Patterns

My mom and I attended the annual San Diego Quilt Show today.
Normally I love cruising the vendors and buying new gadgets, fabric, and patterns, but my purse was recently stolen, so my bank account is frozen until all can be ironed out on Monday (long story).
So (gack!) I wasn't able to buy anything.

What I did instead, was take note of new patterns I hadn't seen, so I can buy them in the future.
What I love about quilt shows is getting exposed to indie companies that I might not find elsewhere.

I love this handmade lunch box by Quilts Illustrated, called Desk Deli.The tote has little pockets inside for silverware and icepacks, and includes the pattern for a fabric napkin.
Several online shops also sell the pattern, including Henrietta's Handbags.

Fort Street Market Bag, by Yoyomama Designs seems like a fun pattern.
I can't find a website, but see if your local quilt shop carries this brand.
You may be able to buy one on ebay also (currently seller Quilt Taffy has several available).

Heart to Hand sells some amazing purse patterns, often involving needle punching and wool felt.
Check out the website.

Lazy Girl Designs has some new patterns along with their other classics.

Blog Kudos

Wow, Cyndilou, honored me with a blog award!

My obligation in accepting this award is to name five things that I enjoy doing, along with five of my favorite blogs.

Things I enjoy doing:
1) I'm super detail oriented. So when I give gifts, or plan a party, I like to figure out every little thing--a person's favorite design (like polka dots) might be in the cupcake liners, the balloons, and the tissue paper. I try to think of everything, and go to the nth degree to make it special.

2) I love true crime shows, so I will usually sew with Forensic Files or something like that as background noise. I tend to flip channels between A&E and the ID channel. I used to love Court TV, but the replacement Tru TV isn't as good.

3) I enjoy research. I just made a mix cd for a friend, for example, and spent hours and hours on youtube trying to find unique songs. I get a kick out of finding obscure things--perhaps the perfect something that someone might love. I'm a really good gift giver.

4) My favorite form of creating, whether paper or fabric, tends to be collage. I like to cut out images and layer them, and thereby create something that really is one of a kind.

5) I bake to relieve stress. I find old-school baking from scratch really enjoyable. I also love to read cookbooks as if they were novels.

Five of my favorite blogs:
Andrea at Hula Seventy is amazing amazing amazing

I just bought two of Keri Smith's books for a birthday gift. Keri writes Wish Jar Journal. The party had a "bucket list" theme, and Keri's books are all about living life to the fullest.

Bari J and Calamity Kim are both inspirational with collage and design ideas

I love foodie blogs. It's tough to choose which is my absolute fave, but Molly Wizenberg's Orangette is definitely one of them. Just clicking on the link to the blog makes me all giddy inside ;)

No more challenges

My gosh, where does the time go?
Sorry for my lack of recent posts, but all my time went into organizing a surprise birthday party for a friend, lots of dog-sitting, and recently starting back to school.

I will be posting the gallery of Project #10 soon, though only two of you accepted the challenge.
Challenge #10, therefore, will be the last on this blog.

I will probably post ideas here and there, and I'll leave the blog up so you can cruise the sidebar of ideas.
There are a lot of great tutorials in the sidebar.

I get really decent traffic on this blog, but next to zero participation in the challenges, so...why bother, you know?

I'll try to post something purse related at least once a month, so the blog doesn't disappear altogether.