Long time, no blog~lots to show

 First things first- these adorable little animals were what I received in the FLiPS pincushion swap, from my friend Pattiann aka bouncypoodle at Flickr!  She made me 2 amazing creatures, a bunny with a hexagon carrot and a cat that looks a lot like our Murphy!  Bun-Bun and Murph-Murph are enjoying life with us now, and I just love them!

We have a long driveway!

Time for a rest....

...and a tickle-attack!

We left a light on for them! 

Made with German mohair and fully jointed, they are very special!

I took some time while the Bitty swap group was in hiatus to make a few things for me.  

A little tote for a travel sized iron-

  It unfolds to become an ironing mat-

 ...and it is pretty, too!  Fun little project, this pattern comes in 3 sizes!  It's by Sisters Common Thread

 Then since I liked that so much, I kept going- I made a whole matching set.  Yes, I love things that match and I love to make stuff like this.  I made an insulated cover for my little Clover stick iron, a tote to put it in, a small ironing pad for it, and a little tote with an attached lid for the tools and burn cream, ha!  :)

 The big tote- inside...

 ...filled, mostly...

Late addition- a tote for my swiveling rotary mat and ruler...

The zipper makes it easier to get in and out...

That's a lot of 1" squares!

 The tool tote, attached lid...

 Like the other pieces in this set, I had no pattern for this, just made it up as I went along.  The girls at Flickr really liked it a lot so I'm about to post a tutorial for it so you can make your own.

Inside-

We took the summer off but now the Bitties are back- this month, Weather.  I made a beautiful day. 

 And there's a tutorial out there for this little sewing kit- I made it longer and used 2 elastics to hold it closed. It uses plastic canvas inside, very clever!
 Here's the tute for this...  it's by "UK lass in US".

So that's what I've been doing, in addition to helping take care of my Mum.  Next up- my tutorial for that little tote with the attached lid!

Some finishes, some gifts and a slight catastrophe and other stuff....

I needed something to hold all my sewing bits so while I'm Mum-sitting, I can do hand work and get some progress made on projects.  I bought this pretty purple and turquoise fabric and happened to have a matching mermaid bitty lying around so I designed this sewing wallet to hold all my accessories.  A friend, Cindy Sharp, had just sent me the cute felt needle book that looks like a little white cat (photos below) and it had to have a special place in it.  I love how it all turned out. 

Inside- several pockets and a zippered compartment.  I put half of a magnetic closure inside one of the little pockets to hold the little scissors in place. 

I think the cat is my favorite thing about all of it.  You'll see how cute it is in a second.

Front and back- hair elastic closure.

Cindy sent me the needle book just out of the blue.  I wept just a few tears when I opened it, I was that touched.

 

Cindy and her entire family are big cat lovers, they have some really special ones. 

See how the tail tucks under that flap to hold it closed?  Very clever!

And inside- fish in the belly, to hold the needles!  Love this, so cute!

Another friend of mine, Sil, in Brazil made a mini quilt like this for a swap.  I told her I wanted to copy it and with her blessing, I did.  Without the borders, it's 12" x 12".  I used the tutorial by Elizabeth Hartmann at Oh, Fransson!- the tutorial is here.  Like Sil, though, I used white for the wonky stars and let the background be the rainbow of colors.  I still haven't finished it, though, because I'm not sure how to quilt it yet.

My friend Kimmie got married and a bunch of the bitty block makers made her a bunch of surprise wedding-themed bitties.  This is one of the ones I made for her.  She married Andy.   Andy's aunt Bee set them up, pestering Kimmie to give Andy a date, to see if they liked each other.  Kimmie finally gave in and guess what, they fell in love!  Now they are happily married. She loved this block and is threatening to put it into a special frame to hang on the wall.  She got a lot of really clever, unique bitties and she was very touched by it all.  Giddy, even.  ;)

Kimmie is one of my best Flickr buddies and I just love her to pieces, she's funny and witty and sarcastic, we get along great. She's one of the girls who love The Wizard of Oz with a passion.  :)

And this is what I recently received in the FLiRTS swap, a sewing tote and a great first-aid kit that looks like a zombie, LOL.  I love both pieces so much!  Kimmie named the zombie "effed-up Frank".  roflmao  Big thanks to another Cindy, aka yayaquilter at Flickr!  She made me exactly what I would have wanted and I'm using the tote every day when I go to my parents' house.  Thanks so much, Cindy!

And in a completely different swap, I made this pincushion set for a partner.  Twice.  Well, not the whole set, but the chunky pincushion part I had to.  I brought it downstairs to show my husband and then I set it on the coffee table to admire it before taking it back up.  He promptly tossed a greasy grimy tool onto the table and it landed right on a yellow part of the pincushion.  I wanted to murderize him!  Men!  Grrrr.  You can't have anything nice for 2 seconds!  I had to remake the pincushion the next day, which set me back a good 4 or 5 hours, but lucky for him, he apologized all over the place numerous times, which is not normal for him.  LOL

It can be used alone by unhooking the elastics from the buttons.  This was another project from Oh, Fransson!  I did change the shape of the pincushion and I made it so it could come apart, but her tutorial is great and I learned a new trick when making the little bag.

The pattern for the bee came from Pieced By Number.  The black/yellow/gray of the pincushion just screamed "bee" to me.  :)  Hopefully my partner will like it, too. 

And I'll leave you with this- a five-leafed clover.  Found that on my way back from the compost heap one day.  :)  How lucky am I?  (I don't know, just recently I broke a crown, my washing machine died and so did our water heater.  Guess if I hadn't found this, it would have been worse?  LOL)

Winners for the drawing!

We have winners!  Sorry to keep you waiting so long, but I wanted to give lots of people a chance. As you'll recall, you were trying to win this- a book on alterations, written by my friend André Williams.  I bought 2 extra copies so that I could give them away here. 

All the cats were outside and I was home alone so I did the drawing the old fashioned way with bits of paper and drew out #11 and #9, which means our winners are Dolores and Rafael's Mum!  I'll be in touch for your addresses, ladies, and congratulations!  I hope you get a lot of use out of your books.  More use out of the books than I get out of my lazy, do-nothing cats, that can't even be bothered to help me to pick winners!  LOL

I've got copies of André's books in my Etsy shop if anyone who didn't win is still interested in having one.  :)  I'm not making any $$$ off of them, so don't think I'm in this for the moolah.  LOL

Time for a giveaway! A book on basic clothing alterations.....

One of my very best friends, André Williams, has written a book on alterations.  For the last 27 years, André has been doing alterations in Northwest Arkansas and I know from personal experience that she is great at it.  Writing a technical book is not easy and she's worked really long and hard, even thru the death of her husband, Kenneth.  She got the book finished, though, and last weekend had her book signing party, which was a lot of fun.  She was very sweet and gave me a free copy for myself as I had helped her a little bit by proof-reading the book and offering opinions, but I also bought 2 books specifically to give away to my bloggy buddies.  These books sell for $20 each, but I'm going to give these 2 signed copies away to 2 randomly picked readers who leave a comment here.  I'd really like them to go to someone who wants to do her own clothing alterations, or her family's, not just to a book collector, so please leave a comment only if you think you'll actually USE the book, OK?  Thanks!

Here's the cover of the book- it's spiral bound so you can lay it open right next to your sewing machine and read the instructions and see the photos without the book closing on you!  Isn't that a clever feature!?!

 And here's a great photo of André, my lil' Cajun friend!

 Just a peek at the great photos....

 ...and the Table of Contents.

 I even got an honorable mention in the credits!

Leave a comment for a chance to win- you can even tell me a funny story about trying to alter something yourself and botching it up (or succeeding!).  I know I've done it, so my copy of this book is going to be treasured.  It'll be hard to not ask André to do something for me, though.  She's so good at it and nothing seems to faze her, except for rude customers.  LOL  I used to work in the frame shop right next door, so I heard the occasional story!  People are just weird sometimes.  Fortunately, though, most of the people around here are really, really nice.  

Good luck to you!  Oh, I'll be selling these books in my Etsy shop, too, so if you don't win one but still want one, come to my shop.  FlossieBlossoms

Thanks for reading all this.  I hope you're all having a fun weekend!
This drawing is now closed!  

Thanks so much, everyone.... and I'm ready to move forward, to quote a friend...

I very much appreciated all the kind comments from you all, I hope you can understand why it's taken me so long to get back to you and say thank you.  Honestly, I spent so much time here bragging on my Nosey Parker, I feel like this blog was more about her than anything else.  But I'm going to try to get back to doing things like I did, even though it won't ever be the same, not even close.  

OK.  

I've been a little busy these days with helping with my mother, but I've also had some time to sew.  I've made a few bitties and a lunch bag and a couple of mug totes.  Let me show you.  Bitty Block Committee is on hiatus for the summer, so I don't have as many as usual to show you.  

We did another go-round of the beach/underwater theme- I think this one fits quite well, since it's half underwater.  The message is their last will and testament and leaves ME all their fabric and quilting supplies.  Heh!

We also did a Farmer's Market theme and I made zucchini- you know how you get so many that you can't hardly give them away?  LOL  And I made one block to commemorate a funny occurrence I had with my mother at the store once when the clerk had spelled cucumbers as "cucmumbers" on the sign.  The laughter from my mother could be heard throughout the entire store.  ;)

 We also did a side swap called "Bitter Bitties" and I made a "You are the spinach in my teeth" block....

 and another one- "You are the gum on my shoe."  I did this one especially because Kimmie and Ruthie love the Wizard of Oz so much, and I thought it was pretty funny that Dorothy would step in it, even more than she already had.  LOL

 I made a couple of mug totes, for someone who goes to classes or work and wants to bring her own favorite mug with her.  This one turned out really well.... from this tutorial- by {me} and my thoughts....  I added the inside pocket.

 And this one is just adorable, from this tutorial- by Red Brolly, but honestly I think it would be better as a little purse for a kid, it seems awkward for a mug, too cube-like. The butterfly wasn't on the flap once a mug was inside, it covered part of the top of the bag.  I guess the flap could be made longer, but it would still be very deep at the top, not tapered like it is in this photo. 

I sent the first one to my partner in FLiRTS, she wanted  a mug tote or a lunch bag... So I made her a lunch bag, too, using this cute Edgy Veggy material that I had.  I found this pattern on Etsy. 

And I included a matching condiment wallet... I've sold tons of them in my own Etsy shop.

 

 I also made myself a new bag out of selvages.  I had worn my old one out, it was threadbare and shabby.  It has pockets on the outside but it's plain inside, since I use a purse organizer that fits right in it. I did this in a "quilt-as-you-go" style so I wouldn't have to make a lining.  I covered the inside seams with binding.

Thank you all again for understanding our loss and sympathizing with us.  We do appreciate you all very much.  Bizbee and Gravey have been getting a tremendous amount of attention lately and we really are treasuring them even more than ever.  A smooch/rub/head-butt from a cat is a gift, one we need and really enjoy.