What a busy week!

I am so behind with my blog already. My oldest came home from her father's in Monday morning (yes!), and I have been busy making so much for her. I started with a charm tote for her using the Morris Apprentice line by Barbara Brackman for Moda. It's a nice muted, naturistic line. So I got that done, and then I made a wallet and a ChapStick holder for her as well in the same line. School goes back this coming Monday and she requested a matching pencil case. I found a tutorial on Pinterest here. I decided to use a hexagon pattern. I cut 9 charms into quarters and English paper pieced the hexagons using 2" paper templates. I then sewed them into seven rows of 5. I am currently hand stitching the rows together. Here is a picture of my progress so far

What a weekend...

Have the Bestie and her kids here the last few days was great. I started teaching her to sew and quilt. She made a pillow for her son. I made her a tote bag like mine, using the Chrysalis charm pack from Moda. She loves it and got some great compliments on it already. I also made a monkey face and a cat face place at for her kids. I am especially proud of the cat-we designed that one all on our own! We also did some other little projects. Needless to say, after they left today ( :( ) I put away my things and took the rest of the day off from sewing. Tomorrow I will post about one of my little projects I did yesterday for my sewing area. Night all!

Projects I've Done This Week

It has been a very busy week for me here. I have started and completed 2 quilt tops: a circle applique quilt and a star quilt. I need to add a wider border yet, but here is the majority of it:

Appliqueing circles was a learning experience, for sure! I used 2 of the PB&J from Moda charm packs for the circles, 2 yards of a light off-white solid from the French General line, again from Moda, and for the borders and blue background squares more PB & J. I based it on a quilt I found here.
I also made my diaper bag/purse:

I used the same pattern as the bag from the previous post.

About a year ago, I saw

these at my local amazing fabric store, and desired them for my own. I decided to go with a Giant Vintage Star pattern, to best show off the prints. Here is my finished top

the couch it is draped over is a 3 seater; I believe the finished size was 68" square.

I started a new quilt for my Boo-she chose a blue seagull fabric, which I've paired with a grey and a white solid, and a white on black paisley. She is 4 years old, took one look at the way I was piecing it, and said "That's NOT the way I wanted it, Mama" Too bad, kid! ;)

My bestie and her two kiddos are visiting me for a few days and have put orders in-I need to do 2 animal placemats, 2 pillows, and a charm tote for my friend-by Sunday. I think I can, I think I can...

Charm Pack Tote Bag

I made this cute tote bag last week. I found the pattern on Pinterest, which as you will soon come to find, is my primary resource for ideas. I can come across a quilt or project on there and it sparks something in me that shouts "You can do this!" Anyways, the original tutorial for this bag can be found here. As a mom of 5, I have a very hard time finding a diaper bag that #1: is cute, #2: is functional, and #3: is BIG enough. The pattern calls for a bag size of 3x2 charms per side; as you can tell, I made mine 4x2. I also added more pockets inside and a larger pocket as well. I also increased the bottom panel by 5". After all that, I wasn't completely satisfied with the colors (too bright for me personally), so I gave it to my brother-in-law's girlfriend, who loves it. I've started another for me, using Moda's line from Sandy Gervais, called Flirt. If you've ever seen this line, it's a cute, fun line filled with hearts and lovebirds. Here's a pic I took of the charm layout:

I'm going to use the taupe solid as the fabric for the straps, the lining, and the bottom I can't wait to finish it. :)

Blogging

I've been giving some thought to this recently: where can I go to show off pictures of things I'm working on, share updates and news about the kids, and just generally sound off? Facebook is great, but space can be limited. That leaves blogging. So I'm going to try this again. If you are following me, thanks for tuning in and I hope you enjoy!