Not Really Crafty, BUT FUN!

Look what I got today!












It's a 2001 Yamaha XVS 250.

I've been looking for a bike for a few months and was actually looking for a Yamaha Virago. I found several that I liked on our good friend Ebay, but couldn't bring myself to actually bid on anything. A friend of ours had decided to sell his and the rest is history. It's pretty much what I wanted, except the color, which can always be changed someday. And it has all the extras I wanted as well. It came with the windshield and brand new saddlebags. The sissy bar was put on a while ago.

It's so shiny and pretty .














It may look huge in the pictures but it's really not. I can actually stand flat footed on both sides and I'm about 5'3". It's super comfortable, the seat is nice and cushy and the foot rests, since they're forward, don't hit me in the calves.

















I haven't been able to ride it yet, just a test ride, because I didn't have a proper helmet, AND because it was so windy I probably would have gotten blown off. Tomorrow, however, watch out!

Finito! The Saga of the Bargello quilt ends!

I'm finished! Finally! And with pretty nice end results. I wish the colors would have come out better in the photo. I loved working with these fabrics.

However, the quilting was another story. I did the best I could, there is no perfection in it, and my inner perfectionist will never let me live it down, I still have to admit I learned from it. And after taking it to Janelle and practically begging her to quilt it for me, and her telling me that I could do it, that I'd done harder things, I took the bull by the horns and just went for it. I had sharpened the photo, but realised you could actually see the quilting clearer, I did an "unsharpen", sorry. This way it just looks like it all flows! lol

The back was a bit of fun... no, really... I added a little foot pocket. I don't know about you, but in the winter, when you're trying to watch tv and all you want to be is snuggly, your feet somehow always find the "cold out from under". I wanted to remedy this for my friend as the idea came from watching her struggle to keep her feet covered one evening. I thought it was a pretty brilliant idea, and it wasn't that difficult. I had to make the binding a bit wider, but it really seemed easy to attach, and it didn't seem like there was too much there. That end is a bit heavier, but not much. It's only one piece of fabric, folded in half and one piece of batting in between. It ended up being about 15" wide, which I thought was sufficient without being over kill.

I took it over to my friend, just 4 days before the official end of winter. Hey, I made it at least! lol. It matched her couch so well. She has pretty little throw pillows and the cream colors on this quilt really matched well with them as well. I think she really liked it because mutual friends had approached me and told me she had shown them. It didn't actually stay on the couch though, it ended up being a sort of bed spread on their bed. I had thought it was a bit small for something like that, but it actually looks nice, kinda like a decoration.

I'm pleased. Now on to the next project... I wonder what that will be. Perhaps I'll go back to this one.

This time, however, my inner perfectionist will get her wish, even if it means unsewing and resewing several times, I have all summer before I need it!