Bout Time

Well it's about time I get back to the blog.  In fact I've been away so long I had to get the nice folks at Blogger to help me reset my password.  Anyway, it's good to be back.  And this time I'll keep my password handy so I have no excuse not to keep in touch.

I hope y'all have all had a great holiday and are enjoying the new year.  While I enjoy Christmas--and I do--it's AFTER Christmas that I especially look forward to.  After the business of December, I'm more than ready for the slower pace of January.  If there's a better time to sew than on a cloudy, chilly January afternoon, then I haven't found it.  For the last week I've been finishing up a couple of projects that I really meant to have done by . . let's see . . . last November . . . and as a reward for finally finishing those projects, I've treated myself to a couple of new projects with  fresh new fabrics.

Bo is sitting on one of my new pattern quilts in the picture above.  I used one Layer Cake and a couple yards of a Bella Solid.  The twin sized quilt went together so quickly I decided to make another one.  The bright colored quilt is from Marmalade by Bonnie & Camille (Moda) and the blue and white version is from Spa by Deb Strain (also Moda).  These are so simple, you can seriously make one in a weekend.  I even got brave and machine quilted one of them on my home sewing machine.  It was great to try something new.  Note however that you can not see quilting on the photo--I'm not quite ready for 'close ups'.  The good news is that no body at my house cares one bit.  --More posts later on learning to quilt a small quilt on a home machine. 

One more pic of things to come.  This was one of my 'reward' projects--a nifty messenger bag for my daughter, just in time for Spring semester.  Luckily I can get two of these from a Layer Cake, so I can have one too!  (Pattern coming soon.)

Fabric line is Spring House by Stephanie Ryan (Moda).