Return to the Bicycle Built For Two

 Hello, everyone.

Some while back, y'all may remember, I attended an embroidery class at my local quilt shop, and we made a tote bag with a bicycle embroidery design. We learned how to sew out a multi-hooped design in that class.  And all of us left with the instruction to "do it again soon, before you forget how it's done" in our ears.

Time passed, but I kept intending to do another bicycle tote.

It has finally been done.

This was done from scratch, as I didn't have a handy Kimberbell blank on hand to use. This time I didn't box the bottom corners, as I had the thought that the recipient might want to carry paper or other flat things in it.

I also dispensed with the little saying that came with the design.

The fringe flowers gave me a little bit of work, because I forgot that I had gotten a spool of dissolving thread to use as the bobbin on the fringe work. (Those are the large red flowers that look a little bit like Life-Savers candies.)

It was fun making another bicycle for two.

Update on the little ghosts

 Hello, everyone.

This is a small update on the cute little ghosties I mentioned the other day.

As y'all can see, they acquired a friend. He's a bat, also a freebie at Kreative Kiwi. He didn't come with eyes, but I thought he looked incomplete. Fortunately, in the bead stash there are some Czech seed beeds that go with the "Happy" letters.

I added little ribbon loops to each dangler and stapled them to a 3/8" black ribbon. The bat has two ribbons. 

I suppose that they could make a vertical door hanger if the ribbon arrangements were different...can't leave them outside in the weather for very long, though, as if it gets rainy the mold will attack the cotton fabric.

I wonder how they would look done in an outdoor type of fabric? One could skip the little pockets on the front--a door hanger wouldn't have any likelihood of having something tucked into the pockets. I only included them because my Sewing Club sister had done hers that way and it looks like little aprons or skirts to me--if the pockets weren't there there is room for a small BOO on even the little ghosts fronts. 

DD2 thought that the collection needed more bats...actually the bat pattern has different sizes of bats in it, some without the letters as the design is too small, others larger than this 5x7 one.

Peach pie makings

 Hello, everyone.

While we were visiting family, I found a farm stand with fresh, Illinois peaches for sale.  Nabbed a nice bag of them, quick.

To make pie, they needed to be peeled...and I had never tried that before.

Following instructions on various web sites and Youtube videos, I cut a cross in the bottom of the fruit. Then I put them into boiling water for just a few seconds (if you've peeled tomatoes, this is the same game) and then put the now scalded peaches into a bowl of ice water to shock them and stop the cooking.  Then I used a knife to pull the skin away from the flesh of the fruit. Sliced the peeled peaches and put them into a bowl to macerate with some sugar.

These are the peels and pits after the peaches were peeled. It's a surprisingly small pile for a bag of 8 or 10 peaches.

These are the sliced peaches, with about a half cup of sugar to bring out the juice, waiting until time to be put into the pie shell.

This was the first of two pies that got made during our visit. The second pie, not pictured, was Granny Smith apples.

I love making pies. The grandchildren liked eating them for breakfast, too. 

I was inspired by my Sewing Club sister's Show N Share

 Hello, everyone.

At our sewing club meeting, one of our group brought the cutest little ghost decorations. She mentioned that she had found the pattern at Kreative Kiwi. They were so cute I had to make some myself. (I had not removed the excess wash away stabilizer around the edges yet here.) 

The first little "ghostie" bag. I will add a loop to the top for hanging. This is the smaller size, and it uses up stash most amazingly.

A new sewing club project

 Hello, everyone.

It's good to be back at home. 

Today was the monthly Sewing Club meeting. We made a project bag: something to carry works-in-process around in.

The top, with the binding in process. This was the second attempt at binding, the first was a poor choice of color and so what had been done with it was removed at home after the meeting, to be replaced with this cheery yellow bee print.

The bottom edge, showing where the end of the binding strip is.

This was sewn with mitered corners, which is always a good look if the materials will work with it. (That was one of the reasons why I removed the partially sewn binding in the other fabric--the other print was not well suited to being a binding.)

The bag has a see-through front which allows the lining and the quilting to make a statement. The foam stabilizer is very stable, so I didn't do tons of quilting on it.

The vinyl, the fat quarter of bee print for the lining, and the zipper were new. The remainder (yellow prints and the gray intricate squares) was from stash.

Tennessee wildlife sighting

 Hello, everyone.  I'm on the road visiting family. 

While outside in their yard (garden for European readers) I turned over a log and saw a creature that is new to me.

This is a slug with the most amazing leopard spots. I had seen one crawling in the evening but had no camera. This one stayed still for me to take a photo in the daytime. (Probably it was sleeping!) 

I thought slugs only came in dull solid gray. The spotted ones are something different! 

More posts after getting home, I think. It's very active around here with creatures and children. 😄