This one's for Vince!

I took a little break from blogging not long after I posted my very first post. The thing is... I think I got cold feet. I didn't think anyone was actually ready it, (I hadn't told anyone that I was writing it,) and I guess I started thinking that maybe it was a little bit silly to be writing a craft blog that nobody would ever read. But then I spoke to my little brother. He lives on the other side of the country, in Vancouver, and as a masters student apparently has loads of free time on his hands to google things and randomly surf the net. I hadn't told him that I was blogging, but then one day he asked me why I hadn't posted on my blog recently? I was shocked that someone was actually reading it, and though he didn't admit it, I think that he liked seeing what I was up to, even if it was mostly about knitting. So, in honour of my little brother Vince, I've decided to renew my commitment to blogging. At least for now.

Today's post, while dedicated to Vince, is also about sewing rather then knitting. I spend most of my free time knitting, I love to sew too, but I'm not as good at it, and I don't have a sewing machine, so I have to plan projects around trips to my parents house in the suburbs. As a result, I get much less sewing done then I would like. I do however, have 2 sewing projects that I'm particularily proud of. The first, is this star quilt that I made for my boyfriends little nephew, Jake:

I love this pattern, I find the stars very pretty. The quilt is very simple, which is a requirement for most of my quilting projects seeing as how, like I said, I'm not the best sewer. The thing that I like the most about this quilt is the colour. It's my second quilt. My first used the same pattern, but fits my queen sized bed (is 5 x 6 squares rather then 3 x 3) and was made using fabrics of every colour of the rainbow. I tend to gravitate towards lots of colour, but I don't think that it's always for the best. For this quilt I was able to control my urges and focus the pallette using just watery blues with a bit of gray and turquoise thrown in for good measure. From what I can tell, Jake approves.

My next favorite sewing project, the Weekender bag by Amy Butler:

I chose to make mine using a bright navy and turquoise fabric, from one of Amy Butlers collections. I bought both the pattern and the fabric this fall on a trip to Guelph to visit my great friend Jenna. Her mom owns a quilt shop and I spent the afternoon on cloud nine examining all the beautiful fabrics and samples. I'm really happy with how the bag turned out, but wouldn't call it a novice project. There are many layers of fabric and timtex and piping, and required a lot of muscle to sew through it all, my mom helped a lot. She's the best.

Oh, so not only does my brother read my blog, apparently he told my mom about it, so she reads it too. Hi mom!