Made by my great-grandmother

Found this pillow cover made from a quilt square in my linen closet. It was made by my great-grandmother who was a prolific quilter.

The colors aren't great and God bless her, she used what she had and composition wasn't her strongest forte.

I gave the pillow cover to my quilter friend Dori and hopefully she'll be able to use it for inspiration and perhaps even a pattern for a copy. Imagine it with coordinating print fabrics. It's got potential, I tell ya!

Take a look at the hand stitched piecing.


I feel lucky to be able to see and understand my great grandmother's handiwork and blessed to have a willing recipient as a friend who will appreciate it more than me.

Proving I am NOT a hoarder,

I am,

Skitzo Leezra

Park your butt

My buddy Dawn decoupaged and glittered some kick-ash clear glass ashtrays for her smokin' friends.

Elizabeth has been at the paint again

Check out her newest project

Before~~

After~~

Pretty fabu, right?

Project Runway in a fun way

I gotta brag on my friend Elizabeth and her church friends. They organized a Project Runway night overnight "lock-in" for girls in grades 4, 5 & 6. That's ages 9 through 11, right? Get this, 43 signed up and they had to turn away another 10 more because they didn't register on time. Some girls brought friends as guests.
Elizabeth and the organizers followed the Project Runway format with the first show toast of champagne sparkling fruit juice, a dash to form teams and table full of folded fabrics grouped by color a la Mood Fabrics. A sample wall included jewelry, hats, shoes and accessories of every ilk.
Their first project was a super easy tote bag made with a T-shirt the girls brought from home. (An adult machine sewed the bottom seam of the totes.)
Walk it down the runway and show off your tote bag.
Next, embellish a plain white T-shirt with an array of trims, buttons, ribbon, etc.
Show it off, girls. Strut the T and show us what you did.
Last, a tutu.
Let's see a parade of tutus, ladies. (What girl doesn't like a tutu?)
There was even a hair and make-up room so the girls could have fun just playing around for kicks. Their hair and make-up went from barely there to overdone as the evening progressed.
Elizabeth tells me "fancy" food was served on fabric tablecloths with candles which made the girls feel very special. She was impressed with their creativity and enthusiasm. The organizers gave the girls goodie bags to carry their projects home along with some printed instructions for more projects. The girls had a great time and want to do it again.
Hoping the Project Runway party trend catches on!

Mama's got a brand new bag

My mom sewed everything in the world, back in the day.
She loved it, she was good at it and there was nothing she couldn't do; be it cheerleader uniforms, ballet costumes, formal gowns, Halloween costumes, quilts, you name it. Her things were well made and fashionable so I didn't even know "did someone make that for you?" could be anything but a positive question. Heck, Mom could look at a dress at a store then go home and make it without a pattern.
Since then she has dabbled and excelled in other interests: photography, drafting, painting . . .while the sewing machine no longer calls her name, she had a bounce back recently, thanks to me, perhaps.
While scouting the department store's place mat inventory for my organizers, she found pretty Ralph Lauren prints and made an overnight bag, make-up bag and tote for flat iron and blow dryer from place mats! She's still got mad skills, I tell ya.

Messenger bag, with interior pockets shown below

Make-up bag with pockets sized for specific products
Tote sized for flat iron, blow dryer and travel mirror

Pretty mantel look

~~brought to you by Elizabeth

Check out Elizabeth's easy Roman Shade

My friend Elizabeth has great taste, wonderful things and mad skills with her fabulous embroidery machine but she is scared of cutting a piece of fabric. You heard me, scared. This week she looked her scissors in the eye, declared "you are not the boss of me" and cut some fabric to make some fabulous Roman shades made from ~~~mini-blinds!! She found the tutorial over at the Little Green Notebook blog. Look at the finished product! Pretty wonderful, right?


Considering a try myself.

The glitter girls

So, I painted my boots with gold paint and thought I was gonna look pretty daring at Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke birthday party that is, until, Dawn and I went to her friends' house to pick up their karaoke machine.

We opened the door to find a demented Santa's workshop with beer and wine drinking females happy at work painting glue on shoes, covering with glitter and embellishing with boa feathers and glitz and glam. The chicks belong to an all female Carnival krewe whose name rhymes with "shoes" and indeed glitter shoes are the special gift handed down during their parade ride. Handed down people, not thrown. Can you imagine getting beaned in the head by a glittered high heeled shoe tossed from 2 tiered Mardi Gras float? Yikes. Now you know why the Zulu krewe has been prohibited from tossing their decorated coconuts after Governor Edwards signed the "Coconut Bill" .
Friends donate shoes to the glitter girls and each krewe member is limited to giving 30 shoes so they set up an assembly station and we were lucky enough to witness the fun. We wondered if we would need to be treated for "glitter lung" and laughed at the thought of future attorney television commercials soliciting for inhalation damage only to later witness the special first aid required when glitter gets in the eye . . . . . Oh, did you want to know the technique? Apparently a really strong puff of air blown into the eye from a close friend does the trick so maybe glittering alone is not safe.

Some shoes were based painted, then painted with glue and sprinkled with the New Orleans shiny magic dust. These ladies had lots of glitter inventory but see if you can spot the shoes with the super iridiscent quality Martha Stewart glitter. That stuff is the McDaddy of embellishment.

Eventually, they let Dawn and I play. Fearing the potential of an eye glitter incident, I opted to brush on glue and be part of the assembly line. Dawn wanted to play glue pen and glitter games. Dawn is a good crafter but doesn't always know when to say when. Check out the letters.

Ease up on the glue, lady.

Glue to glitter ratio: FAIL

Mardi Gras colors and fleur-de-lis

Finally, I swallowed my pride and brought in my country-comes-to-town boots and asked for a dab of glitter. Miss Light Bright and Tina Twinkle were ready to cover the whole dang boot but I resisted, wanting to be subtle and all.

New Orleans Saints theme

Go LSU!

My two toned heel idea as executed by Miss Light Bright

More is more: add a boa accent

Base painted and waiting for glue

Before and after

Shiny Stuff - caw! caw!

F marks the spot

My friend Elizabeth has been dying to etch some glass casserole dishes for gifts but wisely experimented on an old glass pie dish first. Look how great it looks!