What do you think?

This is a quilt I made from a Kaffe Fassett pattern. It's called pastel handkerchief squares. The stripes are folded and sewn at an angle to make the two-sided "frame" effect for the flower squares. Anyway, when I got it done, I wasn't really happy with it. I have a hard time with these bright Kaffe Fassett patterns. I love them, but when I put my fabrics together to make one, it ends up too busy or something. In this one, I think I used too many different fabrics. Maybe I should have used fewer different stripes and/or fewer different florals in the squares. One thing I think might help is a design wall - it's hard for me to get the overall effect of these quilts until everything is sewn together and I can look at it from a distance.
When Pam and Kathy and I were fabric shopping in the Cleveland area, we saw one of these quilts made up in the Canton fabric shop that we all liked.
Input and constructive criticism is welcome! I'm working on another quilt using a lot of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I'm afraid I'm getting carried away with all the beautiful big floral prints again!

Speaking of Giant Purses

This weekend I cleaned out the giant fake Prada purse that I bought on the street in Rome last year. I emptied it out and washed the liner, which had gotten really dirty, in the sink and noticed that the "empty" purse had an awful lot of change floating around inside. The change was caught between the leather outside and the cloth inside. When I finally found the hole in the liner, I dumped out over $5 in change along with my favorite lip gloss and a pen.

I also have the tote-bag virus

Here are some pictures of my tote bags in operation in South Carolina. The orange one is mine, the pastel-colored one is Lauren's and the red one belongs to Robbie's girlfriend, Sarah. I bought color-coordinated beach towels to go with them. We looked pretty stylish at the beach and at the pool, and I've even been carrying mine recently as a purse. Last week I went to have my blood work done for my physical, and when I was done, the guy who drew the blood said, "Don't forget your giant purse there."

Tote bags

I can't seem to stop making tote bags! I have about 8 different patterns that I've been playing with, trying them and then modifying them. This small purple one is from Amy Butler's "Chelsea Bag" pattern. I made this one with Timtex, the thick, very stiff interfacing, so it's more like a storage bin than a purse. I want to use it on my sewing table and I wish I had made it a bit wider at the base, but otherwise it's perfect for that. I want to make another one a bit less stiff to use as a bag - I think I'll try the bigger version of the pattern for that.

I made this bag to give to Marian as a kind of beach bag, since they're living in Hawaii. I copied one that Emily and I saw in a fabric shop in North Carolina. We picked out a pretty "Hawaiian-looking" batik and I added the solid orange and green for the pocket and lining.

The green bag is quilted. I wanted to try out a quilt backing that I bought in Kentucky. It's a plain white fabric imprinted with a swirling kind of design - the idea is to use it as a quilt backing and quilt along the lines for an overall quilt design. I tried it on two rectangles of the green fabric and then made the bag from them. Since I'm still pretty new at machine quilting and not very good at improvising free-motion designs, the backing worked well for me. I was going to finish this like Pam's beach bag, but then decided to line it with a bright print fabric.

wig making (raw materials only)

After a summer in which I have desperately wished for a haircut and after a very convincing sermon on Sunday about "giving", I decided to donate 8" of hair to Beautiful Lengths. I don't think my hair has been this short since elementary school, but it's still pretty darn long.
The hair looks weird in ponytails in a bag, but someday somebody
will hopefully make it into a nice wig.

Stealing Craft Ideas

I saw this frame at Anthropologie last month and loved it. It looks like a really easy craft project, too, if you have the right glue. No need to finish the ends if you can just paste them down, right?

This is on my list of things to try someday. Thought you guys might like it, too.