Sunday, September 17, 2006

A bagalicious weekend

My sewing machine was smokin' this weekend, and it felt great. Well, it felt great for me. I can't speak for my hard-working Janome.



I made this bag for the silent auction. The design is from Cindy Taylor Oates' "Purses, Bags and Totes" -- which, by the way, I highly recommend. Great instructions, giving precise dimensions of fabric pieces to cut, and a few full-sized patterns included - none of this "enlarge 245%" business like in most books, which I can't help but find awfully annoying when I spot a design I'd like to start right away. This book is also the source of the yoga bag I made last week (there are a couple of minor errors in the printed directions, but it's easy enough to figure out the "oops" when you're in the process of construction.)

Then, inspired by some of the clever designs I spotted on the Bagaholics blog, I started this little bag in some luscious autumn prints I had on hand. I foundation-pieced the wedges right onto the cotton batting, then put some decorative feather stitching in gold thread along the seams to quilt the thing. I haven't decided what handles to put on it yet...sophisticated black or woodsy bamboo?

On the knitting front, I completed this set of mittens that I had intended for my daughter's classroom supply. They turned out adult-sized, not first-grader sized -- but the wool/acrylic/mohair mix made them nice and soft and surprisingly great-looking. So I decided I'd add them to the silent auction, too, especially if I can get a scarf finished to go with them. I will probably start the scarf Tuesday night during "Dancing With the Stars" -- which, by the way, is absolutely the most entertaining television show to ever have been on the air, EH-VER.

I just have to hope that I won't get so excited watching Emmitt Smith dance that I drop a stitch... but that's a chance I'll just have to take.

1 comment:

Joe said...

I didn't think ANYONE could match Jerry Rice, though!!