Copycat bag

Quite some time ago Jen (of the Jen bag) asked me to try to copy the red bag below from Anthrpologie. It took forever, but I finally finished a blue imitation bag! Mine doesn't have a zipper closure on the top, but otherwise I don't think it is too far off - especially since this picture is all I had to go off of!

The flowers were the most time consuming, but also the most fun part. The whole thing probably took about 12 hours of actual construction time. There were several other hours put into getting the pattern right and testing it out on scrap fabric. I was having a little trouble with my machine towards the end, so that slowed me down (I think its timing is off again). If I were to do this again, I'm sure I could shave some time off, but probably not much more than an hour or two. So, I don't plan to duplicate this any time soon. I'm not ruling it out just yet, but I need to take a break before I think about that!

Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival

I recently went to the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival.  It was pretty amazing to see all those people who knit and spin in once place. I don't know a single other person who spins, and I saw people spinning everywhere!  There was a sheep dog trial, a sheep shearing demonstration and lots and lots of vendor booths.  I wanted to buy a lot of things, but ended up with only two.

First, I got about 3 oz of natural brown wool.

Then, I also got this hand dyed fiber that is 65% merino wool, 15% Tencel (some sort of cellulose fiber), 10% Banana, and 10% Milk....at least that's what the label says.  Regardless, it is very soft and I can't wait to see how the yarn turns out.

Owen's car quilt (FINALLY DONE!!!!)

This was going to be an easy project, but I had some problems with it.  Mostly, it stemmed from trying to applique flannel letters.  They were too small and my stitching was too wide so they frayed around the stitching. Then, I couldn't decide how I wanted to fix it.  I finally ended up using my seam ripper to remove the frayed letters, cut new ones, then appliqued them on with a narrower zig-zag through the whole quilt.  It isn't what I wanted to do, but it turned out okay after it was all done.  I like the difference in texture with the flannel and the cotton and the frayed edges.  I hope Owen likes it too!