So I have finally diversified on Etsy and listed a few of the gift card holders / mini wallets. I also put up one of the polka dot purses, who can’t resist fall colors?

I think my favorite is the blueberry and daffodil! A little springy, but I think it will put a smile on your face while shuffling through the dozens of “BOGO”and discount cards we all collect.

Per the suggestion of Aunt Lulu I attempted to put more cards in the wallet and I easily got eight business BOGO cards to fit!

They would also be great for business cards!

So I hate, absolutely HATE to give gift cards, but sometimes they are the best gift option. Recently I added an itunes gift card to a birthday package and found myself wanting to dress it up a little. Something to make it a little more special and little more personal. I started to dig through the scrap bins of fabric and decided that I could make some sort of wallet or sleeve for the card. Large enough to hold the standard size gift card or cash folded in half.

A couple scraps of fabric, a little stabilizer, a button and about 30 minutes found me with this lovely wallet.

Sadly my favorite part is probably a little impractical. The fabric covered button while cute is not very practical from a wallet standpoint. I think that after awhile it would get pulled off from being slid in and out of a pocket, but I haven’t tested it yet and am not willing to give it up just yet. I am contemplating a snap, but it seems to be bulky, and I detest velcro… If anyone has a suggestion on how to close these I would love to hear them!

So a little more trial and error will have to take place before they debut on Etsy. But I am hoping they can add a little cheer to the holiday season!

I have been working on a purse, using the fabulous new fabrics I purchased from Sarah’s, and per usual I changed my mind on the design, needed more fabric only to find that it was 9:30 at night and Sarah’s was decidedly NOT open.

It can be argued that I could get fabric at this time of night, but Wal-mart’s selection leaves a bit to be desired as far as handbags are concerned. So I made due and constructed one strap for the purse. It was cute and possibly could have worked if the purse had been larger overall, but the current size did not lend itself to the slouchy hobo style. Thus I had to rip out the stitches and go back to the store to purchase more fabric.

However, I think that the end product is very nice. It’s fully lined and has a reinforced bottom with a separate fabric covered bottom insert. It fits nicely tucked under your arm and holds just the right amount of stuff.

The specifics…

11″ at bottom and flares to 15″
depth of about 3″
height of 9″
two straps measuring 20″ each
interior pocket of 8″ x 4″
magnetic tab closure

I’m thinking of adding it to my Etsy shop, I just need to work out some of the kinks!

It is time for summer to go away, the sticky days and the warm nights need to move on. I have decided that if I purchase lovely fall fabrics the weather will HAVE to join in. Below is a sample of my latest findings form Sarahs. It was a little tricky to find much in this color palette.

I think you will agree that the colors are amazing. They make you want to bake spiced apple pie, pull out sweaters and make soup.

I am currently working on a purse with the polka dot as the exterior and the clover-like print on the interior. The plan is to put it up on Etsy, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to part with it!

The other two fabrics will probably find their way to a purse as well. As we all know I can’t resist a good polka dot and if it’s an Alexander Henry polka dot I don’t stand a chance! Matt has a busy weekend with work so I will be left to my own devices and hopefully that will result in some good and productive sewing.

*The quilt is coming along, it is just a little tedious. And I think I need to make another trip to the fabric store…

As I was photographing the latest sleeve to put on Etsy I noticed that I am a little heavy on the polka dots this time, though if you ask me there can never be enough polka dots! Along with those polka dots are some amazing fabrics. I particularly fancy the “Pop Garden” from Heather Bailey. It is the floral with splashes of red and blue. The “kleo” from Alexander Henry has a great modern feel to it and is stunning with the Michael Miller black and white polka dot. The third sleeve is a fun dahlia print from Sandi Henderson’s Farmers Market line. The last new sleeve is a little quirky I’ll admit, but I saw the fabric and could not resist the bird print.

In other news I am hoping to get some purses in my Etsy shop soon! Early last spring I made a version of the Amy Bulter Uptown handbag (click here to see the original pattern). It turned out well and I still receive compliments on it, even though it is in desperate need of cleaning! I am looking at adding a flap and making it a little more compact, this one measures around 18″ in length and can be used to take out small children at the grocery store.

But we are headed to Iowa, the land where “your vote matters,” this weekend for Matt’s cousins wedding so it is unlikely that the purses will make their debut before next week!

Matt has a new cousin, just a couple days new. And I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to make a quilt, a REAL quilt, with lots of little pieces shown together as opposed to the cheater quilts I normally do. You know, the kind that are just two pieces of fabric joined with a with a ruffle or bias tape. They are nice and does a two year old really know the difference? Probably not, but I decided it was time, and when doing a blanket for a tiny little girl it can be small… which translates to less work!

So once I decided to make a quilt the dilemma became picking fabrics. Generally I pick and choose fabrics on a whim. Most things I make only use a few fabrics so coordination on a large scale is not an issue. But the pattern that I found, rather the picture that I am wanting to replicate, has SEVEN main fabrics, plus assorted others for the edges and binding. Let’s just say that Matt got worried when I was gone for an hour and a half. But I am happy with the result. They are sweet and soft in a baby blanket way but modern enough to be made by a 23 year old. I think they are a good mix, but I’ll only be able to tell for sure when they are pieced together.

I gleaned as many tips as I could from the kind ladies at Sarah’s, but if anybody has any tricks they would like to share I am all ears! So for now I am optimistic. Updates to follow!

While it may be a horrible thing to say I am enjoying the effects of Gustav up in Kansas. It brought a lovely, wonderful and much needed cool front that has left me wearing a sweater around that house and constantly holding a cup of tea. This in turn leads to more sewing, you see the office space that Matt and I share is a little tight. It has nothing to do with all my stuff… And the sewing machine sits on a little table near the window, which I swear has powers to manipulate the weather. So when it’s a standard 80 degrees out it feels like 100 while sitting at the sewing machine. Thus making it difficult to stay there for extended periods of time.

But with the sudden fall like temperatures I have been productive. Below you can see a sample of the new MacBook sleeves I put up on etsy. I am really happy with the new fabrics, especially the bold geometric print.

I finished up the sleeves I had in the works and if all goes well I should have three, hopefully four, more to put up by this weekend! Check them out on etsy and view more photos!