The creativity returns...

So last time I mentioned my creativity has returned with renewed vigor.  Over the holiday break, I had a sewing day with my peep, Evie.  We took over my dining room with all our sewing stuff and went to town.  We were actually secretly going to stitch a birthday present for our peep, Linda who is going on a once in a lifetime trip to Paris and London this spring!  Since I didn't have the foresight to snap a picture myself, I asked Linda if she'd send me a picture.  Thanks, Girlie!

Here's the bag I sewed for her!  Our friend, Evie found the fabric at a local shop called Silk Road Textiles and brought it along.  Isn't it just the cutest?!  It wasn't a quilting cotton but felt more like a poplin.  It stitched up beautifully.  We decided to go with a zipper style bag so Linda wouldn't have to worry about any of her stitchy things escaping when stitching on that long plane ride there or back. 

Here's a close-up of the cute zipper pull Evie put on it.  It's a little hard to make out but it says "London" on it in script letters.  It's just the perfect addition to the bag and really finishes it off! 

This is the bag Evie and I each made after we finished Linda's.  We used the same fabric and the same pattern.  Her's has the fabric print centered differently on the flap.  We modified the "Vonna Bag" pattern I'd previously used to be two colored rather than all one.  Here's the link to Vonna's video and here's the link to her finishing page.  She really does have some awesome tutorials if you've never checked her out.  And no, she didn't pay me to say this either!  I'm just a fan!

Since I had my sewing stuff still strewn all over the dining room, I decided to make another bag on New Year's Day.  I've had this fabric for quite a while.  It came from JoAnn's.  I decided to morph two different project bag styles into one.  It took some fiddling to figure out the sizing but I got it pretty close to what I was hoping for.  I took notes so if I want to do this again I'll not have to use so much brain power to do it.  LOL!

Speaking of project bags, I received this lovely one from Robin in Virginia!  She really knows me well.  I had been watching this one on the Sew Much 2 Luv Etsy site for a while and then it was gone.  Much to my surprise, it came to my house for my birthday!  Love the super cute matching pink scissors and I had to do a double take on those note cards.  I could have sworn they were my Shelby!  Thank you again, Robin!  You really made my day and I think of you every time I use this bag which is now housing my "Chocolate Box" project!

While we are talking birthday, I also received this lovely sign and birthday cake minder from Needle Attractions!  I had heard that she does something special each month for her "birthday babies" and this is what she sent.  I ordered the Brit Kitty as a present to myself because you know, I love Hello Kitty.

So as I mentioned previously, I decided I wanted to learn to knit.  So I treated myself to a knitting lesson at the LYS.  I started out knitting dishcloths and made two back to back.  Then Margaret encouraged me to try a cowl aka neck warmer.  So this is my start on my third ever project and first ever cowl.  There's no pattern for it but the nice lady at the knitting store kindly wrote the instructions down for me and got me started.  Needless to say I've made a ton of progress sine this picture was taken.  I'll show more next time.

Well folks, there you have it, all the stuff I've been up to lately.  My new mantra is "I want to make ALL the things!"  Now if only I didn't have to work to pay for all the things.  LOL!  I'll be back again soon to share with you all the goodness from the getaway I went on last weekend.  I can hardly wait.  Gotta go work on editing the pictures!  Thanks for stopping by!

More soon,
The Inspired Stitcher