Clutch Performance

So today is the last day of March. Nothing exciting is happening, except that it is the last day to finish my March In Stitches Sew Along project. This month we are making the Clutch Handbag with Fabric Flower. After making the Weekender Bag, I had expected this bag to be pretty difficult. I was pleasantly surprised.


There is a divider on the inside. I must really stink at working with Timtex. Everytime I do something with Timtex it turns out wonky. In this case, the divider on the inside is a little bit big, so instead of being straight it bends a little. I hide this by stuffing all the excess into the corners... It doesn't stay like that for long though...


The only modifications that I did was to add the strap and to make the velcro closure a magnetic snap. Oh, and I left out the flower.


I liked how it turned out, but as a clutch, it's HUGE! I'm glad I added the straps.

10 foot rule

I love the 10 foot rule. It's WONDERFUL. In case you don't know, it's "If you don't see the mistakes from 10 feet away, it's good enough". This is the sample flower from my machine applique class last night. The class was super fun, but essentially it was everything that my friend Holly graciously already taught us. But it was a lot easier the second time around, and it was really nice to be "forced" to practice. This little piece of muslin below was the stitch bible I made to applique. I think it will come in very handy in the future. I'm on my way to doing my monster quilt!!

Plain Jane and proud of it!

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Dishcloth Cotton.You are a very hard worker, most at home when you're at home. You are thrifty and seemingly born to clean. You are considered to be a Plain Jane, but you are too practical to notice.
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So I'm dishcloth cotton. Not really all that surprising. I like cotton! I like machine washable stuff. I don't like to clean. Really, I am too practical sometimes, but I do like hanging out at home as much as I can. I mean who wouldn't with so many UFOs?

Tutto to the rescue!

It came!! My new Tutto bag to carry around my Janome 6600P. And just in time, I have a machine applique class tonight at the Granary. It's super nice, with TONS of pockets. My machine is huge so it pretty much fills up the large size bag. The straps are nice to secure it down. I love it! Sorry I haven't been posting lately, I will be better in the coming week. I have at least one project that is almost complete! The In Stitches deadline for March is coming up too... Oy I'm so behind!

We are Family!!

I am taking the Friends on Chelsea Lane Block of the Month class at the Granary. This quilt is super cute and is designed by Pat Sloan. It is done with fusible applique and blanket stitch. The block below is for January. I actually enjoyed making it. This class was a big reason for me to get a new machine, since my old machine, a Janome Jem Silver, was a little limited on functions. Great machine though, and I still use it.



The baby rick rack looks nice, and I love the tree. Notice how it looks like one of the trees on the Festival of Trees quilt?

I think I'm addicted...

To starting new projects. Today I was clicking through links for the fabshophop, and I happened across this:



I'm in LOVE!! Here is the link. I think I like the antique look of it. I would buy it except that I already have another quilt kit waiting in the wings! Who knows, my birthday is coming up...

An update to the ripple blanket: after reading Dawn's post on the NEIS Ripple-along, I decided that I should make a swatch to make sure I'm doing it correctly. I also went to Michael's and now I am trying to find Caron Simply Soft Brites to make a blanket similar to Oiyi's (I'm also in love there). I have 6 of the 8 available colors, and they're gorgeous. This is no longer a stash blanket!

A new project

I know I know, even with all my UFOs to the right I'm still starting a new project... but this one is fabulous! It's for the No End In Sight Ripple-along, and it's going to be great. You'll be glad to know that I'm using stash yarn for this, mostly from Chris' Tetris blanket. Should be fun. Here is the book where the pattern is from (pg 19, "Soft Waves"):



And here is my start!



More updates soon, I promise. It's much prettier when you get past the first few rows.

Yarn Source

Today we went for a hike at Rancho San Antonio. It was pretty nice to walk. Chris and I decided that we should go for a hike every weekend. There's a nice little farm at the bottom near the parking lot, and they had some sheep and some goats. When I saw this ewe I thought "hmm, she would make some nice yarn" even though I have no idea if this is a yarn type of sheep or even if there are yarn-type of sheep.

On a sidenote, does anyone know how to respond to comments on blogger via email? I'd really like to be able to thank people individually for their nice comments, but I'm not sure if it's possible.

Grabby

After looking at all the gorgeous projects in the In Stitches Sew Along, I followed a link to Make It Snappy's Blog. There I found this post about a grab bag and I knew I had to have it. After running out and finding the magazine, I found made this version for Ping:



Not half bad, huh? There are a few things I would change for next time, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. Here are some more shots:



The lining + pocket:



Flattened:



This bag is interesting in that it has handles of two different lengths. You stuff the longer one into the shorter one to make a wristlet sort of thing. I already have fabrics cut out for a version for me!