FO's

 I did quite a bit of crafting during March and April. It helped with the stress and anxiety that's been going on in my life. Today I'm sharing two of them. 

My daughters birthday was near the end of April and I decided to sew her a market bag. 

It's a very large bag. I found the pattern for free on the blog iThinksew. The name of the pattern is Martha's Market Bag. As I've said before, my daughter is a huge My Little Pony fan, even though she's 40. I found the Pinky Pie fabric on Ebay. It was just a yard, but thankfully it was enough. I got the aqua fabric from an online fabric store, whos' name escapes me. The project was challenging because I don't have much experience making bags. I used to sew a lot of clothing when I was younger. Especially after I got married because my husband is very tall (6'5"). Regular pants and long sleeve shirts don't fit him. We had to shop at specialty stores that sold clothing for Big and Tall guys, and they were very expensive. We couldn't afford to shop there. So I sewed his clothing for him. Making bags is a relatively new thing for me.

I used heavy interfacing in the bag so it would stand up on its own. I really wrestled with it too. I was so glad when it was done. Sarah loves the bag and wouldn't be adverse to me making her some more. I call that a win.

I also finished Choo Choo Santa for my daughter-in-law. 

Her birthday was last January, so I sent it to her as a belated birthday gift in the same package the bag went in. I worked on this a lot. It was a very intense project with over 100 pieces to stitch together. 

I've taken close up photos of the stocking from top to bottom starting with the hanger loop, which I modified. It was supposed to be just a piece of red felt but I fancied it up some. 

I recently joined a Facebook group devoted to making Bucilla felt applique kits. I was inspired by photos of some of the members hanging loops they've modified. The group has been great, and I've learned quite a bit that has improved my skills, such as taking a small stitch on the back, after each sequin is done. This helps to keep it firmly sewn to the fabric.

This is the top with my daughter-in-laws name on it. The first train car shows too. 

You may be wondering how I got the name to look so nice. Usually I use my MS Word program to create the name, then print it out, pin it to the stocking, and embroider right through the paper. When I'm done, I carefully tear the paper off, leaving just the stitching. This time I did a little something different. An alphabet comes with the directions on how to make the stocking. I got a piece of tissue paper, traced the required letters, then pinned that to the stocking for embroidery. It worked great. I liked it better than what I usually do. It's a lot easier to stitch through tissue paper than regular printer paper.

Doing it with tissue paper got me to thinking. I wonder if there's tracing paper that can be put through printer. Then I could use my word program like I usually do and print it on the tracing paper. Lo and behold, I found some on Amazon. I'm looking forward to trying it out on the next stocking, which I've already started, by the way.

This is a close up of a couple of the cars. That bear turned out so cute!

This is the engine with Santa. I made a change here. Instead of using the clear beads with the sequins on Santa, and the beads on the Christmas tree, I used some white pearl seed beads from my huge collection of Miyuki size 11 seed beads. The other white pieces have the clear beads that came with the kit.

One of the things I learned from the Facebook Bucilla group is how to mark the stocking with my signature, so to speak. I never thought about doing that on my stockings. I do it to all my Cross Stitch projects! It's a logical thing to do, so I cut out this little blue heart, did some really bad embroidery of my initials and the year I finished it, and sewed it onto the back of the stocking. I wish I'd had more time, I would have redone it until it was decent. It was 1:00 am when I was done with this one. I had to put it in the mail in the morning. I decided it would have to do. I was just too tired. I went to bed.

As usual, I made a lining for the stocking. It turned out so beautiful. The stitching at the top where I sewed it in is so even and neat and the lining fit perfectly. I'm quite proud of it.

Since the theme of the stocking was a train, which is something my daughter-in-law is very enthusiastic about, (She even has an extensive electric train set.) I bought fabric with trains on it. Here is a close up of one of the trains.

I finished my Feather and Fan blanket too but haven't had a chance to photograph it yet. I did take a picture when I was blocking it though. I used my bed because it's so nice and big, being a California King and all.

I'm planning to take pics tomorrow, so stay tuned.

I am also planning to do a WIP post on Wednesday. Until then...

Live long and prosper.\\//