a lovely match

I am so excited...I have finished my Have It All wallet from Straight Stitch Society!  Here it is:

I had a blast making it, and the pattern instructions were so easy to follow!  Here is a peek of the inside:

I had to think about the zipper pocket a moment or two...but once I realized what it was saying...it went together no problem!  I made only one change to the directions, and instead of using a piece of heavy sew-in interfacing, I used Pellon 809 throughout (had lots leftover from constructing my bag), and I think it worked well, plus I wouldn't have wanted to try stitching through all of that!

So now I'm all set with a lovely new bag and matching wallet:

And now...what to work on for the rest of the evening....

Checking in...

Hope you are having as enjoyable a weekend as I!  My plans for a sewathon of a weekend are on pretty good track.  Now, it hasn't been non-stop sewing...had to take care of a few regular weekend items...but it's been a good 75% sewing...so life is uber good!

Yesterday I got this quilt top put together:

Next up is basting it...have the backing fabric ready and waiting, just gotta see if I actually have the batting for it!

And now...the bag...the bag I am 100% in love with!  I have been slowly but surely working on it piece by piece since yesterday evening.  And I am just super excited!  Here it is:

Pattern: the vera bag by Green Bee Sewing Patterns
Fabric: Joel Dewberry Notting Hill Sateen (Kona Med. Gray lining)
Interfacing: Pellon 809
Thread: Aurifil
Happy factor: THROUGH THE ROOF!

Another look:

and the inside:

(LOVE THE POCKETS!)

This pattern was so easy to use.  And I am over the moon (if you couldn't tell) over how the bag looks! I can't wait to swap out from my current handbag to this one!  And a very good possibility I will make another with this pattern in different fabrics!

and next up...I think I am going to make a matching wallet using this pattern:

I'll let you know how it goes!

Weekend plans

We have had some absolutely stunning weather here lately...so it's kind of funny that I was excited to see a bunch of rain in the forecast!  Because that means I have the perfect excuse to stay inside, in my jammies and sew all weekend long!  Guy has to work, Girl will be at a slumber party, so it will just be me and the fabric!!!  (and the dogs, but they don't bother me much except when they try and sleep on my foot pedal!). 

I will be working on a few quilts (trying to knock down that UFO list, which would actually be much easier if I just stopped starting new projects, like the new quilt I will probably start this weekend).  And...make myself a new bag and maybe a matching wallet featuring these lovelies:

I'll show you the patterns I'm planning on using later...because I may still as change my mind on what bag to make.  But I've been dreaming about a new bag and as soon as I saw the above fabrics...I knew they would be perfect!

So that's all she wrote for now...gotta get some errands done so that I can get to sewing!

Me...Me..Me

actually...should be titled what I have been up to...and since that means we are going to talk about me...well, there ya go.

Anywho.  I kind of mentioned in yesterday's post that I was hoping to share more about what I was up to on Monday.  Well...Guy and I completed our first 5k!

  We ran with quite a few folks:

In a tribute run for Boston.  Guy and I have been diligently working on our running for about 9-10 weeks now, and it was time for a full on 5k with others.  It was completely unofficial, but it meant so much to us to do it on Monday.  It was the right time and the right place.

And now on to what else I've been up to.  Well I told you last week that I had finally ventured on to Craftsy and was trying out the Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing course by Carol Doak...and let me just tell you, the course is FANTASTIC!  Here is what I made after a few short lessons:

All my points match!!!  The tips that Carol gives throughout are excellent and I'm feeling so much more comfortable with paper piecing.  I'm only halfway through the course, so I am very excited to get to the next lessons!  I'm also now seriously considering signing up for some other Craftsy classes, but haven't decided which ones yet.  Any Craftsy classes you might recommend???

So that's all for right now...have a Duck Dynasty season finale to watch with the family...then might get  a workout in (or might not) and then it's time for some sewing!  Later!

15 minute challenge...week 41

Coming to you a little late this week, but here we go with the 15 minute challenge!

First the good news...I'm no longer on night shift!  We were able to finish up what we needed in one week, so I'm back to good ole daylight hours!

Bad news...well...none, just not a ton of sewing done!

Tuesday: none

Wednesday: none

Thursday: none

Friday: Lawn Chair and paper piecing

Saturday: paper piecing

Sunday: none

Monday: none (more on what I did on Monday later!)

So that's all she wrote!  2 of 7.  That's ok. Just a quick post, hope to be back more with later!

I'd say I'm a lover of stripping...

But that would just sound weird!  Because it's really just about the fact that I love some mindless strip piecing.

It was raining.  I also had CNN on, and can I just say, I'm so happy for the people of Boston right now.  And that I'm praying for the victims and families of the victims.  I hope they are all able to finally sleep tonight after a long and very trying week.  My brain was in overload.  But thanks to some strip piecing, and a little bit of cutting, I have this pretty pile:

Which puts me about 25% of the way through the two quilts I am making to send to Texas.   For now it's time to take a little break.  I do have these lovelies to ponder:

We had a class on paper piecing at Sew South (taught by the fabulous Jennifer), but I haven't done any paper piecing since then.  But I've wanted to!  So I picked up the books today.  And as I flipped through them, I was a little worried...so I decided to (finally) sign up at Craftsy and take some classes.  I'm enrolled in the Mastering Foundation Paper Piecing course (taught by Carol Doak), and I was all excited to be able to immediately review the videos.  However, minor issue.  No sound.  From ANY video on the Craftsy website.  And no response (yet) on what the problem may be.  And now that is fixed and can watch the vids from my computer!

Thankfully, I downloaded the Craftsy app to my iPad and able to view the videos and HEAR them!  So I'll let you know how the class works out for me!

My weekend plan...

Just a quick post, I'm sure I'll post more over the weekend (maybe even tonight), but had to share my weekend plan with you...

Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times has put out a call for quilts for the people of West, Texas.  You can read about the details here.

So my plan, is to make a pair of quilts to send to Judy:

So I'm off to get to work.  If you have a quilt you can share, please check out Judy's post and info and consider sharing some quilt love with the folks of West, Texas!