Mommy is in heaven,,,

My mother passed away last night (February 19).  She is no longer suffering...but is now in the loving embrace of Our Father and Mother in heaven.  

All my plans will be put on hold for now.  I will see you all again when I get back in two weeks time.

God bless us all.

Eureka!

Hold on...you might think I have just made some astounding discovery.  It's no big deal really, but, at least for me, it's a triumph of sorts.

Yup, I finished my wallet.  This was my third attempt actually.  I did not bother to show the second one because the way I had made it turned out to be a bit too complicated for my own good.  And so, I stuck to the original design but made some adjustments to the measurements and construction.  Here it is folks...

The folded wallet is 4" by 7 1/2".  It has 6 card slots, 1 large zippered compartment for coins and 3 full width pockets for cash and what have you.

I've started writing the instructions for making this.  I am hoping to get the eBook out by the end of this week.  Wish me luck!

P.S. Yey, we've got a new cool monitor!

Wallet prototype #1

Before anything else, let me just say that I am doing this post while my computer monitor is slowly dying.  Yesterday, the screen colour shifted from normal to pinkish and now, it's greenish.  These are definitely signs that it's life is nearing its end.  So, if the photos I uploaded to go with this post are blurry or unclear in any way, please excuse me because I have no way of knowing at the moment how they really appear on screen...

Making a wallet...that's been on my mind for the longest time.  I've been searching the web for nice patterns but to date, I have not found one that I truly like.  Yesterday, I finally tried making one from scratch.  Unfortunately, the outcome wasn't 100% satisfactory.  My biggest fault was that I was too eager and so made a lot of mistakes along the way...mistakes such as miscalculations and inaccurate seam allowances.  And thinking I could pull this off without careful planning, I had used a really nice Japanese fabric I had just purchased for another project! 

The effort (and the fabrics) weren't totally wasted though.  The wallet, with all its faults, is quite presentable and completely usable.  You be the judge...



As you can see from the photos, the wallet has the usual credit card slots and pocket for bills. There is also a fairly large zippered compartment for coins.  The errors I made? The first row of card slots got a bit shorter than what they should be as I had sewn a larger seam allowance in the bottom (grrrrr...).  Also, I had wrongly installed the 'female' part of the snap fastener on the flap.  Lastly, the upper pocket, being a last minute addition, seems useless to me...

Since last night, I have been busy drafting changes and improvements to my pattern and I think I now know what it is I want exactly.  Pretty excited to work on that for the next few days...

Something to make you smile

My husband is currently in the process of capturing our home videos.  I've been having a great time watching the ones from years ago, when my kids were still small. I kinda miss those days... 

I thought it would be nice to share this particular video with you.  It's my daughter Missy telling about the story of the very first Christmas. If I remember right, the teacher had asked her to narrate this same story to her fellow Prep students then.

Video was taken in 2003 when she was only 6 years old. Just really melts my heart.  Take time to enjoy (it's only 6 minutes short)!

I had a rough day...

Why I had made a wrong turn yesterday morning into this very busy street, God only knows. There were a lot of construction works going on. Parked trucks and cars on both side of the road. And that one quick (and stupid) decision I made turned out to be disastrous. I hit a parked pickup truck that left my car without a left side mirror and an 18" scratch.

I took all my kids to school, then called my husband to explain what had happened. While I knew in my heart he would be disappointed, he didn't show it. Not a sign of anger. He just said, "Don't worry about it. I'll fix it when I get home."

I returned to the "scene of the crime" to look for the truck's owner. I figured that if had caused damaged to my car then I might have done some damage to the truck as well. I asked around and it turned out the owner was one of the workers digging this hole in the nature strip. He had no clue of what had transpired earlier. I told him about the accident, he had a quick look at his truck then said to me the same thing..."Don't worry about it." He was a nice, young bloke.

Thank goodness for compassionate people.

I went home relieved but still with a bit of a tremor in my hands. I had to find a way to release the tension. And so I sewed... and sewed... and sewed... the rest of morning. By lunchtime, I had finished this...

A perfect fit with a side pocket to boot!  

Now I am bracing up for the scorching weather ahead (44 C/111 F).  Hopefully, though hot, it will be a better day for me...

I hope you will understand...

I don't know if anybody has already noticed that two of my tutorials are no longer available for viewing and/or download.  I have an explanation for this that I am really hoping you all will understand.

Since I started this blog a year ago, I have already shared a number of 'how to's'. I am happy to have received really good feedback for them.  I have offered my tutorials to you freely and seeing your own creations and feeling your appreciation were my greatest rewards.

In my last post,  I had mentioned something of utmost importance to me.  That particular reason, and that alone,  led me to decide to now offer some of my work for a small fee.  This is not about gaining profit...

It is simply to help me keep a promise.

Having said that,  I do pray for your support or understanding, at the least.  I hope it is not asking too much...

Now on sale at my Etsy shop - eBooks on How to Make a Fold and Zip Shopping Bag and How to Make a Fabric Journal Cover with Pen Holder.  These two eBooks are revised versions of the original ones posted here.  I have improved them and are now even more understandable and easier to follow.