still a bag lady!

Last week I showed you a small rectangle of linen stitch which was my preparation for a workshop held last Saturday at my local knitters’ guild.

The workshop was very well prepared and presented and obviously very inspiring since that little rectangle has now become this:

A fast and easy knit. I think the most tedious part was the linen stitch handle. I foresee some more of these in my future.

The bag even has my very first i-cord closure:

Thanks WM for modelling!

bag lady

About two weeks ago I showed you my bag-in-progress.

And this is what it looks like now

… all finished!
There is no shortage of places to store things in this bag – the front, the back and both sides have pockets as you can see, but this is the inside:

and there’s even this little zipper pocket!

I’m now hooked on bags (hence the title of this post). I'm on a mission now to turn this completed embroidery (which I have forgotten to show you since I finished it) into a bag to carry my supplies to and from embroidery classes.

The purple fabric is for the outer part of the bag and the “cross stitch” fabric is the lining.
And the bag making doesn't stop there. After thinking, “I’ll never make hexagons, I don't like them”, I am planning to make a sock-knitting project bag in hexagons! I've decided to use bright fabrics and these are the fabrics I have pulled from my small stash so far. I only need a small piece to cut 1.5” hexagons and I may not use them all. One of them will be used for the lining of the bag.

What do you think?

Sew What Monday (on Tuesday)

Carol, over at Fun Threads, writes a weekly post about what she’s working on and invites others to link up and share their works-in-progress. This week she has finished a quilt top based on a book called Goodnight Moon. (while you're over there, check out that beautiful rocking chair).

Since I got my iPad four weeks ago, I have done very little sewing. I spent about a week catching up with blogs and then started downloading books from my local library. I have read more books in the past month than I have read in a year. It has even inspired me to dig out my Kindle and read books I have stored on there too.

But I do attend classes on Mondays. Since the beginning of June I have been working on a bag made from a half jelly roll (that is, twenty 2 1/2 strips).

the bag as I took it to class yesterday

I know I am very slow. I find it hard to stitch straight lines and be accurate so I have my machine on the slowest speed possible to be as accurate as possible. Due to my family commitments and my revived love of reading in combination with spring-like weather last week (which caused me to sit outside in the warmth to read – far away from my cold sewing room), I haven’t been sewing between classes.

But, finally my bag is starting to come together. Yesterday I sewed the pockets to the front and back and started putting the bindings on the top of the bag.

I had been doubting my choice of fabrics but am now beginning to see how it all comes together and I think it will all work out in the end.

moving forward with sewing projects

Back at the beginning of June I started making a bag with my own hand-picked half jelly roll.

I’ve pieced and ripped and pieced and quilted. (I'm very slow at quilt-in-the-ditch; I have my machine on the slowest speed and still can't quite manage to stay in the ditch!)

Here’s the carcass of the bag (front, back and sides)

and the pockets.

I have also made the handle but forgot to take a photo.

My teacher gave me homework to move this project forward but I’ve been side-tracked.

We are having such gorgeous spring-like weather today that I am going to sit out in the sun (yes, it’s still the middle of winter) and do some hand stitching!

The same teacher also takes a monthly embroidery class. On Wednesday I started this and I worked on it last night (stem stitch for the inquiring minds that want to know).

Can you guess what it’s going to be?

applique adventures in knitterland patched laundry bag

A long time ago, our laundry bag (which is only used when we go away) was caught on something and got torn.

On Saturday I decided to patch it! I know it's not perfect but it's just a laundry bag and, most importantly, I had fun playing around with applique.

house width = two inches

Are we seing a theme here?