2 more birthdays. 2 more bags. The pink one has a few squares of fabric from the lovely Ayumi of Pink Penguin fame. I ordered some rubber stamps from her and she included that pink dotted fabric with my order. Lucky me!
Here's to a happy Monday. There is such a thing, right?
I made this one for my MIL. Bryce informed me that she wanted one of my bags for her birthday. How could I resist? Her bag is made mainly from batik scraps. The colors and funky look of batiks has always reminded me of my MIL. It is lined with a soft light blue batik-like fabric.
This cheerful bag is for another one of Eva's friends who turned 5 yesterday. Eva insisted that yellow squares be added to it since pink and yellow are her friend's favorite colors. These are important details when you're 5. I managed to find the one piece of yellow I have in my stash. Note to self: When the time comes to restock my stash buy yellows.
See the back here.
Couldn't send Beckett something without including a gift for his big brother so I made this pirate's Booty Bag for Reilly. Still loving this reversible patchwork bag pattern. Have you tried it yet?
Now that my mom has opened her gifts I can show you what I made her. Another reversible patchwork bag, of course. This was made out of 2 quilt blocks that never made it into a quilt. The blocks were fused onto batting so this bag is quilted! I put some dark chocolate inside from The Chocolate Company here in Luxembourg. Cinched it up and sent it on it's way!
We also sent her Bananagrams. Have you played this game yet? It is so fun. My in-laws gave it to us for Christmas. It is a perfect game for the crossword, Scrabble and Boggle lover.
After taking this picture, uploading it, correcting it and looking back at it, I finally noticed that I made the word revoting instead of revolting. I cheated and I didn't even know it. Ha!
Or have you? Hmmm. 
Hope you had a great weekend!
Bag fever also hit my friend Stacy. She made patchwork backpacks, grommets and all (insert round of applause), like the one Audrey made. It's catchy. I dare ya to make one. One will lead to two. . . I'd be lying if I told you I was done making these bags. I have 4 more sitting on my machine nearly finished. Here's the thing, I looked through my unfinished blocks box (say that 10 times fast) and found some great blocks that I never turned into quilts. Now I'm turning them into bags. I'll show you this weekend.
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Thanks to Audrey, Jennifer and my mom for helping me get the cinching thing right. I'm happy to report all of my bags, including my most recent 2, are cinchers! Here are the 2 new ones I made. This light pink one is for Eva. I used the rest of the sparkly butterfly fabric in the bag. I kept the bag in pastel pinks to keep with her current princess, fairy, ballerina, all 3 at the same time, magical, fairy tale phase. It's an entertaining phase, that much is for sure. Last week she looked at me seriously and asked, "Mom, do you think I'm graceful?" Where do they come up with this stuff?
Pink Penguin has a flickr group for projects made from her tutorials. Take a look through it. There are some inspiring pieces in there. I also found another flickr group called, Nothing but Scraps. Good ideas to be found there too.
I'm still really into making bags. Have you made one yet? This one is really tempting me. Wouldn't it be a cute Easter Basket?
It sure is. Another reversible patchwork bag, 2 more almost done. These are fun to make, people. Give it a try. I used 4 inch blocks for this one. It finished at 13.5 inches square. It's a nice size. This one is going to one of Eva's friends who is turning 5 at the end of the month. I'm going to put a few books inside. For the inside of this bag I used a piece of poly-cotton my mom gave me. I think it's from the 1980s. Isn't it sweet? It feels so soft, like a comfy nightie or PJs. I am having a slight problem, though. I can't get my bag to cinch. When I pull the cords it does nothing. Anyone know how to make the cords cinch the bag shut?
On Saturday morning we went to the farmers' market. It is full of beautiful spring flowers, produce, meats and cheeses. There was also an antique market going on. I could have wandered through that all day. I can never resist the first primroses of spring, so we each chose one to put in the planter by our front door. Can you figure out whose is whose?
On Sunday it was nice enough for me to hang out the laundry on our clothes line. To me this is a great pleasure. I love the smell of the clothes and the look of the items blowing in the breeze. I also like the process of it, hanging, checking, clothes pins, baskets, Audrey running under the sheets - all good! Bryce got out the mower and we all spent some time in the back yard. It was extremely pleasant.
I also crawled out of my sewing funk, by making my first reversible patchwork bag. This is a wonderful and very forgiving pattern therefore, the bag turns out great! So cute. It was fun to make and not too time consuming at all. For this first one I used some squares I had left from the Charm Quilt Scrap Exchange. One side of the bag is in blues the other in reds. I have squares cut out for 3 more. I increased the square size from 2.5 inches to 4 in order to make a bigger bag. Have you tried this pattern yet? It is addicting. You won't be disappointed with the results. More pictures here.
How was your weekend?
