Totes Magotes...

It's been all about the totes around here lately.

We had a really fun workshop led by Jessica at the SMQG at the beginning of January on how to make and modify your own tote bag pattern.  I've made a few bags but have never tried this style of tote, so I was all in and wanted to make something fun and bright (shocking, I know!).  I pulled out some of my stashed Echino birds and cherries print along with a few bright complimentary fabrics.

We had to come to the meeting with two quilted panels for the front and back along with the handle materials.  Since I started pulling fabrics at - cough - 11 the night before - cough - I didn't quite get all my prep done, but no one seemed to mind.

I changed up the basic pattern just slightly by adding extra ShapeFlex interfacing to the quilted panels and the handle strip because I like my bags sturdy!

It finished up SO great and even though it was a little taller than my typical bags, this turned out perfect for toting a yoga mat around for my daughter's after school dance class.

And since I was on a roll and the instructions were fresh in my mind, I made the girls their own totes in some very stylish but cute Cotton + Steel prints.  You just can't go wrong with kitties and butterflies for girls, right?

I made the same modifications with the Shapeflex but made the totes 2" shorter so that they were more square shaped than rectangular.  The boxed bottoms make them perfect for toting a few books/notebooks/packs of colored pencils around and the girls are in love :)

And just in case you were wondering about the post title, here you go. Enjoy the laugh from me.

Linking up:

Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday!

BMQG Annual Quilt Show...

Photo Courtesy of BMQG 

Just a little heads up that if you are a New Englander like me and are looking to see a great collection of modern quilts, the BMQG is having their annual quilt show over the next few weekends at Fabric Place Basement in Natick, MA!  The show will have it's grand opening this Saturday, January 31st from 3pm on (this was postponed from last weekend due to the snowstorm) and will show for the next several weekends as well.

Come on down and check out some beautiful quilts, and get inspired to quilt modern! My Sari Feathers, Riley's Showstopper, and Brightly Broken quilts are in the mix but there is plenty of eye candy to go around!   And hey, isn't it convenient that it's being held in a fabric store just in case you get the urge to sew something new?  I'm just saying...

Rainbows for the Kitchen...

I teased a little bit in my last post about my current obsession...and it's definitely become an obsession.  Scrappy rainbow potholders.  Lots of them!

I mean, if you thought that I was a factory before while I was on a clutch kick, I don't even know what 21 potholders in 10 days adds up to.

Of course, the rainbow was what caught my eye in the original post from Film in the Fridge.  Plus the opportunity to use up some of the mountain of scraps that I've been holding onto over the years.

Each potholder is sewn in an improv log cabin style and has one layer of regular batting, one layer of Insul-Bright, and then a print backing.  They each finish at 8.5" square.

Of course my fussy-cut loving self tried to make the center square of each potholder something a bit special.  I couldn't do it for all of them, but I like to think that they all have something fun to offer a wandering eye.

I am so in loving with the binding on these.  The white background with the silver metallic dots compliments every single color in the spectrum!

I think the only color that I haven't touched yet is brown - because really, if I'm going to be dealing with anything resembling chocolate, I want it to be actual chocolate.  Although I'm still toying with the idea of making some black and white ones with a bright, colored binding.

So anyway, I have all these potholders hanging around and even after setting some aside for future gifts and swaps, I still have a huge stack that need homes!  So I've decided to give the old Etsy shop another go and see what happens.  Of course I'm about a month or two late for any kind of a holiday rush (because I'm organized like that and have to keep up my procrastinating reputation), but c'est la vie!

I've listed sets of two potholders in each color story, but I might make an option to mix and match colors in larger numbers.  I've also listed some of the aforementioned clutches.  Our house is too tiny for all of these lovelies to just be sitting around taking up space.

You can find the Simple Sewendipity Etsy shop here or by clicking the link found in the Shop tab above. With this rainbow of colors, you know that I've got your kitchen covered ;)

Linking up:

Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish it up Friday!

Apparently It Was a Small Year...

Here I was all geared up to do the typical "year in review" post and then I went to pool all my photos and said, "Huh.  Didn't realize that had happened..."  So to honor the cutest little viral video from last year (besides BatDad):

Apparently, I went small this year.  Turns out that 2014 was the year of the mini quilt.

I made them for challenges, for class samples, for swaps and for friends!  Not to mention Sophie's mini, of course :)

And apparently, my regular sized quilts took a teeny nosedive in favor of smaller projects because I only finished three.

Broken Oreos, Sari Feathers, Little One

Well okay, four - but I still haven't finished all the hand quilting on it yet.

But garments got churned out big time - probably because those small finishes feel so satisfying!

Fashionable Princess Poppy, Pixie Stix & Strawberry Dresses, & my Summer Dresses

And no surprise to anyone in this house, the Frozen Anna and Elsa dresses that I made for the girls last January were the most popular posts of the entire year.  By FAR.

And apparently all of those small projects added up to a whole heck of a lot!

Pencil Cases & Tote, Farmer's Market & Selfish Totes, Sewing Room Swap, Clutches Galore, Noodlehead Divided Basket

So what is going on for 2015?  Well besides the handquilting on my Rainbow Stars, I have two other things that I'm still smack dab in the middle of (I'm not even going to think about a couple of ancient WIPs that I can't commit to abandoning yet).

I am absolutely DROOLING over the new SkillBuilder BOM, Technicolor Galaxy, but still haven't made up my mind about it.  Maybe I need to finish some things before I give myself permission.  Plus I signed up for another mini swap on Instagram - and it sounds like it's right up my alley.

Can't wait to get going on it and see what comes my way in return :)