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I don’t have any pictures today (lame) but I forgot to pick an innocent crush charm pack winner this weekend. It’s #33–my friend Beth!!! I won’t even have to mail the charm pack, so it’s like I win, too! 😀 My next contest will be fun–I’ve been saving selvedges because they’re too cool to throw away, but I don’t actually want to do anything with them, so once they hit a critical mass and overflow my container a baggie of selvedges will be up for grabs! When Will was a baby I tried so hard to get him to love books, but he just didn’t. With Ellie, I forgot to try and yet…she adores books. She loves to go into her room and look through her box of books, and earlier this morning I heard her huffing and puffing her way into the office. She was crawling and pushing along her absolute favorite book, Jamberry. We read it about 12 times. She was looking at it in her crib this morning when I put her down for a nap. I thought she was sleeping because she was so quiet, but no. She was looking at Jamberry. Even though Will wasn’t very interested in books when he was Ellie’s age, he has grown to love them, so I can only imagine how much Ellie will love them when she’s Will’s age! I am mom, mom-my, or mom-mom. Nic is da, dad, or dad-dy. Eyes are eyes. Books are dooks, gooks, or mooks. Bottles are babas. Food is numma-numma. Greetings are ‘hi.’ Questions are whassdata or whassdis or dis. Will? Will gets nothing. It’s been months since she’s called him will-a. Instead she calls him nothing. I don’t get it. And Ellie and I are hanging out on the sofa watching Eat Pray Love and drinking a baba and tea. Ellie keeps cracking up. Why are we downstairs at 5am when we normally don’t get until until at least 7:30? Because I woke up at 4am (I’m pretty sure the milkman woke me up) and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was pretty sure that Ellie hadn’t woken up at all last night. And I wrestled with checking in on her and not checking in on her. I imagined all the things that could have happened to her, from SIDS to kidnapping through the window. And I imagined telling the doctors in the emergency room that I wasn’t sure when she’d last been fine, that I had woken at 4am but didn’t check on her because I wanted her to sleep through the night for the first time ever. I checked on her. What I am, NEW?! And so here we are at 5am, watching Eat Pray Love and drinking babas and tea. It was a market bag weekend (using jane market bag pattern)–I made my library bag as well as two others. I find that whenever I repeat a pattern, I end up making more mistakes than the first time. With the floral bag and my library bag I forgot to do the top stitching down the length of the center panels, and I was so focused on NOT missing that with the second library bag that I forgot to top stitch around the top! (I’m also not sure whether the pocket is crooked or the crooked striped print just makes it LOOK crooked, but there’s that, too. I shouldn’t start listing the mistakes in my projects, though–that could get both lengthy and depressing.)
The floral fabric reminds me of my parents’ bedding when I was growing up–my sister and I were both drawn to it, and then we realized why!
Since my Nana rarely ventures onto the interwebs, I think it’s safe to say that I made this bag for her. She’s a big library fan herself, so I thought she’d enjoy a library tote! I wanted to try a version where the center panel was the same as the exterior and just the pocket was a contrasting fabric, and I think it’s nice! I might try doing an all-one-fabric-except-for-the-straps-and-pocket-band next, but I think I’m going to take a break from market bags for a bit. They are deceptively time consuming!
I love the fabric combination that you chose for both bags. What cute bags. I love bags and have bunches of them. Some I have made and some picked up at various places and some were given to me. I operate under the premise that you just can’t have too many bags! […] on this adorable Posie Gets Cozy Jane Market Bag that I had originally oohed and ahhhed over at Traci’s Stolen Moments. I decided to use home decor fabric with this pattern to have a sturdier bag in the end- so glad […] Did you add batting or interfacing or something to get it to stand up better…mine is real flimsly….thanks for any thoughts on that.
I love to sew. I’m so grateful to modern quilting for making it more accessible, more fun, more relaxed. I love that we have so much choice–machine or hand, complex or simple, scrappy or coordinated, solids or prints, modern or reproduction, bright or subdued. I love that for every taste there is a pattern. For every color, a fabric. I love that if you want a challenge, you can find it. I love that if you just want to play with fabric because you get enough challenges at your day job, you can leave the seam ripper in the drawer. I love that no matter what your taste, you can find people who enjoy the same thing. I love that you can cast off the rules, or stick to them. I love that you can quilt to show off tiny stitches, or quilt to make pretty blankets with serged edges and wonky lines. I love that people share information and inspiration without expecting anything in return. I love that I have 200 actually INTERESTED people to share my projects with. I love that there are many more 100s of women who inspire me to make projects as beautiful as theirs. I love that more and more people are wearing the badge ‘quilter.’ I love that quilting is changing and growing and that fabric manufacturers are churning out bright youthful prints right alongside the subdued reproduction prints. I love that there are guilds for traditional quilters, guilds for modern quilters, guilds for art quilters. I love that if you’re looking to quilt competitively, you can follow that path, and if you couldn’t care less about chopped off points, there are plenty of people that will still love your quilt’s beauty. I love that in this age of the internet we can make connections with people who share our tastes and interests. I love that we can look in awe at all the stuff we love, and not bother with the photos or words that don’t bring us joy.
I should have had quilt pictures for this post, but instead I have my finished library bag! We go to the library every Friday, and I’ve wanted to make a second bag so that I can have two going–one with books going to/from the library, and the others that get to stick around home for another week or two. The book fabric is from the Victoria and Albert collection, the pattern is the Jane Market Bag.)
Thanks for your happy sewing thoughts… and I love that bag! perfect! the thoughts on quilting…the bag…the photos. thank you! that just made my VERY late night:) I agree wholeheartedly – nice post! Great post- I have seen so many us vs. them posts on quilting blogs and I wanted to tackle that on my blog but I try to keep my blog drama free. You said what I wanted to say beautifully and without negativity- more quilters, more choice…choice is good. Read what you like, ignore the rest…you don’t have time to follow every quilt blog on the internet, anyway! Well said!!! Thank you!!! Ohmygosh. I am obsessed with this bag. Lovely post and pictures. Now that is a post worthy of reading and sharing. That was nicely said. I love these things, too! Our community is pretty awesome, and I’m proud to be a part of it. I love your new bag; I just bought the Jane Market bag pattern and I’m currently trying to decide on my fabric (from the stash). You made some beautiful choices! Great post, thank you! : ) You’re so eloquent with you’re words. I think everyone who’s read the recent posts has an opinion on them….mine kept involving words like “old bags” and “batiks” so I left it alone 😉 Seriously, it’s just sewing….we’re not blogging about war or child rearing. Happy Sewing, Traci!!! Here’s to 200 MORE followers 🙂 !!! That was so nice. You have put into words many of my thoughts (even though they are yours) and have been respectful and uplifting. Thank you! i feel the same way – really – thank you for saying it – i think it every day i read or sew… Love the bag and I love the library. Your post made me happy. 🙂 |
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Kait - Yes! You don’t want to make anything with them?! I for one, would gladly take them off your hands, I have many selvedge project ideas 🙂
Judy - *Wistful sigh* I need to buy my first sewing machine. Then I can handle more than one project at a time as opposed to hand-sewing quilt squares.
Beth Moore - Squeeeeee! Yay!!!!! =)
Cathy - Oh I would take them, I have a few projects on my list perfect for them. I have quite a few saved up too. Almost ready for thier own box. Send me yours I will love them, use them, and be good to them.
cathy
Deb Prewitt - I would love to have them. I’m not sure what I would do with them, but I’m quite sure I could dream up something fun!