Bags, bags, bags

I made four more bags. It all started with this fabric:

And it ended in a sports bag for my youngest who was about to have his first handball lesson ever.

In the photo above, I stuffed it with boxes, the bag is too floppy in reality. You can see, that is not stiff enough in the photo below:

Of course I should have known that big brother would ask for one, too. I made the second one much stiffer by using a fusible interface. And I used a laminated IKEA fabric as lining.

See? It keeps it form without stuffing.

Plus I tried a covered zipper. Yay.

And then there was my mother’s birthday. She asked for a little bag with the emblems of her rowing club. Well. Here’s the result:

I enlarged the emblem and appliquéd it on a low volume love fabric (wonder if she saw the hint?!)

I lined it with a red and white striped fabric and I even put in a little zipper pocket for keepsakes (which is lined with a fun fabric featuring all kinds of traffic signs).

I am happy to report that she loves this little bag and that she uses it a lot.

And I made another bag – another quilted one – that will be a gift for a dear friend. So just a little sneak peek today:

Happy Quilting!
Christine

A new habit and a gift

Last year in London I took Trudi’s Class “Free Motion Quilting”. In her workshop we learned to doodle with pen on paper.

During the last exhausting weeks I was often too tired to sew but I discoverd that doodling or drawing a bit would “bring my mind down” as well.

So I thought I’d doodle a bit daily. Well, it turned out that DAILY was out of the question but OCCASIONALLY was fine (o;

This is one of my doodles that one could quilt coherently (I can see a baby quilt!):

Then I found this book in a shop:

…and started drawing rather than doodling… because I liked those organic designs and some grasses, feathers and ferns could easily become quilting designs:

  

On instagram we created a hashtag for everyone who wish to doodle along: #showyourdoodles

  

And then something awesome happend: Claudia (machenundtun) saw my doodles on instagram and send me this:

Two awesome booklets about zentangling. I immediately tried some of the designs and got hooked (my birthday is next week and I put more zentangling books on my wishlist).

Those Zentangling books are great, they both provide general information about the materials and the technique. The first one (Basics) is more thorough on this topic. If I got it right, each new book introduces new designs and shows further possibilities to use your finished zentangles (on postcards, bookmarkers, gifttags, etc.) The book encourages us to just do it without overthinking things to much. To just keep going and accepting that some tangles are great while others are … well… not so great.

This is what I tangled before our holiday trip - to be honest, these are the slightly greater ones (o;

  

I took a sketchbook and sharpie with me and started more doodles and tangles during our vacation (the sun is yet unfinished):

  

Thank you so much, Claudia, for those great booklets. Zentangling is a great way to do something creative while doing something else (talking on the phone, listening to an audiobook, watching after the kids, attending a dull meeting at work (don’t tell my boss!), etc.). It is calming me down and I also have the feeling that I did something to train my hand and my brain for free motion quilting. I will surely continue to doodle and if you don’t mind, I will share some tangles and doodles here.

Are you on instagram? Then come and #showyourdoodles! We would love to see your tangles and doodles and drawings!

Happy doodling and tangling!
Christine