handmade kate

arriving this week

Durant Nature Park

itty bitty

I finished my Itty Bitty Bag this weekend, gaining a bit more confidence using the BSR on the Aurora.  Click on the photo to see my first-ever "official" free motion quilting!  I even purchased a pair of quilting gloves to "gear-up" properly.  Hardly necessary for quilting on a 9" x 12" piece of fabric, but never the less, I was prepared! 

Karen West is a local celebrity (or to me at least!), teaching at one of my favorite fabric shops, so I'm glad I finally gave one of her patterns a try.  But I do think I made the pattern much harder than necessary (can anyone say "adult ADD"?). I had the hardest time keeping up.  The pattern really wasn't very difficult, but it did require that you take it one step at a time.  I guess my focus was a bit off this weekend.  All of the little details make for a quite "professional" looking bag though!

springtime toddler togs

Linen and gingham and a beautiful spring weekend.  Hope yours was wonderful too!

tutorials!

Exciting news!  The Sewing Republic has begun to post our tutorials, and the first one up is my Summer Serendipity Bag!

I do hope you'll enjoy it!  And if you've popped in from The Sewing Republic site--welcome! The bag is a super-simple project and will lend itself to all sorts of variations.  Unfortunately, one key piece was left out of the project instructions--the template for the bag's handle.  I've emailed the folks at Bernina to let them know about the omission, but meanwhile you can download the pattern piece here.

I'm thrilled how the site has turned out.  Really, it has surpassed everything I ever expected, and I'm in awe of how the patterns, directions and photos are being presented!  I'm equally excited about the new projects that will be posted every week by my fellow contributors:  Stacy of Stacy Sews, Juliette of Chickpea Sewing Studio, and Nicole of Appliance Clothing.  They are such talented ladies; there's more goodness to come!