Category: Nature

One & a half more

I have two more purses to show off. Sort of. The first one is the Boronia Bowler Bag by BlueCallaPatterns. This is a well-written pattern and the purse has a nice feel. It went together pretty fast. It has lots of pockets and opens really wide. The shoulder strap is detachable. The only thing that confused me about cutting the pattern was the outer and inner pattern piece is cut from the same pattern piece, but it is really different. I would like to see it as two separate pattern pieces. I’ll probably print and cut out a separate piece if I make it again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boronia Bowler Bag

The second, the Gabby Bag by Emmaline Bags, is not quite completed yet. I  had to order zippers that match. I didn’t like the ones in my collection for this. The blue is too bright, not navy like I wanted, and the sizes vary. I usually have whatever I need. I guess it’s time to replenish my zipper stash. 

The outer bag is on the bottom in the picture, the lining in the middle and the trim is the navy linen above them. The stripe is just my ironing pad. I love my ironing pad. I keep it right by my Juki. My spare cutting mat is underneath it so I can scoot the pad out of the way and cut off wonky edges and other things. 

Switching topics completely.

I took grandson T to visit the handicapped turtles again Saturday. My two friends love him and he loves them–especially since they have turtles. He got to feed the turtles and put them in tubs of water. The turtles love the water. The male box turtle, Boo (short for BooBoo), kept his head underwater for several minutes. That’s how he drinks. Boo got his name because he was injured and pretty sick when my friend got him. He sometimes gets his head stuck inside his shell because of a deformation caused by this injury.

Cleo & T.

Cleopatra, Cleo for short, was a rescue. She’s not a box turtle, but so far no one can identify her. She was a pet who was neglected, not given enough light while her shell was forming and the edges of her shell aren’t there. I’m glad my friend is taking care of her now. Cleo seems happy and even a little feisty. 

New Bag & Wallet, Flowers & Fuzzbutt

Can you tell who keeps me company in my sewing room? Sophie has fabric clippings on her bottom. She did have more, but they fell off. She can move pretty fast when she wants to, but somehow, moving out of my way when I’m trying to walk is SO hard. She loves to look at me like I’m causing her great inconvenience. 

This gives my favorite nickname for my corgis, Fuzzbutt, a whole new meaning. 

And speaking of my sewing room, I’ve completed two more wallets and a bag with another bag on the machine. 

Yet another Necessary Clutch Wallet in a farmyard fabric with two complementary plaids.  

Necessary Clutch Wallet
Backside Chicken Coop
Insides of NCW
Close-up

 

Bright inside of Marichel
Marichel
Marichel Hobo
Marichel showing strap

This (above) is the Marichel Hobo by RLR Creations.

I love to make bag linings with light fabrics to make it easier to find your keys. This one is especially bright. I’ve said before, I’m not a “pink” person. I had this left over from my granddaughter’s quilt (which I’ve put aside for awhile) and it matched the flowers on the outer fabric so well I had to use it. 

And my newest creation is a Rozy Wallet by Serial Bagmakers.

 

The outer fabric is cork. I had my doubts about how strong it would be, but the cork is super thin and is backed by a supple, but thick and sturdy knit. It has a wonderful hand. It seems to be very durable and is undoubtedly beautiful.

I also had some doubts about the hardware. I’ve never used a bag frame before, but it went on great. I had to finagle a bit with an awl to get the wallet into it to suit me, but it wasn’t hard, really. I stitched two lines of stitching close to the edges and it held the wallet down making it thin enough to slip in easily. A little glue and eight tiny screws later I had my first cork-and-bag-frame-hardware wallet. 

One day I will take the time and have the lights to set up a good photography area so I can get better pictures. Until then, I’m sorry about the dark photos. I’m doing the best I can right now. 

I’ll leave you today with a few pictures of my flowers. It’s been raining so much lately that I can’t get out very often. I didn’t even get ONE raspberry this year. There were a lot of them, but the critters and birds got most of them, and the rain beat off the rest. Oh, well, maybe next year.

The Joe Pye Weed will be glorious this year.
Bright fungi dot our woods.
One of my daylillies.
Tiger Lillies–love them!
The first brown-eyed Susans.
Another daylilly.

Happy Spring!

I feel that Spring has finally, really arrived here in East Tennessee. I have been wearing my sandals and flipflops. It’s been cold and warm, cold and warm here lately. I’ve had a lot of breathing problems, especially since I caught a Spring cold and got a sinus infection to go along with it. And, again, I coughed until I got laryngitis. I feel like my life just now is only doctors, medicines and staying inside the house. 

 

 

Oh, I long to spend hours outside watching the flowers and birds and squirrels. We are blessed to have our couple of acres back onto a field and about 200 acres of woods. We have so many wonderful animals here. We have a flock of wild turkeys that occasionally come into the yard to forage and regularly see deer in our patch of woods. All sorts of birds, year-round residents and migrators. There are chipmunks, frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, foxes, coyotes, an occasional bobcat and many, many others. 

 

Wild Turkeys

My husband keeps the lake access area across the road from us clear of kudzu as best he can. If you stand still long enough here, kudzu will cover you. It is a scourge. So he fights it every year. It isn’t his job, but he is a little hyper and loves doing it–”cleaning out.”

He found some small plants that he couldn’t identify. He drove me down there as we were starting to town to pick up my new nebulizer and I used the little app called Picture This on my phone to find out what it was. From the way he had described it I thought it might be Squawroot, but no, it was Virginia Pennywort. So cute! Sort of like a blooming pinecone but much softer. They were scattered all through the leaf carpet. And across the parking space were several yellow trilliums. 

Virginia Pennywort

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, my dendrobium aggregatum is going wild. All the blossoms are open and it is glorious.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you can go outside and see the glories of Spring. Let me know how your adventures go.