A great Cajun Swamp Tour

I posted about this swamp tour a few weeks back but I just found a video that I thought I would share.  It tells all about the tour.  If you are ever in our area of Louisiana, you should take this tour.

Check out this video

http://vimeo.com/68708277

another sewing class

I had 4 students at today's lesson.
Here is a picture of the blocks they made.
It was so much fun to watch them pick out their fabric and make their blocks.

Still sewing

Finished these today!

Still sewing...two more rompers!

I have been trying to get these rompers finished so that E can use them this summer.  I completed these 2 and I have a couple more to put snaps in ....

cute cute cute......can't wait to see them on him.

I taught my first sewing class!

I volunteered to teach a beginner sewing class at the public library this summer.  We have class every Tuesday from 10AM to Noon for 6 weeks beginning today, June 11th.
I had 4 students today.  It was so much fun to share my love of sewing and making quilt blocks.
I told them I would teach them the very basics...
 - how to wind a bobbin
 - how to insert the bobbin
 - how to thread the machine
and
 -  how to sew a straight line.

I also told them that I would teach them to sew by making quilt blocks.  All you need to know is how to sew a straight line for most of the blocks out there!

They were all very enthusiastic about the lesson. We practiced sewing a straight line on some fabric. I had drawn lines for them to follow.

We did a simple "string" block.  I had some 7" square pieces of paper from an old phone book.   I cut out loads of strips of various sizes from a big container of scraps I had.
I had them select their own fabric.

Here they are with their blocks.  

I am hoping to have a few more next week.

still sewing

Here is another romper I made for E.
I have several more all cut out and ready to sew!
sorry the picture is a little out of focus!

Shorts for the summer and a blue romper

I made E a few shorts and a blue polkadot romper.  I finally figured out how to use  my sewing machine to put on buttons.
Did I mention that I'm a slow learner!  LOL

 I think he will have enough shorts for the summer.

Having fun sharing our little corner of the world!

Sue and I are part of the Bee Balm online quilting bee this year.  She lives in Australia and she mentioned on her blog that she was coming to the USA on a vacation.  I asked if she was planning to visit New Orleans.  She told me they would be spending a few days here so my DH and I picked them up at the train station on Sunday and had them stay with us at our home. On Monday we visited a couple of beautiful plantation homes on the river.   On Tuesday we took a them on a swamp tour and yesterday we spent most of the day in the French Quarter.  Today they are leaving to drive to Chicago and continue their vacation.  It has been wonderful having them here with us.  

Here are a couple of photos of the swamp tour we took.  If you are ever here in the New Orleans area the nicest swamp tour is in Gibson at the Bayou Black Marina.  His web site is

www.cajunman.com

Visit his site..there is a great video about the tour.

Black Guidry does the tour and he shares his knowledge of the swamp.  He also sings some great cajun songs.  It is a great way to pass a good time.

Black Guidry driving the boat!

Francis, me , Sue and Joe near the boat!

Sue and Joe waiting to start the tour!

One of the alligators we saw!

I will try to post a few pictures of the plantation homes and the New Orleans trip later.

A black and white scarf

I made a black and white scarf with my new loom.....It is 72" by 12"  .  this weaving is becoming an addiction!

Weaving Weaving Weaving......one more rug

I love my LOOM....
here is another rug
19" x 45"

recycled t-shirts

Another rug made with my loom!

I love weaving....really, it is so easy and so much fun.

I made another rug.  This one is about 20" X 45"
Made with recycled t-shirts and yarn

Isn't it neat?

Shirt for the birthday boy!

Our oldest grandson is going to be 5 years old at the end of this month.  My DIL wanted a shirt with the number 5 on the front and she told me the theme for his party will be Spider Man.
She gave me a black t-shirt and this is what I came up with.
I got the fabric from our local thrift store for 15 cents!

 Front of t-shirt

back of t-shirt

Scrap swap fun

Over at the 15 Minutes Play blog I participated in a scrap swap.
Here is what I came up with.

Pile of scraps from my scrap partner.....

"made" some fabric.....

I cut out some circles and attached them to red blocks...

And this is the quilt top I ended up with....

I have 4 blank blocks so I can practice some fun quilting designs.

Close up of some of the blocks...

 This was a fun project!

I finished another rug!

My loom is addicting...... I could not walk away from this project, I was determined to finish it last night.  Here is a photo of what I ended up with.

 Much better than my first attempt at making a rug
(see previous post here  . . . . . . . http://beebeesquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-new-loom.html  )

I used rug yarn to warp the loom and then I used recycled t-shirts to weave.   Looks pretty good to me. What do you think of it?

It is 48 inches long and 20 inches wide.

Close up of left side..

Close up of right side...

Ready to weave again

I put yarn on the loom today.  I have to try making another rug. The first one I did was not so wonderful.
I am going to recycle some old T-shirts.

Check out the T-shirts.  I cut them into one long strip and loaded them onto the shuttles.   This will be fun.  I will post pictures as I go along.

Paper pieced girl...so cute

My friend Jan is amazing with her paper piecing.  I have to share her latest one.

this little girl is soooooo cute!

Another loom project complete- a scarf

Oh my!  I could sit with my new loom all the time. Very addicting.....

I finished this scarf today.  It did not take that long to complete. It is not perfect and next time I make one I will use a softer yarn but  it is not bad for my first scarf. I made up a pattern and went with it.   Let me  know what you think of it.

It is 50 inches long and 12 inches wide and the fringe is 4 inches long.

Another I-Spy quilt!

I quilted this Eye Spy quilt on my regular machine.  To prepare to quilt, I pinned the back, batting and front together. I usually use a spray adhesive but this time I tried pinning.  I had a hard time with pleating on the back.  I did the best I could and then I turned it over and covered each little pleat with another square like the ones on the front.  It added some interest to the back and they covered my boo boos pretty good I think...

How do you cover your quilting "boos boos" that happen on the back of your quilts?

Here are some photos of the front and back of the quilt.

                                                                                                         

                                         

                                        

my new loom...

My DH gave me a loom yesterday for my birthday!  I love it.  I found a neat tutorial on Youtube to help me "warp" it for the first time....Not hard to do at all..of course I watched the video about a dozen times before I attempted to do it. LOL

Here are a couple of photos of my new loom...

It looks difficult to use but it is really easy.

I probably used the wrong yarn to warp it but it was all I had.  It was yarn designed to crochet a baby blanket so it was pretty stretchy.  I used strips I cut from some old t-shirts.  Not sure I cut them the right width.  I may have to cut them little more narrow in the future.

Here are a couple of photos of my first attempt at weaving.
Pretty pitiful but I hope to get better at this.

 I started on the right side and I guess I was pulling it a little tighter.  When I changed colors, I thought I would try not to tug it too snug.  It was much better once I did that.  I was hoping to have a rug but I guess the first try is not supposed to be perfect.  It would have been nice though.   It is very sad looking isn't it!

 

This shows a close up of the left side of the rug. By the time I got about a third of the way in I was getting a better feel for the process.

 This is a close up of the right side of the rug,  this is where I started. I think maybe the t-shirt fabric on this part was a little wider than the other two.  See how the fabric shows through in spots.... as I went along, these did not show up as much.

 

I am going to have to get some rug yarn or at least some yarn that is a little thicker than this baby stuff I used.  I look forward to making lots of projects with this great gift.

Paper Piecing fun.....

Jan is at again.  I showed her how to paper piece and now that is all she wants to do and she is really good at it.

Check out these two blocks.....


a snow man!

and a chocolate bunny!

Aren't they nice?  I am so proud of her progress.  I think she has passed me up when it comes to paper piecing!