for her spring clean.
This should be an easy song to interpret as their are lots of images to pick from. Judi who I sent the block to, is planning to do the Piper. I can hardly wait for this one to get back.

Janet and I are going to be doing a Craft Fair the first week of November. I have a few things started but nothing finished so I guess I better get my behind into high gear and get some stuff made huh?

Gotta go, going to Janet's to plan our strategy so maybe we can actually make some money off this show

Later
Lauri