My Little Not-At-Market Crafty Party!

Hey y'all! How's everybody doing? As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I am not at Quilt Market this year - pretty darn sad I must say, but I have been following my peeps and all their exploits online so at least I get to live vicariously though them. It's okay though, hopefully I will be back in the Fall (or next Spring at the very least).

Remember back in this post when I shared the Go Anywhere Bag I made and said that it was the second one that I had made? Well now I can finally share the first one that I made as a gift!! Hurrah!

This little bag was a birthday present for my bestie Jennifer - it was quite late in arriving since I didn't get it sent out quite as speedily as I would have liked and that was compounded by the fact that it ended up coming back to me with Jennifer's address (which I had written in permanent marker) completely rubbed off the outside of the package! So of course then it had to go out again, but it arrived this week (unscathed, thank goodness).

I used the Go Anywhere Bag pattern by Anna Graham of Noodlehead which I think is just fabulous! The two exterior fabrics are a blue chambray and a print from Patty Young's Flora & Fauna line (it just occurred to me that I bought this fabric at Crafty Planet in Minneapolis with Jennifer during my first Quilt Market). The main interior fabric is from Tula Pink's Parisville and, just like the other version, I did two pockets on the inside.

And again, just like the other one, I bound the two exterior pockets rather than using piping or simply folding over the layers and top stitching. This particular fabric is from Oliver + S' City Weekend. And yes, for anyone who might be wondering, in the first picture that is a little model of Green Gables holding up the bag *wink*!

Just this past week I was asked to join the Joy Circle for do. Good Stitches - fun! Tonight I made my very first blocks for May...

For this months blocks we followed the tutorial for Boxed Strings that Becca posted to her blog. We're not cutting them up and re-sewing them at this point though - Becca will do that once she receives them all. The idea here was to go for fun, girly fabrics that would be appropriate for a teenage girl or young woman.

I am super-excited to be participating in this bee and doing a little good for charity; I also can't wait to get to know the ladies in my circle (hey girls!), many of whom are fellow Canadians.

I also started knitting a new pair of socks! These are the Diagonal Lace Socks from Wendy D. Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up. I'm using the magic loop method and the yarn is a Harvest Gold fingering weight (superwash merino/nylon) from Aspen Moon Arts on Etsy (shop is on vacation right now while the owner moves). I've had this book sitting on my shelf for quite awhile now (quite possibly about two years) and I finally just said to myself "okay, let's do it". I've never knit socks from the toe up before but I knew even before trying it that it would be my preferred method.

Now, I must get back to my sock knitting and crying not-crying over missing quilt market! Let me know what you're up to this crafty weekend - did I mention it's also a holiday weekend in Canada? Happy (193rd) birthday Queen Victoria!

(Please ignore the giant gaps between my toes...)