Testing…testing?

So.  It wasn’t my fault.  I swear.  I had every intention of writing my blog last week.  And the week before.  Time is always an issue in my life, but I had carved out time in order to write and publish my posts.  But technology, that capricious friend, decided to assert itself.  I’m holding my breath (and knocking on wood, burning incense and twirling three times) even as I write to see if my computer will cooperate this time or continue to play the tease.

You see, in the last two weeks, my computer has decided to randomly and without warning to insert intermittent capital and lowercase letters and special characters.  I took three trips to the computer store where I originally bought the computer and have a limited coverage plan for occasions such as this.  There was backing up and resetting and all the many technological things that are done to resolve the problem.  But within a couple of days of getting it back, it would begin again.  We think we have narrowed the problem, but that remains to be seen.

So today, since it seems to be behaving so far, I am hoping (twirling, knocking, breathing)that I will be able to complete this post before trouble arises.

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In my last post, In Which the Relationship Hits Snags, but Growth is Discovered I showed off some fabric that I intend to make into some project bags.  My friend, Keri asked me to talk about making these bags.  So here we go.

One thing, I definitely DO love about technology is the numerous resources for learning how to do new things.  I was not taught about the sewing, knitting, and crocheting that I now love so much.  So when I began to delve into those creative endeavors I was fortunate enough to have access to things like YouTube and Pinterest in order for me to have patient tutors (who don’t mind being interrupted and rewound repeatedly) to guide my efforts.

A few years ago I discovered the Noodlehead Zippered Pouch.  I was (and still am) pretty basic in my sewing skills and I found this tutorial very clear and easy to follow.  In fact, that year I made several of these pouches out of different fun fabrics and took them to work as small gifts for my workmates who used them for makeup, phone chargers or whatever suited them.  You can cut the fabric to go from small to large depending on what you want to make.

One thing I didn’t do in the beginning but always do now is add interfacing to give the bag a bit more structure.  Here is a repost of a larger project bag I made last year.  It’s still one of my favorites.

I use smaller bags for sock projects and knitting paraphernalia and the larger bag for bigger or bulkier projects.

As you can see from this picture, the zipper end is enclosed in a small square of fabric.  This has worked well for me.  But recently I wanted to sew my bags so the zipper was fully enclosed.  This led to a search on YouTube and I found this.  Since I wanted to keep the boxy corners of the other bags the only change I made to my bags was to enclose the zipper at both ends following the instructions on the video to do that.  Here is where I should be inserting a picture of a bag with a fully enclosed zipper, but I gifted the one I made and forgot to take a picture before sending it on its way.  But I have just washed and dried up my fabric in preparation for the next bag.  I will be sure to include pictures of those bags once they are completed.

In other sewing, I finished the baby blanket for newly arrived Peregrine Francis Pine.

I’m pleased with how it turned out and it is a very fitting style for this particular nature-loving family.   Since I don’t quilt often, it’s been about 5 years since the last one, I had to refresh my memory on certain things, but all in all, I feel it went well.

As promised in the last blog, I present to you a completed pair of socks (with very impressed chickens in the background) ready for cooler weather:

 

So with gratitude in my heart for safely arriving at the end of this post without any technical difficulties, I wish for you a lovely week and plenty of time for whatever craft takes your fancy.

Peace,

Jamye

 

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