Celebrating The End of The Penny

On February 4th of this year the Canadian penny was officially discontinued.  It cost more than a penny to make a penny so the government decided to stop making them. 

I saw a garden penny ball on Pinterest and started searching the house for old pennies.  The girls rummaged through the car, van, and countless purses.  My visiting brother-in-law had his truck searched.  Finally, we had enough pennies.   I think I used close to 200 pennies.

 

I pinned this from http://lisamendedesign.blogspot.ca/2012/06/penny-ball-tuesday-tidbit.html

I had a bowling ball that I had previously decorated for my garden. I blogged here.

After a few Canadian winters most of the frogs had fallen off and I was bored with it.  

I scrapped of the frogs, sanded down the glue spots and spray painted the ball a copper colour.  Then I sat outside with my E600 glue and covered the bowling ball with pennies.  They are all wrong side up so that the maple leaf shows. 

I am really happy with the new ball.  I am searching thrift stores for another bowling ball and begging family for more pennies.  

The metal and stone heron was purchased at a local craft fair.

Thanks for dropping by


Janlynn

CreativFestival Spring 2013

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I am so far behind on my posts it is crazy.  I seem to be suffering the effects of Menopause.  Some times the moods are so dark!  I apologize.  No excuses!   So let's move forward!

 My youngest daughter and I recently attended the CreativFestival here in Mississauga.  We enjoyed our time shopping and socializing.  She loves to scrapbook and I love to sew.  Both hobbies were well represented.

My first purchase was this beautiful heavy cotton from Distinctive Sewing Supplies .  I knew I wanted to purchase it the moment Catherine posted it in her newsletter.

I thought of making a jacket from it but realized I was becoming one of those crazy old ladies wearing weird clothes.  Someone shoot me when I start wearing cat print anything!  (Again this menopause thing does bad things to your head)

I decided to make a bag instead.  Photo and post will follow.

I purchased the handles and hardware from Quit-a-Bag.  They have the very best interfacing for bags.  It is not available in any store.  They import it directly.

Of course, my daughter insisted I purchase this design cd from The Quilt Store.    It is from Anita Goodesign.  She has wanted me to make her a horse quilt for forever.  I have already stitched out one of the designs and made a tote.    The design took almost 2 hours to stitch but it is impressive.

I purchased supplies from Joanne's Creative Notions, a Canadian family run internet business.  I thought the gloves might help improve my free-motion quilting.  I will let you know!  So far I need to keep practicing.  

I purchased this stabilizer set from Not Just Threads at Potters Paradise . This is another Canadian company.    I am quite happy with it.  The horse head I stitched was very dense and heavy and I did not have any puckering issues.  Photos coming soon.

In the meantime I will try to stay sane and happy.

Thanks for dropping by,

P.S.  The highlighted companies are all Canadian companies that I shop at.  I do not receive any $$$ to endorse them.   

Sewing Time is Coffee Time

Coffee and sewing just go together.

Yes I have been sewing.  Quite a bit actually.  I just haven't photographed or posted.  I have been working on two big fitting projects and sometimes I need to take a quick break and play.

I like to play with my embroidery machine.  I am mesmerized by the machine, watching it create intricate designs with thread.

I also need a coffee break.  I am trying to clean up my sewing area too.  Mug rugs seem to be all the rage right now so I thought I would make one.  I totally copied an idea from timewrinkler on Flicker.

The design is from Urban Threads, my very favourite source for embroidery designs.

I even found a piece of binding just long enough to bind the edges.

Back of the mug rug.

My tiny coffee corner has everything I need on top of the little fridge.  

Now I must get back to work.

Thanks for dropping by,

Have You Seen This?

The Great British Sewing Bee is a British tv show about the return of sewing.  It is a competition to sew the best and the fastest.

It has some flaws but anything that brings attention to sewing is a good thing!

You can find the episodes on youtube but here is the first one.

Enjoy