End of the year status

To me, keeping tally of what I have and what I have not, is ... necessary. I love to get new things and I love to start new projects. However, I have a tendency to put away projects for no good reason at all ... which is how I got to a point of having "more than 50" UFO (UnFinishedObjects for ye who do not know the quilty vocabulary).
About 5 years ago, I started chipping away on the multitude, and to finish things. My goal then was to reach "10 or less" active projects. And when I got there, I realized that 10 projects were too many as well. I cannot keep them all in my head and I cannot work consistently on more than 1 or 2 projects.
... and yes. I need to work consistently on a project to see progress and to stay ... if not exited, then at least interested :-)

SO, I've been chipping away and this year, I end the year with only 5 projects on my list ... 3 of which are in the "being quilted" stage ... which is an extremely nice place to be.

My present list of projects is as follows :
SE-2. A Dear Hannah triangle-quilt. Presently with LAQuilter
Sampler. Mostly Dear Jane-quilt. Presently with LAQuilter
Applique Allsorts. Being hand-quilted.
Lollipop Trees. Applique-quilt in preparation
Boxed Blocks. Jinny Beyer pattern from her "Quiltmaking by Hand" with Inklingo templates. An "on the run" project. (mock-up of the so-far work below)
My goals for the coming year ? Well, basically to keep on keeping on. To not acquire any new UFOs. To this end, I have made myself some basic rules, and for the year 2008 they are :

1. To finish (at least) one project before starting a new one.
2. To use (at least) one PIG* before acquiring a new one.
3. To use (at least) as much fabric as I acquire.

And more specifically :
To not start a new quilt until the 3 "being quilted" projects are actually quilted and bound. I don't know if I can keep that one, but I will try.

*PIG : Project In Grocerybag. Doesn't have to physically be in a grocery-bag. It means, that everything for a project is there : pattern and fabric. Ready to roll. Just ... not rolling ... yet.

Happy Holidays !

Another long time no write. Well. I love blogging, but sometimes, family, freinds and festivities comes first. Christmas is one of those times.
Still, belated, but no less heart-felt : Happy Christmas to any and all who celebrate, and here is wishing you a New year filled with blessings.
May your seams always be straight, your points be sharp and may your seam-ripper gather dust.

I got DSis-in-law's quilt home from the LAQ just before "the day", so I've been spending time binding it. Slow work, but I always try to get the binding on asap when a quilt is quilted. If I don't, this final step in quiltmaking has a tendency to grow into an ogre.
On the Jewel-box-quilt (for DSiL) the quilter made some - to my mind - very good choices. Very simple straight lines, and then, a wee feather in the "big" red squares on point. As can be seen.

Further, I've finished another pair of socks, so ... right now, I'm down to a surprising 5 not-yet-finished projects ... two of which are sent out for quilting and one of which is being hand-quilted.
Very good :-)

Naturally, there is BOB too, but it doesn't frazzle me. I have been very good about not swapping during the past couple of years, so I don't have oodles of sets of blocks that needs to be turned into quilts. Most of BOB are experiments and left-overs, and as such, BOB is mostly a source of fast-finish projects and small stuff.

Holidays are here

And they have arrived with a teeny, tiny bit of decorating.

The "nisser" are up,

and so are the snow-globes.

And thise is just some of it. The more fragile of both types are put in places that are - relatively speaking - cat-safe. We do have 3 cats, and at least 2 of them likes to jump onto high places. Preferably high, crowded places. After all, there might be a quilt up there, and quilts are favourite sleeping-places.
The really unusual thing about this is, that for the first time in years, I'm not acquiring any new nisser. Not for me, and not for kiddies. We have enough. And it will be quite a few years before they will have any interest, what-so-ever, in decorating their own homes. Until then, I'm sort-of "stuck" with their decorations, so ... nothing new this year ! When they - eventually - move out and take their Christmas-things, I'll evaluate whether I "need" more ... or less.
Oh well.

Things still to do :
Get tree.
Decorate tree.
Get presents.
Wrap presents.
Buy food.
Bake cookies.
Cook.

Blog-readability ???

Found this test over at Jane's blog, and ran it on my own.
And frankly, I feel quite good about the rating. After all, I am a non-native speaker (and writer), so its good to know that at least one 'puter programme considers my English to be at high-school level :-)

Lollipop-preparations

Sometimes, even my best efforts seem to be of no avail.
I've started preparing the blocks for Kim McLean's "Lollipop Trees", using Kaffe Fasset's fabrics, and ... I'm running into ... trouble.

Nooooo, the block doesn't look horrible (as you can see), however, it doesn't look like I wanted it to, and that feels something like failure.

I wanted it to glow with colour ('cause thats the way I like it), instead, it seems rather ... bland. A bit flat, in fact, in spite of the wild and wonderful colours of the fabrics and the decided bubbly happiness of the pattern.

Further, I have trouble adjusting to the fabrics. Love them. Love the wild and wonderful colours and patterns, but ...
This particular pattern is completely left-right symmetrical, so to get it "right" you need to let the fabrics reflect that ... only ... mr Fasset's fabrics are - in general - not mirror-image fabrics, giving me some problems in achieving the desired symmetry.
BUT, I guess this is a learning experience, and hope that the flavour of "failure" is mostly due to the time of year. I really, seriously, don't like this time of the year. It is already far too dark for my taste, and it will take another month before it will be this light again !

Guess I'll pack up this block and call it "prepared" (when I've basted and ironed the brown tree-bits too, which will happen soon), and then I'll proceed to the next block, hoping to get it ... more to my taste.
I'll keep you posted (but it'll probably take another week or two before I have anything to show for my efforts. Preparing these blocks is time-consuming, and time is not what I have the most of right now)

Quilting in Progress

There really isn't a whole lot to show when the main focus of one's quilting-life is ... quilting. Progress is slow, and the visual change from finished top isn't huge. The change is in texture and feel.
HOWever, I have attempted to show how Allsorts is being quilted in the first picture. You just might (might !) be able to discern the straight-line frame-quilting I'm putting into and around each block.

To get the picture, I laid it out on the floor, as straight as I could (living in small rooms with much furniture), and sat down, trying to get the light in at an angle where quilting-line-texture might show. And, mirabili dictu, I succeeded in taking a few pictures before "that" happened.
And what "that" is ?
Well, in this household we have critters. 3 cats and a rabbit. Put anything remotely quilty within easy reach of either of these, and they will not only investigate, but will lay down. As can be seen on pictures.
Rabbit came first and was told "Nibble and die", which - naturally - sent her away. Quilts are no fun unless you can taste them. And when she left, the tailless gentleman, Pushkin, felt that my sitting on the floor, with a quilt spread out, was an invitation to himself to play and cuddle.

So, yes. Even if it is "only" about 1/3rd quilted, critters have, well and truly, taken to it and have started to "house-break" it :-)
... there is a reason all my quilts need to be washable.

Stash-management

There are quite a few people out there in blog-land who are doing their best to bust that stash ! And there are oodles of wonderful blogs with easy-to-do scrap-quilts for people who want to make something from their stash and start using it.

Now, my stash is ... a nice size.
On the right hand shelves, two top shelves are batiks, two bottom ones are multi-colours and kiddie-freindly ones.
On the shelves that holds books and sundry stuff, bottom-shelf is clothes-fabrics, second-from-bottom shelf is quilts, and then comes a shelf of "other" fabrics , which mostly means silks and velvets in small quantities, and then comes a shelf of orientals ... which in this case includes japanese indigoes and daiwabos.

Now, it looks messy, but it actually isn't as bad as it looks. The "sundry fabrics" are organized according to colour. One shelf with neutrals, one with pinks and black-greys, one with reds-to-yellows, one with greens and browns, and a full shelf of blues ! I don't use much blue, so whenever I acquire some, it seems to stay on that shelf forever.

Not tooooo big, but big enough to enable me to pull just about anything from it and make something. The problems with my stash are not in its size. At least, I'm not at the point where it feels too overwhelmingly big.
Still, it needs management. And by this I do not mean simply folding and putting in neat stacks (that will be nice too, but not strictly necessary). No, I mean to buy most of that which I use most, and buy least of that which I use rarely.

... and then I need to start using some of the multi-colours. I don't. Which is also why there is so much of it. The problem is, that while kiddies were small, I bought the novelty and "pictorial" fabrics. And with each buy, there was a dream to make something for my babies. Most of these dreams never came through ... which means that compared to any other "style" of fabric (except batik, but I use that a lot !), the kiddie-freindly type is abundant. Further, when I look at what fabrics I have in big pieces (to me, that is more than 1 yard), there is practically nothing but kiddie-fabrics (lovely shirt / dress / shorts -dreams)

Unlike many others, I don't feel a driving need to do stash-busting. I like the variety and richness of my stash. And yes, I do realize, that compared to some my stash is a puny little thing. It is, however, big to me :-) big enough.
SO, stash-management in the coming year will include a pledge, given here, in full public ! to not buy more than I use. From now on, and until I say stop :-)
Can't be fairer than that, can I ?

Oh, and to counteract all this super-woman planning and plotting and managing, and to counteract the impression of messiness given by the picture of my the stash (which doesn't seem as messy in real life as it does on pictures ... guess I've gotten used to it), I'll end with a picture of my work-station in the sewing-room. On the chair to the left (barely visible), Pushkin, the tail-less gentleman, in the quilting-frame, Allsorts, on the design-wall, nothing at all, and on the table, Josephine, my velcro-cat, draped over : notes to the book of Isaiah in Hebrew , dictionaries, grammars and the Hebrew Old Testament.

Which Moomin Valley Character

Don't usually post these things, but I just happen to love the Moomin books by Tove Jansson, and I just happen to loooove the character I turned out to be :-) I believe he's called Snufkin in English. Sorry, but the text presumes that you read Norwegian. If you do : enjoy !

	Hvem er du i Mummidalen?
	Mitt resultat: Snusmumriken Du er Snusmumriken! Du er modig og rolig. Du er også selvstendig og kan ta vare på deg selv, men du er likevel venn med alle.
	Ta denne quizen på Start.no

Moving ahead

Well, the quilting of Allsorts is going well, thank you for asking :-) but it is slow work, and really, there is nothing much to show. All the blocks are quilted just the same. Around the applique, and then in square "frames", so you have seen it all in the post of Nov. 5th. The only difference between then and now is, that more blocks have been quilted, but the basic look is the same.

Usually, I would be starting a new quilt now (or 2 or 5 ... well, yes, it has been known to happen), and I will soon start preparing a new applique-quilt, but I'm not starting just yet. I'm knitting instead.
I've been knitting "seriously" since I was 13 (and that is now so many moons ago that I don't care to think about it), Kaffe Fasset style from his first publication in "Creative Knitting" (a book released by Penguin back in the 1980es, not the now magazine), Scandinavian style two- (or more) colour knitting, just about any wild thing you can think of.
Unfortunately, my wrists don't hold up well to lots of knitting or really big projects. It has helped enormously that I changed my needles from steel to hard-wood, but still, I can't overdo it, so a balance between sewing/quilting and knitting is nice :-)
And for knitting in front of the TV, I need something mindless. This is where the Opal-yarns come in. No-brainers with lots of patterning and stripes. Not always beautiful, but always interesting. Besides, who's ever going to see them, apart from yours truly ? so if they turn out hideous, it doesn't matter.

And then, yesterday, I went shopping
Small basement-shop going out of business. I only found out she exists 2 weeks ago, so yesterday was probably a 3-in-1 shopping : first, last and only. Too bad. She had some nice yarns
One of the nicest was the St. Magnus angora. Six skeins went home with me, and the first skein is almost knit up :-) Scarf on your right. It will get another skein, and then - hopefully - be large enough to look good as well as be warm and nice.
I might be looking at getting more ... wouldn't it be gorgeous with a triangluar shawl, knit up in the softest of angora-yarns and lace-knitting ?
But not now.
Particularly not seeing that I got something like 20 skeins of the Opal-yarns. Kiddies will get socks as well as myself, but even if DMiLaw gets some of it (and she will, if she wants to), there will be plenty of yarn to keep me in knitting for the rest of this winter ... and probably some :-)

November

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!
Thomas Hood


That about sums it up.
November is hitting hard this year.

Slow-quilting-math

Well. Hand-quilting is slow work. And I will no doubt bore you to tears with my moanings about it in the months to come.
And when I work on something this slow, I like to have an idea about when my tribulations will be over, so I've been doing some math on the Allsorts Applique-album, trying to gauge how long I'll be quilting this one. Here it is :

There are 96 blocks and a border.
Now, if the border - quilting-wise - equals another round of blocks, the total would equal 10 x 14 blocks, and that gives me the equivalent of 140 blocks, each of them 6" square (and that is including the sashing) to quilt.
So far, the average number of threads involved in quilting one block is 3, so a fair estimate of the total is 420 threads.

If I do an average of one thread a day, it will therefore take me 420 days from start to finish, and that will mean something like 14 months from quilting was started, until its finished, putting the finish right around Christmas of 2008.
IF, however, I do an average of a block pr. day, the finish-line will be around the end of March 2007.
Now, I could choose to become depressed over this, but I've tried that and it really isn't very conducive to progress. I did it with QD, and the enormity of the task (trimming the blocks, joining the sashing and getting it all together) made me stop completely in my tracks for close to a year ! If I had just trimmed one block every day, and/or joined one sashing-star every day, it would have been finished long before it was :-)
And with that lesson still alive in my mind, I will not despair, but persevere.
I will quilt (at least) one thread a day, and keeping that up, it will be finished. Yes, it will take time, but it will happen.
I will, however, aim for quilting an average of 1 block a day, and if I can keep that up, it will be a finished quilt (quilted, bound and signed) by Easter 2008. A noble goal, surely :-) Not realistic if life starts happening too much around my ears, but ... every day where I quilt a full block, and not "just" one thread, is 2 days less quilting in the end.
So : finish-line on the Allsorts is anywhere between Easter and Christmas, 2008.

I'll keep you posted :-)

Another bag is finished

This really seems to be the year of making bags for me.
ANYways, on your left is the knitted and felted bag, with silk-lining and a wonderful, real mother-of-pearl button to keep the ends together and form the "handle"

I love the textured play of colours in mother of pearl, and this particular button has been with me for quite a few years now. Waiting for "that perfect project". That has now been found.


Unfortunately I'm not very good at photographing things like that, and to get the full enjoyment of it, I would need (at least) 10 pictures from different angles and with different lights. HOWever, I hope the picture will give you a small idea about what it "does". Oh, and it's 2" diameter. Quite massive.



Next picture is the Allsorts. Quilting is in progress, and things are moving according to the ambitious (and probably impossible in the long run) dream-plan of quilting a block a day. I know there will be days when this is not possible. On those days, getting one thread done will be good.

Critters in quilting

Sometimes preparing for a new quilt isn't all that easy ... as can be seen.
I was working "hard" to prepare lots of bits with Inklingo which makes preparing quilts for hand-piecing a breeze ! when Pushkin, the tail-less gentleman decided that I lacked company, and seeing that my cutting-mat held no fabric, he made do with freezer-paper.
Note, however, that front paws are clinging to fabric.

BUT, I persevered in my pursuit and he lost interest in being shuffled around all the time, so I could print lots of brown, beige and taupe bits for a new carry-along hand-sewing project. About half a quilt prepared for hand-sewing, with stitching-lines and cross-hairs and all the trims ... in an afternoon ... and that was with serious printer-trouble on the way !

And I do need a take-along project. Not a project to work on at home, because my at-home priority project right now, and in the foreseeable future, will be the hand-quilting of the Allsorts Applique Album. Picture here shows the finished top. It is now layered and basted and ready to roll. I'm holding out a wee bit longer, though, with the start of quilting. I have two small doll-quilts that I need to bind first.
But Allsorts will keep ... and will probably keep me company all winter. That is usually the way of hand-quilting. It takes forever ... but it does look wonderful in the end.

Another quilt on the wall

An old freind is back on the design-wall with the intention of having it become (at least) a finished top before the year is out. It is now my priority project, and will get a daily thread.
First step is to trim the blocks and add sashing between them.
It will neither add nor detract much from the way it looks now, seeing that I'll go for white sashing, same fabric as the background on the blocks. The idea is to have all the little pictures floating on white.
Oh, and just in case you don't know : the blocks all finish at 4½" square.

SE-2 finished !

And here it is. Almost all of it :-)The gentlemen on either side are called Peter. The gentleman on the right is my DSis-in-Law's DH and the gentleman on the left side is my "little" nephew.
They are both about 2 meters (that's 6'8" to ye who still work on imperial measurement), and - as you can see - that is not quite enough to hold it up in its entirety.
It is rather big. Almost 100" square, and - even if I say so myself - looking good :-)
So, I'm ready for the next adventure.
I'll keep you posted.

Still progressing

Here they are. All 20 blocks, 16" square, up on the design-wall.
I decided to finish blocks rather than start joining them into a lap-size top. Possibly because I've also decided, that she'll get this quilt whether she wants it or not.
This isn't about what she wants. This is much more about what I need !

The finished size of the quilt will be 64 x 80" and the joining of the blocks will start tomorrow. Probably won't show pictures of that, seeing that the finished top will not differ much from the above picture.
All in all, I'm very satisfied with my own progress on this one ! Amazing what a bit of focus and a lot of time can do for a project :-)

Busy, busy, busy

Here is what I've been doing these past few days. My design-wall is overflowing

No less than 3 out of 5 blocks for SE-2 are now finished. They look good, don't they ? Very pink, yes, but that's ok with me :-)

What is below them, will be a red-and-white Jewel-box quilt. Everything in that one is from shelves and scrap-bag. Very scrappy. And its fun to make, 'cause quite a few of the fabrics in there have been used in other projects, and/or are gifts or part of exchanges, so many of the fabrics have stories and memories. Nice.
It will - in the fullness of time - go to my DSister-in-law ... if she wants it. She has been diagnosed with MS and is having a very rough bout right now. She will have chemo in November, in the hope that that will stop the attachs ... and then she'll need a quilt. Correction. *I* will need her to have a quilt about her person, as a long-distance hug.
It will be quite big. The 5 blocks you see on the design-wall are 1/4 of the quilt. 16" blocks, 4x5 setting. Big quilt :-)

And today holds : another SE-2 block, and more Jewel-box blocks. It would be very nice indeed if the Jewel-box top is finished on Sunday, when it's DSon's b'day and she (hopefully) will be here with the rest of the family. She can see it and tell me if she wants it.

One down ....

Yes. The first out of 5 huge Texas-star blocks for SE-2 are now finished.
... and it looks like this :

One is joined so that the outer, very pink, border can be basted and then applique'ed on, and right now, it looks like this :

Three more are waiting for their turn on the design-wall :

All in all : good progress is made on SE-2.

Testing blocks

Sometimes, I want to make blocks. Not to finish a project or even to start a project. Just make 1 or 2 or 10 blocks for the joy of making them, or for testing fabrics, colours ... whatever. Eventually these blocks land in BOB and might (and might not) turn into something useful one day. I give myself that leeway :-) it is necessary for my comfort.
Yesterday was one of those days where I really "needed" to do "something else", so I decided to go with some already printed bits, and test a block I've actually been wanting to see "real life" for some time.
Now, most people know about the Dolly Madison's star block, but how many of you know, that her husband had a block named for him too ?
Another star-block :-)

I found it in Hall and Kretsingers : "The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America", plate XXIII, no 5. A not very good black-and-white picture
So, with Inklingo # 3 coming out, this was the perfect time to do one or two, and here is what "Madison's Patch" looks like in colours :

And now you know too. That it is there, and what it looks like, both in two colours and in 3.
And what with printing the templates on the fabric with Inklingo, they are a breeze :-)

Long time no write

So, here's hello to everyone :-)
It's been a month ! since I last wrote. Yes, time does run on, doesn't it. BUT, term has started, full gale, at the university, and I've been working.

Do you remember the blocks I showed off last year ? that turned into a kick ... donkey top ?
Well. I did the blocks with a freind, and we both made tops.
And guess what ! Her top has turned into a quilt, which was in a quilt-show this past week-end, and ! she won a viewer's choice ribbon !

Isn't that wonderful ! ? !

I'm so proud to be allowed to have been in a very small way a part of that gorgeous quilt. And I'm so happy for her that her creative setting and hard work pays off this way.
Oh, and just so that you don't get an all text-post today, here's a picture of our 3 kitties eating.

From left to right : Baby (or : velcro)-cat called Josephine, tail-less gentleman called Puskin, and shy lady with rococo-legs called Sorte (blackie)

Progress

Well, there's progress on SE-2.
As you can see by the picture, first mock-up of the quilt is now up on the design-wall ... and looking good, even if I do say so myself.
It is a rather overwhelming quilt, and it'll end up HUGE ! but ... well ... I don't want to mess with doing these triangles in miniature-size. Their curved seams just about kills me in full-size, BUT I'm persevering. I'm piecing the last of the ones with curved seams. After that, it's 12 with just straight seams, and the one with the most pieces in that lot have 14 of them.
Piece of cake :-)

And then there's pictures of a stone.
We took it with us from the beach during our vacation in Jutland. Most people I know, pick up stones and shells and thingies when they walk on the beach. This one is not one of the usual "pick up and put in your pocket" stones. It's much, much larger. Its actually a two-hand stone (at least it is for me), and even DH doesn't have pockets big (and solid) enough for this one.
But it was a windy, rainy day, and the rock laid there, in the surf, glittering and beckoning and just looking beautiful. So I badgered DH to pick it up, and we took it with us.
What fascinates me about this stone is both the shape of the "band", and the colours ... and let me tell you straight out : the picture doesn't even begin to give justice to the colours.
When it is wet (as it is in the pictures), the light band is a sort-of golden rose. Don't know if that colour exists officially as it were, but that's what is is. Soft powder-rose pink with a golden hue and darker grains of old rose and grey-rose.
And look at the folds. Now, mind you, this is granite, and started out as two straight layers. One on top of the other. Then it solidified, and THEN mother nature decided to mess about a bit, and she proceeded to fold the sheets of rock until they look as you see them. Twisting and turning and snaking around each other.
Gives you pause doesn't it ? The forces of nature are not only awesome, they are down-rigth scary if you ponder them. And that's part of why I keep it. The other is, that this stone is a wonderful reminder to me what the japanese taupe palette is all about. Recreating the palette of nature in cloth :-)

I love digital cameras

And why do I love digital cameras, do you ask ?
Take a look at the many pictures in this particular post.
They are all made with the same 2 sets of sewn-stripes triangles.

Now, in the "olden days" before the digital camera, I would have had to lay them out, and then change the layout, and then hope I could remember what the first layout looked like. Or I would have to draft them on paper ... or even take pictures, and then have to wait until the film was developed. These days, I take a digital camera (or a cell-phone), point it at the thing, click, and move on.

And in case of it being a big quilt, I would have a very hard time to get far enough away from the thing, to be able to "see it all", but ... not a problem, me old china :-) Works perfectly well, and with the small format of thumbnails, one does get a very good impression of the whole ... and can see boo-boos too ... hopefully before the quilt is quilted, signed and bound :-)
And my favourites in this lot ? Well, actually the first and the last picture ... but I fear that both of them would be much better in a lap-size or larger quilt .... and I don't have enough fabric for that. I'll keep you posted on what I choose, only, please, don't hold your breath :-)

Progressing on triangles

There is progress on the triangles. Still just a mock-up, but it's looking good :-) Clearer colours than is shown on this picture, but still ...
Yes, it will be a fairly pink quilt. Good thing I love pink :-)
And frankly, after a long period of working browns and taupes and muted colours, it's wonderful to be back with "my" colours.
... all the same. Browns and greys and taupes are growing on me.

And the other picture is two MORE bags.
Yes. Made a zebra-and-coke bag for ME, 'cause I really liked the "in your face" red of the coke-fabric with the black-and-white of DD's sculls fabric ... just didn't like the sculls. Personally, I think the zebra-fabric is a good substitute.
And then a huge, not particularly lovely, but very useful bag made with a stripe-fabric I got far too little of (the shop - it turned out - measured in increments of 30 cm, not meters so ...3 of those only got me a yard, not the 3 I thought I would get.
Oh, well. ANYways, the tote is finished and will hold quilt, chocolate, water and a book for taking to the beach or the park or ... in short : very useful.

And then a small addendum to my words on Leanne Beadsley's "Romancing the Road Trip". Yes. The patterns are very simple, and I - in my arrogance - have been thinking "too simple". Well, the fact remains that I had never - until I got that book - thought it necessary to have a pattern for such very simple bags as these ... but then, until I got that book, I never made any bags !!! So, there ! Guess the irony (and hopefully, the laugh) is on me :-)
I'm making bags ... and am enjoying myself hugely. There can be great satisfaction in making something very simple.

Still more bags

It does seem almost incredible, doesn't it ? Those are bags # 3-6 you see on the right.

All four bags have 4H-fabric on the outside of the flap. All 4 bags have the lions-and-parrots etc, mostly green fabric for shell.
Two have tiger-lining and two have leopard-lining. But ... they are fully reversible, so there could be two tiger-bags and two leopard-bags :-)

Below is a close-up with shell-fabric showing.


And this is really another sad story about great fabric with pictures on it, bought while kiddies were small ... dreams were high and energy and time was very low, so ... no skirts or shorts or quilts happened with any of these fabric.
Very sad actually.
BUT, at least they now get a life as bags for kids who love animals :-)
AND the fancy fabric I bought with DD in mind has been used for stuff for DD. The rest can now mature on my shelves (or not, as fancy takes HER). The main issue being : fancy fabric bought for specific persons should be used asap, or, put more directly :
USE THE FANCY FABRIC NOW !!!
Do not wait for when you have time. Whip up something that will give your Home-Ed teacher nightmares forever (or make her turn in her grave), but USE it for the kids you bought it for ... while they still think it cool !!!
Besides, know that the formula of "Cute fabric + moderately to very cute kid = No-one looks closely at the construction".
It's true too !! Try it :-)

Cats and Paws

Another bag is finished. And this one has no black, no sculls and no pop-art icons.
Nicely dark blue with very cute cats.

The shell-fabric was bought many moons ago when we were in Japan, so its a rather loose-weave japanese indigo. Darker than the South-African ones, and much coarser.
But still very, VERY cute :-) "Bought" on my own shelves this time around.

The lining is another shelf-shopping find.
Golden paw-prints on a cream-to-sand ground.
Works well together, even if the lining should have been "colder" in hue for the match to be perfect.
BUT, that's 2 bags finished in one day

... and this one is for ME !!!

This morning's work

Well, occasionally I do get my act together. Also, the lesson that I've been teaching myself the hard way is : use it NOW, while its cool (or hot, or groovy or ... whatever).
I have too many fancy fabrics with all-over smallish or "stand-alone" largeish motives on them that are very suitable for kids .... 5-10 years younger than the ones I have.
Lesson is : Novelty-fabrics should be used immediately ! unless we're dealing with staples like the lining of this bag :

DD is heavily into black and sculls and bones and such-like, so ... got some fabric at the Repro-Depot, and hey presto : the work of a morning. "Sculls 'n' Coke" :-)

And seeing that the above shop doesn't seem to have more of it, I found the fabric on-line for you at other shops (no affiliation, and I can't even say I'm a satisfied customer, not having bought anything at either of these places)
Sculls and Coke.
The bag itself is out of Leanne Beadsley's "Romancing the Road-Trip. I just added a snap-hook, sewn into the inside seam. I tried to take a picture but it doesn't show well. ANYway, I put it into every bag I make, 'cause it's such a nice feature to have it for your keys ... unless of course you enjoy emptying your bag to find your keys (only to find you put them in your pocket ... sigh)

The book is a nice enough book. Patterns are very simple, and nice, if you don't want to "waste" a lot of time fidgeting with too small bits of fabric. If you have more than one book already with patterns for bags, I doubt that you need this one, though. There's a bit of stitchery in there too. And whereas I wouldn't want you to spend money on it if you already have books with bag-patterns, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone who's fairly new to sewing.
And now, a nice bag has been made from it :-) in a few hours :-) Good :-)

The new project

First star on what will - eventually - become a very pink King-size quilt.
Triangles : Dear Hannah,
Hexagons : my design.
Setting : my design.
Name : SE-2.
The first one of this kind was made for the Dear Hannah-book and now resides in the collection of Brenda Papadakis. That one is called "Sara Eleonora" for my DD.
So, this one, which isn't an identical twin, but a close sibling, is "SE-2" :-)

And yes. It's really good to deal with nicely neutral pinks and magentas :-)