If Sewing Paid the Bills....

Ah, wouldn't that be nice, if sewing paid the bills?  Alas, at least in my house, it does not....

In my job that pays for the fabric, I am a project manager for the technologies division of a major credit card company.  Every project I manage goes through phases and busy times, usually 4-6 weeks at a time.  The project I'm working on now, though, is actually multiple projects and I've been working 10+ hour days since May.... and will probably do so until at least February.  That (plus 2 active kids --- ballet, karate, band, kickball) doesn't leave much time to sew, let alone blog.... but I do have a few things to share (finally).

First, and looooong overdue, is a little friendship bag swap I did back in September.  This is the gorgeous bag that Mary (from Needled Mom) made for me.  I just love these fabrics!

Sweet little polka dots on the inside, though you can't see them well, because my bag is always full and put to good use :-).  This bag will be boarding a Disney cruise ship with me on Sunday as my family takes a much needed 5 day vacation.  Can't wait!  It started in California, made its way to me in Florida, now it's going to Mexico.  How many bags are that well traveled??

This is the little bag I made for Mary, using batiks.  (Red may have not been the best color to use in the backdrop but at this point, any picture on my blog is better than nothing, right?)

I actually have a lot of other WIPs.  Below are 2 (out of 6) 12" blocks I made while on a "purge the scraps" mission.  These are all with light blues.  I also made a string quilt top (not shown - yet) with light blue scraps, as well.  The goal is to go through my scraps and make as many monotone (ish) blocks as possible, then start combining them into colorful rainbow quilts. 

In addition to the blue string scrap quilt, I made a quilt top (also using stash) for Quilts for Kids.  Photos to come if I ever get it backed, quilted and bound.

In the meantime, I started making Churn Dash blocks with Classic Pooh centers for one of my best friends who is having a baby in January.  Her shower is November 23 and at the rate I'm going, I probably should have started in April.... but one block down, only 11 more to go!

Last but certainly not least are a few projects I made to take on our cruise.  (Not shown are the Captain Hook and Wendy Darling Halloween costumes I made... I'll wait and take pictures when they have actual people in them.)

These started out as plain fabric bags from the dollar store, similar to (but smaller than) a reusable shopping bag.  Amazing what some paint and fabric scraps can do!  The character was dictated by the bag color, as there were only 4 color choices when I purchased these.  Now each of us will have a little bag for the cruise, to carry a bottle of water, sunglasses, etc.... rather than the usual, "Here Mom, can you hold this?"  I've got Kermit and Mickey for my husband and me, then Minnie and Ariel for my girls.

I also made this little outfit for my 7-year-old.  I used Heat 'n Bond to adhere a Mickey head to a plain white shirt, appliqued around the edges and added a bow.  That skirt took less than an hour to make --- it's a giant rectangle of fabric with elastic at the top.  I'm already anxious for her to outgrow this so I can cut it up and use that fabric for something else :-).

Many more WIPs from the past few months.... hope to turn them into FINISHED projects one of these days, and get back to blog writing / reading soon.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

 Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~