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.

Projects

Last week I made a large blanket out of Amy Butler flannel, ric-rac and minkee. The picture is a little wavy because I was in a hurry and had it folded up just before the photo.

A work friend of mine has a good friend out of state that is undergoing chemo for an extremely rare form of breast cancer. I knew from others who had undergone chemo that they get really cold during the treatments, so I suggested a blanket. My friend said "OH! Can it have minkee on it?" Minkee is a very plush, soft fabric that is just wonderful to touch. I pulled out my happiest, adult, happy colored flannels and found some light blue minkee to match.
Since the friend is tall, I made it 73" long. I had to find a complement to the flannel since fabric is only about 40" wide once you wash it, and I wanted it larger, so she can totally wrap up in it. Jennie and I picked out a cute stripe to go with it, but decided that it needed something in between the two patterns. We had a ric rac inspiration moment, and I think it makes the blanket, don't you? You can't be uncheered by ric-rac! It ended up being an nice 51" x73" size.
I preshrunk everything, including the ric-rac, by prewashing it on hot. Nothing irks me more than when you wash a duvet or pillow sham and the trim shrinks up a different rates than the main fabric and it gets all out of line and wrinkly, so I decided to make sure that wouldn't happen with one of my creations! I was lucky though, I had bought the last of the yellow ric-rac at Tammy Tadd's, and only had appox. 3" leftover!
My friend really loved it and can't wait to send it to her friend. That's what makes it all worth while to me.

My other project, that I was able to finish despite the fact that is was solely worked on during Olympic commercial breaks, was another grocery bag. I'm sending it to the Frawnch (to be pronounced like the mom in the ever popular 80's movie"Better Off Dead" starring John Cusak) cook book writer Clotilde Dusoulier. I read her blog, Chocolate & Zucchini regularly and a few weeks ago she talked about her eco-friendly bags. While she finds them useful, she thinks they are less than attractive. I emailed her to see if she'd like to beta test my bag, and to let me know what color and style of fabric she would like. She emailed me back and she'd love to try my bag! She said she likes girly fabric, polka dots, flowers, the whole bit. It's all very exciting!
The very next day I walked into Tammy Tadd's shop and what had come in? The Ava Rose line by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE this line? I literally squealed and flapped my hands at the mere site of it! They should be getting the blue colorway in soon. I'm totally gaga for the blues!!! They even match my Tiffany-blue bathroom!! I read in a Scottish decorating magazine back in 2001 about a family who runs some kind of children's clothing company out of their family's hunting lodge (translation: lodge = castle) in the Scottish Highlands. Her toddler aged daughter's room was painted Tiffany blue because the mother stated that she wanted her daughters to become accustomed to the color at an early age. I like that philosophy myself. But I digress....Tiffany will do that to a girl.

I put the large floral on the front and back, stripes for the handles, sides and bottom and polka dots for the pocket and lining. I wasn't thrilled with the polka dots on the pocket, it was just to white, so I appliqued a rose from the left over fabric onto the pocket. I think it works. What do you think, is it girly enough? I added a pocket on the bottom of this bag, per my friend Katie's suggestion. She thought it would be great to have a pocket that you can seal your money/credit card into, then you wouldn't need to carry your purse at all if you didn't want to. I made the pocket sealable along the whole opening with Velcro. It also folds into the bag so the contents are especially secure when closed. This is why it's good to talk to people and get suggestions. I never would have though of a pocket on the bottom. I hope Clotilde likes it as much as I do!