Doing the Happy Dance!

I love when something I have wanted to do for a long time finally becomes more than an item on my "try this" list!  This item never really got written on the list, but it's something that has been popping up a lot lately, so I started by doing a lot of looking for ideas on pinterest... my fave "go to" for inspiration and ideas.  My search was for examples of Boho bags, a perfect project for using some of my fabric stash.  I found a lot of great examples, but no real tutorials.  However, I have made small bags before, based on a pattern I got years ago for a crazy quilt bag.  And I figured I would just do some fabric collage for the outside.  I have a bunch of good sized scraps of cotton twill fabric left over from a project I worked on with my friend Joyce a number of years ago.  I had dyed some to make tote bags, but all the pieces left were too small for totes.  But it's a great background for the Boho bags... sturdy, easy to sew on, so I started out by laying a bunch of scraps out on a piece I cut larger than I would need for the bag:

I've done fabric collage before, so once I laid out the fabric, I used quilt basting pins to anchor it, then stitched with a grid stitch using black thread.  Here's how it came out:

Deciding how to do the closure took some time and more research, but I found a way to use a wood bead I've had forever.  I had black braid which works well for the strap and purple fabric for the lining.  Things to do for future bags: add pockets inside and on the back.  Find other ways to close the bag... the bead is a little clunky, but I figured it would do for my first try.  I love using all my bright fabric scraps this way!

Before I tackled this, I made a couple of new bowls: this one has a little more ornate finish than I usually use, but I've seen samples of this technique and wanted to try it:

I had the lid for this bowl made for awhile, with another bowl, but decided to replace the lid

with another one that had a slightly different knob on top.  So to get this lid off my side table, I made

another bowl... nice to get these made and ready to go into Arts Connection, soon as I have more room on my new display!

I still have a "to try" on my list for sometime soon... will post here when I have had time to play with it, so stay tuned!