Industriusness

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday. I've been having a great time. I had 2 weeks off of work for the holidays, and got a lot and yet nothing done at the same time! I had really, really wanted to clean out my basement and make my sewing cave into a real honest to goodness studio. but that didn't happen.
I did get some sewing done though. I made this mini wall hanging:

The applique in the middle and the corner circles are wool. I appliqued it with fusible web (steam a seam lite, 2) and then machine button hole stitched it down. I used LakeHouse fabrics for the rest. It totally went together in no time.


It's from the book 'Pennies from Heaven' by Gretchen Gibbons.

It's a really nice book with great ideas. I like mixing fabric and wool for two reasons, 1) wool is pricey and 2) I hate hand work and it's easier to applique by machine on fabric.

This next project is DiscoJen's birthday present, so if you are DiscoJen, don't look any further until after your birthday!

DiscoJen travels quite a bit w/the kids, so I made her a Smarty Girl Bag from the Heather Bailey pattern, but with a few modifications to make traveling w/the chillens easier.

It has a nice long handle, so it can go across your front, crucial for travel.
I added a poofy divider on the inside, as well as several pockets. The divider is for her e-reader thingy. I put 2 layers of fusible fleece into the divider to protect the reader thingy and it's screen. They other side of the divider is for general stuff, and has 6 pockets. (By general stuff, I mean snacks.)

I also added tall pockets on both the front and back, perfect for easy access to tickets and passports for 3 people! I used different colors on the pocket interiors so that if she's harried, she might remember what color the pocket was that she put the thing in that she's looking for.

I picked the Lila Tueller 'Spirit' fabric from Moda because it's busy enough that hopefully it will hide travel dirt!
Last night I finished the first of 8 rows for my Sew Mod group's row exchange. We each provided a fat quarter to each person in the group, then we were given a chart w/different blocks on it. We use the fabric provided and the block assigned to that person and make a row for them. They are due by February, so I need to get a move on!
Lorrie gave us all Halloween fabric, which is totally awesome! I have pinwheels for her, so I made applique pinwheels out of Halloween motifs.




Lorrie provided the yellow bat fabric. I used some of the Moda 'Haunted Mansion' and 'Spooktacular' by Sanae and Riley Blake's 'Boo to You' for finish up the row.
I was so excited to get the row together that I forgot to sew the appliques down, so I'll be working on that today. Hopefully I can get another row or two done today, on my last day off. Sigh.