Yard Sale Saturday, 10-27-2012

We made a trip back over to Mandeville to check on our 'For Sale' house as well as attended the Northshore Rotary Club Chili Cook-Off with some favorite friends.
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Let me mention that there were Yard / Garage Sale signs all over.   It was very stressful as there was less than an hour to spare between the house and the Cook-Off.   Beau, always the good sport, made 3 stops for me.  

FINDS: 

• A Clover Embroidery Stitching Tool Set.  I'm not sure how this works, but we are going on a camping trip in a few weeks with family and this should be great lawn chair entertainment.   I'll get it figure out and clue you in later.
• Three patterns; two for dolls that I'll probably never make and one for a fabric tea set (now isn't that interesting)
• A bag of button separates -- you know; those extras you get with clothing, carefully labeled and saved.   Now I already have thousands (literally) of buttons, but for 60 centers, I couldn't pass them up. 
• A small handful of jewelry bits
• A spool of yarn thread. 

Decent finds I might say and, other than the embroidery thingie ... all will go to their inventory stashes to be on hand for 'when I need them'.  (Hopefully I will).

I was picking them up to put away and thought ... well, why not use something now.    I pulled two pieces off one of the pair of earrings, as well as selected  two buttons and added them to two of the Bird pieces I was playing with

 Button Eye and head adornment

Button Eye and a tidbit in the mouth.

I'm hoping, some time soon, I'll figure out a yard sale circuit for our new neighborhood.

Thanks for dropping by,
Lorrie

Melodye and Glen

This is the official Melodye and Glen.   (I swiped the picture right off the Facebook page).

Melodye is my sister and Glen is her husband.    They are a marvelous couple and I love them immensely.   But, this story is not really about them ... just sort of about them.   

I've been having trouble with my sewing machine.   I came up to my studio a sleepness night two weeks ago to sew and 'it - the machine' was most uncooperative.   The next morning, I Googled and found a sewing machine shop - All American Sewing - not too far from the house.    We turned 'It - the Sewing Machine ' over to a handsome Russian (in accent) man for repair.   The prognosis when we returned the following week to pick it up --- broken gears.  But, it still didn't sew right.   "It' was missing even simple zig-zag stitches.   So, we loaded her up and took her back to Alex -- the sweet Russian guy at the sewing shop.   Alex stopped what he was doing, listened to my problems and checked 'It' out.  The, he carefully showed me and explained that what I was doing with 'It' was potentially beyond 'It's' capability.   I was overtaxing 'It' and was going to have to make some changes to what I wanted 'It' to do and how 'It' was going to do it.    Oh my.  

On my way out the door I saw and grabbed a brochure off the wall for a Melody Baby Lock machine.  There, the concept was planted.   If Melodye, my sister, couldn't be here to solve all my sewing problems, perhaps, with this machine, I could sew with her anyway.  

I studied the brochure and researched online.  The more I thought about it, the more it seemed the logical answer.   Buy the Melody, not only will she have the abilities to help me create my art, but it will be just a bit like having my sister sewing with me.     So, the next day, I went back with my credit card and placed my order.    She should arrive next week.

The next day Beau said we were going to Sears to get Glen.   What ???   It appears that Beau does not want to separate Melody and Glen, so he's purchasing a refrigator  for the garage to store his beer ... and naming it Glen.     Glen is arriving tomorrow.

We can't hardly wait.  

Lorrie 

Sewing Thread Collection

HELP, my sewing thread collection is out of control !

Sewing thread, apparently, is one of those treasures that I am compelled to purchase and drag home from Garage Sales.  At first, I dedicated one of those three drawer plastic bin units to storage, when it became full, it spilled over to a couple shoe boxes, and then when these were full, landing here and there around the room.

No organization, No Plan; Absolutely Out of Control.   I pulled all the spools from their various spots and layed them out in color groups.     What glorious color.

 Greens and Teals

 Pinks and Reds

 Along with Yellows, Orange, Black, White and a good variety of neutrals and others.  

Both wood and plastic spools in all sizes.    All together, like this, they are quite lovely to look at.   

But, how am I going to store them?   I have no idea.   There's several hundred spools here.   I want them accessible, but don't have space for them to sit on spindle trays.   

Help.   I'm desperately seeking storage solutions!

Lorrie  

Fiber Art Lunch Bag

You may (or may not) recall that a couple weeks ago I picked up and started experimenting with a small spinning art toy that I'd picked up at a yard sale.    Well, I was rooting around in the closet this morning and the box that I'd stuffed on the top shelf fell off and landed at my feet.   It was like an omen.   Okay, I'll play.  It was a much better idea than housework.

 This time, I tried a slightly different track.   Instead of putting the the paint on the fabric swatch and pressing the spin button, I added the paint while spinning with use of a paint brush.

One color at a time.   It went much better.  

Let them dry and then ironed a couple times to set the paint.  I contemplated them over lunch.  I'd found a Free Pattern for a Mini Tote Bag over a Craftsy, that I'd been planning to try and this seemed a perfect start.  

And ... an hour later ... a small lunch bag embellished with 3 1/2" medellions made with the Spin Art Toy (which is now back on the shelf).

Although I certainly do not need lunch bags, I foresee many more of these to follow.   Like, I've already cut another one out to play with tomorrow.  The size, at 9 inches, is a perfect practice canvas size.

Lorrie