Fun Quick Bag

On a daily basis I get ideas from Sewcanshe.com.  A new idea every morning. The ideas are all over the map, clothes, stuffed animals, household items, bags, pin cushions etc. etc. etc.  All come with instructions. I have gotten ideas for several gifts from this site and would recommend it.

A couple of weeks ago the great Easy Peasy Backpack  was the item of the day.  It may have taken me 2 weeks to try it but I've now made 4 of them in 5 days.

What I love the most about them is that you don't need anything beyond your fabric stash, no hardware required.  I believe it takes about a yard of fabric which includes the lining and the draw string.

The blue with pink bag was made following the instructions with only one exception.  The instructions call for the drawstring to be tied in a knot and I sewed the ends together.  It took roughly an hour and a half to make it (with no interruptions).

I then made another for me in a dark print that I have been hording for years.  I ended up using the trimmings for simple interior pockets.  That bag, that I made for me walked out the door with a friend the next day. She saw it hanging on the back of the chair after the photo shoot.

Bag 3, a twin to bag 2 has also found a new home.  On to bag 4 which is close to bag 2 and 3 but not a triplet. This time instead of making the draw string I used store bought cord which I had in my stash.  This really sped up the process. The draw string is about 3 1/2 yards long and required a lot of ironing which is not my favorite thing to do. Easy but not my cup of tea.

Tied knots this time, knots seem to go well with the cord.

Again used the trimmed off pieces to make pockets.

I will, no doubt, make these again.  I think they would make a great gift bag and I have plenty of time left before Christmas not to mention the Christmas yardage in my stash. ;)

Have a Latte

When I saw this fabric line  by  Dan Di Paolo, "Have a Latte" I signed on immediately. Loved the dots. Once the fabric got here I didn't want to cut it up.  The cups are a pretty good size and I did want to see them mostly whole  which show cases the dots on the cups, in whatever I finally decided on making.  The dots were a good size also so I didn't really want to chop them up either.

We recently got a new kitchen table. I found these wonderful place mats for it at BBB at about $1.50 each after coupon.  Wonderful yes, but not made by me.  The mats were a perfect color way for my eating area and lo and behold the fabrics I had purchased contained the same base colors.

I didn't have a pattern. I just measured the store bought mats and improvised with the sole goal of leaving the fabrics in big pieces.  I made 6 in total, 3 with the black and cream dots and 3 with the red and black dots.

On to the backing or the flip side.  I had lots of the dot fabric left because I bought twice as much of it as the cups and stripes.  I also had a bit of the stripe and a bit of the cups fabrics remaining. I will admit to being a bit of a hoarder when it comes to dots so I opted to finish off the cups fabric on the back and fill in the difference with the dots.  I measured what cup fabric I had left and divided it by 6. 

I had just enough of the stripe left to do the binding.

What I ended up with is a set of 6 reversible place mats for me. Not to be given away this time. I'm so happy with them that I've even invited friends over for dinner tomorrow evening to break them in. Not sure which side I'll use, maybe both, one side for the gals and the other side for the guys.

Not only do they look great on my kitchen table, they look pretty terrific on my lanai table too, all ready for an afternoon snack of Latte and cookies.

Again my thanks to  Dan Di Paolo for designing this wonderful line of fabric "Have a Latte",  M Samm for her idea of using this line and CalicoJoan  of  moosestashquilting.blogspot.com  for coordinating all of the  participants into this hop.

If you haven't done so already, please stop in and visit the other very talented ladies who are presenting today.

        April 14

How Art You?

Stitchin By the Lake

Selina Quilts  (me)

Beads and Birds

Thanks for stopping by and thanks also for any comments you took the time to leave.  Have a great day.