Sidekick Tote #2

I finished this Sidekick Tote just before I left for Alberta.  So I used it for a month and then took photos of it.  I considered not blogging about it but I just have too.  I really, really love this bag.  It's a messenger style so it goes cross ways over the shoulder but with the strap adjusters it can easily adapt into a regular slip-on-the-shoulder type of bag.  It is roomy and it has a zipper.

I added an inside zipper pocket.  In green because I wanted it to be fun!  I also interfaced the part of the lining that is on top of the (white) zipper (for lack of a better way to describe it right now), for better stability.  Otherwise I think the pattern is quite well done and I recommend it!  I will be making another one of these some day for sure.  (I am not advertising this pattern in any way, just happy with it.)

  As you can see, the bag is in full use (and full of mess already.)

And one more thing... this bag was a very frugal handmade.  The navy fabric is a linen blend, and the mustard is a cotton, both from the thrift store.  The white zipper is from a garage sale.  Love that!

Another Quilt at the Ranch

I am pleased that this quilt is finally finished.

It was a glorious day at the ranch yesterday and I was happy to be able to take some photos in the sun!  The  sun has been scarce in these parts lately so it was so very good to wander around outdoors.

Now that I am finished this beast I don't really even want to talk about it, just sleep under it.  But I will tell you some details.

Pattern is: Squares and Strips Bed Quilt by Cluck Cluck Sew

The majority of the fabric is from a line called Bella by Lotta Jansdotter.
Quilt measures 96 x 104 before washing and drying.

The backing is a combination of two thrifted sheets.

These are my helpers.  The risked their lives for this photo shoot. :-)

They just fell over and are laughing pretty hard.

My binding is a bias binding in Kona Ash.  I sewed it on completely by machine.  I also machine quilted it myself with not so straight lines.  But you can't tell when it's all washed up.

Nothing says country like a quilt folded up on a woodpile with barbed wire behind it right?

(I don't live here, I only wish I did.)

By the river.  That's still snow beside the river.

Have I showed you enough photos?

My quilts behave much better on photos than my children do.  Just saying.

See my other quilt at the ranch here.

One last thing...

It's Suzanne's birthday today!  Happy Birthday, Suzanne - hope your day is good!

Second Day

Spring Break started yesterday and it runs until April 1.  When you live in the Fraser Valley area (lots of rain!) you know that means you'd better come up with some pretty good ideas of how to keep 5 children busy and not bored.

My children really like to craft.  I live dangerously and even let them paint with acrylic paint in my kitchen.  We have made some fun things though.  Today it was butterflies.

We have a stash of paint shirts and a couple of paint tablecloths that we keep around .

Zachary surprised me by staying on task for quite some time.  He painted for about 1/2 hour and then I tucked him into bed so I could relax a little.

Paper plates are great to use for the artists' palettes.  Easy clean up!

In December we too the girls' bunk beds apart and that resulted in a bare wall in their room.  The butterfly bunting cheers it up nicely.  And they are pretty proud of it too!

The butterfly cutouts were bought at Michaels some time ago.  I purchased the acrylic paints, beads, sparkly glue and pipe cleaners at Dollarama.  We glued little clothes pins to the back to attach to a white string.  I also sprayed the finished butterflies with some craft clearcoat spray.  The worst paint jobs look lovely when they are glossy!

All in all a fun and successful crafting experience.

44 done...10 to go!

My Scrappy Trip Along is coming along! My last 10 blocks are half way done so soon I'll be able to move on to piecing it all together. 

I'm hoping it'll be big enough for a twin bed.  I may have to add borders...  My blocks finished size is 9" so it'll be 54" x 81".  Maybe I'll have to make it 10 blocks long but I'm not sure I want to make more blocks!

Finished...a year later and a pouch.

Back in January I made a list of what I wanted to finish in the first quarter of the year. I haven't done much "finishing" lately but I went back to the list so I could check a few things off.

I had this crib sheet half finished a year ago and then it got piled on my shelf.  It only took 1/2 an hour to finish - not sure why I didn't do that long ago!

This is an extra change pad that I was practicing quilting on but then never bound.  Feels good to get that off my list too.

I also recently made this pouch for my secret sister.  I used the Inset Zip Pouch pattern.  This is the smaller size and my second attempt...

Second, because I made one while Alisa was here and then couldn't find it anywhere! 

After searching all over my house...Alisa found it with her fabric - at her house!  :)  It was okay though, I still got this one finished before my secret sister went on holiday's and it turned out better than the first.

Random Nine Patches

At our recent Quilt Retreat, the ladies were asked to bring a 9-patch block, any size up to 9 inches.  I wanted a variety of sizes to work with, and that is what I got!  I had fun piecing everything together on my trip to visit Suzanne.  Looking forward to getting it quilted up, because I think it'll look much better.  But first my own quilt needs to be quilted.  It's basted, so that's a start.

We had some wonderful weather today - over 10 degrees!  Lovely.  After some necessary work, we took a walk at the Blue Heron Reserve.

This is the best we got

This is the only photo we have of the two of us this week.  It was a good time though!