It's Veggie Pizza Time!...

Veggie Pizza Pizzazz, that is. I finally finished the bulk of the "Garden Fresh" by Andover designer fabric family of pieces I've affectionately named "Veggie Pizza". You can now see them in my boutique, Poladora.

This is the main quilt wall hanging. It is hand-beaded, hand-embroidered, hand-quilted, hand-appliqued, and...well, you get the idea. If you look closely, you'll see that every white dot on the red squares is beaded with a white bead, as well as most of the veggie parts and pieces throughout the quilt.

 There's a smaller mini version of the quilt that is actually designed to be a table scarf to match the wall hanging, but could be easily used as a wall hanging itself, for smaller budgets.

I've also promised to make some smaller items from leftover fabric and I'm doing just that. I've already posted napkins and pot holders at Poladora, but am also working on a set of placemats that will appear as soon as they are finished.


Then, it is on to some leftover fabric items for the fans of Mocha Meringue!

The Lost Art of Hand Embroidery...

I stitched these two children's pictures many, many years ago. My daughter loved them and used them in her home for a while but I recently got them back. It made me think of all of the wonderful things that my grandmother taught me to do as a girl. One of those things was to embroider - by hand - not the machine kind you see so much of today. Then I realized that my love of hand stitching and hand embroidery is what inspires me to embellish everything I make! A wonderful gift from Grandma brought back to life in a more up to date way. I knew my work looked different from anyone elses - but I just thought I was strange...

Authentic on Steroids

Is this cool fabric, or what? As promised, this represents my latest love affair with a fabric line. Introducing "Urban Art" by Stefanie Brandenburg. Much like "Authentic" by Moda (which I also have in my stash), this fabric lends itself to anyone connected in any way to print, newspapers, writing, vintage type and typewriters, etc.

I can't wait to get my hands on this! (But I have to finish a couple of other projects first - sigh.) I have a couple of other coordinates, also by Stefanie Brandenburg, on order. Stay tuned and you'll be able to see this stuff come to life!


On another note: I've added a few more "categories" to my Etsy Boutique "Poladora".

SISSY FAB! is a new category for items created in the spirit of SISSY, but that are made out of either a combination of yarn and designer fabric, or no yarn and just the FABric!

For those of you on a tight budget, I've included a category for each one of the shops just for you! For SISSY items that are less expensive, I've made a category "SISSYs for savings". For less expensive Boutique items, there's "the Boutique on a budget", and for anything made of glass, we have the creatively named "Glass Ceiling broke(n)". Keep your eye on those categories for items to be placed there soon.

I Haven't Forgotten...

...my promise to place items on my Boutique, "Poladora" at Etsy that are less expensive.

I'm currently trying to finish up the "Mocha Meringue" line of products and am now ready to create some fun things with left over fabric for the smaller budget. So if you love Mocha Meringue, stay tuned!

I'm also finalizing my really fun "Veggie Pizza Pizzazz" - a nine-patch wall hanging in the tradition of pizzazz, without following the rules (of course). I blogged about the piece earlier and promised some less expensive items from this line as well - "Garden Fresh" by Andover - and I've already started!


After that, look out for some really cool fabric I can't wait to get my hands on to begin creating! If you were a big fan of "Authentic" by Moda, you'll think my latest love is a kin to Authentic on steroids! Next time, I'll give you a sneak peek of the fabric...

Until then...

Announcing...

...my Boutique is finally open for business!

After some hair pulling trouble with the satellite uplink, I am finally able to place new items in the boutique at a one-at-a-time-as-it-lets-me-basis. But don't give up - I will remain at this until it all gets posted and the satellite issues are finally and totally resolved.

So please check it out at www.poladora.etsy.com and let me know what you think! While you're doing that, I'll be here pounding away at the keys and camera button while nursing that pounding headache I've had for days now...

Happy Birthday Treece!

YES! Different daughter - same month... We spent the day going to dinner, shopping for anything RED, and she opened her most treasured gift of all - RED shoes! (From her sister.)

Happy Birthday Tereena...

Well, I finally got together with my daughter Tereena. We met for his gifts and went out for pizza together with three of my grandchildren, and Dad and Grandpa as well. Soooo, now I can show you what I made for her from the fabric "Dolce", that I showed you earlier...

This is a "totse" (that's pronounced "TOTE-SEE" - part tote, part purse). I used three different fabrics from the designer line "Dolce". The bottom of the totse is all hand-embroidered and beaded with some machine quilting. (I like to hand-embroider whenever possible since it seems to be a dying art these days with the new embroidery machines that make it so easy. OK, I confess, I own one of those machines myself...)

The straps are double-quilted with Warm & Natural all cotton batting for ease on the hand when carrying something heavy. The totse is machine wash and dry and can be ironed.

The next picture illustrates the lining, complete with pockets for glasses, cell phone, and/or passport, and a machine wash and dry removable hard bottom.

This picture simply illustrates the square bottom of the totse.

And finally, the dress...just like the one my grandmother made for me when I was graduating from eighth grade - can you believe it? It's just a simple empire waist, all cotton dress with an invisible zipper. The bodice is lined with the coordinating Dolce fabric that you see on the bottom of the totse. I added side pockets just for fun...

This ensemble, you will not see on my Etsy site, Poladora. But, there will be other similar creations - and remember, no two items will ever be the same.