A life lesson!

Yesterday I said I was thinking about making this bag.  Well after sewing a baby blanket I decided to give it a go.  Very easy to put together but extremely small.  This bag is called a "shopper" in the Cath Kidston book, but I don't think you'd get much shopping in it!  Here is the finished result.

It really is a nice shaped bag and now I have made one, I will enlarge the pattern and make another.  Just to give some perspective on size, look at this...

It is more a little girl's size bag.  I did make the strap a little longer as I thought my daughter might want to use it, but it really is too small.  Oh well, it was a good experience and I look forward to making a larger one.  Kind of like life really, sometimes things don't go as we plan, but all things give us experience.  If we learn from our mistakes then we are moving in the right direction.  We are not perfect and will make mistakes, but thanks to repentance, we can get back on the right track.  What a loving Heavenly Father we have!

A bit of everything

Our middle son turned 25 on Sunday and we had a dinner for him.  He is the one who will become a daddy at the end of March - hardly seems possible!

Monday was a holiday in Ontario "family day".  We went over to New York state to do a bit of shopping.  Our daughter and daughter-in-law came with us and we all bought some fabric.  Can't wait to start creating.  Do you want to see my growing stash?

I am thinking of making this bag from the Cath Kidston "sew" book

I have some cotton duck in this design and think I'll use it

What do you think?  I am a little nervous, but hey, if I don't try, I'll never know will I?!  I need some spring like colours at the moment.  Our temperatures have been wonderfully mild for this time of year in Ottawa, but we are still clothed in white and more snow is on the way next week, and I am ready for Spring! 

My first attempt at quilting

 

 Well here is my first attempt.  I am quite happy with it and certainly learned a lot from the class.

This technique is so easy and you can make various patterns and quilt as you go.  I felt a real sense of accomplishment as I put it all together!

 

 

I'm not sure if it will live on the dining room table permanently, but that's where it will start out.  I don't know which class I'll take next yet, but I am definitely going to take another one as it was so much fun and everyone was so helpful.

Our middle son turns 25 on Sunday so we are having a birthday dinner tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The day of love

Beautiful red roses from my sweetheart!

Don't you just love the fragrance of a rose?

I don't think there's anything better.

They are such a perfect flower.

 No wonder they are the flower of love!

Happy Valentine's day to my eternal sweetheart!

Shabby chic love!

I started my two week quilting class on Friday and made these little babies!  This quilting technique is very easy and super fast.  I need ten of these squares to make my table runner and I am going to finish the last five today.  On Friday we will put them all together in class.  You make each square quilted as you go and the fabric on the back is the deep pink one and will also fold in to edge each square.  Then I will simply 

 sew them together and voila - hopefully!

Here is a close up of the fabric

  

Isn't it pretty?  I love vintage floral fabrics.  This will look lovely on my dining room table.

We had such  a cold snap on the weekend with temperatures of around -30C with windchill.  We were inside most of the time, apart from church on Sunday obviously.  I sometimes wish I could hibernate in winter - who am I kidding, I probably do - as much as I can that is!  We really have had a fairly mild winter for Ottawa standards.  My daughter thinks we are near the end, but I remind her that we are only at Feb 13th and have a long way to go yet.  We will be white and won't see grass until at least mid to end of March! 

Have a great Monday everyone!

First Ta-Dah!!!

I know this looks like a tablecloth, but I had to put in on the table to show the contrast as our carpet is beige.  It's the baby blanket I mentioned in my second post  I started it a few weeks ago and I just finished it tonight.  Obviously I haven't worked on it every day, but I'm pleased that it didn't take that long at all.  I am fairly pleased with the end result although I had to tweak the pattern somewhat.

Here is a little more detail of the shell edging.  I think this will look lovely wrapped around our little grandchild when it makes its earthly debut in a few weeks time!  Can hardly wait.

I am taking a quilting class starting on Friday, so my next project involves the sewing machine.  I am doing an easy quilting project called fun and done which you quilt as you go along.   As I've never attempted quilting before I thought this was the best way!  Rather than a full size quilt, I will make a table runner first and then when I've learned the process I can make a larger item.

Hope all of you in the UK are staying warm.  You've had some really cold weather lately by UK standards.  It all depends on what you're used to doesn't it?  -7 degrees is fairly mild here in Ottawa, but I know in England that is pretty cold.  I am an ex pat myself, so I do understand.  My home town of Manchester is under a weather warning tonight as their snow is going to turn to ice.  boy, do we know about freezing rain here in Ottawa!

Stay warm everyone!