Small time sewing

Hans finally earned a full week of vacation so we cast off our dock lines and sailed (actually the wind was in the wrong direction so we motored) away for Thanksgiving.  We ended up anchoring for the holiday and I'm happy to report we enjoyed a roasted turkey breast, real mashed potatoes, and stuffing for dinner, and homemade apple pie for dessert.

I love our stove!

I have to admit though that I'm still not used to these warm winter months and I have difficulty comprehending that Christmas isn't that far away.  I just need to bite the bullet and get what little shopping I do out of the way.  But I also have to keep in mind that anything I buy will need to fit into a carry on bag since we'll be flying home for the holidays.

I've been itching to sew now that the weather has cooled to the point where I can use my iron without fear of sweating to death.  However, it's now too late to make anything of real consequence, like maybe flannel quilty things for my kids and I've found myself involved in a wallet making marathon.  

Monopoly money, Poochies , Pet paw prints, and a Life ring

The Life ring one is mine!

All opened up

Still mine

So, who am I supposed to give these wallets to anyway?  I think I'll give them to our friends at Wilbur's Dog Park, except we have more friends there than wallets so I better get busy making more.

I love taking Wilbur to the park and I make sure to go at the same time every day.  I started this habit hoping that if the same people saw my wild pit bull on a daily basis they'd get used to him and not see him as a potential killing machine (really).  Well, after a year, Wilbur has worked his way into many hearts (he's truly known as the kissing bandit) and when newcomers to the park arrive and Wilbur does his usual zoomy greeting at the gate (you can literally see the alarm on some people's faces),  I rarely have to say a thing because someone else usually pipes up and informs these newbies that Wilbur is quite harmless.

The Killing Machine after a day of playing at the park

And I have to tell you I love this wallet; even though it only has two credit card slots you can cram a lot more than that into them; there's room for paper money, and it also has a velcro coin pocket.

I just remembered, one of the cute little cashiers at my local Winn-Dixie thinks my wallet is adorable so I really want to make one for her and I should probably make sure her co-workers don't feel left out.

This is what I call therapy sewing.

It keeps me off the streets.

Some Thanksgiving sewing

Now that Hans and I have been displaced we were very thankful (no pun necessarily intended) to be invited for Thanksgiving dinner at the home of a former college friend of Hans' from some 30 years back and whom he hasn't seen in, well, nearly 30 years! Thirty years!!! It would appear we're getting to be pretty darned old wouldn't it?


We were informed that we didn't need to bring anything so I decided to make a couple of holiday pot holders and take along a bottle of wine and a pumpkin pie.




I have a pot holder tutorial but I decided that it might be a bit too big so I just decreased my pattern by an inch over all. Not such a big deal but I like it a little bit better. For added protection I also added Insul-brite to the pocket side.
I chose a snowman theme as it can be used all winter long unlike Santa and Christmas trees etc..





Hmm, Wilbur knows something's up and it's most likely not good.

And he was right. He stayed home Thanksgiving Day while we were out having a high old time.

But don't worry about the little man, he had many cushions to lie his tender pitty body on while we were gone.








I also made a couple of fabric covered buttons for decoration.












At the last minute I thought maybe I should make a wine bag and dug up this wine themed fabric and ripped that zipper out of a previously made garment and reused it for this project.

Here it is all zipped up.
















And now with the top turned down. I also used a slice of wine cork threaded through a key chain jump ring for a zipper pull.

Actually, it was a bit amateurish and if I sew one again it will look a lot better, but it was kind of fun to make.


I'm now trying to come up with some fun (and cheap) Christmas decorating ideas for our slip here in the marina. And I need cheap since most anything I do will probably be vandalized and tossed into the water anyway.