Sally Said Sew

I purchased some fabric not too long ago made by Windham Fabrics called Rescue Me! It is a small collection of fabrics about rescuing and adopting cats and dogs. Very cute line of fabrics! One of the animal rescue groups I support is S.A.F.E. Sanctuary (Save Animals From Euthanasia) in Faribault, Minnesota. They are having a fundraiser in February so I decided to make a tote bag from the rescue fabric and donate it to them. Hopefully someone will bid a lot of money on the tote bag to help support their efforts in animal rescue. I have another color way of fabric in the dog print and then one in cats. I plan on making more totes and donating them to a couple of other shelters I support. I love this fabric and it is being put to use for good causes!

In addition to the bags and wallets I made for Christmas, I also managed to get a few quilts done in the last two months. My mother pieced and did the binding on this quilt for my Aunt Sally. I did the quilting on it for her. It was all free-hand work. Around the Block My mother also did the piecing and binding on this quilt for my Aunt Wendy. I used a pantograph pattern for the quilting. Bewitched My mother and I also teamed up to complete a quilt for my sister, Carrie. The pattern is Radio Way by Jaybird Quilts and the printed fabrics were a jelly roll from a designer named MoMo and her "It's a Hoot" line produced by Moda fabrics. I especially love the backing on this quilt. I was inspired by Jan over at Janice Elaine Sews . She always does something special on her quilt backs and I had enough left over strips of fabric to bring a touch of the quilt front to the back. I used a pantograph pattern for the quilt design. Quilt Front Quilt Back Cl

Now that Christmas is over, I can share several of the projects that were gifts that I worked on. Barbados Bag by Pink Sand Beach Designs. The fabrics in this have gold metallic that don't show up very well in the photos. This was for my sister-in-law. I also made a matching Fiona wallet (pattern by Clobird Designs). One of these Seahawks wallets (a variation on the Fiona pattern) was a gift to my mom. The other one I will keep since the quality wasn't up to my standards. I also made a really nice tote bag from a free online tutorial. It is called the Market Tote from Bijou Lovely ( http://www.bijoulovelydesigns.com/2010/05/market-tote-tutorial.html ). It is a heavier duty tote than some of them out there. This bag also gifted to a dear friend. I just love the cat fabric! Then I made up a few more runaround bags out of Seahawks fabric, but wouldn't you know, I forgot to take pictures! Lastly, although not a bag or tote, I made a hexie

I tried another new pattern this weekend for small crossbody bags called the Runaround Bag by Lazy Girl Designs. I followed the directions as written for my first bag, the navy/purple one. Yeah, I was not impressed with the handle and the fact that you can see the seams inside, even though you zigzag stitch them to clean up the raw edges. I thought the strap was downright ugly as designed. I didn't like the "openness" of the one side of it. Bag #1 Time for another modification to a pattern which meant I would be making another bag. I used my Dritz Quick Turn tool to do the next strap.  It made for a much cleaner and nicer looking strap.  Another thing I did differently from the pattern when I made the strap was to use just one WOF instead of piecing it. Mistake. The strap was too short in my opinion even though the instructions said to make the strap 40-45" long. I also had access to a set of instructions to modify the liner to hide the seams. Incorpor

My local quilt shop is carrying a pattern called the Versatile Wave by Susan Rooney Patterns. I really like the ability to change the look of the bag by changing the bottom cover. Versatile Wave Pattern My problem is that I do not like bags with two handles or short ones either. The pattern as is would not work for me. What to do, what to do?? I put on my thinking cap and did some modifications to change it to a one handle bag. And here it is! I used a simulated tooled leather fabric for the bag and quilting cottons for the cover. Currently, my cover, although sewn to be reversible, it not removable. My button is too big to fit through the button hole so I need to find smaller buttons. I also want to add a snap to the side seams to help keep the cover attached to the bag itself (since the handles won't do the trick as the pattern intends). I wish I used the invisible sew-in magnets but didn't think of it until the purse was finished. I also modified the inter