4-H Fair!! and a finished purse! Yay!!

Finally, a new post! I've been sooo busy this past week or so! We had the 4-H craft fair, which always stresses our family to our limits. We know that, but we still do it every year?!?! Oh well. One of the things that I entered was this purse from the Amy Butler book In Stitches. I recently bought some of that gorgeous Dick and Jane fabric because, well, just because! I matched the other fabric to the color of the words. This picture definitly doesn't do it justice. Something is seriously lacking in my photgraphy skills. Of course, maybe that's why Elana is the photographer and I'm not? :) So, that lasted for 2 days, then we had the forestry workshop (yep, we went out in the woods in 103 degree weather!) and then, we had a tour of a local university's engineering department. So yeah, it's been a long week and it's not even over yet!! We have meetings from 12-5 tomorrow. Saturday is looking really good right now! But anyways, back to the purse, if I did it again, I would make it a lot shorter (1/3-1/2 shorter) and probably stiffer. But, I do like just about everything else about it. Now, I can finally finish up some of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects)! I really want to finish some stuff before starting another project. I don't know if that will happen though. :)

CD Case and Coffee Cozy

So I started a CD case the other day, since some of my schoolwork is going to be on DVDs this coming year I might as well have something cute to put them in. I embroidered my name on the front after getting Elana to write it out on a piece of paper. (Ok, ok, I admit it, her penmanship is MUCH better, she freehanded that name, and it looked like I printed it.) I lined the cd slots with satin (gotta baby those cds ;)) I probably wouldn't do that, since it was hard to sew and I couldn't get the edges really squared up like I wanted. The top fabric of the cd slots are some of my favorites that are once again in the stash. The denim for the front was stash fabric as well. If I had to do it again, I would do the closure differently, probably a loop of elastic that fit over the button. I like the ribbon though, it is very girly! :) I made the pattern up myself since I couldn't find one I liked online. I could post a tutorial if anyone wants one. Anywho, I'll probably make one for Elana and Zach. Do you think anyone would be these? I could make some to put on etsy.
Next in line, I made a coffee cozy sort of from the tutorial here. I altered it a little bit, but basically kept the same measurements. Mom picked out the lining fabric, since it is for her, but I like it too. And I still have a lot of scrap!! YAY!!! I embroidered her name upside down the first time and didn't realize it until I had the whole thing sewn together. I had to rip it out and do it again, but it turned out alright, and I'll know better next time. We don't really drink Starbucks around here, so I made it to go around Mom's regular coffee cup (her favorite one of course). It's insulated to keep out the heat, or cold, whichever you like to drink. I can make one (or several) of these for those of you that are local if you want. I can do it for free if you buy the fat quarter and a matching button and let me keep the scraps. I think I might list these on etsy as well. Sorry these pictures are blurry, I'll see if I can get Elana to take better ones later.

Color coordinated Pencil Roll

Elana was flipping through the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, and she saw the color coordinated pencil roll in there and wanted one. So, we drug out all my scraps (that's kind of fun to say :)) all over the floor. Then she picked the colors she wanted and I stiched it together. I think it looks pretty good. It's kind of cool when you untie it and let it roll out with all the colors. I'm happy with it. That is one of the neatest books by the way. Let me know what you think of it.

I saw this game on the Happy Zombie blog. I thought it was kind of cool. I altered it just a bit.

1. Sunny morning on Rachel Avenue HDR, 2. Arriving at the Italian Riviera, 3. So this is what I do with my summer before starting 8th grade., 4. Shower Fresh, 5. Lemonade, 6. Eiffel Tower at night, 7. Chocolate Brownie Cake W/Strawberries, 8. Randy Travis, 9. Bemused Train Engineer Watching the Idiot Photographer who has Too Much of his Body Protruding from the Train Window to be Safe, 10. Praise be to God Almighty!, 11. Kissie ... life can be very serious ..., 12. 100_0393

The Game:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker.

The Questions:1. What is your first name? Rachel
2. What is your favorite food? Italian
3. What high school did you go to? Homeschool
4. What is your favorite color? Pink
5. Favorite drink? Lemonade
6. Dream vacation? Paris
7. Favorite dessert? Brownie Dessert (see Elana's post here)
8. Favorite Singer? Randy Travis
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Engineer (At least I think so, it might change :))
10. What do you love most in life? The Lord and my family
11. One Word to describe you. Serious (I guess?)
12. Your flickr name: SouthernKnitWit

Journal Cover

I made a notebook cover from this tutorial: here. It looks pretty good. If you ever fuse anything with Heat 'n' Bond Ultra, you may have trouble sewing through it if you don't have the right thread in it. Try changing thread, it worked for me. Anywho, this fabric was some of my favorite scraps, and I still have some left! (insert evil laugh here). It was really easy, too! And it's removable!

Quilt Specs and Capes!

Alrighty, I forgot to mention that the quilt squares were 6" each, I think. I used A 1/4" seam allowance, but probably should have cut the squares 6-5/8" each and used a 5/8" seam allowance. I don't know how big that makes it, but Those squares were the perfect size to get the most out of each pair of jeans. And, if it looks wet or whiteish/dusty, that's because of the water from ironing or the baby powder.
And, I forgot to mention that I want to make a cape, or cloak, or whatever you want to call it to wear this winter. It must have a hood and it has to be long. Why you ask? Well, um, because! I need to find a pattern and figure out what fabric to use. I'm thinking for the color dark red (I'm not talking little red riding hood!), black, or brown. But anyways, I guess I need to finish some other projects first. ;)

My quilt is finished!

I finally finished my denim quilt. This is the before picture layered on top of the batting and the backing (yes the backing is under there!) The next two pictures are after the quilting and binding (that's the edge). I quilted it with cowboy boots, hats, and some horseshoes. I printed those out on a manila folder and punched holes in it. Then, I placed the design where I wanted it and stamped it with baby powder I just so happened to have in a sock. :) It got pretty thick upstairs while I was doing it, but it didn't take that long. I finished the edge the next day. It is really heavy which is a plus, since my family likes heavy quilts/blankets the best. I need to make a quilt label to sew onto the back. I also finished a chicken pincushion the other day, but am having difficulty getting the pictures to turn out, I'll see if I can't get Elana to take some pictures when she gets back from her vacation with friends.

On another note, we had the 4-H Honor Club picnic the other day. We grilled out and played baseball. The night before, Mikey and I made oreo balls. They are ground up oreos with cream cheese and dipped in chocolate. They are so good! If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. My oldest cousin and my grandma came to the picnic as well. His visit included going to Kroger for cheese dip at 12:00 p.m. and then talking until 2 in the morning, but it was fun. I fell asleep almost as soon as he left. We were out in the sun a good bit, and my arms are sunburnt. Oh, then Zach's b'day was tuesday. He is now officially in the double digits! He got a bow and arrow for his birthday. He was really excited.