Getting Back on Track....Making Up For Missed OPAMs

I finished my fall purse. Love the bag. The pattern is Letty's Bag by Robin Gallagher. The instructions were most excellent. At the moment I'm tearing apart my Kaffe Fassett bag made with an Indygo Junction pattern. Indygo can take some lessons from Robin:

1. Handles should not be made with drapery cording inside, not only will they tear away from the bag (even though you've sewn through the cording, which will eventually shred, but the seams will split when the cording has nowhere to go but up. (Ask me how I know....rrrrr--iippp, rrr--iipp).

2.  And let's talk about flimsy inside pockets. Robin uses the fusible fleece inside the two layers of pocket, AND she top stitcfhes those inside pockets to give them some body, and she divides a large pocket into 3 sections (stitching down the length) to keep them from going all flopsy-mopsy on you.

There are two large pockets attached to the bottom and side seams of the bag (they go all along the inside perimeter), and they've been stitched at intervals to provide 6 separate, non-flimsy, yet generously proportioned pockets. Above is a cell phone pocket....and imagine that....it's sized to actually fit a Blackberry (can I get a woot woot!? ).

Anywho, can't wait to load this sucker up and take it out on the town. I love Autumn, and having a festive Fall bag, made from richly colored batik,  is pure Nirvana.

On to OPAM (one project a month) finish number two.

The bargello table runner finally finished. quilted, bound, labeled, and running a table. I'm glad I chose sunset colors that could pass as a Fall table runner. Here's to many more OPAM finishes this month (and on to tea towels).

I love Fall. I like to dedcorate for Fall as much as Christmas. This is one of my favorite decorations. It's simply a packet of scrapbooking embellishments that I stuck on a textured cardstock and stuck inside the perfect shadowboxy frame I found at JoAnn. I have another smaller frame with seasonal prints made the same way that I swap out. This frame was just made for that 'print', so it's a permanent installation. :)

This is a wool mat I sewed entirely by hand (from a kit). I love the wool prints. It was fun to make, and looks great on the table with all the textures and colors. I need to make one of these for Christmas (trees), but haven't found the right wools to use--though I do look at the quilt shows I attend. Maybe some day I'll find some perfect little squares of various green patterned wools.

This is one of my Hobby Lobby finds last week in Vegas. I had hoped to use it on the front door, but it just wasn't working against a flat surface, it's all metal and the letters are meant to dangle and twirl. For now it hangs over the table in the breakfast room where it can dangle to it's hearts' content.

Also picked up the painted wood pumpkins and gourd to sit on the window sill over the sink. I prefer to do Fall deco as opposed to Halloween. That way I can drag it all out after Labor Day and it can stay up until the day after Thanksgiving when I start the serious Christmas decorating. I even have Fall-themed dinner plates, and placements for the dog bowls....I tend to go 'whole hog on seasonal decorating. Now, if I could only get it together and get that Halloween quilt started and the Fall quilt finished (and those tea towels....oh my!).

Well, I'm off to either fix the purse handles on the Kaffe bag, make a pie pin cushion, or work on the Fall quilt top. Earlier I picked out my colors of the silk threads I won from Superior Threads a couple weeks ago (I procrastinated when I got back from Vegas). I matched them to some of the silks I bought for the hubs to give to me for Mothers' Day, which I plan to make something out of (do you like my vagueness?).

Last night I swapped out the tunes for your listening pleasure. Top song is my current favorite song, and the Neil Young was something I just discovered, out of the blue (it's a Buffalo Springfield tune). The hubs found it on iTunes tonight and then hopped over to Amazon and bought the CD for me..Sugar Mountain Live. He thinks it's a legit copy of a bootleg, and it was a bootleg we probably owned at one time but just don't remember (his Dad had a record shop and people used to come in and sell us bootleg discs all the time...I can't believe we actually sold the dozens we had to someone.....we sure were young and stupid back in the 70s).

Neck still not great, but I'm suffering through it. We'll give it the full week of medicating before we schedule a visit to the orthopedist/chiropractor/physical therapist---pick one.

Ya'll have a fabulous Thursday. Hope your weather is cooling down (or warming up if you're in the Southern hemisphere). Only 108 days (actually exactly: 107 days, 2 hours, 48 minutes and 16 seconds) until Christmas. If you need a nudge, feel free to check my sidebar. If you haven't started yet, it's time to get to work on those quilty gifts.

Goodnight Moon.