A Finished Commission: Spring has Sprung Laptop Bag!

Howdy y'all! Once again, time slipped away and I went a while without blogging again. But man, I've been sewing up a storm and having fun as the weather turns spring-like. And what better way to celebrate spring than with a bright, happy laptop bag?!


A work friend's mom saw some of my creations on Facebook and asked if I could make a bag for her laptop. Of course!

I was given free reign with design and fabric choices, which was surprisingly scary. I like having project guidelines when I'm creating for somebody else! But I persevered and I used this tutorial as a guideline to get started.

Rather than buy pre-quilted fabric, which is expensive and my Jo Ann's didn't have much variety, I simply quilted regular fabric with a layer of batting. I get serious heart eyes when looking at that gridwork of quilting. If you follow me on Instagram, you got a peek of my happiness as I discovered a seam guide (or at least I think it is, I still haven't checked the manual for sure) and used it to make a darn-near perfect grid of quilting without the hassle of taping or marking a bunch.

This was my first time buying hardware, but I only had eyes for that adorable zipper. Isn't it cute?! It added a bit of a hitch sewing it in; I had to make sure that cute little design didn't get sewn into the seam allowance, but it was worth the extra brain power! :)

I absolutely love the print for the lining. I used the yellow colorway of it in the Crown Royal Quilt and I'm pretty sure I would buy it in every color of the rainbow if I could. I just wrote on the lining with a fabric pen rather than sew in a label.

I've got some secret sewing in the works right now, but I've got some shareable sewing as well! I'm hoping to get to a point where I can share soon!

A Quilt to Crown a Royal: A Finished Commission!

Guess which side my 5'4" mom was on and which side my 6'3" dad was on. Poor mom was stretching as tall as she could and still couldn't get it straight! LOL

Howdy y'all! I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to say 'Look at this finish!'. I've been working on this commission for what feels like forever, but the end has finally arrived! This quilt was a commission for a coworker's boyfriend. He gave me a bag full of Crown Royal bags and said to have fun. The only guideline was that is needed to be king sized.

My parents' poor bed was dwarfed by this king-sized monster!

I didn't reinvent the wheel with this design, but I did draw it up on paper and audition different layouts before settling on this one. It really made me feel like a designer when I was coloring in my little notebook! :)

I learned a lot with this quilt. For example: No more king size quilts! Lol. To the ladies and gents that make quilts this large on a regular basis, you are super heroes! I was exhausted after lugging this monster around. I also got my fill of log cabin blocks to last me for a long while, I'm sure.

I did loop-dee-do quilting in the yellow areas and did some minimal straight line quilting around some seams in the purple areas. In the borders, I alternated some purple and white straight lines around the seam lines.

Now that this one has been delivered, I can finally take a breath it feels like! It's so good to have this one off my shoulders, I'm proud I finished it! :)

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Finish It Up Friday: A Finish is a Finish, No Matter How Small!

Yikes, y'all! It feels like I blinked and February was gone! It zoomed by in a fun-filled blur, so I can't complain.
The crew and I enjoyed some very unseasonal warmth, catching some rays on the back porch.

It's back to cold and rainy now, but these days were ah-mazing!

We even made a new friend!

This is my new cousin! :)

I've been enjoying myself more than I have in a long time, and guys, it has felt so good. :)


And of course, part of that fun has been at my sewing machine! I finally got around to making a pixie basket! This tutorial was uber popular a while back, but I just never got around to making one back then. I use two layers of batting rather than batting and muslin, so mine is a little squishy, but it is still wonderful and I love it!

PUG LIFE!

It's so cute and tiny!

I also made myself a little magnetic pin dish! I'm bad for dropping pins or keeping them in my mouth when I sew because I don't want to look at my pin cushion when I'm focused on sewing straight seams. I figured this may help since I just have to set it in the dish and the magnet will do the rest! This cost less than $5 to make (yay for coupons and sales at Hobby Lobby!) and most of the construction time was me dancing around waiting for the glue gun to heat up. Lol. I've used this and I love it so far!

Alsoooooo, I've been quilting the heck out of the Crown Royal quilt. I was terrified to start quilting this king sized monster, but besides some tension issues in the beginning, it's actually been really good. My machine has been amazing! I'm down to quilting the borders, then it will be time to bind and deliver! :D

So all in all, a very busy, very happy month! By mid-March, I may have some cool news to share, so keep your fingers crossed! Happy stitching, y'all!