The finished article! |
I excitedly made my
first Etsy purchase a few weeks ago. The purchase was not for a beautiful
handmade item, but for the potential of
a beautiful handmade item - sewing skills permitting. I’d been looking for a
bag pattern for some time, and, there it was, waiting for me in StudioCherie’s
shop: The Travel Duffle.
Her listing said
that the PDF would be emailed to me within 24 hours. I checked my email every
10 minutes for the first hour. I then calculated the time difference between
here and the states, realized that it wasn’t, as feared, the middle of the
night over there. I then checked my email
every 5 minutes. 12 checks later: you’ve got mail!
The excitement of
the email’s arrival quickly turned “The Craft Zone” into chaos, as I emptied my
fabric stash out onto the floor and, with the help of the dog, rooted around to
find something beautiful. I settled on the crazy purple spot material – the one
that I couldn’t quite bring myself to add to my friend’s toddler’s quilt (I shall
still stick to my story that the pattern didn’t match the rest of the fabrics…)
and cut out the pieces. For the lining I chose another of my favorites, pretty
English roses, and started cutting away.
But then I became
sad.
The pretty roses
would be buried inside the bag, unseen, unadmired. But what I did have was some pink gingham fabric
that I’d just bought for, yes, you’ve guessed it, my friend’s toddler’s quilt.
Back to the cutting board.
Welly the Helpful... |
I’d decided to
quilt diamonds, inspired by a rose quilt throw from my childhood. I won’t show
a picture of my first attempt because it’s in the bin now, but once I’d found
this tutorial on quilting diagonal lines, the smile was back on my face and I was unstoppable.
Fiddly diamond quilting |
The instructions were amazing, with great diagrams and clear step by step
instructions. I was so proud of my creation I sent a picture to Cherie, who
kindly added it to her StudioCherie blog.
As she points out,
my bag doesn’t hold its shape like hers do, which in a way is a shame, because
it was the shape of the bag that really caught my eye. But then I do quite like
that mine’s a sort of floppy, lug-me-around-with-you-even-if-I’m-not-very-full
type of bag.
I think I’ll make
the next one with thicker batting. Well, I’ve got to do something with that
pre-cut purple spotty material…