Say Cheeeeese!!

Guess what I bought for myself!

YUP! A new Nikon Coolpix P100 camera!

I love, Love, LOVE it already!!

But, it came with an UGLY black

case… with no strap?

I mean, what is THAT??

Well, I needagottahave a new case, right?

Soooo, I made one!  You like? 

Feeling a bit guilty about spending yesterday afternoon and this morning in the sewing room instead of taking down Thanksgiving decor and going out and getting the tree and getting the Christmas stuff out of the basement and getting the house decorated… sigh…

BUT, in my defense, I couldn’t let my new camera just sit around with no cozy safe home, right?

Sooooo, wanna see how I made it?

I used 34 charm squares, fusible fleece, a bit of yardage for lining and strap, a bit of Velcro and some cool buttons.

I trimmed the charm squares to 4 1/2”.

I sub-cut them into three 1 1/2” strips,

then sewed 4 different strips together.  You’ll make 25 blocks but will only use 22 for the bag, unless you choose to made the extras into more pockets. 

I laid them out in two rows of 6 blocks, alternating the direction of the strips, then added 2 blocks for the bag bottom- use photo as a guide!

Stitch them all together, press well, then lay it on top of fusible fleece and cut out 2 layers of fleece- pay attention to the sticky side of the fleece!

Quilt the bag piece any way you like.

Lay this piece right sides together on top of lining fabric and fusible fleece and cut out one of each.  Fuse the fleece onto the wrong side of the lining.

Layout 6 more blocks in three rows of two each for the top flap.

Stitch them together, trim off the bottom corners

and then fuse on one layer of fleece, cut out  a matching lining piece

and sew them right sides together, turn right sides out and quilt as desired!!

Select 2 blocks for inside pockets and cut out two 4 1/2” squares from lining fabric.  Put right sides together, sew around the squares, leaving an opening to turn them through.

Press well and pin on lining above the bottom rectangle.

Stitch around three sides through the lining and fleece to secure the pockets.

Sew the short ends together on both the outer bag and lining pieces.

  

NOTE- leave a 4” opening in that side seam on the lining piece.

Next pin then sew the three seams to form the bottom of the bag

on both the outer bag and lining pieces.

Cut out a fabric piece 6” by 32” and       a 2” by 32” piece of fusible fleece, for the strap.  Fuse the fleece onto the wrong side of the fabric about 1 1/2” in from one long side. 

Press that 1 1/2” fabric over the fleece then press the other long side about 3/4” in toward the center. 

Now press that side over the other side and all raw edges are enclosed. 

Topstitch through all thicknesses… I sewed three lines of stitching on each long side with variegated thread.

Now, we’ve finished all the different pieces and can assemble the bag!

Pin the top flap and strap ends to the top of the outside bag and stitch on using a 3/8” seam allowance.

Pin the lining to the outside bag around the top seam with right sides together. 

Sew the seam slowly, removing the pins as you get to them…

this is a really thick seam so be careful!

Turn it right sides out through that lining side-seam opening.

Pin and stitch this seam closed.

Pin the top seam flat and topstitch through all thicknesses about  3/4” down from the top. 

Again, this is a VERY thick seam, so go slow and be careful!

Almost done!  Cut two matching pieces of Velcro to fit in the flap point.

Hand sew one piece to that flap point and the other piece at the matching place on the bag front.

I added three buttons sewn on top of each other on the front flap for fun!!

I am realllllly liking the look of this!!

It would be a cute purse, too!!

You could also use the remaining three blocks to add more pockets inside or even here on the back, right?

So, you like????

(Notice I made a strap cover out of the leftover backing fabric from my Orange Slice quilt…took like 3 minutes to make!!)

And guess who slept the whole time I was making this in my sewing room??

YUP!!  My little snoozer, Yogi!!

MAN, he gets the BEST sleep!!

So, what did you do today?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving decoration?

You know, one that you pull out every year to display somewhere prominently so that you can gaze upon it daily?  It’s your favorite because of the fond memories associated with it? 

I sure do!

I bought this little wooden hand-painted jalopy at a craft fair in a local Catholic church in Coral Springs, Florida back in 1995 when I lived there and had my own booth at all the local craft fairs.  My dear sisters and Mother would come down to southern Florida from their homes in central Florida for the weekend and help me lug all my stuff over to the church, set up my booth and run it the whole weekend and then help me take it all down and lug it all back home.

(All the photos I have of those times are 35mm, not digital… I should get one of those converter box thingies, huh?)

We used to have such a good time chatting, selling, eating and admiring others’ wares and shopping at all the booths. 

I remember my oldest sister Patty and I both falling in love with this little jalopy… especially because of the traditional song lyrics painted across it… so we both had to buy one!!  :-)

You have no idea how many times over the years, we have discovered that even living many states apart since I moved here to Virginia in 1998, that we’ve gone to our local stores and bought the exact same thing- fabrics, patterns, decorative home accents, purses, linens, clothes, jewelry…  it’s like we’re twins from another time!  The photo below was from 1958 with Patty, Sally, me and Cyndy in our kitchen for my second birthday.

Another reason it is amazing is that with Patty being the oldest of 4 sisters and me being the youngest, there are 12 years between our ages- she was in her first year of college when I was in first grade, so I don’t have allot of memories of her always being around as child, yet we are so alike!  Good strong genes???

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with all the trimmings!  It will be a nice quiet one for our family- just the four of us!  My husband and sons will be out tomorrow morning for a flag football game which leaves Yogi and I to do the cooking!  The menu is traditional- turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green beans, cranberry salad, rolls, pumpkin pie and coffee! 

What’re you having? 

Are you cooking or traveling?

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all  :-)

 

Orange Ya Glad It’s Done!!?

I completely finished my Orange Slice quilt about a week ago, but I had to submit my favorite Christmas quilt for SewCalGal’s Christmas Quilt Show first!  Then, I had to write my monthly post over at  Stash Manicure…  if you missed it, go HERE.  It shows my tiny sewing room in detail. 

Then, I was out of town with my boys and hubby in Orlando, FL to celebrate my dear Daddy’s 90th birthday! We had a wonderful weekend visiting with the whole family!! 

So, now that all that’s done, time for the big reveal!!

TAAAA DAAAA! 

Meet my sweet Orange Slice!

The pattern was designed by Des over at Quilt Taffy.

This is the first quilt I’ve ever made using solid white fabric.

And sooooo much orange that is not related to Halloween or fall.

I free-motion quilted big loopy flowers in the big white spaces then added a small orange button in each flower center.   

These represent the aromatic orange blossoms I grew up smelling in Florida.

I realllllly love this little quilt…it is really outside-the-box for me with all this solid white and orange!

Orange Ya Glad you stuck around to see it finally finished???

I AM!!  :-)

Sooooooo, what are you up to???