Oodles of Inspiration

This was the perfect weekend to bridge the gap between vacation and work. The weather was perfect. The garden veggies were abundant. The kids were content.

On Saturday I took Xander with me to Craftin' Outlaws, one of the larger hipster craft shows in town. There was so much inspiration there, I just had to start on some new projects that afternoon. A day and a half later, I have three new projects started, and one completed. Boy did I miss my sewing machine while I was out of town! (I've come to terms with the fact that makes me a bit pathetic).

Here's some of the cards and chatchkies Xander and I picked up while we were there. Lot's of people had business cards with monsters on them, and Xander grabbed every one of them.


I think I stunned Erica by spending only three dollars at the show. These cute patches were just too hard to pass by. If only Quinn would let me make a dress for her. One of these would be great on the front of an A line dress.


Before we headed out for the show, we had lunch made from veggies fresh from my garden. I love this time of year, when you pick your lunch right before lunch.


Then today, I started cutting up my latest haul from Sew to speak, and thanks to Quinn, who decided that spending two hours in the sewing room with me sounded like fun, I was able to finish this handbag up before dinner.


I put in a pleat on the outside of the bag, and then struggled a bit to figure out how to work out the dimensions on the inside of the bag. In the end, I put the pleat in, and then sewed it up so small items wouldn't get lost in there. If only I had paid more attention during geometry in high school! Oh well. In any case, it looks good. And it has a small cell phone pocket, and a magnetic snap closure.


Quinn, who feels she contributed greatly to this project, insisted that she model for a photo. If you ask me, she looks great with blue and brown.


Since I made this handbag with no particular reason in mind, I guess I have officially started making bags for Pattyfair. One down, 49 or so to go.

Perfect Crafting Weekend

Ahhh. What a weekend! What a perfect crafting weekend. Friday evening Kevin went out with some friends, so I was able to catch up on some things around the house and cut some tote fabric for sewing later.

Then, on Saturday, I met the lovely and talented Amy Butler at her trunk show at a local fabric store. She was really warm and friendly, and started the conversation off by asking me what *I* was working on.

I asked her about her new lines coming out, (pay attention in January and July) and then cheesed it up enough to ask for an auto and a photo. She complied with both. Of course, I bought more fabric, which I really should have resisted, and have started working on more totes.

If you haven't done so already, you need to check out Amy's new book
Midwest Modern which is really amazing. Great photography, great inspiration.

Then, if that wasn't enough, there was a great indie craft show Tiny Canary that I attended on Sunday. There were 40 or so really talented crafters there and I was able to meet several local artist that I really admire. Including, yumi yumi who remembered what I bought from her on Etsy four months ago. Wow, impressive. She's a lovely and talented lady who was nice enough to let me snap a quick photo of her in her booth. Which was swamped with people almost the enitre time I was at the show.

I also picked up this amazing fox print for Quinn from the tugboat printshop

And a set of these lovely owl ornaments from Craftpaca


Nice.