Thursday, June 18, 2009

Gallery of Bags... how many does a gal really need?


I was just thinking about how much I love making bags. Little bags, tote bags, purses, wristlets, beachbags... (do I sound like the guy on Forest Gump talking about kinds of shrimp?) Of course these were not all for me, but I do find when I make a bag for a present or for a custom I often love it so much that it is hard to give/sell it... Because really, how many bags does a gal really "need" ?!?






Thursday, June 11, 2009

Quilt Along!

There is a wonderful online quilt-along going on at http://www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/ with weekly prizes too. The final prize is a dreamy sewing machine that practically sews on it's own! The quilt along is a 6 week endeavor where an entire quilt will be made start to finish. I decided to try my hand at it and I am so excited. I finished my topper today and next week we start the quilting and binding. I made my quilt in beautiful Paula Prass Flights of Fancy fabric. You had to have 12 prints and I only had 10 of Paula's prints so I added two Amy Butler prints also. This project has been so much fun. I never realized the work that goes into quilting... the ironing, cutting the strips, sewing the strips together, cutting the blocks from the sewn strips, and then sewing the blocks together- whew!




A Short nature hike that turned into a 5 mile haul


My girlfriend, Michele, and I decided to roadtrip and take the kids on a nature hike/creek stomp at Versailles State Park. We have aspirations of conquering one state park a week throughout the summer. We had planned on a nice short easy hike before lunch. Then we would bump up to the moderate trail after we had eaten.... The map was not the best and the trail was not marked very well (translation- the moms had trouble reading the map and we go lost) and five miles later we had conquered a moderate trail and looped our original easy trail. Talk about working up an appetite! The kids were troopers and loved hiking the creek bed.

The weather was perfect and we had a great time. We saw lots of frogs, bugs, a racoon and of course tons of fossils in the creek bed. Michael found a clavicle of some sort of animal. Everyone had a great time. Timothy, my nephew, says a quarter mile into the hike- "Where are we going?" I told him nowhere- just hiking... He was not really too impressed with that response.

The key to happy hiking with the 4-7 year old scene is to have eveyone carry their own backpack with water shoes, a water bottle, and any treasures they find. Oh and add DEET bug spray and someone who can read the trail map!

Speaking of great backpacks...


A picture of the little backback I made for bootcamp- because even if you are breathing so hard you can barely stand up you may as well get your cute on right? This drawstring backpack is just the right size for all that running we have to do from the Y to the track and the other "fresh air runs." It has a little pocket for a phone~ yes, you need a phone at bootcamp to call for help when you are lying on the side of the road dying from exhaustion.... and of course a key fob so you don't loose the keys on the run and have to walk home. This bag is the perfect size for a water bottle, bee sting kit, and sweat towel. And it did really well on the hiking too.