Purling Sprite

Patchwork Pincushion FO

The holidays are around the corner, usually this is a time when I get a little sad and I drag my feet. Loneliness creeps in and the reality of my no-family situation in this area hits home.

Thanksgiving is almost here and we will be spending it all by ourselves--the four of us eating probably a roasted chicken with some savory side dishes. While my Mom and my little brother have their Thanksgiving also by themselves in NY. Both sides probably wishing that we could be closer and spending time with each other. Life sometimes is rotten but a little glitter was thrown into my day today. Mom called and she said that there is a 90% chance that she may come to spend Christmas with us! I was looking at tickets and trying to see how we could arrange everything (time and finances). She only gets 8 days off, including weekends and holidays, so we are working on a very short-time frame and the busiest time of the airline season. However, my heart is rejoicing and I can't wait to tell the children that this Christmas Grandma will be here with us! I am so excited and I am hoping that it will come about.

After chatting with my Momma on the phone, I was feeling so good and happy that I wanted to make something crafty. On Friday, I took my zoomer for a little drive and I went to the craft store and picked up some material to make some pincushions that I read about on Sew Mama Sew. I followed the tutorial on Leah's blog for the Patchwork Pincushion and now I have a pincushion for my T-shaped blocking pins. The tutorial is superb! Easy to follow and answers every question a newbie might have. I am a huge dumbo when it comes to the sewing machine and I was able to do it in about an hour. The hardest part: sewing the pretty buttons. I don't have any good thread around here just 100% polyester and that broke off a couple of times. I definitely will be looking for the waxed linen thread that Leah recommends.

Thanks Leah for the great tutorial and for giving my creativity another outlet.

And guess what...I am nearing my 500 post and my 5000th comment! I wonder if I can do it before the end of the year! That would be sooo neat, momentous occasions both.

Purling Sprite's Costume

A Purling Sprite in full swing! I finally brought to life the wonderful depiction that Cynthia had for me...don't I look just like my banner! It matches almost perfectly. Who knew that almost two years later, I would find the perfect costume to match my banner. When I spotted it on eBay, I thought to myself...hey, that is such a cute outfit, when it arrived at my house and I saw it, I realized that it was meant to be!

(click the picture to see bigger)

I had to do some minor alterations, which would have taken a professional seamstress a minute to do but it took me two days. I made a skirt--so I wouldn't show my legs and bottom! And, I also put some sleeves (so it wouldn't be see through on the sleeves section). The hardest part of it all: the sleeves. I had no idea how to make them and no idea how to attach it to the costume as the costume has sequin trim which made it difficult to sew directly onto it. In a moment of desperation genius, I grabbed a baby blue bra and sewed the material to it. It worked like magic! Now, if anyone wants to borrow the costume, they would need to fit into the bra first! hehehe.

Overall, Halloween was a complete success. Our house was raided by about 100 little ones and we almost ran out of treats (Kim, tell R to send the candy over). This year for the most part, instead of candy, we gave away trinkets that I got from Oriental Trading, when we started running out trinkets, I started putting pop-corn packets in the bowl. We figure that most children get candy so we decided on a little toy.

Our kiddos made out like bandits too! They collected enough candy to feed a bear and my costume scored me a few chocolate bars and a yummy caramel apple (nope, it wasn't poisoned).

Hope your Halloween was a happy one too!