Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas Bags

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. We had a wonderful time and just like every Christmas before, I am ready for the new year. Christmas is like the climax of the year for me and as soon as it is over, I am relaxed and ready to start planning for the next season. When all the gifts and Holiday projects I have been working on are all finished and delivered, I am left with a huge sense of accomplishment and my brain starts buzzing with new fresh ideas. Yesterday I made out my seed order so I can start my tomatoes and peppers earlier this year and I already have an idea for a new bird feeder.

I have cut some new fabric for a Valentine's Day pillow that I will be selling in my ETSY shop and yesterday I ordered the remaining fabric I needed from here. The Christmas decorations have all been put away and my everyday stuff is back in place. I haven't seen it since September before I decorated for Halloween so it all seems new. I love my system

Now that Christmas is over and all my handmade gifts have been opened by my loved ones, I can show you some more of what I had been working on all year. First up is a very large messenger bag for my crafty Mother. I made it big enough to hold an afghan worth of yarn and I even added a little bag to hold her many crochet hooks.
The zipper in the hook bag was a bit tricky. I have never tried to put a zipper in anything and decided now was the time to give it a shot.Many wonderful hours were spent hand embroidering this little lady in her basket of notions. I loved stitching those spools of thread with a satin stitch. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. The black Ric Rac just makes it pop. Gotta get more black Ric Rac.

Here is look at the inside. It is reversible but the inside is not as exciting as the outside. I used two different fabrics from Heather Bailey.
The bag below went to Amber my niece. She is a fine quilter and I filled her bag with sewing notions and a book full of quilt patterns. I hope she will use it someday.
I used a dark green print by Anna Maria Horner for the inside lining.

My little niece and nephew both received patchwork book bags from me. They are super duper simple and great for using up scraps. I even made a little pocket with their names embroidered on it. Once the bags were complete I filled them with the sweetest books. I had the best time shopping for those books. I really had a hard time keeping myself from buying a copy of each one... for myself! There are some amazing children's books out there.
Here is a look at the bags

The front of Brooke's-
The back-
The front of Jesse's

I used the same lining for both of them.

The back-

The best thing of all is the bags can be filled with a quilt or pillow and they become super comfy pillows. Today I am going to baste and quilt a "Ballerina Quilt" that has been on hold until post Christmas. I am thinking of making a matching quilted bag... we'll see.
I gotta go get some photos of our new fallen snow!

2 comments:

Land of shimp said...

They are all lovely, and colorful. Wonderful things to keep for holding memories, too when the recipients are all grown up, which happens too fast.

I couldn't help but notice something -- two of your bags going to relatives were designed for holding their craft/sewing/knitting supplies.

The reason that stood out to me is that I can't do any of the things you do, I can sew a serviceable hem, and all that, but I just don't have any actual talent.

I was just caught by the fact that apparently, it's a family trait. Isn't that an odd thought, and not something you'd generally think of as being something mapped in our DNA? Yet, I know for a fact that my mother, brother (who is an actual chef) and myself are all better than average cooks.

Anyway, just musing on the affinities with which we are born :-) Have a happy New Year!

Jennifer D said...

Shimp-I think you are right, I have many creative people in my family. The strange thing is, I don't think even one of us makes a living doing what we love to do.
The cooking trait is certainly a great one to have;-)
Thanks for the props!