Lots of new to show you :)

Saturday, for close to 12 hours, I finally got to work on putting the Stella travel bag together. (Took about 6 hours just to get the pieces all cut and prepped with all their interfacings and the flex foam). I absolutely love the way it turned out!

This bag is gorgeous. It's another Swoon Sewing Pattern. It's crazy detailed...which is what made it so time consuming. 

I've deemed Sunday nights to be me time. And did some more paper piecing, since the new Quiet Play pattern came out...

But I haven't had time to quilt it yet. 

Monday was a day off spent with Banana at my parents. Although I did sandwich a quilt. 

Tuesday was spent cutting out interfacings and ironing all the craft fuse to the pieces. 

Wednesday was a therapy day, and youth group, but i did manage to sew up 16 new lanyards. 

Today, I worked on another Swoon Sewing pattern, Ethel, and made three of them. Butterflies and orange. Blue geometric print. And a bright colored floral. 

And tommorrow, I hope to have six more bags to show off!

Told you there was lots going on around here!!!

A flooded basement and a new addiction

Saturday night it stormed. A lot. Total of four inches in one evening...maybe a four hour amount of time. We had tornado sirens and more lightning/thunder than a person could count. Half the people around here barely slept, and the other half had the best sleep through storms sleep that they can remember. My dogs were upset. I didn't sleep much.

Sunday morning I woke up and went downstairs to shower and get ready for church. I never made it to church. My carpet was super soaked. Squished and soaked your feet when you walked on it. I quickly started to move furniture out of wet carpet, and empty puddled toy box bins. Started the fan and dehumidifier I had. While waiting on my helpers to get there. We had a crew of two guys working on the gutters/drainspouts, and the girls worked on the carpet. We drained the spot in the ceiling where the water had leaked in from a crack in the outer wall, and filled the bottom of one of my big tubs. We took between 15-25 gallons of water out of the carpet. More fans were found in the landlord's shed and as soon as he got back into town, he brought two more dehumidifiers with him.  To say it was a mess and a lot of work would be an understatement. (And by Monday morning, despite our best efforts, it stunk!). Fun times!

By the grace and strength of God, I've only cried twice (when asking for help), and my migraine became just a dull headache just in time for all the work needed over the last three days. So thankful that the damage avoided electronics, my recliner, and all the bags. 

Yesterday my garage even got a good clean out, and looked amazing before all the rec room was emptied into it. And something this week, the carpet is coming out and being replaced with linoleum (easier for me to clean), and the damaged Sheetrock will come out and be replaced. I have an amazing landlord that I am so thankful for!

That is sagging Sheetrock and water droplets you see on the center beam. 

More water droplets. 

In front of the cabinet on the left, small patch of dry carpet. Red bucket was catching the draining ceiling. 

There was standing water in front of the shower, and in the garage by the door to the rec room. It's the super shiny puddle you see. 

The corner to the left blessedly stayed dry too...we flooded that corner early this year when the drain the washing machine empties into wouldn't let the water drain. 

 

 

Foundation outside. This piece is actually a loose chunk. 

Now on to the fun part of Sunday to now. As I'm working on my sewing studio, and seeking out inspiration, one of the things that I love most about other studios is when they have a wall of mini quilts. Add to that all the beautiful creations I saw shown all weekend on Instagram because of spring quilt market...had me wanting to have a wall displaying mini qults, too. I found an Instagram user thru quilt market posts, @quietplay, that had a pieces sewing machine that caught my eye. I paused briefly when I saw that it was paper pieced, because that baffles me and I had never tried it before. But I love love loved the look of this quilt square and it was perfect for starting my mini wall. So I went to her blog/website and she also had a giraffe head (free for the month of May) and a flamingo head square. Inordered all three, printed them off, and found scraps in red and Aqua. Sunday night I sat down with the sewing machine pattern and got started. Just alternating red scraps and Aqua scraps. 

I was only this far in, one section complete, when I could tell how addictive this could be. Look at those points!  I've never gotten points that good!  This method makes the points!  I had to force myself to stop and go to bed on Sunday night...

Starting to look like a machine!  Snuck some sewing time in during the baby's nap. 

All the sections done. Just need to connect them all. 

I was so excited to show the girls this!  And couldn't believe that this was my first paper pieces square ever. 

I guess I didn't take a pic before I started quilting...

I sti need to fill in fmq in the blank spots. And then bind it, but I'm already loving it!  

I'm not very good at sitting still...

...but for the last two days, that's pretty much all I could do. I'm in day 2 of migraines. 

I woke up yesterday morning thinking I needed to work in some down time and feeling convicted that I have been pushing myself too hard and expecting unrealistic production. It's really hard for me, when there are bills to pay and nothing to pay them with. But it's not like I didn't try. I did 6 craft shows in 7 weeks time...and sewed like crazy before and after each one. No down time. And only taking Sunday morning/afternoons off. And half of those shows were not money makers...but I've whined enough about that already. 

I woke up yesterday morning with the left side of my brain hurting, an upset stomach, and major conviction. I've been so busy that quiet times have been hit or miss. And I have very little income to account for how hard i pushed myself. And if I want to be brutally honest, I've been pushing myself crazy hard since getting the fabrics for the Etno bag and Art Glass bags. And haven't given myself a break since then. I don't know anyone who can push that hard and not break. Certainly not me. And I had a foot injury in there, too...that didn't slow me down...my slow down for that was working on folding fabric and redo-into the craft room. (Which still isn't done yet because I needed to take a break from that to work on product for last weekend's show). 

Anyways. Two day migraine. All work comes to a screeching halt. And I've lived in a house with all the curtains/blinds closed. Thankfully the girls are at their dad's this weekend so they aren't having to whisper in the dark. 

I was hoping to get to play all day today on a fun project...free motion quilting the cross quilt and hiding encouraging words on the quilting. I haven't had a two day migraine in quite awhile...something I'm also thankful for. And I did get to play long enough to quilt the cross itself before needing a break. And I have been able to see lots of Instagram pictures of amazing quilts and new fabrics being featured at the spring quilt market...which also has me dreaming of one day having one of my bags or quilts there. Two days in the dark that coincide with quilt market was a fun upside. 

Here's a few pics of the quilting:

Put the word loved in first. And then quilted some lines into the cross. 

Redeemed and forgiven. 

Mercy and sanctified. 

Grace

A view of the texture from the back. 

Not close to what I wanted to accomplish. But considering I was sewing in the dark because of my head, and not able to do a single thing yesterday, I will take it.  The point was to slow down this weekend anyways. 

Oh, and here's the diaper bag set that I worked all week on before the migraine,..that was for a baby shower today. 

My least favorite diaper bag pattern, with a smaller bag for big sis's baby doll. But finished on time, and picked up yesterday by someone I love (which is why I pushed myself so hard to make them special!)

Oh and to leave you on a positive...we got our first order of 300 zippers in yesterday!  I love zipper piles!!!

Banana had a blast counting to make sure they were all there!

More bags, a two day show, 8th grade dance, and a vintage bag

Between Wednesday and Thursday's bags, I sewed on 50 zippers. Wow!  Here's a pic of all the convertible bags made on Thursday. 

Only one of them sold over the weekend...so still a lot to choose from :)

My favorite just might be the fox one!

We had a two day festival in Jamesport, MO on Friday and Saturday. 

Ended up having so many choices of cross shoulder double zip bags and convertible bags that I used the bar for the convertible bags and used the top of the rack on the other side for the cross shoulder ones. 

Made two fixtures that got shipped from both sides...normally it's just the cellphone and double zip wallets shopped from both sides. 

Here's what our whole space looked like. And we were right next to our friend Jade, with Heavenly Hippo...

It's always a blessing tand behave someone to talk to the whole time!

In between the two days, Toad had her 8th grade dance. 

On Saturday, all three of us girls were there and Banana decided she had fallen completely in love with one of the new cross shoulder double zip bags...and she tried to be helpful, watch her attitude, and not constantly say she was bored, so she could "earn" it...

She absolutely loves anything to do with music fabric right now and this print has grand pianos as well as some other instruments on it. She carried it to church yesterday. 

And now, I'm hoping to knock out some special orders, and cut out/sew a bunch of cellphone/double zip wallets to restock choice/color. After six shows in 7 weeks, there aren't as many left as I like to have on hand. And there are summer/fall festivals fast approaching. 

Here are the fabrics I picked out last night to become cellphone/double zip wallets. 

I also had a chance to whip up the little vintage purse I cut out/prepped Friday night while Toad was at her dance. 

I'm loving this blue fabric with shiny silver feathers! 

And this morning, while babysitting, I cut out the custom order diaper bag set I need to have done and delivered by Saturday. Right now, it's play time and little man is getting frustrated with me...so I gotta run... 

Sew sew busy!

We've been doing shows every single weekend for the last five weeks, and have a two day one this weekend, starting tomorrow. On top of that, we've been trying to update/improve the sewing area to make it more sensory and OCD friendly. And it's working because meltdowns at home are lessening. Less piles means less stress for her senses. Anyways, I have lots of pics to show...of craft show set ups, progress in the studio, and a marathon cross shoulder sewing adventure yesterday!  Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and we finally got her swinging chair!

Custom order

Tote bag for transporting th cellphone/double zip wallets. 

Oh yeah...there also was a foot injury last week. Bookcase box won, Becky lost. Three jammed toes and a sprained foot. 

Cross shoulder double zip bag prototype last Thursday. 

Yesterday's cross shoulder double zip bags. All ten of them. Two of which sold within hours of sharing them. And I only made two before discovering I was putting an extra lining piece in that was totally unnecessary. 😝😜

And today's pile of convertible bags...

...hopefully I can knock them all out today AND get the car loaded up tonight. Headed to jamesport, MO tomorrow for their Mother's Day sales.