Question for you ladies.....

I just purchased this Vera Bradley tote on Ebay but the seller didn't know what the print's name was.  Anyone here a Vera Bradley fan?  I really want to try and get a wallet to match but I don't know what to ask for.  Any help would be appreciated.

Blessings, Barbara

I've been busy......

First off, I've been sewing up project bags for customers and here's 3 that I finished today.

 She loves cats so the first one says "Cat Lover" the second one is for Halloween and it says "Black Cat" and the poor kitty has a number 13 on it's back and last but not least is the Christmas one with a Peace dove on it.  

About 3 months ago, I came across some Vera Bradley fabric on Etsy.  I was able to purchase one yard of one of her discontinued fabrics.  I just didn't know what I wanted to do with it......until today.

The name of the fabric is "Maison Blue".  If your a Vera Bradley fan, I'm sure you will recognize the fabric.  These are in my shop if your interested.

Blessings, Barbara

Don't you just love......

those days where you can spend the whole day in your sewing room?  I went into mine this morning not knowing what I was going to get into but I knew I had to do something.  What I came up with are these:

The first two I machine embroidered on overdyed wool and came up with these 3 strawberries and a scissor case.  The bottom picture is a tote bag with handles that I decided to do a peacock on.  Now if you look closely, you'll see that the peacock is wrapped around a silver shoe.  The strip of fabric you see to the right I added because that's the fabric I found for the lining and it's just too pretty not to show at least some of it on the outside.  By the way, there's over 74,000 stitches in the embroidery design.  My poor little machine was really working it's butt off doing this one.

Blessings, Barbara

....and as I continue.....

to make more of these dang project bags, I keep coming up with more ideas.  Here are my 3 new ones:

For us tea lovers

Parisian

 For us dog lovers

You know where they are if you're interested.

Blessings, Barbara

Cookies...

I'm talking about the good kind you eat......not the ones in your computer.  How many of you ladies belong to Pinterest?  I find it a fantastic place to get new ideas in stitching, recipes and make overs from just about nothing.  One of the things I really enjoy looking at are the cookies that some of the great cake designers do.  Here are a few that caught my attention:

These just blow me away!!!!  That someone would take this much time just to decorate a cookie is amazing.  If you've never spend some time on this wonderful website I highly recommend it.  If you have, what's your favorite things to look at.

Blessings, Barbara

I was able to finish 2 more this evening and they're kind of vintage looking.  The top one has old fashioned labels on it so I thought it needed a label of it's own.  I do like how that one turned out.

The bottom one is for coffee lovers....which I am not.  I even have to hold my breath when I go down the coffee aisle at the grocery store.  That one has vintage style coffee labels on the fabric.  They are both in my store......oh and if you couldn't tell what the design was in the first bag today....it's a black cat's face with green eyes.  I love that design!

Blessings, Barbara

Yep, I've been sewing again and came up with some new ideas for my project bags.  I have 6 embroidered and I was able to stitch this one together this afternoon.  I'll do the remainders tonite and tomorrow.

This one is done using prequilted fabric in golds, browns and blacks and the fabric I used for the embroidery is a gold Dupoini silk that matches perfectly.  These are becoming habit forming to me.  Now there's a question for you.....can certain types of needlework become habit forming in a "harmful" way.

Anyways, this one is over in my store if your interested.

Blessings, Barbara

Good morning everyone!  It's kind of cloudy and overcast here in Florida and I'm feeling the blues.  This is going to be one of those rambling posts where the reader doesn't know if she/he wants to keep reading or not....I'll leave that up to you.  On one hand I have the good news to report that we went to Shand's Hospital in Gainesville yesterday to meet with the heart surgeon and his recommendation was to wait.  The leaky valve is not causing much trouble and the anyurism (sp?) is small and his advice was to keep a watch and wait.  My DH cardiologist here in Orlando will perform heart echos every 6 months and CT scan once a year and relay the info to him.  When he deems it's necessary for surgery, we will be informed by the docs here.  Now for the bad news from Gainesville.  When they did the CT scan yesterday, they found a spot on one of my DH's lungs.  Seeing that he use to smoke years and years ago, this must be looked at immediately which it will be on the 16th of this month.  And again.....we wait.

Do any of you belong to message boards or groups online?  I belonged to a knitting/crocheting community and it's so cliquey (word?).  I love talking with other stitcher's of any kind, but it's hard to find a place where there's no problems to solve.  That is one of the reasons I started this blog.....to talk with ladies who wanted to talk about stitching or other topics that we chose.  I've made some very sweet friends thru this blog and I cherish you all.  I just don't understand the mentality of some of the message boards.  Why the cattiness?  Why the being mean and nasty to newbies?  Beyond my comprehension.  On this one board, I mistakenly posted about something that apparently I wasn't suppose to talk about on that thread and was attacked for doing this.  What?  Are these people perfect?  Have they never made mistakes?  I think I've learned my lesson and will stay close to home on my little piece of the internet.  :o)

I hope all of you had a fantastic weekend and that your week has started out great.   I don't know if anyone else is following the horse California Chrome and how  he's won 2 of the triple crown races this year...but I will be watching the Belmont Stakes this weekend.  It could be history being made right before your eyes.  The last one was in 1978.  Whatever you'll be doing I hope you'll have a fantastic week and stay out of trouble.

Blessings, Barbara

Thank you!

Well yesterday I went in for my second mammogram and ultrasound and everything came back okay.  I just want to thank all you ladies who wished me good luck and said some prayers for me.  My niece also got some good news on tuesday - no cancer in her anywhere.  We keep in touch and keep each other upbeat and positive.

Blessings, Barbara

And the winner is.....

Calamity Jr

If she would be so kind as to email me her information at grammy5822@gmail.com, I will get her pincushion to her asap.  Congratulations!

Now for some news about my store.  I've added some project bags to my store and there's some linen on there that's very nice.  Project bags at top of page, linens are at the bottom.  If you're looking for something inparticular, let me know......I might have it.  I also sew custom project bags so if you have an idea for one for yourself or a friend, please contact me.  We'll work together to make it perfect for you.

That's all for now except this Wednesday I have that appointment about my girls.  I don't mind telling you that the closer it gets, the more nervous I am.  I'm 62 years young and this is the first major illness that I might be dealing with.  I've been lucky except for about 5 cases of kidney stones and that  one that got infected and gave me blood poisoning and put me in intensive care for 5 days.  Other than that.....things are good.

I hope all of you are enjoying your Memorial Day and please take a moment to remember why we celebrate this day.

Blessings, Barbara