Zenias

Enjoy – Lynn

Coneflower Beauty

Another photo from my garden, coneflowers this time.  I would like to get other colors of coneflowers but all I have right now are the pink ones.

I have no stitching projects to show as there is very little stitching going on right now.  It seems like all my time is either spent taking care of my many flower beds, vegetable garden or traveling to grandchildren’s events.  Just yesterday we went west 2 hours to our granddaughters county fair and watched them show their 4-H sheep.  It is always fun and we enjoy watching them in the show.  They don’t get the top ribbons but do ok and they should be proud as they do all the work for their animals unlike some who just show the animal in the ring and the parents do all the feeding and grooming.  Our granddaughters know it all as they do it all with guidance of course from their parents.  Next week we will travel only an hour this time to go see our two grandsons show their sheep.  Will be fun to see the youngest as this will be his first time as a 4-Her to show his sheep.  He is getting excited for the fair to be here.

Happy Summer,
Lynn

Day Lily

Enjoy looking at one of the beautiful Day Lilies in my flower beds.  Gardening takes time and the results are most times either good to eat or beautiful to look at.
Lynn

Storm Clouds

This last week we had a storm roll through towards sunset time.  It had the most unusual cloud formations and you could hear the wind roaring above as the clouds passed over.It was light out until the clouds started blocking the sky.  You can see large thunderheads in the distance over our barn roof.  It was starting to rain so I ducked under our porch roof to take this photo.  The distant clouds are so pretty when illuminated by the almost setting sun.  You can see the top of the pivot irrigation system over the top of the corn in the photo above.A parting photo before I went back into my house as it was just starting to pour rain.  We only got .40” but thankful for no strong winds on the ground and no hail which would be devastating to our crops at this point in the growing season.

Until Later,
Lynn

A Farmer And His Toys

A photo I just took yesterday on the 4th of July of my husband John and his newly restored 1957 Oliver Super 88 tractor and circa 1960s International plow all decorated up for the holiday and parked close to the highway for all travelers to admire.

Until Later,
Lynn

Another New Fabric Bag–Barbados Bag

Found time recently to make another bag using a Pink Sand Beach Designs pattern called Barbados Bag.  I chose the coordinating brown and teal fabrics I already had in my stash for the bag.  I love the large poke-a-dot fabric!  The poke-a-dot, stripe and brown were for the outside an the light teal for the lining.  Important thing I have learned from experience is to keep the lining to purses/bags light colored as it is so hard to see what is in the bag with dark lining.   Did that once and never again as I can never find what I want in the black fabric lined bag.  Below are photos of the outside of the finished bag.

 

I pretty much followed the directions from the pattern for the making of this bag, just making a few deviations as far as interfacing and changing and adding pockets to the lining.  I changed to a lighter weight interfacing as the one recommended was way too stiff for my fabric.

At first I thought the bag might be a bit too deep but after carrying it for a while I have found it to work great the way it is.  I did find that the deep pocket on the outside (behind the stripe) is just the right depth to carry my Kindle or Samsung Note 8.  I added the zippered pocket on the inside of the bag.  There is always something I want to keep more secure on the inside of a bag so if a pattern doesn’t have a zippered pocket on the inside I add one.  I turned the bag inside out to get a better photo than the first one.  It is just hard to get a good photo of the inside of a bag no matter how hard I try to get the camera at the right angle.The other side of the lining called for a long patch type pocket and I made a few changes to it too.  This idea came from my sister Jeannine and it is brilliant.  Instead of stitching the entire bottom of this long patchwork pocket down you leave the bottom of one section open.  This works great to slip my wallet into or can be used to hold a check book too.  The bottom of the wallet rests on the bottom of the bag and the top is easy to reach and very accessible when I need it.  This is an idea I will definitely use again.  The last thing I did differently than the pattern was to make a bag bottom stiffener.  I started with a piece of plastic needlepoint canvas cut to the size of the bag bottom.  Covered it with fabric and stitched through it to secure.  Just put in the bag and press to fit the bottom – it stays put and the plastic is easy to stitch and this makes a flatter bottom for the bag.
Until Later,
Lynn