Clutch Purse

September, 2024

From Christine’s Home Affairs

I needed a purse for Walid and Madison’s engagement party so I started looking online for a pattern. Once I found the pattern I needed fabric. I wanted something sturdier than quilting cotton so I went shopping at Gail’s. She had a nice linen that perfectly matched the colour of my shoes. She also had a variety of magnetic closures so I was good to go.

For whatever reason I put off making it until it was almost too late. I thought I’d look for one at the thrift stores but they are all open at different times and I never seemed to be out and about at the right time. My last desperate thought was I would go to Walmart and find something. One morning, just a few days before we were leaving, I was determined to get out and find something. My time was limited as we had company with us for a week.

That morning we had nothing planned with our company so I gave myself a talking-to, came upstairs and got busy making my clutch purse. My first problem was that I didn’t have any fusible interfacing so I had to use a different product that meant I had to do some quilting to attach it. The inside divider needed the same approach but I didn’t bother quilting it.

Although the project took longer than the tutorial suggested, I surprised myself by having the purse finished before lunch. It worked perfectly for the party.

Botanical Garden

June, 2024

Botanical Blackwork (from thesteadythread.com)

This was a weekly stitch-along from 2022. The first photo I have of the project was from February of that year so I was already behind. I worked at it off and on over the next few years but when Asher’s graduation was approaching I felt it was time to finish it and present it to him as a gift.

I was almost finished the stitching by the time I decided to give it to Asher. There were some “issues” with the alignment that I could live with but wanted to correct since it was a gift. One re-working led to another and I think I did at least a quarter of it over again. To be honest, it was the border that really caught my eye on this one, although I liked the touches of colour spread throughout.

I was pleased with the result and, much to my amazement, I’m downloading the patterns for this year’s stitch-along. Needless to say, I haven’t started it yet.

Congratulations Asher

June 2024

Our first trip in a very long time was to Asher’s Grade 12 graduation. It was a lovely day and Asher appeared to be enjoying himself throughout all the festivities.

Asher was the performer at the reception following the graduation ceremony and he did a wonderful job, even though they didn’t have appropriate sound equipment. Asher is self-taught on the guitar and Pat says he is very talented.

Asher is also a very talented artist with his paintings and many other hand crafts. I’ve been very happy to be able to share some of my cross stitching supplies with Asher so I made her this cross stitch as a gift.

As always there was a graduation card.

Happy Birthday Alex

September 13, 2024

I didn’t make many cards this month but I wanted to be sure to send one to Alex. None of the mug rug patterns really suited so I went online to see what I could find. Obviously I was looking for golfing patterns but I didn’t have any luck. I switched to looking at images and was able to find something that I felt I could copy and this is the result.

In hindsight, I wish I could remember to do some cross hatch quilting prior to adding the appliqué pieces.

I hope Friday the 13th is a happy day for Alex.