Sail-bag.

 

Earlier this year I posted about framing the logo from our old main sail.

 

 

Well, after that project, I still had a TON of material left including the logo from the other side of the sail. That logo was damaged when we tore our main sail, but still usable, just not in one piece.

 

This weekend I found a way to use a portion of that logo in yet another project. This one was for a new shoulder bag. I used a pattern that I've used before. The Runabout Bag from Lazy Girl Designs. I love this bag design. It's so quick and easy to make and is VERY customizable. This time I used some purchased nylon webbing for the handle and a "sport" zipper.

 



 

Webcam vacation photo

Last summer, we took the sailboat north on Lake Michigan from Saugatuck to Grand Haven. It was a nice little trip for a Tuesday. My mom was covering at work for me, so when we were coming past the Holland Channel, I called her and told her to look at the Spyglass Webcam, because she would be able to see us. She did and printed out the screen shot to the copier. Sadly, the copier is only black and white, but you could make out a little sailboat. Us! 

I had the black and white copy on the fridge door for about six months when I came across an idea on Pinterest for modge podging photos onto wooden plaques for display. This seemed like a great idea to preserve the copy. I bought a thin wooden plaque at Michaels for $3.99, spray painted it, spray mounted the copy on a piece of red paper, spray mounted that onto a sailboat printed paper and added the screw brads to each corner, and spray mounted the whole thing to the plaque, then covered it with modge podge. Note: if your modge podge was as old as mine, spend the bucks and buy a new container. :)

Anyway, I'm happy with the results and it's a nice little reminder of a fun trip.  If you look real, real close you can see our dinghy being pulled behind.

Bringin' Cross Stitch Back.

A couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning out my basement studio and decided to go through some old magazines and tear out any ideas or patterns that interested me. In one, I came across a free pattern from the book "Stitch Graffiti" by Heather Holland-Daly. I used to do a ton of cross stitch. In fact, my parent's still do. Yes, BOTH of my parents. My dad loves it too, though he hates back stitching, so my mom does that part on his. Anyway, I immediately knew I had to make it. It was of a compass with a star and moon on lime green linen and it reminded me of sailing. I kept thinking of this pattern over the next few days. I must say that this is a great book! Lots of cool, updated looking cross stitch patterns. So many cool ideas, in fact, that I decided to change the original pattern a bit by adding in one of the "spiral" designs from the book. I also added in a sailboat of my own design and modified the compass arrows and dots a bit. So, what I'm ending up with here is probably 75% the original designer's pattern and 25% mine. As much as I loved the original pattern, I really liked the changes making it my own.

Now, what am I going to do with a piece of cross stitched fabric? I have enough throw pillows and pictures on the wall and the sailboat doesn't need anything more. The pattern mentioned you could also use this for the cover of a journal but I remembered having seen on the website "The Purl Bee" a tutorial for making a (modified) Monk's Bag. I'm thinking this cross stitch piece would make the perfect front panel for the bag. I love tote bags and especially shoulder bags with long straps that make carrying a bag, hands free.

Check back to see the finished design incorporated in the Monk's Bag pattern. I can't wait to go and pick out the fabrics.

The Last Sail of the Summer.

The last sail of the summer was on Saturday, September 18 to Saugatuck, MI. We spent the day there eating hot dogs and watching the MSU game. We left for Holland that evening just before sunset and motored, with running lights, for Holland. Upon entering the channel we called Village Inn to deliver a pizza to the boat launch at Kollen Park where we picked up dinner and motored to Pine Creek bay to camp for the night. It was a wonderful, final sail of the summer. CRUSH is now put away for the season and were already looking forward to next year's sailing.