I’ve been trying to get my sewing room cleaned up. It was an October goal that didn’t happen in October because that month was just crazy! But it’s hard to ever really get things organized when I always have a project or two in work. Such a problem, right? Ha!
I stopped in Orange Dot Quilts’ booth at Quilt Market and admired her cute and clever H bag pattern. She had kits for sale and when I spotted one with some awesome space-themed Japanese fabric, I just couldn’t resist. I don’t often buy kits, but for bags they make so much sense. I would’ve taken forever to get around to buying the dowel rods for the handles, but they were included the kit — along with the fabric and interfacing. And it was packaged in a cardboard box that could be cut to use for the bottom of the bag! Genius. It was a quick sew and I’m loving it.
I’m coordinating my guild’s QuiltCon charity quilt again this year. We held a group sewing day last Monday, and I stitched up the final few seams over the weekend to finish the top! Our design turned out so great. I’ll be delivering it to our quilter this weekend and I can’t wait to see what she does with it. (We’ve decided to only show sneak peeks until closer to QuiltCon in February.)
I’m also back at work on my QuiltCon fabric challenge entry for this year. I started it in September and was quite pleased with myself for getting it underway with a couple months to spare. But then I put it aside to work on several other projects (like this, and this, and the two mentioned above)…and now I have less than 2 weeks to finish it. Smart move, self! The top is about 90% complete though, so I’m not too worried about getting crunched.
In more design-related news, I’m working on two patterns — one for a client, and one for myself! The latter is for my Shake and Bake quilt, which I plan to release the first week of December. I’ve got a few lovely testers making their own blocks right now and can’t wait to see what they do with it! It’s been fun to work on a pattern for myself again, after having written (and ghostwritten) several in the last year for other clients.
I’m also planning a Christmas quilt, after scooping up some lovely Liberty fabrics from my friends at Clothyard at Quilt Festival. More on that soon!
