Wine Bag Party

Fall is here, if you don't count those 80 sometimes near 90 degrees days that pop in now and then... Halloween is just around the corner. I love Fall, I love the change and the crisp air. In the next round of Kids College we are going to be learning some weaving and I can't wait to pull out the great oranges, browns, and other great Fall colors. Nothing beats pulling on my favorite shorts, a T-shirt and topping it with a light weight sweat shirt or button down shirt... yes, I know fancy right? But, ahh... that is almost as good as comfort food to me!


On the crafting scene lately it has been wine bags, scads and scads of wine bags! I think I am starting to dream "techno colored" wine bags. These bags for me are a means of mixing recycled fabrics that I search out from garage sales, outlet stores, and friends give me from discards... and of course my own closet... and yes... don't fret I wash and properly clean before starting each project... my favorite are old JEANS! I love taking old jeans and using the legs for the inside lining of the wine bags, they make WONDERFUL linings! The outside of the wine bags are an inspiration from my Granny Fryer's patchwork style of quilting using fabrics that I purchase from travels, from coupons ( I am an AVID coupon fabric shopper) and again from garage sales, and friends sharing with me the discards... all of these treasures are then sewn up "quilt style" into my own designed wine bags...

Best part of the wine bags, they are the "IN VOGUE" of the "GO GREEN SCENE"... what better way to keep your wine nice and chilled, give it to family or friends in a completely hand crafted bag that can be used over and over in all natural COTTON fibers! and when soiled just machine wash ( delicate please!) air dry....and use over, and over, and over... how GREEN is that!

Telling off on myself... after a few years of full time sewing... I recently was making up several twirl skirt sets ( photos will be up soon) that I will be selling this weekend at the Mermaid Mercantile... and all of a sudden while using the ruffler foot my machine started going completely haywire! I had just recently purchased new materials including some threads.... and couldn't imagine what in the world was going wrong... I cleaned everything out... digging out the mess out of the inside of the machine... and started over... Within a few minutes, again a complete uproar of thread above and inside my machine occurred... I was going insane! So I spent the better part of the day doing this over and over... deciding my wonderful Bernina sewing machine was now sick and going to have to go see the Bernina Sewing Machine Doctor. Bright and early the next morning, I pack my sick machine up, drive it over to the doctor, and within 2 seconds they say... ahhh that's your problem your running Polly/Cotton 50/50 Blend Thread instead of 100% Polly or 100% Cotton Thread.... I said your kidding me? No I'm not.... But, yes... they were right... with my "decrepid" eyes I had recently purchased a blend thread not realizing it...as I couldn't read the fine print... UGHH!!! So, I have to say where is the petition to the sewing thread manufacturers to put the details on the thread in large print???? :)

So back up and running, I am turning out wine bags, twirl skirts, even working on a mermaid doll... yes, I said a Mermaid Doll... any help in this catagory would be GREATLY appreciated! I am trying a "rag style" simple, cloth doll... and not sure yet on the proper size.... still in the "development" phase. Also working on some holiday napkin and place settings, and even a quilt.

I attended the Wine for Art auction last night for Soroptimist International of Oceanside/Carlsbad held at the Art Museum in Oceanside. The event was to raise funds for local art scholarships to be given within our community, and I was very proud to be a part of this organization of hard working women. The current display in the museum is from :
Fabric of Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz was absolutely heart tugging from an artists perspective as well as a part of history that we should never let be forgotten. What an amazing story put into fabric. It is only here until the 25th ( later this week) so, if possible please go see this wonderful collection.

So, for now... get crafting, try something new! And remember to smile!