Quilty Travel Stuff

In honor of my upcoming travel plans, I quilted up a little luggage tag for my suitcase. 


For some reason, my little luggage tag makes me feel very 1940s travel chic, like I should be wearing a sensible cloche and white gloves as I board my plane and order my martini from the stewardess. However, I am sure I'll be jerked back to reality when I board my 2010 super-secure, non-peanut serving, no free beverage, no leg room, non-stewardess (PC= flight attendant) flight. Hopefully my super-snazzy luggage tag will help me hang on to the illusion a little longer.


I am aware that this luggage tag may not stand up well to the beating it will take in the bowels of various planes, cars and boats. It may even encourage villains to rob me—I mean, if the luggage tag is this awesome, one can only imagine the treasures inside! 


BUT YOU ASK . . . . 
What if the ribbon snags on some super-sized airplane bolt and rips right off, leaving my suitcase contact-informationless?


AND I ANSWER . . . 
I don't care! I will risk it! I flirt with danger like . .  . (see potential fill-in options below—VOTE NOW through the comments section!)

1. Ross Gellar flirted with the short-haired pizza girl.
2. a person who buys a ticket for a Caribbean cruise during hurricane season.
3. the Sharks flirted with the Jets for control of their "turf" during a totes fierce dance number in Act 1 of an American musical classic.

(There's a chance I may have had too much coffee.)

I might be a dork . . .

I might be a dork, but I don't care. I just absolutely love this little cloth lunch bag I made and embroidered for myself. I used this tutorial from Purl Bee to make the bag itself, and then I just draw on the apple and stitched it on with embroidery floss.

(It probably would have been more realistic if I had embroidered a bunch of pizza rolls on it, but an apple's much easier to backstitch . . .)

Carrying this lunch bag into my office in the morning makes me feel adorkable.  In a good way.  I decided my sister also needed to feel adorkable, so I made her one, too. The sis is a vegetarian, so her bag looks like this:

(That symbol literally means "No chicken legs", but figuratively should be understood to include meats of all kinds. FYI.)

Join me in geekery! Embroider a reusable lunchbag for yourself! Be adorkable!

Swaps = Cool

I'm kind of in love with swapping handmade things these days. It's more fun for me to make things and give them away . . . but it's awesome getting something in return, too!  Thus, swapping.

I've been coordinating a monthly swap for the Cincinnati branch of the Modern Quilt Guild. We've done two block swaps and a potholder swap already, with a doll quilt swap planned for next month.

SWAP #1
Our first swap was a really simple 9-patch block using only citron, black, grey and white. This was my  block. Six people participated, so everyone kept one of their own blocks and got one of everyone else's. Once I had all six of my blocks, I cut each 9-patch in half twice, once top to bottom through the center, and again side to side through the center. Then I put them all back together. It still needs to be quilted, but here's the top and the pieced back.

SWAP #2

Our second swap was a "wonky log cabin" block. The colors for the "logs" were supposed to be in the blue/green/aqua family, but the center piece could be any color or fussy-cut the maker wanted. I used a fussy cut piece from Heather Ross's "Underwater Sisters" print. This was my block ---> and this is the top. Pretty simple, all sashed together with a white-on-white paisley print. 

SWAP #3
Our most recent swap was a potholder swap. This one was really fun - there were no rules or restrictions, so everyone's potholder really reflected what styles and fabrics they like.

I made this one using the Oh Fransson! Potholder Tutorial:

Front

Back

And I got this little quilty beauty from Amy T.  I totally LOVE the curved quilting she did - you can really see it on the back.

Back corner

Front

So, long story short, Swaps = Totally Sweet.

A slight bag obsession

I don't know if you've checked out Amy Butler's new book yet, but it's TOTALLY awesome. I've always liked Amy's bag patterns and have made a few of them, and this is just a big awesome book full of them! The book features a range of skill levels, sizes, etc., and all of the bags are made with various Amy Butler prints.

Pretty.

Awesome.

Check it out.

That said, ever since I bought it, I've been a little obsessed with making bags. They're enough of a challenge for me to be interesting, but they don't take a TON of time to make. One of my first attempts was this pleated bag, which I kind of love. (Bags are also another great excuse to use awesome buttons and trims!)

pleating detail

I made this little bag for a gift, and I totally love how simple it is. It's just a plain and simple rectangular bag with a top zipper, but the fabric makes this super-simple bag really cute (I think!).

You can kind of see the inside lining -
black and white toille.

  

I leave you with one last picture. I want to keep him.