Computer Woes

Hello Friends,

Wondering where I have been? Well, my old computer is acting up and poor Mr. Lucky (not feeling too lucky at this point!) has been trying to revive it but it is not looking hopeful. I am typing this at a borrowed computer!

I am overwhelmed at all the responses I have received about my bag giveaway. Thanks everyone! Hopefully my computer will be up and running in a day or so and I can announce the winner AND reply to all your lovely comments! Rumi

Bag Ladies

OK, I'm still learning this blog stuff. Ever since Kaaren announced her 4th of July giveaway, I have been trying to put her button on my blog. I did it once before with the rainbow swap button but couldn't remember how I did it! Well gang, I think I got it! Go to her blog and see the wonderful things she is giving away!

As I posted before, I was lucky enough to be asked to be a pattern tester for Stephanie's West Linn Bag. She debuted the pattern last week and I am so happy for her! She has already made some sales and hopefully many more! As a thank you to me, she gave me one of her patterns YEA! It's lovely and her daughter did a bang up job of designing the packaging!

Along with the pattern, she gave me this yummy stack of pretty pink fat quarters!

Goodness! Lucky me! Now I need a special project to use these in!

In the meantime, Stephanie's bag got me in the mood to make a bag too!

Something with pretty little yo yos please!

A little quilted bag just big enough to comfortably fit a paperback book

But what's that little hangy thing on the handle?

A gift tag! This is my fabric version of a gift bag that EVERYONE uses. I hardly ever wrap gifts anymore. It's so much easier to pop it in a giftbag, add a bit of tissue paper and it's good to go!

I've made this kind of bag for years now. We reuse the Christmas themed ones every year in my house. I just slide in a new gift tag eack time. I have used DecorBond interfacing in the past but I used fleece instead on this bag and I like it!

I'm going to make a few for my Etsy site but this particular bag is up for grabs. Leave me a comment between now and June 30th. Everyone's name will be put in a bag (1 entry per person so multiple comments do not increase you chances of winning). I will announce the winner the first week of July. Come on, play along. I don't have a big following so your chances of winning are pretty good! Maybe you will be extra lucky and win here and at Kaaren's!

Quilts and yarn

More quilts from Friday's outing to the NQA quilt show

Love the one above, each house and tree has a little quilt by it

This last image is a close up of President Jimmy Carter's chin area. Wanted to show you the detail.

OK, now on to Saturday's event

Stephanie, Terri, Cheri and I returned to the Columbus convention center on Saturday since we obviously didn't spend enough money at the quilt convention the day before! The yarn was beautiful and I could have come home with a truckload of it but I restrained myself.

Sue, from Back to Back Fiber Products, was very friendly and let us "play" in her booth. She had little felt strips looped over some pins and we needle felted on these

Here we are hard at work

Ta Da! We're done with out masterpieces. Unfortunately, my close-up pic of the little tags didn't turn out but you may be able to see them at Stephanie's or Terri's blog.

Here are some beautiful yarn I purchased

And take a look at this pretty lace scarf pattern. I'm planning to knit this in the red kid merino yarn.
Well, I was so excited about my new purchases that I came home, balled up my sugar cane yarn hank (yes, it is made of 100% sugar cane and it is beautifully soft and smooth) and started a narrow little lace scarf. This pretty pattern was free with the purchase of this yarn.

BUT, not before ending the day at the Creekside Jazz and Blues festival across town

Here is a pic of my favorite local band, The Inner City Blues Band

Lady Nikki with the golden voice

Learn more about them at www.innercitybluesband.com

Whew! What a great couple of days! I'd love to do it all again next year!

NQA quilt show

Had a wonderful, wonderful time at the NQA quilt show. I attended with my gal pal Stephanie and her friend Linda who was visiting from out of state.The quilts on display were phenomenal! So many talented quilters! Here is just a small sampling of quilts.

Pictured in this last quilt is Brutus Buckeye, the Ohio State University mascot. Ohioans, and especially central Ohioans, are very serious OSU sports fans. "What is a buckeye?" You might ask. It is a poisonous nut from the buckeye tree. Native Americans called it such because the nut resembles the eye of a deer. Every state in the US has a moniker and ours is the "Buckeye State" I added this last quilt since OSU is a little dear to my heart since my son graduated from there.

OK, now on to the goodies that I picked up at the vendor sector!

Some fabulous fabric, cute orange buttons (thanks Stephanie for pointing them out to me!), a tool for cutting corners, fabric marking pen and eraser and a cool template thingy called a batting buddy. It is used for quilt-as-you-go quilts. I love making flimsies but hate the actual sandwiching and quilting part of quilt making. Maybe this will be to my liking. I will try it out and let you all know how it goes.

I also bought this cute glass nail file. See the cute little frog on it! I was told this file will last forever (as long as I don't drop it and break it, of course) I was told that it also works great for smoothing out little burrs on plastic template edges.

Now, I saved the best for last. Guess who I met for the first time at the show--fellow bloggers Terri, from Purple and Paisley, and Eileen from Eileen's attic

From left to right: Stephanie, Teri, Eileen, me. I know I look like a giant in this pic but I'm average height at 5'5"; the rest of the girls are actually shorties!

We decided to have lunch together and were joined by Terri's mom Cheri (2nd from the left) and Stephanie's friend Linda (1st on the left)
I loved meeting all these ladies. Terri and Eileen are as nice in person as they appear on their blogs. Linda and Cheri -- you'd all like them too!

My next post will be about what I did the following day....talk at you then. Rumi

Telephone Sweater

First off, Happy Birthday to my lovely daughter Miki. She is 25 today!

My last post about my curly cue tea cozy got me thinking about a sweater that I made many years back for Miki. A telephone sweater. Luckily, I had it stored away.

The body of the telephone is knit in while the receiver is made of cotton fabric that was stuffed with fiberfil. I crocheted a curly cue phone cord and attached one end to the sweater and the other to the receiver. The receiver attaches to the "phone" with velcro so the child can remove it and bring it up to her ear to talk on the phone. The original pattern had a rotary dial but I turned it into a pushbutton phone. Here's a close-up of the buttons.

There was a matching hat that I did not make. It was cute in that "411" was knitted on the front of the hat.

My daughter (pictured above--sorry about the poor quality photo, it's about 20 years old) loved the sweater but only wore it to school once. Seems kids were poking her in the stomach all day "dialing" the phone. Hmmm, didn't anticipate that while knitting this.

This was a Betsey Johnson design and I think I made about 7 of these for my 2 kids, nephews, niece, and friend's child. Ahh.. memories.

Talk at you later. Rumi

Pretty in Pink

Oh, what's this? It's all curly and such.

Hey, that's a neat little ring

Oh, it's becoming clear now

Tea, anyone?

I bought this pretty pink 6 cup teapot awhile ago (as well as green and orange sister pots--why do I need so many teapots!?! Mr. Lucky just shakes his head. It's an addiction!) Anyways, like I was saying, I bought this teapot and wanted to dress it up a bit. The body of the cozy is knit, the curly cues are crocheted. I crocheted around a plastic ring and that became the pull ring at the top.

Here is the view from the top. Looks like Shirley Temple curls don't they?

Mini Zip Tote

I had alot of fun pattern testing Stephanie's West Linn bag. I had several charm squares left as well as osnaburg. The wheels started turning and this is what those scraps turned into.

I cut the charm squares into quarters to make 2 1/2 inch squares. Grabbed some fusible fleece, a bright orange zipper and lemon yellow lining fabric. Voila! A cute little tote.



I took 2 charm squares and made a little pocket for the inside.

I like this so much, I may have to make some more!

Bon Vie

Oh yesterday was so much fun. Stephanie and I went out to a lovely lunch at this great restaurant called Bon Vie. I had seen this restaurant many many times but had never eaten there. Afterwards we bought some elixir of life (also known as tea) at Teavana, a tea shop that sells beautiful tea sets along with a vast array of loose tea.

Could it get any a nicer than that? Well, yes, because in addition to wonderful food and company, I got to see Stephanie's latest creation (you'll love it!) AND she presented me with a hand crocheted cotton dishcloth for my kitchen. WooHoo! I'm a lucky gal!

Lovely June

Ah June, time to revel in early summer. We have finally dusted off the last remnents of cool weather but yet to swelter in summer heat. Lightening bugs are just starting to twinkle in the evenings and farmer's fields are alive with tiny green beauties. And roses, yes beautiful roses, are promising a bounty of perfectly shaped wonders.

Time to put up the summer wallhanging. Roses and pinwheels.

And time to put away the warm woolies.

This is an afghan I crocheted to cuddle under on those cold winter nights. I have kept it out till now since we have recently had a rash of cool weather. Hopefully those days are now over till autumn! It is so dark and dreary here in the winter that I found the brightest pink yarn for this afghan.

Also sewed up these little pouches for my Weight Watcher buddies. I designed them to hold our weigh in books. Cute huh? Velcro closure keeps our books nice and snug.

That's all for today. Talk at you later! Rumi