Summer bag

I participated in the Friday Night Sew-In hosted by Crafty Vegas Mom.  Here is what I made tonight.


I like the bowtie totes.  I made a couple for my daughter and me in dark colors, and a bright one for my mother. The dark ones are too dreary for summer so I made a bright one for myself.  It is very cheerful!  I like using the magnetic fasteners but didn't have any on hand.  I can always add that later.

Camera bag

This is the camera bag I made from Kay Whitt's Media Frenzy Book.  It was a little bit tricky to make.  I was making two at a time, so when I cut fabric wrong for one of them, it was wrong for both.  After I found out that I had to make the lid larger than the pattern called for, I decided to finish just one at a time.  I added notes as I went along, so if I make it again, hopefully that will help me.

 The interior is a little bit confusing.  I am not sure where the camera goes and the compartment for the lenses doesn't seem large enough.

This bag is a gift for my daughter's friend.  Since I don't have a good camera and she does, maybe she can shed some light on this.
My sewingmachine does not have a free arm (Janome 6600.)  That is really necessary to make this bag.  I have an older machine that I switched over to when I needed a free arm.  I am so grateful I didn't get rid of that.
I am not real motivated to finish the other camera bag now (which is why I was doing them two at a time.)  I have quite a few other projects I want to get into more, so I am going to have to finish this before I get back into working on the others.

To rip or not to rip

I have had my Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt (top) finished for a long time, but I couldn't bring myself to quilt it because I just didn't love it.  I loved the blocks until I put them together.  I don't think there was enough contrast and the blocks just kind of blurred together.  I started taking it apart because I was thinking I should put sashing between the blocks.  Then I thought maybe I will take it all apart and not like the sashing!  A lot of sewing and ripping  if it wasn't going to make a difference.
I put the part of the quilt still pieced on my design wall and took a picture.  I put the blocks on my design wall with some sashing to get an idea of how it might look.  I think I am doing the right thing.  I think I like it with the sashing better.

What do you think?

Blogger's Dinner Party

Needles and Spatula is having a  Bloggers' Dinner Party.  It  will be a monthly link-up for you to show off handmade place mats, table runners, napkins, trivets and any other handcrafted item related to serving a delicious dinner!  She will randomly choose a winner for a fat quarter bundle.  

Here is the table topper I am going to submit.  My quilt club got together and made these as a group last fall.  I liked mine so much I made extras for gifts.  I don't have a lot of orange even though I really like it.  I am going to have to work on remedying that. 

Emilee's Star

Here is a quilt that I just finished for Emilee's family.  Emilee had Alexander's Disease.  This is a very rare disease of the white matter of the brain.  Her brother goes to school with my granddaughter.  Making this very sad situation very strange is that my grandson Oliver also has this disease.  He was diagnosed a few months before Emilee was.  They are both similar ages-two going on three.  They are both adorable children who don't deserve this terrible disease.  No one deserves it.  More information can be found at the United  Leukodystrophy Foundation  .  This quilt was made to raffle so funds can be raised to help with the huge cost of medical care for Emilee.  Here is Emilee's website-Prayers for Emilee.  Oliver does not have a web site, but he does have a group on Facebook also requesting prayers.

Sew Mama Sew prize

I won this adorable outfit from http://apocketfullofbuttons.blogspot.com/ .  This is my granddaughter Madison modeling it.  She loves clothes and couldn't wait to try it on.  I wasn't so lucky getting her to hold still for the picture!