Saturday Sewing, Part One

She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. Proverbs 31:13

One down and one to go!

I finished one of the projects I planned to get done this weekend. I was up until 11:00 last night finishing it. I sewed the button this morning.

This is the John Deere hand bag made from John Deere Nostalgic plaid and a scrap of the yellow John Deere fabric which was just barely big enough. It is trimmed with yellow grosgrain ribbon.




I used a pre-quilted white fabric for the lining. It has three 6 inch deep green plaid pockets on one side and a cell-phone sized John Deere fabric pocket on the other side. I think the quilted lining adds a lot to it, but it is hard for my old machine to sew over some of the thick places. The outside panels are also lined with quilt batting, so I am sewing through a lot of fabric and batting!




I am off to work on the other project!

I will post progress on it later today or tomorrow!

Heart Strings Post --- I must be getting old!

Today marked the 20th year of working at my present job! Yes, February 8, 1988 was a big day! If I have been working in the same place for 20 years, I must be getting old. I do happen to have a milestone birthday coming up later this month too! :o(

My coworkers are so sweet. I mentioned this 20 year anniversary a few months back just in conversation and they wrote the date down and gave me a little party. I have blue and silver balloons, my favorite color. I have a card signed by everybody and we had CHOCOLATE! We have homemade chocolate brownies, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup! I even got my own bag of jelly beans! Hubby came by too and got some food. If you mention brownies, he will come! I love that guy!

I really do work with nice people and I thank God for my job.

Sew Crafty Friday

These are two new handbags I cut out and started on last night. I plan to finish them this weekend.

Both of these bags feature fabric given to me by my fabric fairy. The green and yellow plaid that I thought would match the John Deere fabric I had, turned out to ACTUALLY BE John Deere fabric. On the selvege it says, "John Deere Nostalgic".

The second one features "Country Life Toile" also given to me by my fabric fairy.

For more sewing and crafting ideas please visit the Waiting For Him Blog!

Frugal Friday

REUSE IT!!!

One of the biggest ways to save money is to reuse or recycle as many items as possible. I checked my three Tightwad Gazettes for ideas on this and there are pages and pages of ideas. If you look at this from an accounting perspective, you could compare it to turning purchases into assets instead of expenses!

These are a few of the ways we reuse items every day:

1. We save all the good boxes, bubble wrap, air pillows, plastic bags and padded envelopes that we get at work to reuse for shipping for my on-line business. This saves me lots of money and I pass this savings on to my customers. The only item I have had to buy for shipping purposes is packing tape. Oh, and of course the actual postage. My only hint for saving on the postage is limit how much the package weighs as much as possible! Here's a picture of my "shipping department" located in the garage.



2. We reuse ziplock bags as much as possible. Better yet, I don't use them at all if I can help it. I always use sealable plastic containers in lunches. The zip lock bags are easy to wash out. I just put them up upside down over a bottle of some kind to dry.

3. My frugal husband (FH) scavenges the twine that my son's goat hay comes tied up with to use for many purposes. Two uses for this are to tie up climbing plants and to tie tags on his customer's items.

4. Use cloth napkins and cleaning cloths instead of paper. They can be used over and over. I made my daughter a set of cloth napkins thinking she would just use them for decoration. Lo and behold! She has almost completely stopped buying paper products.

5. We recycle plastic grocery bags for trash can liners and many other uses. I have also wrapped items to be shipped (see no. 1 above) in them. A much better option would be to use cloth shopping bags.

6. I noticed my son-in-law emptying his vacuum cleaner bag into a trash bag (outside of course) and then reusing it. I would think this could be done several times or until the bag tears.

7. I save all my family's old blue jeans and some other clothing items to use in my sewing projects. I have made some quilts with the jean material that turned out really well. Here and here are a couple. My daughter recently made a rag rug from her old clothing and you can see it here. She also made a bath mat using an old towel that is so cute here.

This list could go on and on, but the bottom line is: Before buying ANYTHING, think of how you could manage without it. Could you reuse or re-purpose something you already have instead? Turn those expenses into assets!

For more Frugal Friday tips, go to Biblical Womanhood.

Thankful Thursday, Part III

Stop and consider God's wonders. Job 37:14

My thankful Thursday keeps getting better and better!

My Fabric Fairy came to my office and brought me a bag full of large size pieces of fabric that she can't use and also gave me a brief lesson on sewing zippers into hand bags!

One reason she gives me so much fabric is that other people give it to her. She makes dresses for little girls in Haiti through her women's group at her church and some of the fabric that is donated to her isn't appropriate for that purpose. So I am the lucky recipient of the unwanted fabric.

I already see several possibilities for great projects in this bag. Especially, a piece of green and yellow plaid that is exactly the same colors as the John Deere Fabric used in the hand bag that the farmer bought this morning. I think it would be fitting for me to make another bag to donate to his church's auction. You know you just can't out-give the Lord!

Then as I was out and about at lunch my cell phone rang and my FH wanted to take me out for lunch! We have a new Arby's in the small town I work in and we went there. I love their roast beef sandwiches and curly fries. My FH got a pecan chicken salad sandwich and it look really good too!

Thanks to my fabric fairy, my FH, and most of all THANK YOU LORD!

Thankful Thursday, Part II

This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

My frugal hubby (FH) sold the John Deere Pocketbook to a farmer who is donating it to his church's fundraiser auction!

So it has been deleted from the ETSY Shop!

We live in a rural farming community, so FH says to make more farm related pocketbooks and he will sell them to the guys he comes in contact with through his job!

I can't get spell check to work in blogger, so pardon any errors! Is anybody else having this problem, or is my computer?

Have a great Thursday! (only one more day til Saturday Sewing)

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for so many things!

My first issue of "Quick Quilts" came yesterday! This magazine subscription was a Christmas present from my husband. I have always wanted to receive a quilting magazine and I love this one. The patterns for many of the quilts I made in the past came from the McCall's Quick Quilts website which features quilts from this magazine.

I've been wanting to learn how to make rag quilts and right on the front of this issue is a really cute "Good Night Moon" cozy rag quilt. There are complete instructions inside and I already have some fabric that is similar to the picture. This will be a future project, although I'm not too sure about the applique part. I haven't been too successful with applique in the past, but I would love to become good at it! I have also seen some hand bags on line that had squares with the rag edge that I'd like to make. So the instructions in this issue should be helpful to me in that regard as well.

I had to laugh at one of the items listed on the front cover: "Sew Straight Seams" Now that's something I need to read!

It just occurred to me that the quickquilts website is a favorite of mine, but I don't have it listed in the side bar. I'll add that link today! Its great!

The picture above also shows some vintage fabric called "Country Life" by Waverly. I was plundering through my fabric stash and ran across this and several other vintage fabrics that I plan to incorporate into hand bags for my Etsy Shop. These were given to me by an older lady a few years ago and I had forgotten I had them. Some of the fabric definitely falls into the "shabby chic" category. One is covered with very vintage looking roses. Very pretty. I have purchased fabric to accentuate these fabrics and I can't wait to get started!!!!!

Surely if just the thought of sewing thrills me this much, it must be my calling (one of them). I am working so hard to improve my sewing skills and to make professional type projects.

My Blog definitely has a frugal theme, so my intention is to offer products in my Etsy shop that are reasonably priced and to always charge reasonable shipping costs. I hope that any buyer will feel that they got more than they expected!

Yes, I am thankful for my love of sewing today! It gives me such joy and when I am deep in the trenches at my job, I can think about my current projects and SMILE!

Thank you Lord!

Works For Me Wednesday

This week's "Works For Me Wednesday" edition is all about favorite on-line shopping places.

I'm not a big On-Line shopper, but these are my favorites:

Old Navy. There are some things here that we always buy, like boxers for my son. They have the only ones he will wear. Its a comfort factor. Old Navy has a flat $5.00 shipping charge, no matter what you buy. They also have great sales, if you can catch them!

LL Bean has the BEST customer service I have ever dealt with. They will fix any problem you may have. Their products are high quality and they also have good sales and you can get free shipping and monogramming if you use the LL Bean credit card. Just be sure to pay it off at the end of the month! This past Christmas they had free shipping on everything, no matter how you paid for it.

EBAY. You can find anything you could possibly want on EBAY. These are my suggestions to buying on EBAY.

1. Don't run the price up by bidding early! Just watch the item and see what happens. This isn't good when you are the seller, but I see new EBAYers bidding like crazy all the time, and experienced ones, just wait!

2. Don't fall for the ones that charge unreasonable shipping. I won't even look at the item if the shipping is out of line.

3. Be sure to check the sellers rating out. Not just the percentage, but how many actual unhappy customers they have had. If the seller has sold 8,000 items and has a 98% approval rating, that could be a lot of unhappy people!

Be sure to check out Rocks in my Dryer for more online site favorites!

EBay Success!

I have been really concentrating on selling on-line during the month of January! My FH (frugal husband) has been helping me with cooking and grocery shopping so that I would have more time for EBay and the Etsy Shop. Isn't he sweet?!!!

Anyway, back to EBAY.

My goal was to sell $25.00 each week, which may not sound like a lot, but adds up. I reached or exceeded this goal each week in January. The things I sold were things I had but wasn't using or things I had been given that I didn't think I'd be able to use. So my initial investment was zero.

Learning to use EBay is fun in itself. I never knew there were so many little things to learn or be aware of. For instance: Last week I listed 5 items on Sunday night to run for 7 days which mean't the listings would end last night. The bids were coming really fast the first of the week, but then slowed down and there were almost no bids at the end. It finally dawned on me that the auctions were ending right in the middle of the SUPER BOWL!!!. I was short of my $25 goal by $5.00. Several of these items were similar to ones I sold the week before at higher prices.

I had read in the EBay books I got from the library that holiday weekends weren't good for ending auctions, so I guess the Super Bowl is kind of like a holiday weekend! Guess What, I went on line and renewed the EBay books! I need to educate myself further.

I get a kick out of checking "My EBay" several times a day to see if there are any new bids or how many watchers I have!

I applied for a PayPal debit card so I can use that for purchasing items for resale and paying for shipping supplies and postage.

I'm also very excited about my Etsy Shop! I have so many ideas for things to go in there. I've just got to find some things that are in demand!

Have a great Monday! We're having above normal temperatures here in North Carolina for a few days. Sixties and seventies!

Saturday Sewing

I did a lot of sewing yesterday!

First of all I finished up some items for the Etsy Shop. I completed some mini wallets and tissue holders to go with completed orders and finished up the John Deere pocketbook that shows in the left.

Today my niece is having a baby shower. The baby is a boy and I made two double sided flannel blankets with matching burp cloth/changing pads. I bought 2 yards of each piece of flannel, cut into 2 one yard pieces. I cut enough off to make the pieces square and then used the part cut off to make the burp cloths. I used a dinner plate to make the corners round and then sewed the fabric right sides together leaving an opening for turning. After turning and pressing, I zigzagged a top stitching around the edges.

The burp cloths were made by sewing the left over strips on the end of 2 pieces of flannel so that the finished size was 13 X 17. Make a quilt sandwhich with right sides together on top of the batting, sew around the edge leaving an opening for turning. Turn, sew up the opening, and quilt two lines length wise at 1/3 intervals.





I also made this Winnie The Pooh diaper bag. It isn't quite finished. See the button is not yet sewn on! I would like to make a matching changing pad to include with the bag, but time may not allow. I'll be finishing up the bag and getting the gifts wrapped at the last minute as it is. The shower is today at 3:00. I have church this morning and lunch to cook. So we'll see!!!



Hubby and I are having some Super Bowl food starting late this afternoon. We are having Tortillas and the nacho cheese stuff (can't remember the name of it) that has browned hamburger, velveeta cheese, rotel tomatoes and taco seasoning mix. Also pigs in blankets which we make using cresent rolls and little smokies. I cut each cresent roll into 3 pieces so a can of 8 will make 24 pigs in blankets. We also have Doritos (my favorite!).

For lunch I am making london broil. I marinate it in a mixture of soy sauce, ground ginger and garlic, then broil it until its the desired doneness. We like it medium rare. Slice in on the diagonal and use the marinade to keep it moist. Yum!

Frugal Friday

THE FRUGAL HUSBAND CHRONICLES:

This is the continuing saga of the Frugal Husband. This week's frugal moments:

1. Frugal Husband (FH) offered to make supper while wife was setting up grand opening of Etsy Shop. FH wondered what to cook. Wife offered the suggestion that he could stop at the store and get some hamburger or other food. FH came home, checked the pantry, and made dinner without spending money.

2. FH scans the new Food Lion Sales Paper for deals, compares them to coupons and plans his grocery strategy for the week.

3. FH groans and utters mild expletives when he realizes that many coupons he planned to use in conjunction with certain sale prices at Food Lion EXPIRED 1/31/08, despite his best efforts to keep up with the coupons' expiration dates! (welcome to the world of coupon organization FH!)

4. FH asks for supply of Microwave Heating Pads to carry with him in case someone wanted to buy one. Actually sold one and brought home the $5.00 to wife.

5. FH recycles empty coffee and nut cans to store loose screws, nails and other man type things instead of investing in expensive containers.

Be sure to check back often for more adventures of the Frugal Husband!

For more Frugal Friday tips please visit Biblical Womanhood!