This one is mine

I made this one for me. This is my new purse. It is the same size as the other two I have made (see previous posts) but is constructed differently because I wanted to put a button closure on it and inside pockets. Here is what the inside looks like.

I put two identical sized pockets on each side but on one side I sewed a channel for a pen or pencil. I have already transferred all my stuff to my new purse so I'm ready to go out. Too bad I don't have any where to go today.

New Light and Tote

After many months of wanting a bendable bright light and reading about how great others said theirs was, I bought one for myself. I have not had a chance to sew with it yet but it is now installed. Wow! What a difference between the regular machine light and this one!

I also took some pictures of the second Pick A Pocket Purse I made with longer handles and inside pockets.

For the longer handles, I cut them 4" by the width of the fabric instead of the 4" by 34 1/2" called for in the pattern.

For the inside pockets, I cut two pieces of the outside pocket fabric 7" by 14". Fold these in half, right sides together, to form a 7" square. Using a 1/4" seam allowance, start at the fold and sew around three sides to the other fold, leaving a 2" hole for turning along one side (doesn't matter which side, just in the middle of a side). Trim the corners and turn it right side out, press. Before you sew the two halves of the bag together attach the pockets on the lining part. I tried to center them on the handles and about 1" down from the top of the bag. I just top-stitched them in place along the two sides and the bottom.

Pick a Pocket Purse

Last week I whipped up this little purse/tote.

It is called the Pick A Pocket Purse and I got the pattern here. It was easy to make and didn't take very long. I've made another one already but I don't have a photo of it yet. I used it on our trip last weekend! I modified the pattern to make the handles longer and added interior pockets.

I have a gift occasion coming up and I am thinking about making one of these to give and fill it with some goodies. The gift is not for a specific person and I always find that type of situation hardest to make/purchase for. My strategy is to do something that I would like to receive and hope that someone else in the group will have similar tastes.

Back from our trip and a tip

We are back from our trip to Durango. We had a great time reconnecting with (and meeting for the first time) one branch of Tony's family. They are a fun bunch.

On Friday night we ate at a restaurant called the Sow's Ear. We were staying up near the ski resort and most of the action and restaurants are located 20 miles down the mountain in Durango. We had been driving for hours and hours according to Parker (actually it was only 4 hours) through some pretty heavy rain and didn't feel like trekking back down to Durango for dinner. According to the information at the place we were staying, there are only four restaurants on the mountain. At least only four that are open in the summer. Based on the brief descriptions we picked the Sow's Ear. We opened the menu and I thought Tony was going to fall on the floor - it was expensive. But we had the best meal we have had in years! They make everything from scratch, even butcher their own cows. The food was outstanding! I don't think I have ever had a steak at a restaurant that I didn't feel I could have fixed as well or better myself, until Friday night. My ribeye was better than I can do. If you are ever in the Durango area and are in the market for a meal to remember, go to the Sow's Ear!

To top off our meal, as we were waiting for our check a bear came ambling out of the woods down into the parking lot toward the front door! And me without my camera. One of the waiters went running down to close the front door of the restaurant since the bear seemed to be headed our way. However, by the time we got out to the parking lot we couldn't see him anywhere - thank goodness, he was big. Our waitress said that he was probably only between 1 and 2 years old though and he would get much bigger. Yikes!

Now for my tip. My LQS, The Gray Goose, gave these out a few years ago as a little gifty for purchasing something. They called them bobbin bikinis. Actually, they are ponytail holders for little girls but they work great to put around a bobbin to keep it from unwinding in storage.

You can get 42 for a dollar or two at Wal-mart. Pretty good deal I think and they fit my bobbins perfectly.

Rectangles Sampler Quilt

Here is the completed Rectangles Sampler quilt.

And a picture of the back too because I always like to see the back of quilts.

My family and I will be going out of town this weekend so I may not be able or willing to post again until next week. We are going to Durango, CO for a family reunion (husband's mother's side of the family). I've only briefly met three people (not including my husband's mother who won't be attending) from this side of the family and that was over 10 years ago. So I'm not sure that it qualifies as a "reunion" for us. However, it should be fun.

At the very least, we will get a break from our bat situation. By the way, just one bat got in the house last night. We stood outside as they started coming out for the night and saw one spot along our roof where a few came out. My husband had a can of Great Stuff in the garage and he sprayed that in the hole and in all similar holes he could reach without climbing onto the roof. It was raining and I didn't want him to get up on the roof last night because the rain might make our metal roof too slick.

Rectangles Quilting motifs 3

Today I'll show you the last four rectangles of my Rectangles Sampler Quilt. All of these quilting designs came directly from Leah Day's website/blog.

Bubble Chain

Flowing Glass

Lollipop Chains

Trailing Spirals

When will this end?

Two more bats in the house tonight! That makes 6 bats in four nights. I am really over this! The two tonight must be ones that didn't make it out last night. The newspaper seemed to keep them out last night. This afternoon Tony got back on the roof to inspect and reinforced a few places with duct tape. Our research said that bats can live no more than a week without getting out to feed, but if I have to live through another week of this I'll be batty (pun intended).

We've called a few roofing companies about replacing the roof and installing proper anti-bat devices. So far one is coming next week to give us an estimate. We do not want to replace the roof until the bats have left for the season. Now that we've kicked them out we don't want to rip off the roof and risk having them all move in again before the new roof is installed.

Actually, just a properly installed roof will prevent bats from moving in. We found out today from a neighbor that the previous owner installed this roof himself using a discarded old roof. Many of the modifications and alterations he made the this house are ... how shall I put this? ... questionable, at best. Now that I know he installed this roof himself, it is definitely coming off. Ugh, I see dollar signs attached to this project.