Crafty Saturday

This past Saturday, my friend Kathy came over to my house and we were crafty-- or at least we tried to be! Kathy was inspired to make a tote bag by something she had seen at an art show. Our plan was to pick a pattern from one of the many that I had and then "shop my stash" for fabric. The pattern picking went easy. She loved this messenger bag pattern from All People Quilts. The stash fabric shopping wasn't quite as smooth. Not a problem, we had plenty of time, so we ran to the fabric store. Originally, I was just going to assist Kathy with creating her bag and maybe work on some of my other projects, but the allure of all of the fabrics at the store proved too much for me. The last thing I need is another bag! Oh well.

We both found some great home decor fabrics. Mine is mod and geometric:

And hers is posh and sophisticated:

We only got some of the cutting done on Saturday (and a tiny bit of the sewing), but the day was a smashing success, because it forced me to get my sewing room back to a functional state. I took some pictures while cleaning and organizing, but they didn't turn out very well. Plus, I still have a lot of sorting and purging to do to really feel that the room is done. But I'm just happy it's functional. Yesterday I picked up where we left off on Saturday and have my bag about 80% done and I'm thrilled that I can just walk into my room and create again. =)

Heartstrings Workshop

In September, I volunteered to be the Community Service Project Chairperson for the Mad City Quilt Guild. I might have mentioned this in an earlier post, but I can't find it anywhere. My goal was to do something that the entire guild can participate in. The trick to doing a group project is to find a pattern that is forgiving, because a 1/4" seam isn't always universal.

I chose to use the Heartstrings pattern and spoke with the local Project Linus coordinator. She told me that the Dane County Foster Program requests bed sized quilts from Project Linus every year to give to the kids that turn 18 and are graduating out of the program. This seemed like a perfect match! So, in the fall, I explained the pattern to the guild and asked that people start making blocks. So far, I have received over 330 blocks from the members of our guild!

Last week, I organized two workdays for us to put the blocks together into tops. In those 2 days, we completed 2 twin sized tops,

have one set for borders

and made a bunch more blocks.

I was amazed at how much we accomplished! I've got 2 more workshop dates scheduled for February. I showed the tops off at our guild's meeting this week and sent the tops off with some members to be quilted or have borders added. We are having a lot of fun with this!