Bags, Bags and more Bags

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I've been working on bags, bags and more bags.

I finished another Carry Me knitting bag by Bunny Hill Designs for one of the ladies that I work with. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but it ended up being a Christmas/birthday gift. The pattern calls for ribbons for the ties on the side, I didn't have the right color of maroon ribbon, so I made my own ties w/leftover polka dot fabric.

The pattern only called for one pocket, but as far as I'm concerned, you can never have enough pockets. I made one of them extra long so that there is a spot for long needles.

I like how the button came out. I centered the swirl from one of the paisleys on it. I love covering buttons! Seriously, if you haven't tried it yet, you should. I know I'm a total sewing geek by admitting this, but it's ridiculously fun! I could make buttons all day.

I also started another Sweet Simple Bag by Late Bloomer Quilts.  Needless to say I think the plaid, from Sandy Henderson's Meadow Sweet line for Michael Miller fabrics is absolutely fabulous! I may have mentioned this in passing previously, but in case you missed it, I L.O.V.E. plaid!!! Really, it's tartan, a plaid is actually the material used to make the original Highland kilts way back when, but most people call the tartan pattern a plaid.  

And last, but certainly not least, I made two of my grocery bags for a charity silent auction at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois that my friend Jan's daughter is participating in. The charity is  Camp Kesem and it's a camp run by college students for the children who have, or have had a parent with cancer. 

I wanted to donate something for the fundraiser, so I thought a couple of my grocery bags would be good. Everyone can use a grocery bag, and Evanston is the kind of community where people carry their own bags and frequent their farmer's markets and such. Jan is going to get a grocery store gift card to put with it. So if you live in the Evanston area and want a grocery bag and to help a good cause, head on over to the University's club page for contact emails, or contact Camp Kesem to find out about the fundraiser.

Refining

I have spent most of January working on my bag pattern and making bags! I just can't believe the month is gone already. I made 9 bags in approximately 6 days. Most of those were 2.5 - 3 hour increments in the evenings with a couple of Sundays thrown in. I'm glad I did the mass making because I was able to refine a couple of things to make the assembling of the bag easier. Now I just have to finish putting it into words. It ends up it's not all that easy to do.

3 of the bags were belated Christmas gifts that I forgot to take pictures of before giving away. They were cute though. One was for my friend Bill who made me the most wonderful cutting board last Christmas and brings me wonderful patterns and fabric from his worldly travels. He lived in Hawaii for a while and loves the Hawaiian prints and such, so I made his bag out of the same RJR fabrics I used in Tom's quilt.

I made 2 for my boss, who loves wine, out of this gorgeous line by Wilmington called "Bottled Poetry". I wish I had taken pictures before giving them to her because the pictures online just don't do this fabric justice. It's really lush and gorgeous.
I also made several out of Amy Butler's "Ginger Bliss", "Belle" and "Midwest Modern" fabrics.

And I made the CUTEST bag out of this fabulous Robert Kaufman fabric:

I also almost finished the quilt top featuring the gorgeous LakeHouse "Le Grand Jardin". I would have had it finished, but I cut the green hydrangea flower fabric incorrectly and and didn't have enough to do the prairie points. I'll take photos of it to post in a couple of days.

I don't know, do you think my tastes are diverse enough?

I've also been working on my mini quilt swap for my Swap Til You Drop partner from Flickr. What fun it is! It's like instant gratification quilting. And it's good for me since I have a hard time making small quilts. I don't want to post a photo of it until my partner gets it though, so you'll have to wait to see it.