The
beginning of this year has been brutal.
The whole family has been sick and started feeling better last month and
then it came back again, but thankfully much milder. Then, just as I was feeling a lot better a
week ago, the wind started blowing and put my allergies into full bloom. Pardon me for saying it, but I am so sick of
generating snot and all the accompanying problems with it!
I
haven’t been able to get much done. I
took the Decapitated Tropical Birds
and the African Dreams wall hangings
to Janet to be quilted. Went to a quilt
show in Henderson. I am always so
surprised by what wins ribbons. I got to
try a long arm machine while I was there and this was my little square –
It
moved so much easier than I expected and I only did a little piece because I
got so excited – I knew if I continued I wouldn’t want to stop! I want a long arm machine so bad! I really need to figure out how to get one
and also where I would put it! LOL
Months
ago, Alexis had chosen some fabric for a new tote bag when we went down to San
Diego and visited a shop called Rosie’s Calico Cupboard – I love that
place! I need several thousands of
dollars so I can made a proper shopping trip there. Here are the fabrics Lex chose-
They
are really pretty fabrics, but Alexis has a way of choosing stuff that really
shows lint and cat hair. It makes me
crazy while I sew it.
So
Saturday was Alexis’ birthday and I needed to get the bag done. I couldn’t decide what pattern to use to make
it, but I happened upon one of Missouri Star Quilt Company’s tutorials on
making a bag out of jelly rolls. It
seemed like it would be pretty easy to adapt to what I needed. Here is the video-
The bag Jenny makes in the video is huge and
Alexis likes something considerably smaller to use every day, so I started out
with 2 squares cut 14” x 17” and quilted them.
For
the rest, I won’t bore you and go into a lot of detail here – you can see what
I did in the video. Suffice it to say that I loved what I ended up with-
That
is a huge pocket between the handles and there is one also on the other side.
Alexis
likes her straps long, and I got them longer this time than I did on the firstbag I made for her – she said these were perfect. This took one full yard of the dark fabric –
I had only 2 small squares about 3” x 2” left and I was pretty careful in my
cutting.
This
was really quick to make. I now have to
make one for myself, I just have to decide what fabric to use.
And
that is just about all I have done for over a month! How terrible is that? But now that I have sewn a bit, I am anxious
to get on to something else!
Hope
life is going well for you – thanks for stopping by!