Upcycled Starbucks Bag

  

For a while now I've been saving the packaging from my Starbucks coffee beans.  I buy coffee at Costco in 40 oz bags, so after I open up all the seams and wash the empty bags, I have a pretty large piece of material.  If you haven't felt of these bags, the material is a tough, plasticized foil, printed all the way around with the Starbucks bag design.  It would normally just be trash, so I think I started saving them because they seemed just tough and useful without having a specific idea of what to do with them.

The idea for the bag came about when I was wishing for a large, tough, not-easily-stained bag to take my stuff to the ballpark.  Both my boys play baseball so we are at the ballpark a lot.  I take a poster, a large scorepad and pencil, and various snacks to  every game.  I got tired of lugging things individually and none of my bags were right - mostly they were either too small for the 12x18" poster or not stiff enough.

When I recently got my new sewing machine (which I should post about!  We'll see if I get around to it though), I finally worked up the motivation to make my envisioned tote bag.  I started with five coffee bags, plus an extra, small bag from another brand of coffee that I sewed in as a pocket. I used two bags of the newer packaging design for the outer material, two bags of the older bag design for the inner liner, and another older design bag for the handles and a little anchoring strip inside the bag.  I also used some sew-in interfacing purchased from Hobby Lobby to give it a little more stiffness and something in between the layers of foil.

 To make it, I took four of the bags and trimmed off the previously crimped edges and made them all the same size.   I should have sewn the pocket and anchoring strip in at this point, but I forgot and had to struggle with it later.  But it would have been the right time to do it!  I sewed the inner pieces, right sides together, on the sides and bottom.  I did the same with the outer pieces, but also with the lining on the wrong side of the "fabric" (it was a stack of four pieces - lining, fabric, fabric, lining).  Then on each bottom corner of each bag (inner and outer), I sewed across the bottom corner and cut off the resulting triangle so that it would make a box-bottom. 

I made the handles with four strips of the extra fabric.  I sewed two strips together (attaching the short ends) so that they would be long enough to carry my poster in my finished bag.  A person would normally sew a tube, turn it right-side out, then use it as-is or after top stitching it, but this material is way too stiff and difficult for that.  Instead I just finger pressed the edges under and sewed it right sides out.  

My plan had been to nest the two bags, right sides together, sew the top seam except for a few inches, turn it right-side-out through the hole and then top stitch it closed.  However, turning just one bag, before sewing them together, was so difficult that I realized I would never be able to turn it through a hole.  SO, I folded in the top toward the wrong side on each of the bags and finger pressed it.  Then I put the bags inside each other, wrong-sides-together, placed the handles where I wanted them, and sewed around the entire top.  I had to fudge a little since the inner bag was not smaller than the outer bag and there is no stretch to the material.  What this meant in practice was sewing them together with the seams of the inner bag not quite all the way open.  It seems to have worked great!  I did reinforce the area over the handles with some extra stitches.

This material is not easy to work with.  The lack of stretch and the fact that every pin hole is permanent meant that I didn't want to pin much, and yet I needed to sew the pieces together without some helpful stitching that would be there if I were working with traditional fabric.  I am not planning to run out and make five more of these (yes, I do have coffee bags left!), but I love the result!

Other Challenge Quilts

Want to see what all the other participants made out of our Reunion Challenge Fabric?  There were 9 projects - all different but all BRIGHT!   

A couple of interesting notes: 

• Pooh Bear has "I'm just a little black rain cloud..." embroidered on the narrow burnt orange border. 
• The draped one just to the right of Pooh Bear is a two-sided crazy quilt with lots of denim.  It was too heavy to hang but was really amazing and interesting!
• The draped one, the baskets on to it's right and the large blocks in the bottom left are all done by beginning quilters, though they look GREAT.
• The flower one in the middle of the third column is all hand-pieced and hand-quilted.  The flowers are 3-D.
• The one in the bottom right has the center pinwheel area all made of Halloween fabrics!

It was interesting to see all the variety!

Challenge Quilt

Here is my fourth Reunion Quilt Challenge quilt!  

Each reunion the group of quilters chooses a fabric to make something out of.  Everyone who wants to participate takes a piece and brings back their project in two years at the next reunion.  You can see the first three challenge pieces here: Itty-Bitty, Herb Garden, and Pink Flags.

The challenge fabric is here, second from the left, with it's optional companion fabric on the left end.  The other fabrics are ones I chose at the same shop to use with it. 

 

(click for a larger view of any image)

I chose a pattern that was designed for a wall hanging to a full size quilt and then adapted the size and color scheme to make a miniature.  The finished project is 16"x20" and machine-pieced and machine-quilted.  

I had a hard time figuring out how to quilt it (once again, my mom was soooo kind to take out my false starts and mistakes to minimize the pain of re-doing!).   I have looked at a lot of quilting and I have noticed that when a quilt is very geometric/straight line I tend to like the finished result with the quilting is curvy (rather than straight and following the lines of the quilt).  That's something I plan to keep paying attention to as I see quilts, but I think it holds true.  Once I tried out these wonky spirals inside the squares I loved the result.  And I always like the meandering quilting so I used that to tie together the progression of background colors.

It was REALLY fun to make and I like the finished result best of the quilts I've made!  It's so bright and so wonky and fun that I find it very inspiring!

Come back tomorrow to see everyone else's projects with the same fabric(s)!

Progress Report - Kit Quilt

Do these fabrics look familiar?  This is a quilt I started from some bargain quilt block kits I picked up just because I liked the colors.  It started out a little randomly and has continued on the same path!

I posted about piecing it with my mom (amidst some harassment for never finishing sewing projects!) and about leaving in the mistakes instead of trying for perfection (which I'd never manage anyway).  This September during my mom's visit we made yet more progress on it.  It is now bordered and backed, pin basted and ready for quilting. 

The batting and backing was a bit of a study in imperfection itself.  We calculated the amount of material we would need for backing, but then decided to add a border in the backing material.  For some reason, we thought we could get the borders out of the backing scraps, so we bought the same amount of material we had calculated for just the backing.  Well, duh. That didn't work.  We got the borders on and then didn't have enough material to do the back.  We had to go back to the store and get more and then piece together a back with multiple seams.  I guess that's no big deal (yes, it made me twitch). 

Then, we cut off the batting material at just the right length for the measured size of the quilt.  But when we sandwiched the quilt top with the batting and backing, guess what was too short?  The already cut off batting!  So dumb.  How hard would it have been to sandwhich and pin and then cut off the excess batting!??  Most people don't even cut it off, but I'm quilting on a small machine and I didn't want extra bulk to fight with.  I know how to patch the batting it but it's discouraging so I didn't do it (ha! what does reveal about me?).

After the visit I made a little more progress. I quilted a few lines in it (starting from the center and going out to the side with enough batting) but then I needed the table space back and my scrapbooking was calling me so I (again) put it away.  I guess I like sewing together more than sewing alone?  Or maybe I have to do too much of the work myself when my mom isn't around!

Quilt Show

I decided that in honor of finishing my first quilt ever (oh, I've started lots and lots.  And designed them for my mom to make.  But finishing one myself is another matter entirely!), I would enter it into this year's quilt show. 

The Austin Area Quilt Guild hosts a show every two years.  It is a big show - this year in the Palmer Events center - with tons of quilts.  
Here are some of my favorites.  The first two in each row are a quilt and a closeup image of the same quilt.  The one at the top right won Best in Show.  There were a few strange pieces (or what I view as strange - that doesn't mean anyone else does!) but a lot of really amazing work.  Even some strange ones were beautiful art. 

My mom and granny were here for the show and we spent a long time walking through and making sure we saw absolutely everything. My dad kept Sammy entertained and he says they had a good time too.  I'll definitely be going in future years, and hopefully getting to enter more work!

I did it! Challenge Quilt Three: Pink Flags

I finished!

This was the Challenge Quilt for the Family Reunion I just attended.  Two years ago, the asian floral fabric was chosen as the challenge fabric.  All the quilters took a piece with promises to return with a finished item made with both the fabric and a certain template - the Flip Flop Block by Waterfall Quilts (scroll down to see the many Flip Flop Block patterns). 

This is the first year I've actually finished in time to bring it to the next reunion!  I also brought my newly finished quilts from the previous challenges - Herb Garden (2005) and Hills and Valleys (1998!).  This one is quite a bit larger than the others at 31 x 41".  It has two green fabrics as the background for the pink pinwheel shapes. I chose to use the challenge fabric for the border because although it's pretty, the pattern really isn't my style.  Once I combined it with these more modern, graphic Amy Butler fabrics (here are some of their current fabrics), I liked the resulting mix of styles. 

The thing that made this project the most "challenging" was the Flip Flop Block - it is all curved seams.  My sewing level still in the beginner realm - I've never sewn curved seams.  I know this is the point where I usually say something like, "it's rather easy once you get going" but Nope.  It's not easy.  It's hard.  They say you can just "ease it in".  I couldn't!  I ended up pinning it within an inch of it's life and muscling it in.  I had my shoulders up to my ears and every muscle in my body tensed.  My mom sat behind me and took out all my mistakes so I could redo them.  I think every seam had to come out at least once.  I've never had such a stressful sewing experience.  It's a good thing these were nice big pieces because I certainly didn't want to do any more of them. 

Maybe the struggle of getting it together was why I chose this as my first try at machine quilting.  After all that, I couldn't stand to not get it done.  And maybe it was partly that I didn't care if I messed it up by that point.  It's a good thing I loved machine quilting!  I still had some mistakes that had to be taken out and redone, but it had a sense of ease to it that was a lot of fun.  The enjoyment of quilting it redeemed the earlier stress of the project. 

The final stitches on this binding were sewn in the car, in the final miles approaching the reunion.  Soon I'll share the photos of the other challenge pieces!

Challenge Quilt Two: Herb Garden

(click photos to see a larger version)

This is the second of a series of challenge quilts from my husband's family reunion. You can see the first challenge quilt here.  This miracle of this piece is that it's actually finished without a visit from my mom to get my moving again.  This time it was the upcoming reunion that had me inspired to get something done!

In 2005, the challenge fabric was a white calico with rosemary sprigs and small purple and fushia flowers.  I designed this miniature to pickup on that herb theme.  The blocks were taken from all over - some of the leaves were from a miniature quilting book, some were reinvented from finished pieces I saw in quilting ads, and some were designed from scratch.  The whole thing represents a garden with a path near the bottom, stacks of terra cotta pots, herbs and trees, a fence rail and the sun and sky at the top.  The finished piece is 13.5 x 16.25" and has ...wait for it... 305 pieces!

I certainly had moments where I thought the whole idea was just too much for a novice quilter.  My mom helped me early on and talked through many of the steps with me.  She is still incredulous about the little sun!  But, since we've discussed my trouble with finishing projects, I am so glad it is done.  And in time to take back to the reunion this year!

Itty-Bitty Pretty

I am excited to share this little project - and I mean little! This miniature quilt is only 11 x 12.5 inches but it was really fun to do.

Way back in 1998, when James and I were engaged (wow, we are getting old), I went with his family to their family reunion in Indiana. It was a neat trip with a lot of good memories. One of the traditions the reunion group has is to have a "quilting challenge" every reunion. There were several ladies participating, though not all of them. They would go to a nearby quilt shop, pick a fabric and divide it up with the idea that each person would bring a finished project back the next time. There was a little upset over a not-quite-a-member of the family taking some of the limited amount of fabric and I didn't think I would end up getting to play along, but a very kind cousin surprised me by mailing me some of hers. The funny thing was that when I said, "Oh, I only need a scrap," I really meant it. There is probably not two square inches of any one fabric in the whole quilt!

This was created from a pattern in a magazine and believe it or not, the piecing was quite easy. You make six copies of a foundation template and machine sew directly onto the paper - no marking or measuring whatsoever. Once you get a little rhythm going it is quite fun. The challenge fabric was a big floral print with blue, yellow, white and black ("challenging" indeed). It was interesting in that it had very dark areas and very light areas, so I was able to put in in every side of every row of the quilt one time. That means there is a piece of it in each dark row and each light row. You can see an example of a dark and a light piece of the challenge fabric in the close up photo; the dark is it is the blue piece in the lower left corner, second from the bottom (well, technically third but you can barely see that teensy piece in the very corner) and the light is the white piece with a little blush of blue, fifth up (technically sixth if you can see that little corner) from the bottom in the light row next to it.
There are also many of James' grandmother's flour-sack fabrics that she had saved over the years. She died when James was a baby but some things like her old fabrics remain. It seemed fitting to include them. Even though many were rather fragile, this quilt seemed like a good way to incorporate them, since it won't be taking a lot of wear.

I've been trying to piece together when I actually made it. I think I started right away. But I know I got stalled once it was time to do the quilting. I really wanted to follow through on the project, but I had only done quilting design work for my mom and piecing for myself. I'd never actually done the quilting. I tried it and hated it. It was frustrating and so slow. I didn't like the results I was getting and by that time I had a toddler so the idea of "just take it with you and work on it when you are waiting for things" wasn't happening at all. Meanwhile, I had picked up two more reunion's worth of quilting challenges!

The reunion ladies showed me some lovely pieces that they had machine quilted on regular sewing machines. I hadn't really realized that was possible! I eventually took a machine quilting class at a local quilt shop. It was neat but it takes practice and I never took the time to make a practice quilt (who wants to work on something that's just practice??).

This week with my mom visiting we decided to just go for it and try machine quilting (I started on another piece). It was so much fun. I'm still working on finishing the binding on that one, but I immediately did the quilting on this teensy one and we got it finished right away. It was really nice to have a cheering section and someone to rip out my mistakes so I could just correct them right away and not get discouraged and stalled.

I feel a little astounded that I actually finished a project. I was beginning to think I should just chalk it up to a character flaw. This opens the possibilities for all the crafty projects I could actually get done... someday. Or maybe when my mom visits again!

p.s. Julie says I need a photo with something recognizable in it to better show the scale, so here it is:

Sammy's Quilt

I was working on printing photos for a layout about Sammy's quilt in his baby book and I really wanted to show the quilt here as well. My mom made this beautiful quilt for Sammy before he was born. She and I designed the pattern together the September before Sammy was born. I drew things out in power point and emailed them to her while she drew things out longhand and had my dad take pictures and email them to me. It was a time of recovering health for my mom and the prospect of the project was a little daunting, but she really wanted to make this for Sammy so we persevered. The pattern is inspired by a fish design to go with the "Happy in the Pond" nursery Sammy would be moving into. Most people don't notice the fish, but if you look at the overall design, each block has two blue fish nose to nose and two green fish nose to nose. The blue are a solid triangle for a body, while the green have a pieced four-patch inset in to the body.

When Mom visited in October, we picked out the fabrics together. We had Zack along with us so we brought a small portable DVD player and let him watch a Sesame Street while we worked with the color choices. I couldn't believe how good he was! I really wanted Batik fabrics, which are made by wax-resist dyeing techniques native to Indonesia (and other countries). Our local shop had a great selection and we moved bolts around for well over an hour just picking out all our favorites. We chose all greens and blues. The Batiks have a characteristic look that I really love and are particularly appropriate to an underwater look.

After my mom got all the main top together, we chose a flying geese (those triangles in a row) border to go with it. I'm not sure why, but we both really love that pattern. I was hesitant because it was such a lot of piecing work, but it added so much to the overall design. The blue flying geese are all made from scraps left from the original fabric choices. She embroidered Sammy' name into a narrow border at the bottom edge of the quilt top, a really special touch.

She then had it machine quilted; Batiks are heavier than traditional quilting fabrics and very difficult to quilt through and my mom's still-recovering fingers were not up to that kind of abuse. Since my mom always does hand quilting (beautiful work), she had it done by a professional (which turned into a saga, but that's a story for another day!). Didn't the final quilting turn out beautiful? I really love how it connects the pattern, muting the patchwork to enhance the underwater look.

Perfection

As I've been steadily working through the piecing for this project this week, I've been thinking about the best and worst parts of the process. For me the best part is the ironing.

Wait, wait, stay with me!

It's not that I like ironing. I certainly don't like to iron shirts. But when I've sewn a set of sections or blocks and I take them all to the ironing board and they open up to a stack of perfect points, crisp and flat and smelling of the hot iron, I feel like progress is blossoming right before my eyes. It's the big payoff for the time spent marking, cutting, pinning and sewing.

Except sometimes what appears is not-so-perfect points. Which brings me to the worst part of this sewing business: taking out mistakes. It's a terrible drag, both on progress and on motivation, to take out and redo. And so this time, I didn't. I know that in quilting, precision really does pay off in the end. If things are wrongly sized or crooked, I'm going to have to deal with them sooner or later. When I put them in the larger section, they won't fit if they are off-of-square or wrong in some other way. But on the other hand, getting better at this stuff is as much about practice as precision, and it's not much fun to practice if I'm taking out every less-than-perfect triangle.

I was remembering the machine quilting class I took and one of the other students. She was doing good work - it certainly looked better than mine. It looked better than anyone else's in the class but as the teacher complimented her, she declared that is wasn't good enough and that she was very unhappy with it. Over protests from the class members she insisted, "It has to be absolutely perfect. If it isn't, I can't be happy with it. That's just how I am." I found myself thinking (in possibly too much of a mommy-vernacular), "What a sad choice." Because it is a choice, and if you aren't willing be happy with less than absolute perfection, you'll never be happy.

I decided that I've got plenty of projects on which to insist on precision. This one is going to be about trying and doing and not stressing over the perfect points. I've got 21 blocks done (except for four small stars that need to be appliqued on) and three blocks left to go. They sure aren't perfect, but I like them. After a few more minutes left to sew today, I have to clean up the dining room table to make room for social activities this weekend so I don't know if the last three will happen or not. But hey, I already knew I wasn't so perfect at finishing things.

Family Visit Part 4 - Piecing

I took a little heat while my guests were here for all my unfinished sewing projects. Turns out I'm a lot better at starting quilts than finishing them. Well, that's not really news. We all knew it already. This pattern has worked out just fine on the items I've designed for my mom to make. I like designing, I love picking fabrics, and she's good at finishing. But on most of my own items-in-progress, I'm stalled at the quilting.

I tried hand-quilting - I just don't like it. So, I took a machine quilting class. I really enjoyed the class and despite having just a simple sewing machine, I feel like I could get the hang of it. Unfortunately, it comes down to practicing more than just knowing how to do it. Now I need to practice. The pieces I have ready to quilt have seen many hours of meticulous piecing and I'm not willing to quilt on them until I practice. But practicing is not the fun part of making and I haven't done it yet.

In the meantime, I got out a piecing project that had no reason to be stalled and Mom and I worked on it for a while during her visit. It's one of these strange projects that doesn't have much of a purpose - I found a bunch of leftover block-of-the-month club kits at a fabric store for ridiculously cheap. There were only five designs left, but lots of those. So, I got multiples of each with the idea of either inventing alternate blocks or just making multiples of the ones I had. I liked the colors, but other than that I didn't have much of a plan. I still don't, but I decided that's ok.

I've done quite a bit more since she left, and am making good progress. I guess I'll get it to the point of being stalled and decide then what to do next.

A Gift in Use

Lately this baby gift we got when Sammy was born has been getting a lot of use. A dear friend that we don't get to see very much made it - isn't it cute? She did a great job, lining the bag and adding some satin ribbon trim on the small folder. I've been using the bag for Sammy's overnight bag, so we've been pulling it out quite a bit. And the small envelope-bag holds an emergency stash of diapers and wipes in the map pocket of my car - handy for when I didn't quite plan correctly!

After sewing my stroller tote (which is still so handy!), I can see how this went together and it seems like a fabulous handmade gift to make for others - I know I'm enjoying mine!

Final Trip Sewing Project

Alright, people, surely more than just Julie could have ventured a guess on this odd looking item! Her list sounded a lot like James' guesses, but here's the answer: it's a hot dish carrier! My mom has one of these she's been using for years. I tend to take a hot dish in the car for potlucks, food deliveries, small group meetings, etc. And when I was home and remembered how handy hers was, we decided to use this very cute fabric to make one for me!

This is made of two layers of fabric plus cotton batting and quilted on the machine. The handles and all the edges are done with bias binding (purchased prefolded), which also made the spot for the drawstrings. It is made for a 9x13" dish, but other sizes fit nicely (that's a round dish in the photo). Now, what hot dish can I take where??

Oh, I meant to mention - I had never used bias binding before (yes, I know I have those little quilts started and quilts are finished with binding... but I'm better at starting things than finishing them). I found it to be really really easy. Even around the curves, it wasn't hard to make work. I used an all-machine method that was basically a single-line straight stitch and it was on. I have already almost forgotten than I was intimidated by learning how to do this!

Any Guesses?

Here's another project we did while I was in Tucson. We loved that tote fabric so much that we decided to use it again.

James couldn't figure out what it was. Can't say that I blame him, but I'm very excited about this little item!

Curious? I'll be back tomorrow with the full description!

Stroller Tote Tutorial

I made a tutorial for the Stroller Tote!

This is designed for a mostly-beginner - someone who knows how to use the sewing machine to sew straight lines with a seam allowance. I didn't explain basics like pinning or pressing - not that there is much to explain, but when I'm a complete beginner at something I like to read something that tells me what people are talking about. If that's you, check out Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol of Angry Chicken (which I plan to review after one more sewing project).

Check it out, try it and let me know how it goes!

Stroller Tote Tutorial from deannam.blogspot.com

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-to-Guides & Manu howto easy

Stroller Tote

I'm quite pleased (and a little relieved) to be telling you about this Stroller Tote. I started it in Tucson and, despite having only one small step left to do at home, I wasn't sure I was going to follow through and finish it. But I did finish and here it is!

I wanted a reusable shopping bag (and book bag and whatever bag) that I could clip to my stroller. All my reusable bags have narrow tops that won't hang on my stroller. This one is not only shaped correctly with a wide opening, but has a clip on each side that attaches over the handle. There is also a shoulder strap for carrying it normally. There is a little pocket inside, made out one of the corners that were snipped off when we created the box-bottom shape.

The fabrics are two coordinating prints in upholstery weight cotton. It's pretty sturdy stuff with a canvas type feel. My mom frequents a discount fabric place that has such fabrics for $3 - 6 per yard. We found these and really loved them; at $6/yard they were a really good buy. The clips are made out of some repurposed clips from baby's overalls. I discovered that you can reuse the clips and adjusting rings, but not the buttons, so I bought new buttons.

The design was based on my measurements for what I wanted to end up with. Mom and I came up with the plan for making it a bit ahead of time and a bit as we went along. I've already been using it, despite just finishing the clips today, and it is very handy. It's large enough to hold a gallon of milk and a selection of other groceries, a big stack of library books, or plenty of fabric and supplies to start a few more projects I might not finish!

I'm toying with the idea of making more, which means I need to transfer the notes we made as we went to something I'll be able to decipher later (and do it now, before I forget what they mean). I'd be interested to know if others are wanting a bag this shape as much as I was!

Some Sewing

'Member my whining about not being able to do any sewing? Well here's my solution - visit my mom! While we were in Tucson, I took along several projects for things I wanted to fix or learn to make. Here you see Mom helping me with a couple of clothing alterations - yay!

The non-clothing projects we did together, designing as we went. The first was a liner for a small basket that I wanted to use to hold fabric napkins. The liner that came in it was hideous. The colors were fine but it was made of this nasty synthetic stuff that unraveled more every time we looked at it, the strings sticking to everything in the room. It was snagging on the slightest rough spots on my hands (and sheesh, it's not like I'm a cowboy; my hands are not that rough!). So, we used Mom's fabric stash and made up a new one.

We started by measuring the old one and matching the measurements. The project has only seven pieces plus four tie strings. Once we had the plan, it went together very quickly with no tricky gotcha moments. I wrote down the plan and have ideas of making more for other baskets. And if I do, maybe I'll be able to find the time to make a tutorial. Can't you just see all the possibilities?

Some Easter Photos

We had a lovely Easter, despite some ups and downs to the day!

I made the above bunny from this tutorial. It was fun and pretty easy. And I felt great to finish a little sewing project, no matter how small.

Zack's favorite easter basket item was this little hole punch. Whodduve guessed it?

After a great time at church, the boys got to have more egg fun at Grandma and Grandpas. The easter outfit looks pretty interesting after the shirt comes untucked from the pants and the pants become tucked into the snazzy boots (a gift from Grandad!).

Cannot...accomplish...sewing...

I've really been wishing I could make some time to do a little sewing. I'm not an accomplished sew-er (seamstress? that sounds like alterations). I only know how to sew straight lines, not follow patterns to make clothing or anything like that. But, I'd like to learn. And I have some cute vintage fabric, flour sack pieces that were my husband's grandmother's, that I'd like to use for something. I put one little scrap of each in a miniature quilt for James' family reunion (though it's not quite finished, *sigh*)and used some in these activity pads. But, some of the fabrics are only in fair condition so I don't really plan to use them in highly involved quilting projects (for the future "someday" when I'm doing highly involved quilting projects).

I finally got my hands on a copy of Bend The Rules Sewing by Amy Karol and have been so excited to try something (just look at all the stuff people made!). It's about at my level. Challenging for me, but probably doable. I say probably because in the three times I've "set aside" for starting in the past few days, I got about ten minutes in before screaming children took over that time. Oh, screaming children and a towering mountain of laundry, when I have a ten day trip to pack for. I finally gave in, in a great grouchy grumble, and folded all (well, most) the laundry instead of sewing. Reminds me of Forever Folding Laundry (who has a yummy looking recipe today, by the way). On the bright side, I made one of those screaming kiddos help me!

In the total of twenty minutes that I did sew, I got to make two of these "Mixy-Matchy Napkins" (see the ones other people have made here). The project is just cutting out a piece of fabric and hemming it on all sides. They are cute, but I'm wondering if I'd rather make them bigger. The project says they are a lunch size, so I knew they would be different than my other napkins, but now I'm wondering if it's going to bug me that they are so different than my others. Although, it makes me want to make play-kitchen-set-napkins! I'll get to that in my next bit of free time, ha.

Taggy

My son loves his taggy, which I made after being inspired by my nephew loving HIS taggy (and I guess my sister is making pink ones this week!). The fabric is super-soft minky and the ribbons are a variety of textures with plenty of silky satin ribbon to love on!

I have made these for the most recent two close friends having babies. Both of these girls love red, so I chose the red and blue color scheme for their boys. This is a fun little project! Once I got the hang of it it went quickly, and it's rather forgiving (good for my sewing level!).