This seems like as good a title as any!  I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted here.  My poor little blog has been sadly neglected.  Why?  Well, it’s a long story.

For nearly three years now, I’ve been putting most of my time and energy into article marketing.  For the uninitiated, article marketing involves writing articles with links to websites where people can buy something they need.  For instance, say you have a cat with a bladder infection.  If you google “bladder infections in cats,” and you find my article and read it, you can click on a link that takes you to a natural cure for bladder infections in cats.  If you buy the product, I get a commission.  Sounds easy, right?

Well, I’m here to tell you that anyone who says you can make a million dollars overnight on the internet is lying to you.  I’ve worked hard, and written many articles, and put up a whole bunch of blogs.  It took me two years of constant hard work before I finally started to make a halfway decent part-time income.  Things were finally looking up.  This year I even made enough that I have to pay self-employment tax.  Now THAT’S a bummer!

In the process though, I pretty much burned myself out on writing anything, even this blog.  I’ve struggled this year to write articles, although I did manage to keep up for a while.  But this month my revenues have tanked.  I’m not sure why.  Did Google stop indexing my articles?  Did the recession finally catch up with me?  Is it just the holiday season?  Will things improve next month?  Am I just not writing enough articles?  Good questions with no easy answers.

For two years I didn’t do much but write articles.  I didn’t quilt, weave, knit, or do much of anything, but write articles on yeast infections, hair loss, menopause, various problems afflicting cats and dogs, and other interesting topics.  No wonder I’m tired of it!

Leni Weiner had a really good post on her blog, entitled Artists and Time Management.  It really made me stop and think about what I want to spend my time doing.  She starts out by commenting on the fact that people are always saying they don’t have time to do the things they want to do.  It seems that the things you have to do take up all your time.

Leni says, “It is important to remember that we always get the important things on our lists done–we never go without dinner, the dog always gets a walk, and those with jobs always show up for work.  I think that time management can be a self esteem issue–that we don’t consider ourselves important enough to spend time in pursuit of the things that make us happy and fulfill us.  We feel guilty doing something for ourselves.”

She hit the nail on the head with that one.  I fall into the trap of thinking that I have to get all the “important” things done before I can work on my quilting .  By the time I get all the other stuff done, it’s 8 pm, and I’m too tired to even think about quilting!

I also have the idea that if I’m not making money at it, it’s not important.  This idea was reinforced by an ex-husband who didn’t think anything I did was worthwhile because it wasn’t bringing in money.  (Forget the time I spent raising a huge garden every year, all the canning and freezing, milking the goat, making cheese, doing laundry with a wringer washer and hanging it outside, raising sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens, soapmaking, etc.  But that’s another story!)

This is where the self-esteem issue comes into play.  I still have to fight with that little voice in my head that tries to tell me that quilting (or anything else I enjoy doing) is a waste of time.  So I think that’s why I put it last on my priority list.  And this is in spite of being married now to a wonderful man who thinks everything I do is amazing!  It’s hard to fight that little voice, but fight it I will, and I will win!

So will I continue with the article marketing?  I don’t know right now.  If I do, I will certainly cut back.  What I do know is that in 2010, I’m going to focus on my quilting, whether it brings in any income or not.

I’m very fortunate that I don’t have to worry about supporting myself at this point.  My husband is a disabled vet, and he gets disability from the VA, which is enough to pay the mortgage and cover all our bills.  My income is nice for extras, and I’ll continue to have  residual income from my articles each month, whether or not I ever write another one.

And of course the upside is, that I learned how to set up WordPress blogs, and I know all about webhosting and domains and SEO.  Maybe I’ll wind up with a side business setting up blogs for artists and craftspeople.  Lots of people use Blogspot because it’s free, but there are several reasons why this is not a good idea, the most important being that you don’t own your blog.   It belongs to Google, and Google can take it down any time they want.  But that’s a different subject, too!

Leni suggests setting goals for what you want to accomplish in the next year.  She also says to write them down!  So what’s my goal for 2010?  To spend at least an hour a day working on something I want to do.  Not to sell anything, not to make a masterpiece, not to do anything in particular.  Just to set an hour aside for myself every day.  Think I can do it?  I’m sure going to try!

The wind is still blowing cold off Lake Superior, and there are yet piles of snow in the shady places.  But the snowdrops are blooming!  These brave little flowers are happily nodding their little heads on our compost pile.

My husband noticed them.  They’re one of his favorite flowers, so he was thrilled to see them.   They’re a complete surprise; we didn’t even know they were there.

I saw a couple of robins the last day of March.  Haven’t seen them since, so maybe they gave up and went back south! 

I found this really neat tutorial for a water bottle carrier.  My hubby has several health problems and is on a lot of different medications.  We’ve found out the hard way that he gets dehydrated very easily, especially in hot weather.  So I usually try to carry a water bottle with me when we go anyplace, but it gets old, having to hang onto a water bottle.  So when I found this tutorial, I thought, how cool is this?

The tutorial calls for Insulbrite, which is an insulated batting that helps to keep your water cold.  I looked for it locally but could only find it packaged in a one-yard length for $7.50.  Ouch.  I checked out The Warm Company, which makes Insulbrite, but $100 worth of Insulbrite is a lot more than I can use right now.  Maybe eventually, if my business takes off, but not now!

So I continued looking online, and found Quilt-Kits Online selling Insulbrite for $2.45 a yard.  Much better!  They’re lovely people to deal with; I had some trouble with their shopping cart and emailed them.  It turned out to be  my problem as I had downloaded a browser update that morning, but he helped me get my order through so I could pay for it with Paypal.  The order was filled very quickly, so I highly recommend them if you’re looking for reasonably-priced Insulbrite (or anything else for that matter).

I followed the tutorial and learned that you definitely do have to cut your material a little bigger than you would think.  The batting makes it smaller.  My first water bottle carrier is a bit of a snug fit for a 20-oz water bottle, although it’s quite usable.  I tried it out when we went to an outdoor show, and it does keep your water bottle cold.

For some reason I didn’t take a picture of my first effort, and it’s now residing in Minnesota at my daughter’s house.  I made it from purple and green fabric strips and lined it with some bright green fabric I had.  It really did come out cute.  My daughter liked it so well that she immediately wanted me to make two more for my two older grandsons.

The boys picked out the material they wanted from their mom’s stash, and granny did the rest.  The brown material is a treasure map, and of course, all pirates have to have some skulls and crossbones around!  The one on the left is lined with red, and the other is lined with the skull material.

I thought about shortening up the straps, but my daughter and I decided she could just tie a knot in them to get them to the right length for each boy.  They’re growing so fast that we don’t want them to outgrow them.  This way, they’ll be adjustable as the boys get taller.

The picture on the right shows the red lining in the one bottle.

I changed the pattern a little.  I didn’t like having the bottom as a separate piece.  I thought it was too hard to sew it on.  So I added it to the bottom as a flap.  This took a little playing around with a paper pattern to figure out how to do it.  Then I made one up in muslin to see how it worked.

I also changed how it was constructed.  I layered the lining and outside, right sides together, along with the insulbrite.  Then I sewed along the sides and top, leaving the bottom open to turn it.  This is where you sew on the handles, too.

I ran a couple of lines of zigzag quilting across it, using my walking foot.  I also found that it was was helpful to zigzag across the bottom and the bottom flap so the material and batting don’t shift.  It also makes it much easier to sew the bottom flap on later, plus it gives it a finished edge.

I left the walking foot on and sewed the tube together up the side, using a scant 1/4″ seam.  This leaves a nice finished seam on the inside.  The last step is to sew the bottom flap onto the tube.  It was a lot easier to sew this seam as it was already attached about a third of the way around.

The boys will be thrilled, and their mama will be happy they can carry their own water bottles!  Now I need to make a pair for my hubby and me.  I think I’ll make Andrew’s out of camoflage material so he won’t mind carrying it.  Maybe I can find some USMC material!

I have to say that I’ve never really messed around with sewing machine feet much.  But I guess I never knew what I was missing…

I bought a walking foot for my New Home sewing machine a year or so ago.  Actually, I forgot I had it, but found it several weeks ago.  I wasn’t sure what it was, or even if it went with my machine, so I tried putting it on, but for some reason the needle wouldn’t go all the way down.  I was a bit annoyed, because by then I had remembered buying it (and how much I had paid for it), so it was aggravating that it wouldn’t work.

When I was in Minnesota, I was helping my daughter with her everlasting pile of mending (she says she saves it for when I come to visit ).  I was trying to fix a slipcover for her, but was having trouble with the slippery material, so we put on her walking foot, and it worked like a charm.

When I got home, I was inspired to try again.  And this time I figured out how to get it to work.

New Home sewing machines were made by Janome.  I don’t know if they’re still made or not.  I got my machine from AllBrands.com probably three years ago.  I was a little leery of buying a sewing machine online, but I’ve been very happy with it.  Once I found out they were made by Janome, I figured that Janome presser feet would work on them, since I can’t find anything made for New Home.

That’s almost right.  It does take a little bit of goofing around to get the Janome feet to work, but it can be done.

Here’s a picture of my walking foot.  Sorry it’s a little blurry, but my camera wouldn’t focus any better than that up close.  Look at the white handle that is just above the thumbscrew you loosen to change the needle.  The thumbscrew is black, and is just to the right and above the needle.

When I first tried the presser foot, I had the white lever underneath this thumbscrew.  When the lever is under it, the needle can’t go down all the way because it’s blocking the needle attachment.  When I put it on so the lever is above the thumbscrew, the needle can go down all the way.  I’m not sure what the lever is for, as the walking foot works just fine, even if the lever is up.

So that mystery is solved.  I didn’t know how great a walking foot is.  I used it to quilt a small project this morning, and didn’t have to contend with the material getting pushed out of kilter by the pressure foot.  Sweet!

My next sewing machine foot adventure involves a gathering foot.  I had never used one before, but I wanted to make those swirly hippie skirts that have tiers of ruffles on them.  The problem is that I absolutely detest making gathers by running lines of basting around the top of the ruffle and then pulling the thread to make gathers.  It takes forever, and the gathers always want to shift unless you use 900 pins, which makes sewing a painful experience as I manage to find everyone of them.  So a gathering foot sounded intriguing.

I used to have a ruffler attachment that came with a sewing machine I had years ago, but it looked too complicated to use, so I never tried it.  I googled rufflers and gathering feet, and the gathering foot sounded pretty easy to use.  It was also a lot less expensive, which was another factor in its favor.  I looked for one at my local stores, but nobody had one, so I turned to ebay and found Ken’s Sewing and Vacuum Center.  I bought a gathering foot from him before I left for Minneapolis.

When I got back home, it still hadn’t come, so I emailed Ken, who told me the Post Office had sent it back!  Why?  Who knows, it’s the Post Office.  They don’t have to make sense.  Anyway, Ken mailed it out again, and this time it made it to my house without any further PO-inspired detours.

I finally sat down to play with it yesterday morning.  Aughhh!  My sewing machine feet are supposed to snap on, but try as I might, it wouldn’t snap on!  Frustration reigned.

But I was persistent.  I looked at the foot, and it has a second bar across the back, which for some reason wouldn’t allow it to snap on.  I got the idea to take off the pressure foot attachment like you would if you were putting on a walking foot.  When I took it off, the gathering foot went right on.  I put the pressure foot dealie back on my machine, and guess what, it sewed!

But now how to get it to gather?  Reading the directions on the card helped.  I was putting the material to be gathered right on top of the piece I wanted to sew it to, and it was gathering both.  I finally read the directions and realized that you only work with the piece you want gathered.  Then you sew the gathered piece on in a second step.  Once I had that down, it was a piece of cake.

The higher the tension, and the longer the stitch, the more it gathers.  I had my stitich length maxed out, and turned the tension up to 7, and it made wonderful gathers.  The piece of material was 26″ long before gathering, and about 16″ after, so hopefully I’ll be able to figure out how long to cut my pieces for ruffles.

All I can say is that this is one slick tool.  I’ll be making swirly skirts like crazy now!  It was definitely worth the hassle of trying to figure out how to get it on my sewing machine.  Oh yeah, I have to remove the presser foot assembly to take it off, too.  Oh well.

Well, here I was, trying to figure out how to use my new digital camera to take pictures of some wristlets so I can list them. I’ve even gotten a light box, which is a cube covered with white fabric that you put your stuff into so you can take a picture of it and have it look halfway decent.

Now how long do you think a self-respecting cat can ignore something cool like a lightbox?

You’re right, not long!

What a cool place to hang out! What, you don't want pictures of me?

Well, guess I'll check out something more interesting...

I'll show you, I'll just walk off.

Hey, check out the neat place to hide back here!

I'm gonna bite that hand that's trying to haul me outta here!

Molly is named for the statue of the woman Marine at the USMC boot camp at Parris Island, SC. All I can say is that she lives up to her name.

Actually, I stole her sunny spot on the kitchen table, so she was just claiming her space.  It wasn’t HER fault that I stuck a lightbox there and tried to take pictures!

A couple of years back, I made a couple of really cool crazy patchwork pieces to use as inserts for turning an old pair of overalls into a skirt.  Turned out I had gained a few pounds, and the overalls no longer fit!  So I tossed them in the closet and forgot about them.

I ran across my old project last month.  Still haven’t lost the weight, so I decided to cut the patchwork out and reuse it in something else.  What could I make out of it?  How about a bag?

Mandolin Bag

Here’s the finished bag on the left, complete with my mandolin.  I didn’t start out to make a bag for my mandolin, but when the bag was done, it was a perfect fit for it.  I don’t think I could have done any better if I had planned it from the start.

The picture on the right shows how the bag opens.  I didn’t think about putting a zipper or anything like that in ahead of time and found out that the bag was really roomy, but that it was too narrow at the top to get anything into it!  Hmm, back to the drawing board.

This was when I discovered that my bag would be perfect for my mandolin, if I could only get it in there..  I realized I couldn’t put in a zipper since it  might rub against the mandolin and damage it.  Besides, I didn’t have one on hand anyway.

I thought about a placket opening and looked around online for some ideas.  I found directions for making a lap, like on a shirt sleeve.  I used to sew a lot of clothes, so I was familiar with this technique.  It was a little tricky, but it worked.  I had a piece of velcro that had been banging around in my sewing box for years.  It finally found a home here.

For the lining I used a piece of burgundy fabric from my stash.  I didn’t really like the right side, so I used the wrong side, since it was a bit more low-key.  The lining was after the fact, too, so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to get it in there.  I turned the edges under along the flap and used one of the embroidery stitches on my sewing machine to sew it down.  In the front, I bound the top edges with a piece of denim.  This was after I slashed an opening in the front lining, turned it under, and hand-sewed it to the placket.

I made the strap longer so I can put it across my chest.  It’s recycled denim (along with the bag gussets on the sides) that I padded with a scrap of quilt batting.  Then I decorated it with some machine embroidery.

I even added a small pocket to the lining.  At least I thought to do that before I sewed the lining in!

This bag probably would have been easier if I had had a plan to start out with.  But I didn’t, so I just went with it, and figured out how to solve the design problems as I went.  It definitely was a learning experience, but it was a fun project too.

So far I’ve used my bag to carry library books when I walk to the library, and also shopping when I walk over to the store.  It’ll be handy this spring when I can finally start riding my bike again.  I won’t have to hang everything from the handlebars like I did last fall!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of my bag!

Welcome to Northern Light Designs!  I plan to have unique handbags, purses, and other neat stuff for sale at my Etsy and Artfire shops around April 1.  Right now I’m busy sewing up items for my inventory. But since I’m going to visit my daughter and her family in Minneapolis in a couple of weeks, I thought it would be best to wait til I get back to start listing my work.

In the meantime, I’ll keep you up to date on what I’m working on, complete with lots of pictures.

Here’s a picture of my sewing room. I just rearranged it so everything is convenient. Before, there was too much stuff crammed in there. I spent more time moving things around to clear a work area than I did sewing!

Last weekend, I finally moved some stuff out, and arranged my work table, sewing machine, and ironing board in a U-shape. My newest addition is an office chair. Now I can roll back and forth from one place to another as I work. I have to say, this is pretty nice! Should have done it a long time ago!

The only thing that’s missing in this picture is my cat, Molly.  She helps me with everything, and I’m amazed I managed to take this picture without her being right in the middle of it.  But you’ll see pictures of her as time goes on.

We moved to Marquette, MI, from Tennessee last fall.  We discovered Marquette three years ago, and fell in love with this town.  After dreaming about it for two years, we finally took the plunge and moved up here.  We love it here, and we still have to pinch ourselves to realize that it’s not just a dream.  We’re really here!

Marquette is in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior.  Hence the name “Northern Light Designs.”  Our house is on a city street about a half-mile from the lakeshore.  On stormy nights, we can hear the waves crashing on the shore!

Our first winter here in Marquette has been a snowy one.  In fact, we’ve had about 250 inches of snow so far this year!  The average is about 150.  People wonder how we’re doing since we moved here from TN, but I always tell them that I grew up in upstate New York and lived in South Dakota for seven years.   So I’m no stranger to winter.    I even bought a pair of snowshoes, so I can get out and enjoy the snow.

Tomorrow I’ll be showing you the mandolin bag I made.  This was my first bag, and I’m very pleased with how it came out!