Giveaway Time - a Moon Shine Aurifil Box!

Hey y'all! How's it going? It's been a little while since we've done a giveaway and I thought, since Fat Quarter Shop is celebrating their 11th anniversary, that now seemed like the perfect time!

This time around I'm giving away something a little different and I really hope you like it...

Ohhhh, what could this be?! Why, it's one of the brand-spanking new Aurifil thread boxes designed to coordinate with Tula Pink's not-yet-released Moon Shine collection.  This particular box is the Dandelion colourway but threads to coordinate with Moon Shine are also available in the Meadow and Strawberry colourways. I was lucky enough to receive a few fat quarters of this new collection while I was at Quilt Market, and let me tell you, it is gorgeous!

This awesome little box contains 10 spools (220 yards each) of Aurifil 50wt. cotton thread - isn't it pretty? If I had any disposable income right now, I would be buying one of each of these little boxes for myself - totally jealous! And just in case you wanted to see a little more about the thread (and other Tula awesomeness), FQS shot this little video with Tula at Quilt Market.

To celebrate their anniversary, FQS is offering a shipping sale, so if there's anything over there that you want, I say hop to it now!

Now I bet you want to know how to enter the giveaway right? Well, here ya go!

You have two chances but please be sure to leave separate comments for each entry. Here's what you've got to do:

1. Leave a comment letting me know what your favourite 

collection from FQS' Coming Soon section is.

2. Leave another comment if you are a follower of my blog.

That's it! Two easy-peasy ways to enter! I will close the comments in a week (June 25th) and announce the winner here on the blog. International entries are, as always, welcome! Also, please remember that I have comment moderation enabled so if you don't see your comment right away it just means that I haven't had the chance to approve it yet (duplicate comments will be deleted).

Good luck everyone!!

*the giveaway is now closed*

Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. -Jean de la Fontaine

Hey y'all! So I haven't blogged in a little bit but I have a pretty good excuse - I started my new job last week! If you've been with me for awhile you know that I have been looking for work for quite some time now; it has been a stressful few months and the last couple especially have been really hard. I am still settling in and getting used to my new routine, but so far everyone is really nice and I'm able to give recommendations and have a say in the library services.

Anyway, because I'm still getting used to having far fewer hours in the day to devote to my own work, I have only sewn one thing since I started my new job (although there is other crafty stuff going on that I can't talk about right now) and that had to be done by last Sunday.

At this month's TMQG meeting we held a little blind pincushion swap! I've really been enjoying making one colour, scrappy pincushions so I did it again. Almost all of these purple scraps came from a little scrap pack I bought from The Workroom.

I fussy cut the centre motif from Tula Pink's Birds and the Bees and decided to go with a rectangular log cabin so that I could use as many scraps as possible. I don't know the identity of many of the scraps but I do know that there is some Lizzy House, Anna Maria Horner, and more Tula Pink in there.

My pincushion went to Sally (who also brought each of us a bag of crushed walnut shells to use in future pincushions) and I received a pincushion back from Sandy which I have, unfortunately, not had a chance to get decent pictures of.

I'm really hoping to get some sewing in this weekend, especially since I need to finish the quilt I started for Alex - wish me luck!

Orion Star

Hey y'all! First off I just want to say a big thank you to all of the people who have already purchased a copy of my Orion quilt pattern - you guys totally rock my world! On the first day alone, you guys managed to get it trending at #3 on Craftsy. I can not thank you guys enough and really can't wait to start seeing versions of the quilt popping up!

In the pattern, in the extras section, I mention enlarging one star portion and turning it into a baby quilt. Well, I decided to do just that on Friday and this little quilt was born.

Orion Star measures approximately 40" square and features prints from Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee, Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, Oliver + S' City Weekend, and Laurie Wisbrun's Tufted Tweets. I just love the colours so much!

The backing features Kona Ash, a repeat of the print from Chicopee, and a print from Tula Pink's Parisville. The binding is from Lizzy House's Outfoxed and is the same print that I used for the interior of my Art Student Tote (I also have it in the yellow colourway) - just love those little triangles!

I love those little birdies in Tufted Tweets - they are way too cute! I quilted this one using a light grey cotton (almost an exact match to Kona Ash) using straight lines that form different sized rectangles. I finished this quilt in one day, other than hand sewing the back of the binding, and am super-happy with the way this turned out!

Since there are no little girls in my life right now or being born anytime soon (at least that I know of), I've decided to put this little quilt up in my Etsy shop - I really hope that it finds a good home!

Once again a thank you to everyone who has purchased the Orion pattern, and to those too who have left me some many wonderful comments here, on Flickr, on Facebook, and on Instagram - you guys are awesome!

The only gift is a portion of thyself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well now, I'm finally getting around to sharing some of the things I made my mum for Christmas! I made most of the Hanukkah and Christmas presents this year, which was fun, but also a bit stressful and time consuming!

I started this Ship Shape Tote in Alexia's class at Sewing Summit - I love it! Originally I was going to go for a more neutral colour theme, but my mum likes colour so I decided to go a bit bolder. I included prints from Tula's Prince Charming, Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow, Paula Prass' Woodland Delight, and a few other collections. The handles are Kona Medium Grey and the inside is a grey leaf print from Ikea. The pattern is well-written and came together really easily. It is super roomy and I would recommend adding a pocket or two to the inside so that you won't lose smaller items in the bottom since it is so big.

I also made her this manicure kit following Rashida's Nice and Neat Manicure Kit tutorial featured on the Art Gallery Fabrics blog. The outside is a print from Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley collection (I always seem to use a lot of Joel Dewberry when making things for my mum).

And the inside and binding are all Tula (again! One thing that has always struck me about Free Spirit is how well they match collections together over a season or two... anyway...). I picked up a couple of manicure items and slipped them into their little slots, unfortunately I was having no luck finding one of the shorter nail files but hopefully my mum can find one - there is lots of space left over for her to add whatever she wants. This tutorial was really well written and I pretty much always love any pattern that Rashida comes up with!

These little oven mitts were made using fabrics from the Blush collection by Basic Grey and they are lined with both quilt batting and Insul-Brite. These are a little bit bigger than your standard finger mitts because my mumma has big hands! She was pretty happy that I made them bigger and I hope she uses them a lot.

Now onto the knitting!!

These are the Camp Out Fingerless Mitts (a free pattern on Ravelry) made using di.Ve Autunno - the yarn is so hard to photograph but is really pretty. It's a mix of green and black but the green variagates throughout from light to dark. Again, I made these bigger because of mum's big hands (went up to 6mm DPNs) and I added a garter cuff to keep them from rolling.

Using the same yarn, I made Calorimetry to match (a free pattern from Knitty). It is shaped using short rows and the construction is so cool! Check out the Knitty pattern to see it being worn - it's really neat! I thought my mum would like it because it's less likely to mess up her hair than a hat or standard headband, ha!

And last, but not least, I also knit her a set of leaf-shaped washcloths (again, a free pattern). My mum has been crocheting dishcloths for years but I thought she might appreciate someone else making her a set for a change - and they're shaped like leaves so I couldn't resist! These went into her stocking with a few other bits and bobs.

Phew, just posting all of those brings back frantic memories of trying to get everything finished in time! I'll be back on Thursday with the debut of my new quilt pattern, just have to put a few finishing touches on the write-up and it will be finished, hurray!

Hot Air Balloons + the Giveaway Winners!

As many of you know I am part of the Joy Circle for do. Good Stitches; October's block was chosen by Elaine and was such fun to make!

Hot air balloons!!! This is a paper piecing pattern available for free from Quiltmaker Magazine (you can find it here). In the original version the balloon part is done using one fabric (as with my version on the right) but Elaine told us to go ahead and do anything we wanted with our balloons, so I did the second one kind of scrappy and just paper pieced the strips into the available space on the balloon template. For both the background is a light blue Kona (sorry, can't remember which one) and the baskets and stems are also Kona (I believe it is Mocha). The balloon on the right was made using some Tula Pink Prince Charming, and the balloon on the left is a mix of scraps from Parisville, Modern Meadow, Terrain, and Dream On.

So, I bet you want to know who won the super-awesome Simply Fat Quarters giveaway, eh? Well, drum roll please!! We have four winners...

The three winners of a copy of Simply Fat Quarters are... Krista of Poppyprint, Stephanie of Sewing by Stephanie, and Allison of Dreaming in Patchwork.

The mega-big winner of a copy of the book as well as the Chicopee fabric to make the Poppy quilt is... Caitlin of Salty Oat Modern Quilts!

Congratulations ladies! Please send me an email with your address so that I can have Fat Quarter Shop ship your winnings out to you!

I'm also participating in a fun little blogathon featuring all Canadian quilters and blogs! The blogathon is being hosted by Sew Sisters (a quilting shop right here in Toronto) and is a great chance to find some new blogs - there will also be giveaways at each stop along the way (the giveaways are open internationally, not just to Canadians). Here is the list of participating bloggers (along with the province/territory the reside in):

Sunday, November 18	Kick-off!	Michele	Quilting Gallery
Monday, November 19	BC	Felicity	Felicity Quilts
Monday, November 19	BC	Cathy	Blueberry Patch
Tuesday, November 20	NS	Jeanette	STAMP * STITCH * CREATE
Tuesday, November 20	NB	Holly	Through My Window
Wednesday, November 21	AB	Shena	Apple Pie Patchwork
Wednesday, November 21	SK	Patti	Retired to Quilt
Thursday, November 22	QC	Marika	Live, Laugh, Love... Sew
Thursday, November 22	MB	Heather	Church Avenue Quilts
Friday, November 23	YT	Vivian	Quilting Under the Midnight Sun
Friday, November 23	YT	Janet	Caribou Crossing Chronicles
Saturday, November 24	ON	Cathi	Quilt Obsession
Saturday, November 24	ON	Cara	Cara Quilts
Saturday, November 24	ON	Kaye	Miss Print

It's a pretty good list I think! Each of the participants will also feature a list of quilting bloggers within their own province/territory so if you would like to be mentioned in your area's list, please see this blog post from Sew Sisters for the details!

Sewing Summit: Friends and Good Times!

So, I arrived back home from Sewing Summit very late on Sunday night - my journey home included a plane, a car, a bus, and then another car. Jealous yet? *wink*

Sewing Summit was flippin' amazing! I'm going to go into more detail about the classes and lectures, things I made, etc. later but right now all I really want to talk about is all of the super-awesome people I met/saw again/hung out with. I can't even express how really, really neat it was. I've had the lucky opportunity to twice attend Quilt Market, and I've met lots of great people there, but Sewing Summit was like an explosion of super-cool peeps!

This is Elena, Alexia, Katy, Laura Jane, me, and Megan at the bar in our hotel. And that coffee cup near the front of the shot? That's Thomas! At the table beside Thomas (there just wasn't enough room in our booth) were Angela, Christina, Audrie, Terri, and Sheila - woot! This is pretty much what it looked like for us every night - good times I tell you!

And this is hilarious - apparently Thomas and I are twins!! We didn't even notice until I went to walk past him and my leg brushed his; I looked down - mustard pants! Thomas looked up - plaid shirts and greyish cardigans! Oh my!

We spent a fair amount of time in the little lounge area on the second floor sewing and chatting away. Big thanks to Kelly for taking this pic so that I could be in it too!!

Angela, Anna, Sheila, and I all ended up on the same flight to Detroit; now you know why it took me so many modes of transportation to get home...because I didn't actually fly to Toronto. Sheila and I drove to Detroit and then flew to SLC. It was rather more complicated than that getting home. Because I'm a big baby and all I wanted to do on Sunday night was get home. I think I irritated the hell out of Sheila that day. But we're still like besties so it's all good.

I thought since I'm talking all about friends in this post that I should also show off the amazing gifties I received! Although Sheila and I flew in on Wednesday, we didn't actually have a room until Thursday, so we bunked with my girls Jennifer and Doe for the night (on the floor). And they both brought me birthday presents - hurray!!

Doe gave me the Heather Ross Prints book - thank you Doe!! And Jennifer made me this super-amazing Birdie Sling using Tula Pink's Birds & the Bees, as well as two cute notebooks, and a skein of Madelinetosh Sock in Thicket. Jennifer always spoils me rotten and I absolutely love her for it!

Christina gifted me with this beautiful mini quilt that she used as a sample in the curves class she taught - isn't it pretty?!

Here's a better picture of the mini and that's the bunting that Katy made using some Saffron Craig prints! I think I'm going to hang it either over our bed or over the window in the living room!

It was really and truly amazing seeing again/meeting these wonderful people! Although I loved my classes and lectures, spending time with everyone was most definitely my favourite part! Going to Sewing Summit has renewed my spirit somewhat (it really has been a rough few months) and has driven home how important it is to have a strong support system of like-minded individuals. I miss them all so much already!!

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. -John Barrymore

I have all of these grand plans about what I want to make before I leave for Sewing Summit... it's so not going to happen! Sheila and I leave in five days for Utah, it's Thanksgiving this weekend, and my birthday today (just throwin' that out there); I have basically run out of time unless I can squeeze something in on either Sunday or Monday and I still have to do laundry and pack and take care of all of those little, last minute things that travelling entails.

However, I did get one big thing (and I mean literally "big", this thing is huge) done that I wanted to - I made Anna Maria Horner's Art Student Tote pattern! Seriously guys, my pictures are not even going to do it justice (and neither does the cover photo from the pattern); this is one hella-large bag!

Just to put this in perspective, the bag looks big here, right? Well this is it with the sides folded in and strapped closed with the D-ring ties! Just to illustrate: I took this bag to guild with me last weekend and fit into it what normally would have needed three separate bags - everything that is normally in my purse, my laptop (wide screen, not mini), two magazines, a craft book, three separate completed sewing projects, a queen-size flat sheet, two notebooks, a couple of yards of fabric all combined, and a few other bits and bobs - crazy, right? I'm seriously going to have to get a better picture to really show how big this beast is. It definitely turned out larger than I thought, but I must admit that I'm kind of in love!

For the exterior I used Visions in Pangaea from Anna Maria's Loulouthi Needlework collection and Maybe in Blossom from Innocent Crush (also Anna Maria). Did you notice the pockets in the centre panel there? It was my first time ever putting in zippers and I must say that I'm pretty proud of myself!!!

For the interior I used Triangle Toss in Coral from Lizzy House's Outfoxed and Key Tree in Pink from Tula Pink's Plume collection. There are so many pockets in this bad boy - basically Anna Maria tells you to go ahead and divide up the pockets on each side however you'd like to best accommodate you and your stuff. One thing that I will mention about the pattern (in case you end up making it) is that you do not need to cut out or trace the pattern pieces right off the bat - all of the pieces for this bag are squares or rectangles that are easily measured! Just take out your ruler, measure each part, and cut your fabric with your ruler and rotary cutter - so much easier than actually using the pattern pieces as guides.

My September blocks for the Joy Circle of do. Good Stitches; these are Hugs & Kisses blocks based on Little Miss Shabby's tutorial. We used more "boy friendly" colours and fabrics for this one and I can't wait to see it completed!

I've also done a bunch of canning over the last little bit...

Dill Spears with lots of garlic!

Corn Salsa - not gonna lie I'm pretty excited to try this one!

A pretty basic marinara sauce - basically just tomatoes, onions, and garlic! I'll be using this as a base for lots of fun stuff this winter, I just know it!

Alex is making me dinner tonight and we've got a few friends coming over afterwards to celebrate, then tomorrow it's off north to visit my mum and have Thanksgiving with her and my grandparents - my birthday weekend is the best! I'm pretty excited for the Turkey, not gonna lie!

Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour.  With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life. -Charles Dickens

Mine Shaft - A New Quilt Pattern

Hey all! I'm so excited to be sharing a new quilt pattern with you today! Mine Shaft is my first independent release PDF quilt pattern and I am really hoping that you love it!

Mine Shaft was dreamed up last year because I really wanted to use this Tula Pink Parisville fabric I had; in the process I decided that you might like a pattern too!

This pattern includes instructions for making five different sizes of my original Mine Shaft quilt - these sizes are 48x48", 48x60", 64x84", 80x96", and 96x108"! Mine Shaft is a fun and modern pattern - it is fat quarter friendly, utilizes larger prints well, and includes good negative space for decorative quilting. This pattern includes diagrams as well as to-the-point instructions.

The PDF pattern can be purchased from either my Etsy or Craftsy shops and, of course, I'm here to answer any questions you might have!

Since this quilt has only been shown in one picture here before (in my Quilts at the Creek post) I think I'll show a few more pictures; since I've taken lots of pictures of it, it is now going into the rotation for Alex and I!

Quilt on the grass in the park near our house...

A little close-up...

The back using some Parisville, Kona Medium Grey, and Kona Snow...

And here is the special Parisville label that Tula herself sent me when I told her I was making this quilt! Isn't it great? Love my Tula hairspray can!

I really, really hope that y'all like this pattern! If you have any suggestions or corrections please let me know! And if you do make this quilt, it'd be really super-fun if you'd add it to the Flickr group! You can find the PDF pattern in the Craftsy shop here and in the Etsy shop here!

Be happy. It's one way of being wise. -Colette

A couple of weekends ago Alex and I headed up to the blue mountain for our friends' wedding - we had a grand time and it was a really lovely celebration. I decided to make myself a clutch for the occasion since I didn't own a small purse that matched my dress.

I used Anna's Envelope Clutch pattern and made the small version with a pointed flap. I didn't have a swivel clasp on hand (and no time to head to the fabric store) so I inserted the wrist strap directly to the pouch while sewing it together. I used Essex linen/cotton in natural for the body and some Liberty of London tana lawn in Caesar for the flap. The Liberty was a gift from the super-awesome Jo and is actually available in her Etsy shop right now!

For the interior I used the turtle bay print in aqua from Tula Pink's Prince Charming collection; I also used the same print in cream for creating the little accordion pocket (which I think I messed up by the way, but it still works). I included one of my labels that I printed through Spoonflower... ya know, just in case I forget who made it *wink*!

As always, Anna's pattern was well-laid out with lots of pictures and great instructions! I really enjoyed making this clutch and will definitely be making more in the future. I want to make a bigger version with the other flap style for carrying around day-to-day when I don't need my huge purse; I also want to try a version with piping since I've never tried it before!

I also made Tim and Julie a card to go along with their wedding presents. I absolutely love using small fabric scraps for making cards and have made quite a few in the past - it's especially great for using up little bits of fabric that are too small for actual patchwork. As you can see there are some small pieces of original release Flea Market Fancy in there that I've been keeping; I keep all of my teeny pieces in a sandwich sized zipper bag so that they're easy to access when I'm card making.

If you stay posted to my little space here you just might see some more cards coming in the near future... just sayin' *double wink*!!

Quilts at the Creek

A couple of weeks ago I participated in Quilts at the Creek where I showed two of my quilts. Quilts at the Creek was put on by the York Heritage Quilter's Guild in cooperation with Black Creek Pioneer Village; the YHQG asked my guild (the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild) to participate in the show with them and so I decided to put in two quilts that were finished somewhat recently.

Black Creek Pioneer Village is very cool and most of the quilts were hung up outside in various places throughout the village. I've heard a rumour that the show did so well that Black Creek has already decided they want to do the show again next year. Both my mum and Sheila drove into Toronto and the three of us spent the day at the show together; we walked around and visited all of the quilts, went into most of the buildings, watched a weaving demonstration (I recently found out that we somehow missed a hand quilting demonstration), and went to the fabric marketplace about five times as well as the actual giftshop.

Before we get into a few pictures, can I just say that I'm a complete moron and didn't actually take pictures of any of the quilts. The only reason I have any pictures of my own quilts in the show is because Sheila and my mum both took pictures of them. Yep, I totally rock.

This photo was taken by Sheila (using my phone) and that's me standing in between my two quilts. The one on the right is The Geese Have Landed which has been shown on this blog before, however the one of the left is Mineshaft which I haven't shared. Mineshaft has actually been done for a little while now, but is one that I'm currently writing a pattern for (hopefully it will be done and for sale very soon). I originally intended to put another quilt into the show but it didn't fit the width dimensions that they wanted as it's destined to be a wall hanging. And yes, both of those quilts contain a whole heck of a lot of Tula Pink - you know I love her!

A little anecdote: When I originally ventured out to find my quilts at the show I was dismayed to find that Mineshaft had been hung sideways - as in with the long side across the clothesline (despite the fact that the quilt back is pieced and that it has TWO labels on it that). Luckily a staff member wondered by as I was saying all of this to my mum and got it fixed! I wish they hadn't folded the top over like that (especially since it's crooked which you can really see in the next picture).

These are the backs of my quilts! You'll see better pictures of the Mineshaft back when I release the pattern but I must say that I love it! This is where I was standing taking pictures (not this picture obviously) when I heard two older women dissing my Mineshaft quilt - not cool!! Needless to say I didn't go near my quilts again for the rest of the day.

Here are a couple of goodies that I picked up both at the Marketplace and in the gift shop. The six fat quarters on the side (as well as a Moda scrap bag that isn't in the picture) are from Log Cabin Yardage which is a Canadian online shop. The hand dyed fabric pieces are from Good Lines Decor - they were made using pre-loved cotton and dyed with vegetable dyes - I think the colours are seriously awesome! The yarn is from the gift shop at Black Creek - it was hand spun at the village using wool from their Border-Leicester's (who I saw - cute sheep!) and hand dyed using indigo and osage. The little tag on it even has the name of the girl who made - her name is Kelly. I also bought a set of handmade leather buttons in the gift shop but they're not in the picture either.

I definitely think that I'll do Quilts at the Creek again and next year, I promise, I'll actually take pictures of the quilts!

It's Giveaway Time - Heather Bostic's Blogger's Choice!

First off, I just wanted to thank everyone for the thought provoking comments left on the last post! It was really great to read your own thoughts on the subject and I was right - some agreed, some didn't, and some half-did! I've spent the past two days responding to comments via email, so unless you were a no-reply blogger or didn't leave your email, you should have received an email response back from me!

Now onto the giveaway!! Once again, the lovely folks at Fat Quarter Shop and I have teamed up to bring you a super-awesome giveaway! This time around we're giving away Heather Bostic's Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle - woot!

This particular bundle was put together by none other than the incomparable and super-awesome (and also sailor-mouthed) Heather Bostic of {House} of A La Mode fame! This bundle features six prints from Tula Pink's Nightshade, six prints from Northcott's Saville Row (Northcott is Canadian by the way in case you were wondering - woot!), and three Kona solids.

Seriously guys, I love Heather's bundle and I want it bad (to be completely truthful, I want all of the Nightshade collection too to make a really fun quilt just for myself)! I think the colour palette that Heather has gone for here is very sophisticated, but also unexpected and fun with Tula's hidden imagery.

Okay, so I guess you want to know how to enter, right? You have two chances but please be sure to leave separate comments for each entry. Here's what you've got to do:

1. Leave a comment letting my know which item (fabric, pattern, bundle, etc)

is your favourite from FQS' Coming Soon page.

2. Leave another comment if you are a follower of my blog.

That's it! Two easy-peasy ways to enter! I will close the comments in a week (on June 7th) and announce the winner here on the blog. International entries are, as always, welcome! Also, please remember that I have comment moderation enabled so if you don't see your comment right away it just means that I haven't had the chance to approve it yet (duplicate comments will be deleted).

*the giveaway is now closed*

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...)