Birthday Weekend Crafting

My parents were supposed to come down this past weekend for my birthday, but plans changed at the last minute when my mom’s dog became ill and then my mom herself came down with a cold. So, when Terry asked me Saturday afternoon what I wanted to do, I came up with a couple of lingering crafty projects, of course. Terry really knows his stuff when it comes to sewing, so I knew I wanted his help to create the tote bag for my first counted canvas project. You may or may not remember that I bought the fabrics for it a while back. We took measurements and formulated a plan. The outside of the bag came out beautifully, with enough of the heavy fabric left to do a larger tote bag when I graduate to a canvas design larger than 12″ x 12″. Unfortunately, neither of us calculated correctly for the lining, so I ended up throwing a good chunk of that fabric into a scrap pile. That turned out to be indicative of how the rest of the evening would turn out. I had to do the lining twice. And Terry apparently burnt the first batch of sauce for my birthday dinner. Other things went awry, too, but the important thing is that I was able to successfully finish the bag Sunday night.

I think it turned out really well. It’s so cute!

I also have a photo of another framed piece to share with you. Again. 😉 This one is a quilled piece that I made over 3 years ago:

I think I may have mentioned a few posts ago that I happened to pull a frame out of my stash that fit this piece perfectly. The frame is kinda crappy, but at least it’s something! With the backing cardstock of the piece being white, as well as both of the mats, it needs a little bit of color, so I might try coloring the inner mat with purple or green chalk.

I was going to give this away to my mother or step-grandmother for Christmas, but I’ve decided to keep it to myself. I’m already stitching a piece for my mother for Christmas and my step-grandmother is looking to downsize into an assisted living facility in the near future, so she really doesn’t need anything more to have to make a difficult decision about keeping or letting go. Besides, I don’t have much quilled work to begin with and nothing on display!