The Jewelry Roll is Finally Finished

I could not find a jewelry roll pattern that I liked completely.  As a result I chose pieces from different designs to come up with my own pattern.  I used leftover fabric from Agnes' quilt.

The top strip that holds necklaces and bracelets is sewn down in a few places across the top so that it won't sag when the jewelry is on there.  The necklaces obviously get hooked onto the strip.  The center stuffed strip is for rings.  It snaps at the right side for access.

I reinforced the snap area with interfacing.

In addition to the rings, I put some of my circular earrings on here which works well, too.

I saw one design that had the pockets at the bottom.  In addition to providing a place for things like solid bracelets, long necklaces can be tucked in.  That made a lot of sense to me, and it was something missing from most jewelry roll patterns.  Without it I think things would possibly be sliding out the sides.

There are the pockets, sewn down the center to create two...

long necklaces out....

and long necklaces neatly tucked in.

I thought about putting in something to hold stud-type earrings, but decided to just push them through the pocket top.  

The studs and wires are not much more than a large needle and don't damage the fabric.

One mistake that just happened to work out was the placement of the ribbon at the center back.  I should have placed it at the bottom end.  Were my roll longer or shorter the ribbon tie may have gotten rolled up making it rather useless.  Luck was with me, though!  It works perfectly.

I did like cruisin' with Norwegian in the Carribean

Finally got my Photoshop Elements to work well enough to get photos for blogging, so I thought I'd share a few of the fun or unusual thing we loved on this trip aboard the Gem.

Best place in my not so humble opinion:  The Baths at Virgin Gorda. You can go though a massive collection of toppled boulders to get to a fantastic beach area.

There are some slippery areas and a few places that are a bit tight or require care when traversing, but it's not difficult to get through.

You do have to walk though some water, but this is as deep as it gets

Almost to the beach!

We made it!

I collect rocks from places I visit, but these had to stay.

Now for some of the unusual.  This family strolled onto the beach while we were there.

I'm pretty sure Mom was telling her chick to just ignore the rude tourists snapping photos here.

I'm also pretty sure that was not their blanket, but what do I know about chickens!

The islands seem to have a thing for letting their chickens roam freely.

Just hanging by the side of the road.

 Then there were the feral cats at Puerto Rico--not so many that it's annoying, but they were plentiful.

One blue eye and one green!  How cool is that!

Nothing wrong with him.  He was just stretching after a nap.

Iguanas!  I love them.  I wish we had them here.  Maybe I should move there. Yeah, I wanna live here, too.

Last, my favorite place and activity on the ship:

Sun, sea, comfy lounge chair, and my Kindle.  Perfect.

It's only been a month, and I'm ready for another cruise.

And Another Graduation!

Yes, I am going to bore you with photos of my son Kyle's graduation with a master of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Precommencement picnic at Riverside Park.  That would be me, Jordan, Kiefer, Kyle, Brian, and Keegan with my sister taking the photo.

Kyle ready for his big day. Good to be a sewer who carries a needle and thread to fix that broken snap on the collar.

Union is as old as dirt apparently, 177th commencement!

Graduation was in a beautiful courtyard.

Kyle's room is in the center overlooking the courtyard.  Oh, how these students suffer living in a beautiful building in one of the most beautiful areas of NYC.

It's real when the diploma is in hand.

Back up again for the Julius Thomas Hansen Memorial Award.  They aren't told beforehand that they've won which makes it a fun surprise.

Al Gore won an award, too, but it pales in comparison to Kyle's for some reason...

Oh, yeah!  Now that is a real Kyle smile.

Future father-in-law Rick was able to come.  (Melissa, hope you get online to see this.  We will soon be welcoming you home from Mongolia for a nice vacation.

End of the day view taken as we were heading home.  I wanna live here.

Agnes' Baby Quilt

Wanted to share a quilt I made for my son Kyle's goddaughter, Agnes.

The basic design is a combination of two ideas I saw online. I made a few changes, of course.  My over-sized pinwheel has soft interfacing to give the pieces body which helped with the name embroidery, too.   Look at those fun flaps!

The center circle has a quote from Shakespeare:  "Though she be but little, she is fierce."  Why?  Because I like the idea of raising daughters to be independent and fierce.

 I found "Agnes" ribbon on eBay--what??? Can you believe that?  What are the chances of finding that name on anything?

 Rather than wrap the quilt, I just tied on the ribbon.

Best part:  I actually got photos of the lovely lady on her quilt.  With all the baby stuff I've made over the years, this is the first time someone has sent a photo of the item in use.  Here's the lovely little lady sitting on her new blanket.

Love those little fingers and toes.

The Quest to Stop Cutting Corners--Or Embellishments in This Case

I am still working on my goal to do the extra embellishments on my sewing projects rather than rushing to get 'er done. I even got this mug to serve as a reminder.

 I'm getting better at this!  After finishing the first two pouches of this set, I thought, "I could have embroidered something on those."  These next two got some embroidery.

As I was finishing up these two, I remembered the box of lace and rickrack that I always mean to add to some project.  One more pouch to go.  It will have trim and embroidery and some kind of zipper pull.  Yes, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't even add zipper pulls until I started following Sandra, The Queen of Pouch Making's blog.  If you don't know Sandra, click on that link which will take you to one of her many, many pouch projects and note the glitzy little zipper pulls in particular.

Just in time!  I have to start packing for a cruise to someplace sunny and warm today.  Can't wait for some sunshine, warm temperatures, and someone else cooking and serving all my meals. 

I See Brown!

The river is still frozen, but look at that brown!  Mud season is just around the corner! We still have a lot of snow by our house, though.  It will take a while to melt down those snowbanks,

 but areas that didn't get that extra pile-up of snow are way down.  I am most interested to see how long it is going to take to melt that solid block of ice on top of the pool cover.

What a winter here!  It's been pretty sometimes,

 and it has been the best year for icicles EVER.

 The term "gripping cold" came to mind when I saw this one with it's two graspy little fingers.

Spring is, however, on the way!  Kyle, our son who lives three hours south of here in New York City, says they have some actual green there.   I held off on changing over the chalkboard from the St. Patrick's design to something for Easter as long as I could.  The deal was that I would remove the snowman if I saw even one crocus.  Didn't happen.  Unfortunately, with Easter arriving early this year and spring taking a particularly leisurely stroll northward, there is little chance that the snow will be gone for the big day. So here's the snowbunny wishing you a happy Easter from a still quite snowy northeastern New York!