The Ultimate Challenge (and a free knitting pattern)

While surfing around the web on Christmas, we came across the greatest and funnest Ultimate Challenge ever! Somewhere along the line, I have been blessed by being called “McGyver” and people ask me first when they are ready to throw something out if I could use it or make something out of it! So here’s the deal………
Now Seeking America’s Most Talented Crafters!!!

Are you ready to show America your unique, creative skills?

Do your friends refer to you as the “MacGyver” of arts & crafts?

Can you create, design, build and implement visually stunning
and out-of-the-box creations on the fly?

A MAJOR CABLE NETWORK & the Executive Producers of “CUPCAKE
WARS” and “HALLOWEEN WARS” are seeking Arts & Crafts Designers
for a new competition show.

Each episode will feature Arts & Crafts competitors who battle
against each other for a $10,000 prize and an opportunity to
publicly showcase their craft masterpiece!

Casting Males & Females, (18 and over) with fun and upbeat
personalities that can think on their feet!!!

If this is you, we want to hear from you ASAP!
Email craftcasting@gmail.com the following information:

-Send us your full name & contact numbers
-Tell us what city you live in
-Tell us in a short paragraph about you and your specialty
-Pictures of you and samples of your work

Here is someone’s YouTube audition. Don’t think I could actually do that. But I could sure use some help writing up an audition email!!! Any takers on that one?

Can’t leave without throwing in a free pattern. Found this lovely thing this morning and will put it into my own library – it would be perfect on the front of a handmade purse. Don’t ya think?

Click the photo and you’ll go directly to Berroco for the free pattern download. ENJOY!

Nov 22 2011

Organizing and Upcoming Projects

I’ve enjoyed having the extra hour this morning before clocking in. It is still my long day at my real job, but getting a little bit organized this morning was FANTASTIC! Take a look at the peg board room divider that was special built by a friend’s husband. No more scrounging around drawers or dark closets for us!! YEAH!

Supplies TOTALLY Organized

Yes, it looks like a store display, but having everything at my fingertips will save money in the long run by knowing exactly what we already have. FANTASTIC! Thanks, Marci and Vern – you two are terrific!

After organizing, up popped the two unlined original handbags. Hmmm, better put these in the immediate to-do list. Here is “Cherry Blossoms” and “Pretzel Logic”…..

Cherry Blossoms and Pretzel Logic - ready to line with fun fabrics

Want to accomplish one ‘old school’ iPad portfolio this week, so went through the fabrics that had coordinates and decided on the olive green and hot pink/rose cottons. The black silicone skin is still packaged up on the left.

Olive and hot pink cottons ready for some 'old school' styling

And finally, the baby that I haven’t let you peek at yet, is ready to start showing off. This design is very intense with texture – and I LOVE IT! This will hopefully end up very VERY large and have a satchel or old time doctor bag type hinged closure. We just received the incredibly strong 12″ tubular snap hinge purse closures from China yesterday and it should work perfectly. After waiting a month for them to come in, they will be perfect!!! Can we say Mary Poppins with a yarnie leafy kind of flair?

Just a sneek peek for y'all - and it's turning into my fave

Thanks for checking in! With internet working now, hopefully we can keep you updated on some of the things happening in the creative room.

And organization is a good thing – along with the right tools. We’re covered! Happy crafting and we’ll see you soon.

Nov 13 2011

Happy Baby Time & Goodbyes

It has not been a very productive weekend, but that’s okay. Sometimes we have to sit back, and let the world roll along. This was a weekend to celebrate the comings and goings in our life.

Today there was a baby shower for a special couple who are expecting their 2nd girl in December. I do believe the mommy fought this idea of a shower saying that no one should have a shower for the 2nd. Well, I say why not? It’s a baby, it’s a celebration of life, and it’s a great excuse to be social and meet people. I am blessed to work along side the new daddy every day at work. A wonderful couple whose faith is in the Lord, and have one TON of fun each and every day. Bill and I chose to celebrate them with this today:

Sewn Diaper Bag before stuffing it.....

Bag with 'stuffage' included.....

Full and ready for gift bagging.

What a celebration of life – it makes every minute of sewing nothing but pure joy. And even though one never knows if the mommies and daddies are going to like what you give, this bag was more selfish than that even. This made ME feel good, no matter what. This came from my heart, and from the talent the good Lord entrusted to me. And that’s where the blessings are.

And then the baby that really started the TygerLily name and line is going out our door tomorrow to a new home. Someone purchased our cherished baby this weekend. So here it is, ready to meet Mr. Postman and meet the new owner.

Ready to box up....

So it’s now sealed, tissue paper bunched up in the belly of the bag and ziplocked into a plastic bag so no rain, snow or sleet could ever get to it. Bahbye to my baby that got me published. I will never EVER forget you.

One last thing to top off the weekend. A blogging friend’s daughter is starting to show flair and passion for design with yarn and fabric. So I packaged up as much yarn as I could SIT on and smuch up, sealed it and let her know that there would be yarn coming her daughter’s way from me. After the fact, she sent me a message to write a story of where I learned my craft, about the passion involved, etc. to her daughter. WHAT? I sweated over this for a little bit, but then sat down and without knowing it, wrote a very cathartic letter slash novel and printed it off. I don’t mail anything out without reading it to my husband. Whether the letter is what mom really wanted or not, when I read it back outloud it was quite hard for me to read and found myself choking up. THAT is what my passion is about, and she will be privy to the reasons why. Not many people know, and really, not many people care. But I was given the opportunity to share why and what TygerLily is really all about with a young person. I am truly grateful.

Thank you for checking in – it’s been slow around here with production, but one day, you just watch out what might come flying out at you!

Nov 6 2011

Great Sunday Update

So here we go with a great update for a very productive Sunday afternoon. The ROOM was buzzing instead of my ears! And I just got an update that my husband’s hunting trip with his brothers is going great!

Two fabrics for special orders – now cut out and ready to get sewing on. One order is Bill’s and the other is mine. Tee hee

Two more special and monogrammed orders cut out and set with the other two orders, ready for the machine. Lots of embroidery going to be happening around here!

And what might this funky little ruffle be for? We will soon find out!

And lastly, my first attempt at a different type of purse closure using a piece had knitted two years ago with no purpose. It’s been sitting for a long time, and debating on it. It isn’t the quality I want for my shop, so may either use it myself or give it away. Any takers? It would be a freebie.

Now I get the whole evening to work on two other projects on my list, waiting for the UNO Orb to get home and tell me stories and more stories. Gotta love that.

Have a great week, and hopefully I will be back in the blogging swing.

Oct 29 2011

Double Diamond Prairie Cable Bag – SIXTH in Series

The gray cable ‘wine koozie’ is now completed. It came out somewhat smaller than anticipated, but it’s a good size and I’m happy with how it came out. It is listed over on Etsy (which I did first for a change). Check it out, leave me some feedback. I love to hear from each and every one of you!

Front of Double Diamond showing black shadow felting

Inside of bag - showing off its argyle innards

Cherry Blossom bag is all that’s left to line – but I feel the need to knit something horrible. Do I pick up the ice blue, the orange, or WHAT??? It’ll be a surprise.

Thanks for checking in over here – we love having you. :)

Oct 28 2011

3-1/2 Hr Vacation And Pretzel Logic

OK, so I am taking 3-1/2 hours of my vacation time this morning to regroup and get back on track.

1. October is about over – forgot to get tags for the car, so THAT line will be uber pleasant this morning. But that’s my own fault.

2. Funny how basic items DON’T make it on the shopping list until they’re gone! Yep, Sam’s Club here I come. Blechhh

3. DID get the fabrics ordered for two commissioned orders for kids art books this morning. Should be super cute. And while I was on Fabric.com I found this FANTASTIC corduroy fabric which is going to line one of the Prairie Bags coming up….

Over-The-Top Orange Corduroy

…….and this beauty – embroidered corduroy! Think I’m in love with this one.

Brown Embroidered Corduroy

And there’s still a color of Brown Sheep Company’s Burly Spun yarn that’s not worked up into a bag yet, but THIS was the perfect find for the lining to the future handbag….

Prairie Handbag #? corduroy lining CAN WE ALL SAY WOW!!!!

Aren’t those fabrics absolutely wonderful? They are all ordered and I even was able to use a little coupon on my cord fabrics – YIPEEEEE!! I’ll take it!

After my mini-vacation this morning (ha) I hope to get the Barbed Wire Cable Handbag completely off the needles, get the fun little adornments attached that I found yesterday in my “Inspiration In A Bag” and get that baby in the machine to be felted – YET TODAY! :) There is a closure treatment that I want to test on this bag, hopefully to include a little bling, a little leather, some surprises. Have to keep testing to find the absolute best way.

And look what I found when I was digging through some things – the Pretzel Logic Handbag that I never lined. It was done back in 2008, but then things started falling apart and we had to move. So this baby needs to get lined and in the shop soon. It’s rather a bizarre looking kind of thing, isn’t it.

Pretzel Logic Handbag

And I realized I didn’t actually save the Cherry Blossom Handbag photo yesterday to the computer. That explains a lot. But here it is in a messy heap. This needs to get completed today also if possible. Well, maybe this weekend. :)

Cherry Blossom Handbag

OK, my mini vaca starts in a half hour. So here we go! Let’s tackle the day and have a little fun while we do it, okay?

Love to see you all stopping by – you make my day. :)

Oct 27 2011

Inspiration In A Bag

Went on a ten minute power shop to Michaels this morning to find and get my mojo back! Look!

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Oct 27 2011

Houndstooth To Japanese

The duldrums (sp) hit this week quite unexpectedly. Not a lot of enthusiasm about coming home after work and doing much if anything creative. So this blog is for ME as much as it is for anyone reading. It’s time to recharge – just like my camera.

The houndstooth suiting fabric purchased last week is meandering its way into a handbag. I’ve started out using a basic pattern, but I wanted to switch up the top/handles a little, so now I’m rather stuck until I can figure how to actually DO what’s in my head. It’s at a stop until that’s figured out…..

Feminine Houndstooth - Waiting for Handle Treatment

Then as I went to take a couple extra photos this morning, I see the Cherry Blossom handbag still waiting to be sewn up into a bag – it’s knitted – just needs seams, lining and pink handles…….. (now I can’t find where I put the photo)

Then on to a great grab bag of vintage fabrics a friend at work brought in! This puppy weighs a ton and the fabrics inside are incredibly fun and will make great hobo bags, linings and whatnot….

Gift Bag of Vintage Fabrics

And here is an update on the two bags on the needles:

Barbed Wire Prairie Bag #6

Reynolds Lopi "Brick Streets" Prairie Bag #7

More on the Reynolds Lopi yarn later – becoming not such a big fan. But felting may change my mind, so I’ll try to keep that (my mind) open. :)

And my Japanese inspiration book came this week with MUCH taunting from my husband! He didn’t understand why I’d buy a book written in a foreign language. I told him that it’s the ‘study’ of the graphing done – not the words! And the pictures speak millions of words to me…..

A TREASURY of INSPIRATION!

I need to fly – meetings and work are calling………..

Drop me a line – let me know your thoughts. We can ALL use inspiration and some days a good kick in the keester. :) Happy crafting!

Oct 22 2011

Billy’s Sweater Re-Do is COMPLETE!

Men's Sweaters

This was sooooo much fun to do. And I should have really been doing a ton of other things, but I really needed to just have a little fun. Remember the sweater of Bill’s I scored earlier today? Well, it has now been totally reworked into a snap-shut handbag. There’s nothing special about it, no embroidered TygerLily on the inside, no pockets, no nothing. Just a plain jane upcycled sweater purse. Plain and simple. Here’s how the process went…..

Laying on the ironing board - just waiting for that first cut...

Sweater cut, interfaced, zigzagged around and inside fabric picked....

Tubing around top, and nice belly at the bottom.....

Fall type 'tree' cotton for the lining that's now sewn in.....

One side of 'snap' closure pulled through fabric tube....

Opening done and chain handle clamped on....

All finished and ready for a nice fall trip somewhere..... hmmmm

Now that it’s done, I’m not sure what to do with it. It’s different. It’s something that’s been recycled. I like it, but not sure I want to keep it……. Best thing is to sleep on it. But it sure is a different kind of bag. There’s a Budweiser sweater still sitting in the recycle pile… wonder how that would look in this style? hmmmmmm

Nightie Night Everyone! Thanks for stopping by. zzzzzzzzz

Oct 22 2011

Firebush Cable Handbag – Complete and Listed

As I am still waiting on an okay from a possible buyer on another item, I decided to tackle the finishing touches to the Firebush Cable Handbag. It’s listed over on Etsy now, after taking it over to the abandoned farmland to take its picture once or twice. So here she is, in all her red and cabled glory………

Firebush Handbag

Smiling Pretty

Now I’m off to see what kind of trouble I can get into down in the sewing room. I may have to start cutting into Bill’s sweater and see what kind of purse I can derive out of it. :)

Happy creating!