Did I show you Mom's tote?

After seeing the tote I made myself and the one I made for a swap buddy, my mom asked me to make a tote for her. 

She bought batiks and gave them to me to use.

I set about, once again, to create another tote. I made 3 changes this time around.  The first change was to sew all the rectangles for each side together and then iron them to two large pieces of interfacing instead of of cutting the interfacing into individual rectangle pieces.  

The second change was to make longer straps. My mom intends to use this tote to haul items to and from the thrift house she works at.  She takes toys and clothes home, cleans them and brings them back to the thrift house to sell.  She commented that the bag sometimes gets really heavy so I wanted to be sure I gave her a chance to wear it across her chest if she needed to.

The final change is an improvement. I quilted on straight lines.  I love the final look and thankfully, so does mom.

I am beginning to feel like a “one bag pony” over here but at least we are all happy.

Cheers!

Beck

A Crazy Journey - Part 2

I had waited to write this post to hear from the folks I sent my swap goodies to but as of today, I haven't heard from anyone except the person I sent the block to.

Block received and liked. Yay!

I sent the aprons and bag along with a little cookbook for the Secret Santa party.

I sent the little dresden plate mini from my last post but it was going to Ontario, Canada. I'm hoping it's just a little slow in the mail system instead of lost. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed she likes it.

I also sent out the tote.  This tote.

I promised to share the story with you and while, like the mini, I don't know if the tote was received yet, I miss blogging and decided to share anyway.

You see, I promised to help coordinate the swap and took half the list and assigned partners.  I inadvertently assigned a mom to make something for her daughter with the added benefit they live in the same household. She notified me and I so I simply swapped her daughter with my partner.  A couple weeks went by and we proceeded to make our swap partners gifts based on what we read for likes and dislikes that they sent us as part of the swap.

My tote came together.

The day I was ready to send it, I happened to go to my partner's Flickr page and her profile. I read through what she liked on her profile, which was pretty similar to what she said in her note except one thing.  There was an added sentence which stated she didn't like browns.

WHAT?!  Why oh why didn't I see this in all my stalking research before? Clearly I'm a crappy stalker.

UGH, what to do, what to do?  Ah!

I emailed my partner's mom. I asked her if she thought her daughter would like it given all the brown and she gave me the reply I feared. Probably not. She said her daughter had been asking for the same item her swap partner and she proposed we switch back. I agreed but not without feeling bad about it.

I went back to my original partner's likes and dislikes but decided not to give her the tote and that's why I made the dresden mini.  I did, however, send the tote off to my original swap partner's mom.  She raved about it and claimed she'd love to have it if the person I was sending it to didn't like it.

I figured, she dealt with all the mishaps, it should be her tote. I hope she likes it as much in real life as she did from the pictures and I just have to say, thank you, again to her for bearing with me through it all.

What have your last couple weeks been like?

Cheers!
Beck

A couple fun projects are finished

The second half of October was a sprint to use my new sewing inspiration and renewed desire to finish projects and managed to start and complete my Monster Mash quilt. 

November seems to be the month for little but important projects: swaps, a bee beginning and, if I can manage it, an entry to the QuiltCon quilt show. The teaser for that is to show you only this fabric.

Now let's talk about the bee. I joined my first bee ever, hosted by Melissa over at Tension Issues, there are 12 of us and it is a star bee. We provided our colors and the bee members choose the star patterns and even the size of the stars. I can tell you I'm so freaking excited to participate in this!  This was the star I made for the first months' recipient but I can't send it.  I know I'm being hyper-critical, but it's a little crooked and there is just one corner point that will be lost when it's sewn into the top.  However, I do like it enough to keep it so that may be part of the reason I can't let it go. Can't you just see a rainbow quilt with stars of different colors like this?

I'm also in two swaps that need to be sent out in the next week. The first is a secret Santa swap hosted by Kara at Me and Elna.  The deal was, make and send something crafty, anything, of an approximate dollar value.  I struggled a lot with this one because the person I am partnered with did not have a lot of an online presence that I could discreetly stalk. Of all the areas I'm most critical and require the most of myself, it's to find the "just right" personal gift. Anyway, I tried making place mats. Fun on one side and maybe more practical and neutral on the other.  I designed, cut and sewed without a quilting plan in mind.  I was reminded about how important that is.  

I thought to just quilt 3 SID lines using the fun side as a guide but I did not like the look on the opposite diagonal side because I had a neutral cream cutting through the black stripe. So I tried SID on the stripe side but the reality is, I just stink at quilting on my domestic machine. Too many crinkles on the fun side.  

I decided enough was enough. I took one of the new panels, added a border and made it an apron.  

I then decided to add a few other aprons to the mix for fun. Less detailed but reversible and yummy.

It just seemed like I needed to do something else and with my new found bag making skills from the Sewing Summit, I set about making a bag. I bugged the Instagram folks to help me confirm fabric choices for the bag and then I was off. 

I found the pattern for Pick a Pocket Purse on All People Quilt, designed by  Happy Zombie, but I do believe it's been in a magazine or two, as well.  Let me tell you, it came together so easily and so quickly! If you are looking for a good and quick project, this is it. It would be a fantastic teacher gift with it's pockets and  nice open main pocket.  

Those are my finishes so far. I'll update you with the new bee block and my sewing summit swap item as soon as they are done.  Oh yes, and the mini-quilt. I'm determined to get it done. 

Cheers!

Beck