August's Colors~

For us August is a time of 

back to school and birthday happenings.

In honor of our birthday girl,

I used greens and orange.

The Kona Kiwi and Honeydew greens represent

August's birthstone, Peridot.

School Bus is for the orange..

one of the current favs

of someone back at college to finish one more SemEstER!!

I chose a paper-pieced pattern

(yes, I really did) 

from Fresh Lemons,

Whirling Star.

She did an excellent job with her directions

(thank you..PP makes me

so nervous!)

By time I did both blocks,

I think I was doing better with the process.

Does anyone else feel like they 

are working backwards,

sideways

and upside down

with paper-piecing?

It is a great brain exercise!

Anyway, I was happy with most of the results.

Just need to practice,

practice,

practice...

One block has whirled its way to Oregon,

and 

that leaves just four more monthly blocks 

to go.....

All Bagged Out~

This summer the Nursing Daughter celebrated her

21st birthday at home.

In an effort to avoid thinking about her leaving,

I immersed myself in creative bag making!

I may have gotten carried away, but it was SO much fun!!

.  

At first I was going to make just The Locked and Loaded bag by Sew Sweetness

In February I had a lot of fun testing this pattern and my daughter,

had requested one of her own.

Sara makes great patterns if you are interested in trying one of her cute bags.  

She also has a book coming out, Big City Bags.

Inside I added a second zippered pocket, flannel lining and a D-ring.

Then I made MichellePatterns "Harder" Dumpling Bag 

and my smaller mini with hooks to hang inside.

She will be doing 12-hr rotations at school as part of her training,

and that means packing a breakfast/lunch.

So..... a girl needs a stylin' lunch bag to carry it all in!

I again used ripstop for easy cleaning,  but added loops on this one--

one inside and another on the outside.

The little hexagon bag is for keys....or milk money ;o)

This was first attempt at a paper-piecing.  

It is hard to tell, but it is a cupcake.

Above it there are 21 candles-sort of...

It didn't quite turn out like I envisioned, but it was fun to try

and she understood the gist of it.

The other side was her Alaska view.

It is lined with a pretty purple and gold stars cotton.

Shoes are a big part of her day because she runs for her school.

Keeping them organized by miles, purpose, etc., can be a challenge,

sew I decided to try a shoe bag.

The laminates were really easy to work with

for the shoe bag and mini dumpling spike bag.

Now she can keep her racing shoes and spikes together

to grab as she runs out the door.

She was ready to hit the ground running 

when she went back to school.....