Back to sewing!

My younger daughter is home for winter break, and expressed some eagerness to be part of my recent "sewing for myself" kick. And of course, me being the doting mom that I am, I was more than happy to oblige! Partly because it meant that I could go fabric shopping after a really long self-imposed hiatus of about 12-13 years not buying any brand new fabric!
So the S R Harris fabric outlet had opened in Burnsville, close to my house, and this meant that it was finally time to go check them out. I have to say that I was not disappointed. They have a great selection of knits, brocades, sweater fabric and lots of other goodies :) My daughter picked one of their City Prints knit fabric for this dress, and I dug through their remnant table and found some exquisite sequin fabrics to make more of the clutches that I seem to be currently creating!
I did not use a pattern for this dress, I just drafted it from one of her existing dresses, made a circle skirt bottom, gave it sleeves and pockets (which she is thrilled about!). I had purchased 2 yds of fabric for $12, and after making the dress, I still have enough to make a tunic for myself! I'm thinking an asymmetric hem or hankie hem one! Check back for that one soon :)

Newest wristlet clutch!!

So YAY for another super short post! I am totally having fun sewing for myself! That hasn't happened in a long time! Perks of being an empty-nester now, I guess! Hey, I'll take it!
So exciting, I can actually go buy fabric again :) I have pinned so many dress/ top tutorials and can't wait to try them out. Of course, I'll remember to share with you wonderful folk of blogland!
Till that happens, here is my newest finish- a bow wristlet clutch made with taffeta fabric. I am being able to use my sequin appliques from India (justifying buying these by the pound during my trips there!!).
The tutorial for the clutch can be found here. Great tutorial!!

Turtle crochet applique- FREE PATTERN!!

My daughter wanted to make the turtle blanket from here (you might have to scroll down quite a bit). Very cute- shows baby turtles making their way from the beach sand into the water. The blogger used a generic ripple blanket pattern for the base, and paid for the turtle pattern on Ravelry. Me being me (aka cheep cheep), I decided to try my hand at making a turtle myself. It turned out fairly OK, at which point, my daughter said she needed me to write down the instructions, so she could make the rest of the batch.
AND, this led to the evolution of a FREE pattern for you :)

Turtle crochet appliqué pattern

Sz 5 hook

Worsted weight yarn- 2 shades of green- need scraps

With darker green, ch2.

6 sc in 2^nd ch from hook, join round with sl st.

Attach lighter green. 3 ch (works as 1^st dc), 2 dc in same sc, 3 dc in each sc (18 dc), join with sl st to top of 3 ch.  Cut off light yarn.

With darker yarn, sc on top of 3 ch, *do spike st (pick up st from sc row), 2 sc in next dc, 1 sc in next dc* repeat 5 times. Sl st at end of row.

Making feet and head- 4 ch, sc in 2ch from hook, 1 hdc in next ch, 1 sc in next ch, sl st in base sc row (1 leg made). Sl st to next sc, 6 ch, 1 dc in 3^rd ch from hook, 3 more dc in eac ch to end, sl st to base sc row (head made), sl st to next sc, 4 ch, sc in 2ch from hook, 1 hdc in next ch, 1 sc in next ch, sl st in base sc row (2nd leg made). Tie off leaving a tail long enough for sewing your appliqué on.

Skip 6 sc from leg made on left side, attach dark yarn, 4 ch, sc in 2ch from hook, 1 hdc in next ch, 1 sc in next ch, sl st in base sc row (3rd leg made). Sl st to next sc, 2 ch, 1 sc in 2^nd ch from hook, sl st to base row, sl st in next sc, 4 ch, sc in 2ch from hook, 1 hdc in next ch, 1 sc in next ch, sl st in base sc row (4th leg made).

My daughter tried it out once, so I'm hoping that you are able to follow and get the same results. But again, I am by no means a professional pattern writer, so this is my amateur attempt- Try it at your own risk :D

Do leave a comment if you are successful!

Another clutch.....and a cross-stitched pillow!

OK, it has been determined......I am capable of doing short blog posts. The deep, long, thoughtful ones will happen.....later. For now, a couple of completed projects- a clutch with a zipper (yay!), and a pillow cross-stitched and sewn by my older daughter.

The clutch pattern is from here. It was easy to follow, and turned out great. I plan to make another one.
My daughter's pillow turned out really nice too! She did the graph for the cross-stitch on her own, and I helped her sew the pillow.
That's it for now! I want to know what you, dear reader, have been crafting!! Leave me a comment :)

Long time, no see?

So, I keep thinking about doing these long detailed blogposts, and that never happens! So here's a super quick one..... I decided that I needed more party/ evening/ clutch purses, because now....as an empty nester, I actually have time to change my purse when I go out! So instead of acting like a reasonable person, using my latest Kohl's coupon to buy myself some $30 Juicy Couture clutch, I did what I do best...vowed to SEW myself some!!

After hours spent crazy-PINTERESTING, here is the first one...

So DO I GET TO GLOAT NOW? I love it! Made from left overs from my stash too. Just had to buy the extra firm stabilizer, which was like $3 at Jo-Ann's, and will probably give me three more purses. I followed this great tutorial!
The psychic called! She said she sees a ton more of these clutch purses in my future :D She sees a golden one, and then a brocade one made from a wedding saree!

New baby dress and an obsession with the Edge perfect blade!

Lots of crocheting, and also sewing going on around here! Here is a brand new pattern that I tested for Sheri from The Country Willow. I did mine in lime green colors, which I wasn't too sure about for a 1-yr old girl, but wanted to use up sequin fabric that I had at home. People actually liked my color combination a lot :) Yes, it is available for sale, right here on my Ebay store!

 Some fun Dakota County fair wins for me! Here's a glass painting mixed media with a relief pattern.

 .....and this one is "Fantasy birds", all hand embroidered in satin stitch!

This is one of my marble painting miniatures....won an award of excellence, no less :)

In other news, I have discovered the "Edge Perfect rotary cutter blade" by Olfa, and let me just tell you, my life HAS CHANGED!! It is awesome! If you do anything with crochet edges around it, you know you have to poke holes somehow into the fabric...I used to take a seam ripper and dig in the fabric....Now I just lay my cutting mat down and go over the fabric with my rotary cutter! It's that simple. I was skeptical at first..thinking it would make the holes to big, I wouldn't like the spacing etc, etc. But once I used it (a friend in my knitting group brought it in for me to test it out), I was officially converted!! So I found mine here on Amazon for $19.99, and just switched out the blade on my existing 45 mm Olfa cutter. So far, I have used it on fleece blankets and my crochet top towels, and it has been a dream! ...And no, currently I am not making any money by promoting this product :( I am just thrilled to share something that has made my crafting life easier!
Will share pics of my crochet edge stuff next time! Gotta go do housework now...yeah, I know....the bane for us crafters.
Till then, stay happy, healthy and busy! (hasth, swasth aur mast :) for those of you who know Hindi!

Busy, busy summer!!

Just a quick post for now, and then I do eventually plan to go back and resume my parenting/ education related tips. I have had a crazy busy summer, what with having a combined graduation party for my girls, my older daughter moving to San Jose to start her residency at Stanford, my parents coming over from India to attend my girls graduation, Alaska cruise etc etc....
All through this, I have still been crafting, and want to share some of my latest felt mats...posted on Etsy....

I have also been beading, but I am realizing that I tend to leave my beading projects unfinished. Ummmm...will need to find a way to rectify that!!

Well, I guess I can sneak in a quick parenting tip- following up on the "being a good role model"...    Another way I was a good role model is that I was always working really hard, and expecting the same from my kids. For about 7 years, I was teaching full time and also either working on my second Master’s degree and then my Doctorate degree. IN addition to this, I was always taking care of my household, attending to my girls education, AND pursuing my crafting endeavors as well. Did I forget to have fun?? No, I don’t think so….Achieving in itself is a lot of fun. We were social, got together with friends, went on trips, but my socializing was never Number#1 on my priority list. It struck me as odd that sometimes students would assume that my girls don't have a "social life" because they are hard working students.

That's it for now...will continue later!