Spent The Weekend Making Bags

I took some time to sew this weekend.  I made a bag out of the cats in space suits fabric that I bought a couple of weeks ago. 

I made a bag for DD's friend for a birthday present.

And I found some pretty batik fabric to make a fall purse for me.

New Purse Pattern Review

     I recently had the chance to make up some purses from a pattern that my daughter bought from Annies Catalog.  It's a multi pocket cross body bag pattern by Nancy Green.  It came with written instructions and a video.  The video is geared toward a beginner, but the pattern is not.  The pattern is a little messy because she did not label the pieces and there were a lot of pieces with a lot of the same name.  It was confusing. The pattern writer could have labeled the patterns pieces with an number or a letter to make it easier to put this bag together.  I did leave feedback on this pattern for the designer to see.  Hopefully she will take the time to label pattern pieces next time.

    My daughter and I made these as a joint project.  We made three of these, one for my daughter, one for me and one for her aunt.  I made two changes to the strap.  I made our straps wider and I made our straps adjustable.  We bought our hardware from Emmaline Bags and it was perfect.

    This is the front of the bag.  That's an open pocket.  There is a zipper at the top with a an open pocket inside.  As well as a zipper pocket on the back. 

  This is the back of the bag with the zipper pocket.

Birthday Gift Shopping and Wrapping

    It's that time of year again.  Time to think of birthday presents for DD.  I will not be doing any sewing for her this year because we have several secret projects we are sewing together in the next few months and I don't think I will  have time to make her anything super cute this year, so I bought her a couple of gifts.  Her birthday will be special this year so I wanted to make sure I had them ready to go when her birthday comes.

    The gifts arrived but I didn't have any pretty birthday wrapping paper for them so while I was shopping in Hobby Lobby last weekend, I bought a yard of cotton fabric with the cutest print on it and I wrapped my boxes up in the fabric.  Instead of taping the ends to secure them, I sewed them together with some contrasting thread and big stitches.  It was so much fun to do and the gifts look so cute with coordinating ribbons on them.  I will definitely post a picture after the gifts are given.

   Don't hesitate to use fabric for wrapping.  It's fun and so unexpected.

Cats In Space

I could not resist getting a yard of this cute, cute fabric I found on Spoonflower.  I want to make a purse with this precious yard of fabric.

All The Hexagons Are Ready

   Here they are.

    All the hexagons I will need to finish my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top.  I have two flowers for the 5th row put together already.  I need three more flowers then I will add the green path to each and add them one by one to the quilt top.

    It takes me approximately two hours and ten minutes to make each flower including the green path.  Then it probably takes another hour and a half to sew each flower onto the quilt top.  No wonder its taking me so long to finish this quilt.

English Paper Piecing.

  I have part of row 5 put together now and I've been busy basting hexagons in my spare time.  I don't have quite enough to finish the next three rows, but I'm working on them.