Thursday, March 31, 2011

I made my girl a little purse!

I was blog hopping the other day and came across this tutorial from Janet at Quiltsalott  in Australia and HAD to try it.  Hop on over and try your hand!   I made this for my girl.  Amal.  Hope in Arabic.  She is my doll.  She thought it was a bigger purse with handles and when she saw me working on it last night she was squealing with delight.  I'm so glad.  I just finished shooting it and have not given it to her yet!


First I will show you my big OOPS!  I sewed right through the pin!  I had to cut the thread and unpick it to pull it out.  I laughed the whole time!  I have NEVER done this before!


Here is the front view.  I did a loop-y meander.


The back view.


The label that I put inside.  Man, I DO NOT like doing that blanket stitch.  I need to figure out an easier and faster way to put in my labels!


On this tutorial, you are meant to hand stitch the zipper.  I had to pull it out three times before I got it right.  I would like to figure out how to make it faster on the machine!


One final note, I have been making book covers and use red gros grain ribbon in honor of missing my Mom all the time!  It is so hard to be away from her for two years at a time.  Then I only get to see her for like two or three weeks and then another two years.  We cram so much in those weeks!  Whew!  Anyway, her favorite color is red.  Now, when I was picking out zippers, I decided to take it there too.  So, that is why this little pink-ish purse has a non-matching RED zip!  

Now, off to make a Vegan Chocolate Cake, want the recipe?  Let me know by submitting a comment.  Then, off to sew MY little purse up!

Thanks for stopping by!  

Monday, March 28, 2011

Muscat Quilt Guild March 2011

MUSCAT QUILT GUILD
MARCH GENERAL MEETING, 2011

We had a very busy Show and Tell part of the meeting this month!  It was exciting as this is always my favorite part!  Let's get on with it!

Before I start, a special shout out to my reader LOIS for the kind words on my last post!  Thank you!


Here is Basima and Ibtisam.  Basima served with me one or two years on the board a while ago and so did Ibtisam.  Ibtisam is serving still.
They are displaying some pieces taught by Jenni Reyment when she was in Dubai.  The thing I learned here was that Jenni did not teach the same techniques that she taught us here in Muscat a few years ago!  Smart cookie!


This is not actually part of the Show and Tell but Ibtisam was demonstrating to all of us how to make the very popular DISAPPEARING NINE PATCH.  Thank you Ibtisam!


These ladies are four of the six current board members.  We have Ibtisam, Fran, Sylvie and Anisa.  Fran and Sylvie will be leaving us soon.


Here we have Pat, Sylvie, Kathy and Sue showing off three bags made by them a while ago and privately.  What they are up there for though is to show these little flowers made of fabric that Fran taught us last month.  No, I did not make one, darn it!


Randa made two really sweet and useful needle holders!  She put pockets in them!  This is one lucky gal as she has the only known about to me AccuQuilt Go here in Oman!!  She so nicely invited me to go to her house and play on it!  Randa, I will give you a call this week to set up for next week, k?


I'm thinkin' she used her new toy to cut out these stars?  Isn't it sweet?


I'm so proud of Jo!  There she is on the left.  This is a Lynne Edwards' Advanced Sampler project we have done either in a class or on our own or with smaller groups.  This is just stunning!


You can see Jo better in this picture!


Here Rose is holding a charity quilt she made for the Children's Oncology ward here in Muscat.  I have two I signed up for that I need to get busy on.  I got one for me and one I will be using to teach (finally!) my Amal how to quilt!


If memory serves, this is the back of Rose's quilt.


Here is another baby quilt by Rose.


These little houses are so cute, aren't they!


There was a lot of hoop-la when Fatima came up.  She is such a doll and the ONLY woman I know shorter than my Momma!  Just a smidge!  I was lucky enough to find this fabric like three weeks ago?  I bought it in blue, green and white.  She made the bag.



The other side of Fatima's bag.


Here is another charity baby quilt made.


Maggie made this lovely quilt.


I just love this purple Rail Fence made by Maggie.


A little Christmas wall hanging.


A bunch of us took a class with Lynne Edwards on Reversible Quilting.  It is not her technique but she taught us.  This turned out so lovely!


She is folding this so we can see both sides.


Another baby quilt.  It is so much fun.  A group of gals get together and cut out the fabrics that have been donated.  We then make packets up and offer them to the guild members with the commitment that we have to donate the batting and backing and quilting and put it all together.  


This is Sylvie holding up Awatif's wall hanging.  Nice.


Here is Awatif holding it.


She is a busy lady!  She took this pattern off the net and made it up.  It looks a lot like Jenni Reyment's technique but I am not sure.


She made this lovely fruity table runner.


She also made two side table quilts.


This is  Zubaida showing off her Reversible Table Cloth that she learned in a class taught by Anette.  I think it turned out really nice!  There is no batting so it is really light.


Here is the other side.


And someone had her fold it for picture purposes!


Mariam made this little quilt for her new Granddaughter!


Pat made this colorful quilt.


Sandie made this lovely quilt using a tablecloth she got in Saudi Arabia.  I have the same tablecloth.  From Saudi Arabia!


She also made a pillow.


Another baby quilt from Maggie.


She is a busy lady!


Awatif made this wall hanging.  The colors are very nice!  It is a little blurry but the technique is like origami.

Wow.  What a lot of work we are doing here in Muscat!  I better get on the ball because we only have two more meetings for the season and I wanna show something!

Thanks for stopping by.

I'm feeling sad today...

Hi.  I have a few things to post but don't really have the time right now as I am supposed to be (my best Chandler from Friends) somewhere and haven't even showered yet!

I am feeling sad that I have not received my Scrappy Mug Rug Swap 3 Mug Rug!  My partner opted to send it regular snail mail and it has been over six weeks!  I guess I fear that it is lost.  I have had several packages go missing from family and now they refuse to send us anything.  That's sad too.

I'm being quiet and not whining to my Swap Mama cuz she'll just tell me to buck up and wait!  She is tough!  Love her though.  Wonderful woman!

I am one of three ladies that have not received their mug rugs.  So I know I should shut up!  They are from Austria, Australia and me in Oman.

I'll use my Aramex address next time for SURE!

I think I am PMS'ing.....

But, to brighten my post up!  I have these things to blog about:

1.  New Hardanger VERY OLD German book given to me by my Dutch friend!
2.  Muscat Quilt Guild meeting pics.  Hope they are good!  I need to go and edit them.  The last couple of months were either slow in show and tell or my pics sucked!
3.  My daughter's huge opportunity...

See you all soon!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Good things....

Bread

Homemade whole wheat bread

butter

Pepsi


Good things...

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Recycling and First Blooms!

What does one do with these little jars that are prevalent here once they are empty?

(Natco Vanilla Essence, Reymer's Red food color and Foster Clarke's Almond Essence)

Ya turn it into a little flower vase!


These are some of my Jasmine blooms!  Yay because they SMELL so good!  Nay because that means SUMMER and plus 100 degrees F is also here!


Still....