AWWW...DOG MEETS KITTY

Ceili, our little Wheaton Scotty, just loves to go back and visit Connie, our neighbor across the back fence. She's one of our tenants, so her yard connects with ours, with a gate in-between.

Yesterday afternoon, Ceili was just kind of moping around (she misses DH a lot). She went from moping to whining, and I just couldn't figure out what was going on. She didn't want food. She didn't appear to need to go out. Finally, I said, "Do you want to go see Connie?" and she just about went nuts, jumping up and down, and racing from me to the door and back. So we went over.

Connie's brother was there with his kitten. The kitten, Ricky, is no fan of dogs, to put it mildly. She sat on Connie's lap and hissed and snarled her miniature fear and animosity while Ceili looked back with calm, curious, friendliness. Connie restrained the kitten, firmly, and reassured me. I was nervous. I didn't know if Ceili would bite the Ricky, but I was afraid the kitten would take a swipe at Ceili's nose. I needn't have worried.

Within a few minutes, Ceili had joined Ricky in Connie's lap. I got video:

The Tea Fairy and The Ladybug Lady

Two new Tea Kettle Characters are done. I'm well pleased with both of them, and surprised and thrilled to see that they've already been featured on two webpages, after listing them in my etsy store last night. (Thanks to Always Amy and Cuteable! The articles they wrote are well worth reading, too. Visit them and learn good stuff you'll use.)

Anyway, here are The Tea Fairy, and Ladybug Lady:

Well, there's a floor to wax in the rental house, it's raining, so I'm off the hook for weeding the flower beds for now, need to go to the hardware store for drip pans for the rental's range, and drive over to Halsey to pick up the rents there. Haven't done a lick of housework yet, and I want to build a Coffee Pot Person today. oof. Time to get off my...uhm...stand myself up and get busy!

I WON SOMETHING!

Sunday was the Craft: Magazine release party, which was great fun, especially since I got to see Sister Diane ( DIY Alert, Crafty Pod), and work at one of several craft stations, and just generally soak up all the crafty energy in the room. (I do love creative people. sigh.)

AND they had several drawings for door prizes, and drew my name for one!

Let me see...the last time I won anything was, oh, twenty-five years ago. There was a sweepstakes in a magazine. Didn't figure there was any chance at all I'd win a top prize, but they said they were giving away 3,000 sun visors, and I thought it would be fun to win one for the kids, so I entered. I won a year's supply of Orange Crush soda pop! Imagine my bliss. Cases of a drink I never bought, and didn't much care for, bottles and bottles of a beverage too sweet and full of empty calories to give to my kids, except on very rare, very special occasions. Oh, goody. (Actually, I was pretty thrilled to have won one of the big ones, and we did eventually drink each and every bottle of the stuff.)

But the prize I won Sunday was a lot better than that. Here's what I won:

What a haul!


Here's a list of my happy-making take:

• A hank of hand-painted, handspun yarn (Traveling Rhinos)
• Six Jumble Bug pins (Jumble Bugs)
• A bracelet and a pair of earring from Anna Perrone Designs
• A felt pin from Perishable Productions
• The first card in the Collaborative Prints series, from Home of the Sampler, by Axel Honey
• An "I Craft:" button from Craft:

Folks, I feel like I made out like a bandit. Got all my goodies spread out on the dining table now, and just smile when I see them there.

ONE MINUTE MARKET BAG

This bag will literally take you one minute to make, although I'm going to give additional steps that will add both time and features or options to your market bag.

The one-minute version takes one tank top. I've grabbed one, basically at random, from my pile of tees and tanks.



The bag starts here




Turn the shirt inside out and stitch the bottom edges together, being careful not to stretch the fabric.

Turn it right side out. You're done! You now have a bag to can take to the store. It's strong, more or less capacious, depending on the size of the shirt you choose, and even has handles like the plastic bags the stores have, so you can hang it on the bag holders to fill it.

Did someone say something about wanting a flat bottom on the bag? In that case, keep the tee-bag inside out. Clip the side seams to your line of stitching across the bottom, so that you can lay your bottom seam flat, like so:



Centered seam


Lay it out carefully, so that the seam is centered on the point of a right triangle at each end. Cut two right triangles from paper (or one that you'll use twice). The hypotenuse (long side) should be as long as the width of the bottom you'd like to create. Pin the triangles to each end of the bottom seam.



Pattern in place


Stitch close to the pattern, and unpin.



No need to cut


Now your bag has a flat bottom, but it isn't very sturdy, so measure it and cut a piece of cardboard to fit.



Isn't this pretty cardboard? Almost hated to use it!


Drop the cardboard into the bag, fitting the points of the corners into the points of the bag bottom.



Done!

Hmmm. When I look at that photo, I see a tank top on a hanger! Better show the bag with something in it, huh? In this case, it's holding three pounds of coffee beans, a large can of baked beans, and a bottle of spray cleaner, with, I might add, plenty of room to spare.



Holding plenty, and still room for more

I promised options, with an "s". No pictures, but here are more:

• Use a tee-shirt, rather than a tank top. Cut the sleeves off, and also the ribbing at the neck. Proceed as though you'd started with a tank. If you like, you can turn the edges of the "handles" under, to meet in the middle, and tack in place. No need to hem the edges though, as the jersey won't ravel.





• OR use a tee, cut the sleeves off and sew the sides up all the way to the shoulders. Leave the ribbing for the neck, slitting it at one shoulder and thread a cord through for a drawstring. You can also slit it twice, at each shoulder seam, and make a double drawstring.
  

The extra large tees make great laundry bags. We always pack one to hang on a doorknob when we visit Mom or go traveling in the RV. They'd be really good for a student's dorm room, too.

I SHOULDN'T BE DOING THIS....

DH is on his way home from the coast. I need, want, to have as much of the rental cleaned up as I can before he gets here, including getting most of the assorted furniture, kitchen wares, junk, and garbage cleared out.

But in between working on that house, and various other chores yesterday, I took sixty, count 'em, sixty photos of flowers around the yard, and I can't resist posting a few of them here. Now. It won't take but a minute, right?

Rosebud Flame



Budding Masterwort



Masterwort Pair



Layered Clematis



Reaching for the sun

APPLIQUED NECKLINE, ALTERED T-SHIRT

Been working on this for several weeks, but it's been so busy around here I only just now finished it. I'm pleased with the outcome, even if it did take weeks longer than the one afternoon it should have.

Some few people may remember I had a whole lot of fabric to sort a few weeks ago, and that the reward for the task was to keep what I loved. I fell in love with a sheer panel of fabric that had embroidered lily-of-the-valley on it. I mean, really fell in love with. It was (brace yourself) sheer inspiration. Lots of ideas, but which to use? This is what I chose:

First, the fabric itself:

Turned the way I'd use it


So 3-dimensional!


Cut out carefully


Position and tack in place

An added note: Be sure when you use fabric glue to read and follow the directions. I ended up using Liquid Thread, which must be ironed to be permanent. Until you apply heat, it can be washed out. The motifs I cut out frayed very easily, so I coated the entire piece on the back, just to be safe.


Cut away excess fabric

Follow the line of your appliqué piece, leaving enough for a narrow hem.


Turn edge under

You'll probably need to clip all the curves to relieve any tightness or straining. Miter excess fabric as needed, too. I used invisible thread, which is rather like very thin fishing line. It's transparent, so even using a whipstitch and going from color to color, it doesn't show at all.

Turn a narrow hem along the back. It's a good idea to stay stitch across the back first, to keep the fabric from stretching. I used a rolled stitch there, but a straight stitch would have done, I think. T-shirt jersey doesn't fray, so I didn't finish off the raw edge.


All Done!
I thought of covering the back neckline with bias tape or ribbon, but opted not to do that.

Can't wait to wear my altered tee!

DEEP IRIS

The iris are blooming. Oh, I do love iris. There are so many varieties, it gets hard to choose between them, and every year I seem to add a few. These shots are from the new bed I put in last fall.


















And a Columbine...