Sunday Already?

Wish I'd been able to get a bit more accomplished this weekend, but life got in the way...Still, I finished an order:

Alexander Henry's Parranda de los Muertos in the Sadie bag!

It will be winging it's way to it's new home this week. I've finished a few other things for the upcoming shows, but not nearly what I need to accomplish in a weekend. Fortunately, I managed to get a small stack of small items to work on during the week when I get home from work.

Last night, sis-in-law and I went out for barbeque at Three L'le Pigs in Daleville. They had a local singer/guitarist and we sat on the patio after dinner and enjoyed a drink while we listened. There was a yellow jacket who tried valiantly to make me lunch, but when I moved to another seat, apparently he wasn't interested enough to follow (whew!)...

I can say that the New Castle Brown Ale was excellent, the barbeque was very good after I doctored it up with some of their hot sauce and tomato barbeque sauce. The "pigtail" fries and hushpuppies were excellent, and the coleslaw, too.

I'll be making a strong attempt this week to follow my Weight Watchers plan religiously...Dinner was a bit of a splurge!

shhh...but once in awhile is okay

Almost Friday! YAY!

The week is flying by ... like a BLUR! So I wanted to just touch base with everyone and let you know I updated the etsy shop with a couple new Nook cases:


Wild Slides by Michael Miller on the left and Skulls 'n Roses by Alexander Henry on the right...

I'm having a lot of fun with these.
And tomorrow is
T.G.I.F.

You know what that means, right?

A whole weekend of sewing for Nana Sadie Rose!

Sunday Night Again...

All in all this was a pretty terrific weekend - in that I slept in both days, got a lot of sewing for the September shows done, some knitting/blocking done, a couple of bag orders completed, things packaged for shipment, over 100 books entered to my Goodreads bookshelves, ate mostly healthful meals and snacks without spending tons of time in the kitchen, caught up on a bit of the TV I mostly don't watch now, but catch (without advertising!) online, and even chatted a little with my Big Sis on the phone! Wow. That's quite a lot!

I made these two Rosy-Posy bags - the one on the right is a Posy, of course, those Sock Monkeys are perfect for a sock knitting bag and the one on the left is a Rosy with pockets of regular quilting cotton and made to accommodate handbag items. Both are zipper styles. (Posy is still available without the zipper if you are interested. Just shoot me an email.)

Both of these bags are single strap "backpack" style, but you can't see the straps in the photo - the sock monkey strap is dark brown and the cat one is black.

My Chief Sewing Assistant was, as always, an enormous help.

Mommie says I'm still her best helper.

And as usual, the Sewing Assistant Trainee fell down on the job:

He's just a lazy-bones.

So far, he's got a long way to go to start earning his weight in kibble...
(but that belly is pretty soft and fun to rub)

My Delightful Saturday...

I managed to sleep in a little this morning, which was a very necessary thing. I've been tired this week, working on the physical therapy exercises for my shoulders, and had a session on Friday that added more exercises, as well as more repetitions of each exercise (thankfully, not adding more weight in there, too - yet anyway). So it was nice to take a bit of time to feel lazy.

But once I did get up, the first thing I did was toss my Oz Shawl into a Eucalan bath to soak

while I fixed breakfast and had my coffee (and played around online catching up on Facebook, Ravelry, and now on Goodreads and The Simple Living Forums. I can't spend nearly the amount of time I'd like to visiting these spots, but I've challenged myself to put 20 books a day on the weekends up on Goodreads (and I met that goal today).

Once my eyes were open from the caffeine, I brought the blocking supplies into the bedroom and spread out on the floor. The cats joined me, The Meezer helping as she usually does, and scoffing at The Tonk's attempts to assist.

I assure you that he didn't help much - in fact, it took twice as long, because he took to biting the blocking wires in his teeth and teasing them out of the shawl once I'd moved to the next wire...I banished him to the other side of the room till I could get it spread out and pinned down...(dimensions of Oz here are 58" x 25.5")

I thought you might enjoy seeing a closeup of the points all stretched and pinned...

Tonk decided the box and the little plastic boxes of T-pins were far more interesting...

Once I was satisfied, I left it to dry, and went downstairs to make a Kerri bag:

I promised my aunt last summer that I'd make her an autumn floral bag as a thank-you for putting us up when we were in Vermont last August. I also told her that I wanted the Big Sis and the Sis-in-law to help me choose the fabrics. Well. I guess I learned my lesson, because getting the two of them IN my house where the fabric is, both at the same time, is darn near impossible! And I finally gave up. Hopefully they'll both approve of this choice, because I thought 10 months was far too long for this aunt to wait for her bag.

Isn't the inside pretty, too?

By late afternoon the shawl was dry (probably really wasn't quite that long, but I ran out to get thread and a few groceries, and it was dry when I got back) and I pulled out the wires after unpinning and draped it on the white chair for it's glamour shot:

How about another one?

There's no doubt in my mind that this shawl will be made again. Next time? For me.

I'm off to spend a bit of quality time with The Meezer and my Nook. The Tonk got a thorough brushing this evening as I watched the news, so I think it's time the Grand Lady got a bit, too...

A Running Head Start

on my weekend of sewing...

The one on the left is an order, the one on the right is going into my etsy shop. That "flower power" print is long out of print, but what fun it is, with the aqua, hot pink, lime/chartreuse, and touch of coral and white on cocoa brown. Michael Miller comes up with the best fabrics.

That particular bag is made up as a "Rosy" - the pockets inside number 3: one approximately 1/2 the size of the back of the bag, a sliver of a sleeve for your pen, then a slightly smaller pocket on the other 1/2 of the back of the bag. The pockets are not flannel, as the Posy would be, but regular quilter's cotton (and a pretty chartreuse plaid with a pink stripe through it!

So I've kicked off the weekend in fine form. Much to do, much to do...TGIF!!!
(((hugs)))

Tuesday Drive-by

Knitting is finished...now to block and get this in the mail to it's owner. I hope it will be a comfort.

Pattern: In the Land of Oz
Needles: size 7 Clover bamboo circulars
Yarn: Unplanned Peacock Studio Peacock Sock Yarn in the colorway Lobelia (eta: I LOVE this yarn, LOVE this colorway!)
Time to knit: May 21 - June 14, 2011 - OMG - I've never knit a shawl this fast before!

No modifications...I had hoped to add a second repeat of charts 2-3, but changed my mind when for whatever reason, I couldn't get them to line up (probably my fault). I decided it was smarter to stop now, there's time to block and then mail, hopefully early next week.

And I love the pattern. If I didn't have so many shawls in progress right now, I'd probably knit myself one right away. I'll hold off and try to get a few things finished instead.

And I promise: I'll get good shots of the blocking, because this is pretty much just a lump of unblocked lace and we all know how gorgeous it turns out to be once it's stretched to within an inch of it's life.
*wink*

Nook Color Cases - Now in the Shop

The answer is "YES!"
I was asked if I'd be making some of these to put in the shop, so of course I have.

Now I realize that a lot of folks want their Nook (and Kindle) covers to also HOLD their e-readers as they read, but I'm kinda funky about that. I hold the Nook. Period.

Maybe I'd get used to having it in a cover, but you know? One of the reasons I wanted a Nook was to lighten the load...books are feeling heavier and heavier to me these days...so my design is for protection when you're transporting the Nook or when it's not in use, sitting by your chair (if you have kittehs like mine? You worry about the Nook landing on the floor). Eventually I may buy one of those silicone frames, but for now, I see no need.

Over the past week or so, I've made a few of these and they're in the etsy shop right now. Price? $20. Shipping? $3. (remember if you're in Virginia, I have to charge you sales tax)

Another big reason I bought my Nook Color? Because I'm overloaded on books, the real ones, and have no more space for additional ones and besides, while there are issues with e-readers being environmentally friendly? They don't kill trees. So that's one reason I made these two e-reader covers. *wink*

And can you imagine Nana Sadie Rose making anything without including a few animal fabrics, specifically cats?

No, I couldn't either, but I did add in as many doggie prints as I did cat ones...

Then, these. Two in this wonderful old world book print, and the gorgeous Asian floral...You know I have a nice assortment of Asian prints, many of them florals and I should just make up a bunch of things from them...

This one isn't in the shop. Someone who is very important to me is giving this one to someone who is very important to her...

See how I lined it?

This is so much fun.

If you don't find something in the shop you love, email me (or convo me thru etsy) and we'll find a fabric for you!

Another New Nana Sadie Rose Item!

It's been a busy weekend again...and I've something new to show you!

Last week, when I introduced the straight needle case (and by the way, I neglected to share the name of that item with you - it's Clarissa), Ellen asked if I wouldn't consider designing a travel wallet that would hold a variety of needles for those times when you want a few of everything with you.

So...I did:

It's the same size as Clarissa...but there are two rows of flannel pockets of different sizes...

Those pockets on the far right are sized for circulars, and conveniently, a mini-baglet will fit, so you can tuck in stitch markers and whatnots to have everything you need. The top row works for 10" needles, the bottom one is sized for double-points, crochet hooks, even a small pair of scissors!

You fold it in thirds...

and close it with a loop and button. Her name? Why Ellie, of course! (For Ellen, and for my Big Sis, too.)

I had so much fun with this knitting sheep fabric and it's coordinates...and then I made a corporate decision...

And up dated the etsy shop with items for custom orders. I even included one for the Mavis Knitting bag.

The corporate decision, really wasn't that. It was that the custom orders would be expanded in the etsy shop. I intend to let the Nana Sadie Rose website go dark. Dear Daughter simply has her hands too full to spend time keeping it up, and I have more important things to do with my time (hmm...like, perhaps, make bags????) than to learn to do the coding on the website. Very soon the website will be a one-page site with links to the etsy shop and my email for questions. And when the year runs out on the current service, it will be taken down for good. Etsy works nicely for me. I think I'll make it my one stop shopping center.
:)

An Awfully LONG Short Week!

Long and busy and crazy-making.

I haven't ever been able to figure out the physics of just why weeks that begin with a Monday holiday always end up feeling as if they're 6-7 days long instead of 4. There really ought to be some formula that explains it.

I figure at least a little of it is the "end of the month" stuff that fell this week, too...and then, it's one month before a ton of grants on the state's fiscal year (ends June 30) and so we're scurrying to make sure all the loose ends are tied, and such...

Along with all that, my Weight Watcher's leader had her baby, but it was scheduled for one day and put off till the next, and you know, just that kind of "hanging out waiting for news" can be crazy-making (she arrived today, btw and we're ALL of us over the moon, seeing her little face on Facebook! Congrats to all of them - this little gal will be spoiled rotten, as she has a couple of older brothers to watch over her).

I've come home a couple of nights to work on the new Rosy-Posy and have a couple to share with you:

No surprise that they're cat fabrics, but the one on the right is cats with yarn, so it's a good option for a knitter who loves cats. Both of these are made like the Posy inside with flannel pockets to cushion your needles.

I think this weekend will be crammed with more sewing...(and I'm hoping to do a Meatless Monday meal on Sunday for next week...