I have been so lucky to find my tribe on IG… #thefabricenablers of Karen, Dianne and Lisa have kept me in giggles (and kept me updated on where all the latest fabrics for sale are!) for over a year now. We decided this year that we would do a birthday club for each other and send each other handmade presents for our birthdays.
I was the lucky one and was first up in May, then we had Lisa and Dianne in July and Karen was last in September.
My presents were amazing… I have to admit, there were tears opening them. The girls had made me the most beautiful sewing machine mat, matching sewing machine cover and mug rug all using my favourite Paperie by Amy Sinibaldi and a gorgeous bag and a HUGE amount of goodies… chocolates, cards, notebooks… the list just went on 🙂
It just made my birthday… that these women whom I had never met in real life before (well, I got to meet Dianne on the day I opened my presents!) would go to such efforts to create such lovely things. #IGfriendsreallyAREthebest
Then I realised of course that I needed to create some things that were just as good for all of them! Gulp! No pressure…..
Dianne and I worked together to make Lisa a sewing machine mat for her Bernina… Dianne made the swoon block in the middle and I put the rest of the mat together.
Karen had also made Lisa the Thimbleblossom mini Handmade… from pre-release Handmade fabric of course. It looked stunning!
Dianne’s birthday fell on the day her hubby came home from hospital after having knee surgery.. it had been a long couple of weeks for her! We showered her in presents and I made a Bionic Gear Bag from Vintage Picnic and filled it with lots of little notions and goodies.
So this brings us to the last birthday girl of the year, Karen. It was hard deciding what to make for Karen as her work is just stunning and so detailed (and perfect!)… I wanted to use Marmalade and some Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille as Karen loves the oranges in these lines. I finally decided on the Maker’s Tote by Noodlehead. The smaller size looked just a great size for taking in the car on those long trips when Karen goes to see her grown up kids 🙂
I did a small star block for the front instead of the pocket and used green scrumptious inside with orange pockets.
And then as I cut out all the various pieces I STUFFED UP THE ZIP cutout! NOOOOOOOO!!!! I didn’t have enough of the Soft and Stable OR the fabric to start again… so I just had to work out a fix and hope it didn’t spoil the look…
Hmmm….. the jury is still out as to whether it spoils it or not.. It is at least still usable. (and hey, I’m a weetbix kid!)
Still, the inside pockets worked a treat and I think the finished product looks pretty good. So much so that I think I will be making some more of these now that Cotton Factory has restocked their Soft and Stable supplies!
And of course I had to add in a cute little zipper charm to finish it off!
#FAL2016 as part of my Quarter 3 2016 Quilty List
It’s stunning and I think the outside zip looks fine! Congratulations on your finish, and thank you, on behalf of the 2016 global FAL hosts, for taking part!