Lazy Girl Bag for my Mom - Finally!

I have been making bags for years now for friends, myself, gifts, etc. and yet I had never made one for my own mother!  I finally pinned her down and made her decide at least on a color scheme and to my surprise, she picked black, white and pink.  I love it.  I started pulling fabrics from my stash and this is what I got.

I started cutting strips and sewing them together, not totally sure what I was going to do with it.

So pretty!  I just love the colors but I made way too many strips for what I used.

So I ended up piecing the strips onto the back of the bag with some black and white print and here is a view of the finished back of the bag.

Then I did a little hand stitching with hot pink embroidery floss along the edge and inside some of the squares.

A heart for love for my mom.

She also specified she wanted this flower on the bag also, I had done another project with this and she really liked it.  I modified it to make it a little smaller though to fit on the bag.  

Below is the front view of the bag with the pocket and handles with rick rack sewn down the middle.

The bag pattern I used was the Margo Handbag by Lazy Girl Designs.  I have used many of Joan's patterns and love them all.  They have great instructions with lots of pictures and this one even has an easy way to do a zipper.  Go here to check out all of her great bags!  Lazy Girl Designs

 "Blinged out" zipper pull.

Top view of bag with zipper.

Just inside the zipper I added some decorative stitches with hearts for my mom again. 

 Inside view, lots and lots of great pockets  inside too.  All of Joan's bag patterns 

have lots of pockets that are really easy to do.

The lining fabric was one mom liked and I like the LOVE words all over it. 

 I hope every time she looks at this bag she knows how much I love her!

Fabric Love! DS Quilts - some purchased and some won!

I love getting packages like this in the mail!

I ordered this charm pack from Etsy since we don't have any JoAnn stores where I live.

Look how cute it is, tied up with a fabric bow.

In case you don't know, these fabrics are by Denyse Schmidt and are only found at JoAnn stores under the name DS Quilts and the lines are Picnic and Fairgrounds.

Not sure what I am making yet but some will be used in my hexagon quilt for sure.

So a few days later, I entered a giveaway from the Happy Cottage Quilter and won this!

6 fat quarters and 1/2 yard of more of the same line!  How great is that.

She even included some cute patterns from the store and some matching buttons.

What a cute note card too.

Thanks so much Jocelyn!

Go check out her blog here.

Now I will be trying to decide on what to make.  I have been thinking about trying a dresden plate 

and these fabrics would be just perfect for that I think?  Any other ideas for me?

Fabric Swap for Hexagon Making!

Wow, look what I got in the mail last week!!!  Lots of fabric love from Kristen of  K*D Quilts.  We are both making hexagon quilts and hers is a NO REPEAT - mine is not, so we swapped some fabrics to give mine more variety and help her fill the need she has for over 1,000 different fabrics.  Go check out her blog too, it is great and I am really glad I met her here online!

She wrote me a sweet little note too. 

Don't you love that little deer at the top!

She sent me a lot of beautiful fabrics that I didn't have.  This was so much fun, we are going to do it again later as we both collect new and different fabrics.   Thanks again Kristen!

Starbucks and Hexagons - 2 of my favorite things!

So I know this is a little extreme since I already have a Starbucks insulated cup, but when they came out with a new one that is bigger (24 oz) AND the two layers separate so you can decorate the inside of them, I knew I had to do THIS!

I got out some 1/2" hexies and some Central Park and Sunkissed fabrics and started stitching.

It was kind of difficult to shape it to the curve of the glass but I think it turned out great!  I love having these cups at work, helps me drink more water.  We have a good ice machine (I work at the hospital) so I enjoy cold drinks all shift long.  Now, no one will pick mine up by mistake either, they will just look at it and shake their heads and laugh.  I love it though.

Mug Rug Swap Adventure 2

I am joining the Mug Rug Swap Adventure 2 that is just getting started.  Go check it out and join up while you can over at Leona's Quilting Adventure with this link:

http://oneygirl-myquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/2011/05/mug-rug-swap-adventureits-survey-time.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LeonasQuiltingAdventure+%28LEONA%27S+QUILTING+ADVENTURE%29

I just think Mug Rugs are so cute and I can't wait to make one for someone and get one in return.  I hope some of you will join me.  There are some pics of mug rugs on Flickr too that can serve for inspiration!
Enjoy!
Jodi

Hexagons in progress

My hexagon adventures!!

Here is one flower I made out of 1/4" hexagons!  Wow, that was hard.

Am I going to make a quilt out of those??  Not in the near future.

I am however, working on one with 1" hexies and am really enjoying it.

Never thought I would like doing all this handwork, but it is really relaxing and

something I can take anywhere.  I even got some of the girls at work

hooked on it too (and some of them don't even sew - well they do now!).

Back view of one of my favorite hexies out of favorite fabrics, Flea Market Fancy and Happy.  I don't sew through the papers just baste around the edges and then I don't have to remove the basting - ever!

A month or two ago and then now....

Here are some of my favorite flowers so far...some Central Park fabrics...

A little sparkle and some Sunkissed in there too and I think I see some Katie Jump Rope!

And some Java made by my friend Melanie who never sewn before! 

She has made a lot of these hexagons for me!

My quilt has become a friendship quilt too, as I have shown friends how to do it, they have made blocks for me and now some of them are starting their own, so I made a block or two for them.  It is nice to look at them and remember who made that one, or who picked out that flower combination.  That is a lot of what I love about quilting, the friendships, the bonding, the laughter.  You all know what I am talking about.

Denyse Schmidt Giveaway

GIVEAWAY!!!
Just had to make sure you all knew about the fabric giveaway on Heather from The House of AlaMode.  Check out her really cute pillows made from it.

http://alamodefabric.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweet-taste-of-crow.html


Another project:  Check out these cute winter batiks I got at my LQS, Fabric City.  I can see a really cute mug rug being made with some Chenille trim around the border and maybe in the midde too.  I need to get busy on it though because even though it doesn't feel like it today (below zero temps), winter will be over before we know it.

The fabrics are from the Let It Snow Batik line from Moda.  I will post pictures when I am done (hopefully this will inspire me to get it done quickly).