selfish crafting

ITEM ONE:

Love, Amy Butler's Weekender Bag is thy name.
Or, as Carrie Bradshaw would say, "Hello, lover!"
Okay, it was a major pain in the butt to match up all the patterns. And sewing that monstrosity together through eighty bajillion layers of fabric and interfacing and cording and Peltex tested the strength of my machine *and* myself. But, simply put, I LOVE IT.

I'm anal retentive, and glutton for punishment to boot. It took a lot of measuring, but the pattern is perfect all except for one spot...which my sewing buddy (Mom!) claims to not be able to see. But *I* know it's there.

Craftster user AriadnesThread made a backpack from this fabric, and I loved it so much I asked her where she got it, and bought some myself (FYI: 45" home decor section at JoAnn's, if you're interested).

The cording and (eventual) lining is cotton duck. It was a pain to sew through, but I couldn't find anything else that was the right shade of green. It's verrry sturdy, even without the lining. I cheaped out and used Peltex instead of Timtex. Hint: it's the same exact thing, only cheaper. The zipper is a 30" separating parka zipper that I 'modified' (read, 'almost killed my machine sewing over') to work. A.) I wanted big zipper teeth, and B) I wanted them to be plastic, not metal, and C) it was all JoAnn's had.

It isn't even 100% done yet (lining needs to go in), but I already have plans for a smaller bag, a makeup bag, sunglasses case (thanks, alwaysinmyroom ;)) and a shoe bag. A matched set, just in time for my beach trip in August! :-D

ITEM TWO:

Long story short: I've wanted to make a quilt very badly for a long time, but was intimidated by all the cutting out. So, for my birthday a few years ago, my mom (my sewing teacher since I was teeny tiny) cut out 12 different 12x12 squares for me to make. Each one was a different block, with a different color theme. Talk about a GREAT gift! I just finished the top last week (after adding three squares of my own), and here it is...(apologies for the wrinkles!)


Can you believe she only needed about 6 fat quarters of fabric to finish this? We had everything else. Yes, there are many, many large plastic totes of fabric in our household.

Cream baskets, purple card trick, pink pinwheels, yellow ?? (I forget), green flying geese, and med. brown bachelor's puzzle.

Lt. blue spools, grey fans, a yellow/orange star, purple patchwork hearts, green log cabin, red nine square, blue home sweet home, brown bear paw, and some cute black kimonos!

This quilt is not quite twin sized, so it's perfect as a snuggle-on-the-couch blanket! I'm adding a 5" border yet, and then it will be hand and machine quilted (hopefully sometime this decade). I'd like to have it done in time for my first apartment. We'll see how that goes. :)

Comments welcome!