Once Upon a Time... in New York??

Once again I've been awfully quiet... but I've had a really good reason!! I've been completely consumed by finishing one of my WIPs and today I finally got it done!!

This is the "Cosmo" bag from Style Stitches by Amy Butler... Thanks to Sex and the City "Cosmo" always makes me think of New York City!

It's all done in Far Far Away fabric by Heather Ross, and I used the home dec cotton/linen blend, which is a little bit heavier than standard quilting cotton.  Rapunzel in her tower forms the outer pocket, with the Sleeping Beauty also on the outside of the bag

Inside is the Owl and the Pussycat, so the bag is fairy tales all over!

About the pattern itself, it's listed as "easy" in the book, and I don't know if I would agree with that.  If you are an experienced sewer who is accustomed to following patterns, then provided that you follow the instructions then it is fairly easy.  That said, if you're a beginner sewer, this is going to be challenging for you.  My best suggestion would be to follow the instructions to the letter and pin. Pin, pin, pin, pin.  Press.

 I did make a couple of changes - the bag is pretty huge, so I put in a little loop that I'm going to put a hook on so that I can hang my keys and not lose them!

I also made the pocket on the front side (on the inside) slightly shorter and put in a pocket for my mobile!  I LOVE the finished bag!! I made it so that I would have a bage to take things to quilting in and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It did take a fair bit of time, but it was totally worth it!

While I've been busy sewing away, Spring has finally arrived here!

The weather has been beautiful, and all the trees around our house have started to bud.  Hope that you're all enjoying the new seasons too!

A Sew In!

Last week I mentioned that I'd had two fun quilty experiences lately, but I was very slack and hadn't taken photos at either of them.  This week I got a chance to have another one, and I made sure to have my camera ready!

Kyishia from PrimaNOTION came over again while Sir Pinkying was out, and we took over the living room floor!  Well... actually... if I'm going to be completely honest... I was the one who really took over the floor, Kyishia sewed at the dining room table.  So this is what the floor looked like as we got started

There may have been one of these.... 

and Kyishia brought some beautiful show and tell which I will show a small sneak peak of...a bento box quilt with Anna Marie Horner fabrics.  Gorgeous!

I got a lot done this time, and finished cutting out ALL the pieces for my Cosmo bag.  It was a LOT of cutting... as in a LOT of cutting.  This is what all the pieces look like laid out, there's two bag pieces, two lining pieces, there's the base of the lining and the outer, there's the sides of the bag, and the lining, there's the pockets (both inside and out) AND lining for the pockets!

and the worst bit?? ALL of the pieces have to be interfaced!!! It's certainly a lot more fun to do when I have company!

it's oh so quiet....

it's oh so still.... whoops! now I've got Bjork singing in my head!

Anyway, as I was saying, it's been awfully quiet around here, things have been a little bit busy, but I have had two great "quilty" experiences in the last couple of weeks.  I see there are even a few new followers since the last time I posted - so hi to you all and welcome!

Firstly, I had a new friend over for some sewing time last week. I met Kyishia at a recently quilting group and finally had a chance to catch up again last week.  As luck would have it, Sir Pinkying was out for the evening so we took over the lounge room at my place for lots of talking and laughing and a "little" bit of quilting.  We had so much fun that we're going to do again next week.  This time I'm determined to have more than 6 pieces cut out at the end of the night!!

I did a little work on something from this book

 Using these gorgeous Heather Ross fabrics..

We went away over the weekend, which was nice.  It was just good to get out of the general rat race and have some time out.  As an added bonus, my Mum invited some friends over who are both quilters, so we had a lovely afternoon talking about all things fabric and quilting.

I've also been working away on a couple of secret projects, but I can't share them with you yet, but hopefully I'll be back with more news soon!

Placemats in progress and a sneak peek

 Over the weekend I made a lot of progress with the placemats.  I've now sewn all the strips together into "placemats" and I've trimmed them down to size.  Well, kind of..... I actually managed to trim 3 of them SMALLER than what they are meant to be - I guess that's what happens when you're trying to watch Masterchef and trim at the same time!

 To add insult to injury I also managed to cut my finger on my rotary cutter!  I've never done that before, not in years and years of quilting! I'd (stupidly) locked the blade open while I repositioned something on my cutting board, and then as I went to pick it up, I pushed a finger against the open blade! whoops!  Anyway, Sir Pinkying got me a band aid and I finished cutting!

Moving on to my sneak peek - don't you love it when a squashy package arrives in the mail?  Even better if the package is really STUFFED full.  That's what happened to me today - and here are the spoils

 This is 'Far Far Away II' by Heather Ross for Kokka fabrics.  It's a beautiful blend of linen and cotton and features some gorgeous designs from all your favourite fairy tales

 Sleeping Beauty

 The Owl and the Pussycat

 Rapunzel - just gorgeous!  I can't wait to get started.  It's going to be used together with a pattern from this book - which also recently arrived by post!

I can't wait to get started, but I will finish the placemats first.  I need to try to focus on finishing one project before starting another!