Missed me?

Yep, I have been wandering around above ground for the past couple of months.

In late August we loaded The Wanderer

with a few craft supplies, my easel  and my little Singer Featherweight,

along with gifts for our niece and her husband’s mountain home which is currently under construction.

Handy Randy made the sign in his shop

Freezer paper stencil cut with Silhouette Portrait ironed onto burlap and painted with craft paint

We traveled to Texas via Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We plan to stay in Texas through the football season.

The Featherweight is set up at my mother-in-law’s home where I have stitched a couple of bags including a phone sleeve to carry to football games. 

Pocket for phone

Pocket for ticket

It complies with the SECrequirements for bags that can be brought into the stadium; depending on the person taking the tickets, it might have to go through the line to be searched. So I stick it in Handy Randy’s pocket until we get in the stadium (wonder why pockets aren’t searched?) The pattern is one I frequently use from  Sher’s Creative Space. (I no longer see the pattern on the web site, but there are a ton of other free patterns listed.)

On the flap of this wristlet is a photo from our visit in Cortona, Italy.

How did I do that? I ironed a piece of heavy cotton fabric onto a piece of freezer paper and printed it on my home printer. I think the image would be brighter had I treated the fabric with digital ground before printing.

Currently I am working on a surprise for the folks with whom we traveled to Italy last May. I would tell you about it, but it is a secret. Perhaps I will share photos after our get together next month.  

Even though I am not in The Underground, I continue to feed my soul with crafting. 

Another Funky Girl Purse

For this purse, I printed one of my Funky Girl drawings on duck cloth. Using a free Mini Messenger Bag from Quilting Arts magazine, I created a unique and personal bag.

I am back in The Underground, at least for another week. And I have a new sign above the door!

Since my last post (which was 2 ½ months ago), we returned to Paducah for a couple of weeks before a three week trip to Italy.  We were home a few days and then spent Memorial Day weekend in Washington D.C. Between trips, I am attempting to gain control of my garden (so far the weeds have the advantage.) Needless to say, I have not done much crafting! But I have been inspired. I have some cool ideas (at least I think they are pretty cool) for doing something unique with a few of the thousands of photos from Italy.

Remember those funky gals I drew while traveling around in the RV during the winter? And those photos of my little Featherweight and my sewing projects? Well, I found a way to put it all together.

My first Funky Folk purse. 

back

front

I kind of like her.

I have another one on the sewing table; hopefully she will be completed this week.

Next week the Featherweight, Silhouette and a bunch of craft supplies will head to Florida with us where we will hang out with our youngest granddaughter. We have no specific project in mind, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

After Florida, we will spend a couple of weeks with family in Texas.

If all goes as planned, well I just might get a few weeks in the studio before we load up The Wanderer to head southeast. That's retirement! The challenge is deciding what craft supplies to carry as I travel.