WIP Friday

I am flying the coop this morning to make my way to the fabric store. I have been putting it off for far too long. I'll tell you why.

I have a love/hate relationship with my fabric store (more like a warehouse). There are rows and rows of rolled fabric bolts stacked one on top of the other, 6 to 8 deep. Being a shorty, just barely 5 feet tall, the bolts of fabric are taller than me. I find it almost impossible to carry most of them because of their weight. If I want a bolt in the middle of the pile, or heaven forbid, the bottom, it most likely won't be going home with me. Looking for help usually proves futile because the employees are always so busy. In as much as I love their selection of fabric, suffice to say, I don't make my way there very often. I always leave sweaty, tired, and frustrated.

I've been cutting piles of fabric, doing little to no sewing, and have nothing completed to show you. I'll leave you with a sneak peek of some work in progress. I know, boring.


As usual, I'll be spending my weekend in the craft room, wielding a scissor and rotary cutter like a mad woman. My family knows to steer clear or they'll end up as part of my project. j/k

Wish you all a beautiful weekend.

Aloha!

The downside of living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is...

...shipping costs! Yes my friends, the cost of shipping things to the islands is outrageous. This is the reason that I try to purchase locally whenever I can. Many businesses ship products into the islands in large shipping containers which substantially reduces their shipping costs per item.

If you feel that there is a rant about to happen, you are right. Please scoot on down to the end of my post to keep from hearing about it.

My story...I have been scouring the island over a period of 6 months for Ultra Firm interfacing and have come up with zero, nada, zilch, time and time again! I was able to find a product similar in weight at one of our fabric stores for almost quadruple the price that I usually pay which I thought was totally ridiculous. Even if I did purchase what they had on hand, it would still leave me a good 190 yards short of what I needed. The Wallyworld near my home has been out of it since the beginning of the year and the only info that the clerk could offer me was that they were having trouble with their orders. I was told that when they did manage to get a 20-yard bolt in stock, it would fly off of the shelf as if it were never there to begin with. I ask myself, if it is in such high demand, why don't they order a large number of bolts at a time. I'm sure they would have no trouble unloading the stuff, especially since it disappears as soon as it hits the shelf. The shelves at Wallyworld that were once full of Pellon and interfacing is now bare and has been that way for months. Pfft! I digress...

My lament about shipping costs...I finally gave in and ordered Ultra Firm directly from the company that supplies Wallyworld and other businesses because I knew that there was no way that I was going to get my hands on enough in time for my fairs. Again, I asked myself, if I can get this delivered to me in less than a week, why is Wallyworld having so much trouble.

I know you're probably thinking, big stinkin' deal, and she wasted a whole post about it too. Well, unfortunately, it is a huge deal to me. Being without this stuff puts a total halt to the production of my handbags.

I limited my order to 200 yards due to the high cost of shipping. Out of the total cost of $500.00, the shipping was $170.00. Crazy, huh? Yes, that is the penalty for living in paradise. Okay, I'm done ranting now. Sorry....

My precious cargo....


If you've made it this far, thanks! You deserve a gold medal for endurance.

Since I have nothing new to show you, I am going to share a prototype of a wrist pincushion that I made a while back. I love the pretty coral colored fabric that I used on the petals. This is my interpretation of a daffodil.


A close-up.


AnneMarie, sorry that I missed your cupcake question. If you would like to use cardboard, I think it will work out great. Anything that is rigid will hold up well. You can also use very firm interfacing.

CM2, I used the yo-yo maker to create the red hearts. The completed red hearts(two, back to back)measures almost 2-inches. The center yo-yo is about 1/2-inch smaller. Feel free to experiment with the size of the yo-yo's. You can make them as large or as small as you like.

To everyone, thank you all for the handbag love from yesterday's post. I'm happy to hear that many of you love the handbag as much as I do.

I would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all of you for stopping by and commenting. I really appreciate your feedback. Sorry that I've been so slow at returning comments. I'm currently weeks behind...sigh@!

Hope you all have a fabulous and creative day!

Aloha!

Shirring + Posie=New Handbag

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I spent mine, as expected, buried in fabric. Cut, cut, snip, snip. You get the picture.

I did sneak in a little time to design a couple of handbags. After completing a prototype of each, I sent one back to the drawing board. I wasn't happy with the overall shape of the bag. That's how it goes sometimes.

Here is the bag that passed the test. Although very simple in design, it has the feel of shabby chic and romance with the shirred upper band and the pretty little yo-yo posie.


I happen to really love the green and pink fabric combination.


I hope you have a fantastic day.

Aloha!

Candy Apple

A friend let me borrow her yo-yo makers to see how well I liked them. My opinion is that they are very interesting gadgets but probably something that I won't be purchasing for myself. I especially wanted to give the heart maker a try to see if it was any easier than doing it the old fashioned way. Well, I guess to a certain extent, it did speed up the process a bit. I made a couple red ones with the yo-yo maker and the white one the old fashioned way. Of course, being left with several "spare" hearts, I decided to turn them into this...

Sweet and Juicy Red Candy Apple.


Please know that what you have been seeing this week are just prototypes. That means that they are my first trials on an idea. The end product may not look exactly the same.

I want to give a high five to Lorraine of Paper Vernissage for her very witty comment yesterday regarding the swirly icing flower. Quoting Lorraine, "Half of a yo-yo - would that be a yo! Sorry, couldn't resist. It does remind me of those icing flowers. So very pretty!"

I chuckled after reading her comment. I think she does have a point. In honor of Lorraine, I shall call it a "Yo" from now on. Thanks, Lorraine!

Also, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been commenting lately. I have seen quite a few new names in my comments. I look forward to meeting you all and reading your blogs. I know that I have been very bad about returning comments lately, but hopefully I will be able to visit with all of you before the weekend is up.

As you have probably guessed, I'm still running around like a chicken without a head. I'll be very busy with numerous household matters from today and throughout much of the weekend. In case I cannot post tomorrow, please have a fabulous weekend!

Aloha!

Swirly Icing Flower

Hello! I'm still here in case you are wondering. I have been really busy and working diligently at coordinating and cutting fabric for various projects. I'm overwhelmed and feel as if I'm going nowhere fast. Unfortunately, I'll be in this state of frenzy from now until the end of November. You'd think that I'd be used to this by now as this craziness repeats itself every year.

All I can say is that I hope you like prototypes! I'll be leaving you with yet another. This reminds me of those little icing flowers that you see on birthday cakes. Each of the petals are made from one-half of a yo-yo. I love the swirls and motion the petals get from the gathers of the yo-yo.


I hope you have a wonderful day. Gotta run. Take care.

Aloha!

Cupcake Prototype

My weekend was filled with everything other than crafting and sewing. Not good. Because of that, I am trying to play catch-up. I will leave you with two cupcake prototypes that I've been working on over the last several months.

Strawberry Birthday Cupcake with Raspberry Posie Topping


Strawberry Cupcake with Blueberry Posie Topping


There are still a few bugs to work out on these cupcakes, but I'm glad that I finally have the method of construction nailed down. Sometimes that's the most difficult part.

I hope you all have a fabulous day.

Aloha!

Tiger Pops

A friend of mine loved both of my lollipops so much that she wanted me to design something easy and whimsical for her to teach the children in her daycare. Although she loved the posies, she felt that they would be too girly for the boys and wanted something more gender neutral. Well, to me, crafting with kids is synonymous with pompoms. I reached for my collection of pompoms and came up with what I call, Tiger Pops.


Lemon Pudding, Cookies & Cream, Orange Marmalade



I like the cute jingle bell sound that they make. I think the kids will love them a lot. I think I love them too.

Have a safe and productive weekend.

Aloha!