Swirly Snow Guys

I ordered the snowman table runner pattern from Sweetwater on their Etsy site here.  The bottom photo is from their shop and shows the kit that you can buy.  I decided to use some of my own fabric, and if I would have just zoomed in a bit, you could see that it is a tone-on-tone swirl.  I made only four men because the place I wanted to put it was just that size.  They are also all the same size - I took the photo at a goofy angle!  The other little detail that you can't see is that I sprayed the runner lightly with glue and used some Martha Stewart fine glitter to frosty them up!  With all my other snowmen decorations, it looks quite cute, indeed!  I love how the bottom photo is styled.  I think I should aspire to be a better blog-picture-taker.  Jerilynn

Christmas Pillows

It begins yet again.  Turkey remains that are too old too eat are barely in the trash before the Christmas Make-a-Thon kicks in high gear.  Each year I try to start earlier on projects and try to simplify the planning for the Season, but somehow I always have more things I want to make than I have days.  This is our first real Christmas at the cabin.  Last year we decorated here a little, but our holiday get-together with the kids was at the condo.  Decorating the condo was a two or three hour job.  We had already put out our Christmas stuff there so many years that it was automatic.  Now that we live at the cabin year-round, I found it took much longer to figure out what to do.  We gave away/sold lots of our decorations, but did keep what we loved and what we felt would look good here.  Needless to say, we still had more fa-la-la than we could possibly use!  I still am keeping t two boxes of stuff that I just can't part with, but don't have a good spot for.  Three boxes of leftover stuff will be up for grabs for the kids and grandkids.  I didn't have any holiday pillows, though, in the unpacked boxes.  Where are they?  Did they get sold?  Snatched up by children?  Maybe I didn't have any before?  Hmm.  A mystery.  A dash to Shopko solved the problem.  I bought a few plain pillows with piping.  Tore out their guts.  Stitched on some simple applique with gold thread, re-stuffed (less firmly - I don't like rock-hard pillow), and sewed the opening closed.  I made a third pillow that has NOEL embroidered in gold thread, but it looks totally out of place with these other two pillows and even a bit too fancy for the whole setting.  I don't want to pick out all those teeny  tiny stitches, but I may just applique a rectangle over the letters.  No one will ever know what is underneath.  Don't tell anyone.  Jerilynn

Bonus Bubbles

Here is another Bubble Necklace idea. Not mine, though - Ellen's again. She thought putting some small beads between the bubbles, in the color of the wire, would be pretty. I think she was right! I am currently waiting for a bubble order to arrive, then I will be in Bubble Business! The tricky part is to wire the bubbles without them popping....Jerilynn P. S. Happy Thanksgiving! I will try to be a better blogger and posting person, without, of course, giving away any Christmas surprises. I just found out that my children and grandchildren actually read my blog!

Lawrence Welk Bubble Necklace

Not too many people remember Lawrence Welk.  He had this great bubble machine that would pump bubbles in the air as his orchestra would play catchy tunes, lots of which, were polkas.  I loved, of course, The Lennon Sisters.  I would watch the show with my grandparents who lived right next door to us in rural Indiana.  My daughter, Ellen, said she saw a client that had a clear bubble necklace on with a lime green cord.  This necklace is my interpretation of what she described.  I had red cord, of course, and ordered some bubbles.  Many compliments have been received when I wear this!  After showing Carl my newest creation, he said "It is uneven".  I replied, "Yes.  The beads are hand blown and aren't all exactly the same size".  He said, "No.  You have more small bubbles on one side than the other."  Oh.  Ah-one, ah-two, ah-three.  Jerilynn 

Oregon Coast Beaded Necklace

When we were on the Oregon Coast, I happened upon a bead and yarn store.  Well, I didn't just "happen upon it"....I Googled the nearest bead/yarn shop and discovered it was very close to where we were staying.  Kismet.  They had these funky black and white swirl strip big beads that managed to make the long journey back to the Midwest.  I used some Loupiac (loupiac.etsy.com) spacer beads that I had, and some mystery round black beads and fashioned a necklace.  Perky, don't you think?  My next beading project will be an attempt to make those leather/bead wrap bracelets that I am seeing everywhere, especially in the Sundance Jewelry catalog.  I will let you know if I discover that the huge price that they charge for those is actually quite a bargain.  Jerilynn

Summersville Swoon

SOOO excited!  The top photo shows the Moda Summersville line of fabric by the very talented Lucie Summers (blu-shed.blogspot.com).  It is probably one of my favorite collections to come out in a long time, and I haven't cut into it yet.  I just take it out and look at it quite often.  I have gone to Lucie's Etsy shop, summersville.etsy.com and saw that she had a mug in white with black printing.  I loved it, of course, and wanted to order it, but also wanted it in colors!  Through some Etsy conversations, I learned from Lucie that she, indeed, had colored mugs on order, made in a very special bone china in stoke-on-trent.  Who else but the English would take the trouble to produce such special tea or coffee mugs?  The bottom shot is taken from Lucie's blog, I hope she doesn't mind!  I decided that I needed to order one of each color, even though the shipping to the US isn't exactly a bargain. They will take a couple of weeks to arrive here in Northern Wisconsin, but that gives me time to plan what delightful projects I am going to make out of the fabric to go along with the mugs.  Some will be gifts, but it is going to be quite hard for me to decide which ones to give away.  Sophie's Choice.  Of course, the Red ones will probably end up living with me, but, look at that wonderful, delicate Blue!  And the Black!  So modern and clean!  Oh, dear.   Wouldn't these designs look amazing in machine embroidery?  Lucie, do you have extra time to get on that project right away?  Jerilynn

Bird Bag Spotting in Cumberland

Strange birds in the tree outside our cabin.  They look quite friendly, though, don't they?  These, of course, are more Izzy Bags, made out of my current favorite fabric, KAS Oslo screenprint.  I have used a red one now for over a month and never fail to get a "where did you get that bag?" comment.  Now I will be able to answer:  "I made it, and you can buy one on my Etsy shop at jerisew.etsy.com".  The holiday season is fast approaching, so I am trying to get some things in my store to sell.  No, they won't cover our gift-giving-budget, but, if all else fails, and the bags go unsold, I have three gifts already made.  Perfect.  Jerilynn

Warning! Sales Pitch

Yep, I finally started listing some things on Etsy.  The finished Sewing Themed Coasters, a cd of the designs to make your own, the finished Autumn Themed Coasters, and a cd of the designs to make your own are in my shop.  I plan to add more things as the days go on.  I bet you are pretty excited about all of this!  Jerilynn

Rock and Roll is Here to Stay!

The bottom shot is from Pinterest and I will do some digging and find out the source.  I love Pinterest, but sometimes I feel like I am dealing with the Ogre Shrek - lots of layers!  I thought it was so cute and it could be a fun project for me to try to duplicate for Ben.  So I copied a free clipart photo of a guitar, red, of course, onto some Transfer Artist Paper.  The transfer got a little light when it went over the sleeve seam, but I think that was user error:  I was just so excited to see how it was going to look!  I think it turned out pretty cute.  The hardest thing was trying to find a white shirt for a toddler.  Once they are out of Onesies, a plain tee is rare.  Don't "they" know that part of the appeal of James Dean was the white shirt with the blue jeans?  Most everyone now would say, "Who is James Dean?"  Jerilynn