I made two more Lined Drawstring Bags (from Jeni's
free online tutorial). I can't even begin to express how happy I am having a new-to-me machine to sew on! It really makes me wonder how I managed even as well as I did before! This Pfaff is absolutely dreamy in comparison! Thanks so much, Jo!
One bag features the helicopter fabric by
Echino, also a cotton cavas, and the lining is just a plain beige fabric. The helicopter fabric comes with he dots and stripes as part of the design. It's fabric I bought online when I saw a few Echino remnants in a sale listing. It's a pricier fabric.
The other bag features
Heather Ross's owl and pussycat fabric in a cotton cavas and then some dotty fabrics ... one in green and the orange and white lining fabric is
Metro Living by Robert Kaufman. This line of Heather Ross fabrics is one I also bought bits and pieces of online and even then they were very hard to come by, so they're rather precious to me. This was a nice way to use the heavier cotton canvas fabrics, I think.
I'm getting pretty good at whipping these up. I've had too many interruptions to calculate how long it really takes from start to finish. What tacks the most time onto making one is deciding which three fabrics to use. I have to factor in what fabric I have that isn't already committed to a quilt project and, particularly for the lining fabric, I don't want to waste something especially lovely when only a bit of it will really be visible ... just the inner ruffle of the bag.
Anyway, I've really enjoyed making them and I love the way this machine just hummmms along ... straight and even. Dreamy, I tell you. Positively dreamy!
Despite making these two bags, my weekend wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped. I was feeling quite a bit better on Thursday and Friday. Friday night, after a quick bite with Kelly and Chantelle, I selected fabric for the bags and got the cutting all done. I planned to get up on Saturday and dive into sewing. But that didn't happen. I felt especially icky on Saturday. I woke up with puffy eyes and a stuffy head and didn't even get out of my pajamas all day. I didn't do much of anything. The one thing I'd done differently is that I hadn't taken any cold medication before going to bed Friday night. Maybe that was the difference maker.
It was Kevin's big Christmas party Saturday night and I'd been really looking forward to it so, at the last minute, I did pull myself together and went to the party anyway. The Sarcan Christmas is my favourite annual event. It's good for the soul. There were over 300 people there - at the Hilton - the food was good, the cheer plentiful, and the dance floor was always full. It's one of the few parties you go to where the dance floor is full within seconds of the start of the very first song. It was the 24th annual Sarcan Christmas party and I still remember how the whole party could sit around a single table at one time. So, despite both Kevin and I not feeling very good and my nasty headache on top of everything, we enjoyed the party immensely. I don't think I'm contageous anymore so I wasn't as worried about that as I had been earlier.
Last night I took cold medication before going to bed and I feel considerably better today. I still have a stuffy cold but I had some energy today. I'm very happy that I was able to make these two little bags. Darrel, Lynn, Kathy, Ricardo, and Kevin Kaschl all stopped by today for a while. Ricardo has been here for almost a month and this is the first we've seen of him! We haven't wanted to spread our germs around. Darrel and Lynn are just back from a little vacation. Everyone checked out Kevin's photos from his trip to Uruguay ... and his fish, of course. This evening Kevin and I ran out for a few absolutely necessary groceries and that pretty much wraps up our weekend. I wish I'd got some shopping done but with Saturday being a write off for me, not much progress was made on my Christmas shopping list. I'll be busy this week trying to make up for lost time.
And I want to make some more bags.
Twins! I had a remnant of this Echino bicycle fabric - just enough to make two bags. I wish I'd had some appropriate blues, turquoises or pinks to use for the interior and the strings but the eggplant will do, I guess. I'm trying to just use fabric I have already. The strings need 32 inches of fabric so fat quarters are too small unless I piece them and I don't want to do that. This limits me considerably for string fabric. Good thing I won a few solids a while back because they're coming in handy now.
Endometrial biopsy - normal. As expected. I wasn't worried about it. It was completely cautionary but there's a certain degree of comfort knowing it was normal nonetheless.
