write it down

I know that it seems like I've yet again, abandoned the blog, but alas, I am here. Sewing my brains out!

I'm getting ready for a show next weekend, and these are the latest edition to my goods that I'll be bringing along with me. Journals! For as much as I'm obsessive compulsive about writing everything down, these have been perfect for me to make. Once I fill up one notebook, I can slide it out and put a new one in.

I've been using different colors of linen to line the outside, with three pieces of cotton to make it all pretty-like. I've also found a bit sturdier of an iron on interfacing that seems to work really well. I'm not sure of the name; so far I've been able to pick it out based on feel.

**Side note: Am I the only one who does that with interfacing? All the women at the craft stores don't believe me when I ask for other interfacing than what they have on display, and they'll tell me, "Oh honey, these are the only kinds they make. I'm sure one of these are what you need." And I'm all like "no, I can tell the difference by touch, and this isn't the same interfacing you had last month when I was in the store. I swear there's a conspiracy.

So, these, along with oodles of pouches and bags and other sewing have been keeping me busy this month. Next Saturday I'll be back in Ypsilanti, Michigan for the Summer Shadow Art Fair at the Corner Brewery. It's always a really fun day, so if you're in the area, stop by, look at crafts and have a beer! (You'll have to buy your own, though.)

A lilac tree

I think I may have made the best bag that I've ever made this week.

Not to toot my own horn or anything (that so sounded like something a grandma would say) by I'm pretty pleased with my work on this bad boy. I was sitting in the sewing room the other night, playing with my buttons and I needed to make something with them. I've been through the standard tree button colors a few times now, and I really didn't want to repeat that with this. Instead I started thinking about trees in the spring, and how the purple lilacs are one of my favorites. I ended up with this.

I did pockets with this one. I didn't know I could do pockets!

There was a bit of a tense moment during the whole process when I accidently ripped the last bit of gray fabric that I had. I had miscalculated the seam allowence when I was making the handles, and instead of carefully ripping out the stitching I sliced the whole side of the handel, wrecking it. I nearly lost it. Thank goodness JoAnn's had the same color gray, without any mismatched dye lot issues like I was fearing.

And as usual, I've put this bag up in my Etsy Shop. It may have to be torn from my hands though, since apparently I'm in love with it.

Works In Progress

Being the kind of person who likes to be a joiner, I thought I'd participate this week in showing what I've been working on.

My pile of fabric that is soon to be sliced and diced to become pouches for the shop. I get on these kicks where I just have to make a lot of one certain thing. I'm feeling that way right now with the pouches. You may be seeing a lot of them in the near future. :)

I don't know if this counts as a project or not, but I've been working on re-organizing my sewing and crafts room for a good week now. This shelf is starting to show some progress, but there's a good reason why I didn't show a picture of the floor....or anywhere else in the room for that matter.

Shop Update of the Century

I've seriously lost my mind. But as you might have guessed, I've added a lot of stuff to the shop. Lots more than I've ever had in there before. Here's some of the new stuff:

There's lots more cards and a few other pouches and pincushions and things, too. I'm hoping there will be more to come later this week as well. Thanks for sticking with me through my bit of self promotion.

Carry Stuff

I failed to mention today that I have accomplished a few things in the past weeks. I think the heat was making me loopy.

I finished four new bags that I'm really proud of:

Know when you've finished something, and you're really proud of it? I feel that way with these bags. They just came together so well, it was almost like they were too easy to make. Anyway, I've been meaning to share them for awhile now--I hope you like!

April Wrap-Up

So I've been somewhat hesitant to post lately because all of the work that I've done in the last month has been for my Etsy shop. I started to feel weird that I was always just showing the things I've been making to sell (I felt like I was being too advertising-y). But since that's what I've been doing for the past few weeks, I guess I feel a responsiblity to show that I have actually been really busy with making things.

So those are some of the things I've done this past month! Hopefully I'll come up with something else to do in May besides make tote bags and pouches. Maybe I'll even make something that has to do with quilts!

Etsy Update

I've not been very good about posting my recent quilting and crafting adventures lately. The majority of what I've been working on in the last week has been for my Etsy shop though. It was starting to look pretty embarrassing over there.

My big projects have been my pillows:

(I think I may have shown that one back in December. It was the first one that I made for my shop. It's hard to know with all of those felties I made last month--it's practically the only thing I remember doing!)

Then there's:

And of course there's:

The new sewing table is wonderful for assembling those, by the way! I've also been making everybody's favorite crafty project: marble magnets. I discovered how cool using scrapbooking paper can be to make really good marble magnets.

Here's the red and pink set:

Then we have the green and blue set:

And as always, the multi-colored set:

So that's a lot (not all though) of what I've been working on lately. I hope to put more up in my store by the week's end, as well as work on some of my own projects too. It's nice to have somethings that I work on just for myself, too.