Look What I Found on my Back Porch!

The other day when I got home from work,

I found 2 packages on my back steps!

I was expecting one, but there were TWO!!!

This is the expected one:

I won this from Erica's Craft & Sewing Center,

along with everything to make it!

Aren't these fabrics awesome?

There's even a cool zipper pull that is a dolphin.

(you can see it in the top left of the pattern picture)

It's the next on my 'to do' list now.

Wish me luck with the zipper....

The second little package

was a TOTAL surprise

from Em of Em Celebrates!

When I opened it up,

this cute little mushroom was inside:

recognize this fabric?

and inside was a piece of cotton batting

and inside the batting....

This gorgeous, blue, fused glass heart.

I love this.

Thank you Em,

from the depths of my heart.

sue





Little Zippy Bag Swap, part 2

This is the bag that I ended up making

for my swap partner:

I followed the tutorial here at

It's a Pretty Modern Life.

Her directions were very easy to follow,

although, while it was still

inside out,

it looked to me like it was going to have holes in it.
I figured I could hand sew them...

but once it was right side out

the holes disappeared!!

Just like magic!

I am very happy with how it came out.

I may just make one for myself now.

These are the crocheted bags I made

to send along with it.

The string bag was an experiment.

I wanted to try one with a round bottom,

but couldn't find a pattern for that.

So I made it up!

Not bad, since I've only recently learned

how to follow a crochet pattern.  :D

The colors don't show up well in the pics,

the light part is actually a pretty, pale yellow.

I also sent a package of 2 rotary cutter blades too.

Just because I was so late!

Hope you're having a great July!

sue

Little Zippy Bag Swap

A few months ago, I took a DEEP breath,

and signed up for a bag swap.

It was a bit scary, as it was to be a bag with a ZIPPER....

and not only have I not made many bags,

but I think I MIGHT have sewn in a zipper one other time.

And that was YEARS ago.

I looked at a lot of different tutorials and patterns online,

but I couldn't find one I was comfortable with at first.

I had sent an email to my swap partner, and didn't hear back from her for a long time,

so I sort of put it out of my mind.

Then I did hear from her, so I wrote back to answer her questions & ask some of my own,

and never got an answer.

And I forgot about it again.

Then I got a squishie in the mail!

Isn't it amazing?

I love it.

It's big enough to hold a cone of yarn,

my TomTom, a CD, and

a bunch of other stuff!

I've been using it every day.

One problem.

Now I'm totally intimidated

about getting the bag done to send back to her.

I looked through the pattern books at JoAnn's,

and bought a pattern for a laptop case-type bag.

But, they didn't have all the hardware to go with it.

So I started looking online again,

and I finally found one that I thought

that I could do successfully.

And I did!

But, it was a small bag,

and that intimidation thing kicked in again,

so I also made a crocheted string bag

and a small crocheted pouch

to go with it.

They should arrive by Wednesday.

(I had emailed her to let her know that I would be very late.)

So, after Wednesday,

I'll post pictures of what I sent to her.

I hope she likes them.

<sigh>

sue