Crocheted Plastic Bag Bags

So, I've had this cute little tiny crocheted plastic bag bag. You know, the kind that's crocheted out of plastic Wal-mart bags. 

Since it's lined with a sturdy mailer-type plastic bag (also recycled), I've been using it as a tiny purse.

The kind of purse that holds only the essentials: wallet, keys, phone, (and of course, chewing gum whenever possible!)

But, since that one was a little crammed, I made a new one. Everything fits inside the new purse without sticking out the top.

This one's also lined with one of those mailing bags, so that nothing little falls out the "holes" in the crochet.

I'm loving that my Wal-Mart is switching over to gray bags from their usual white. This bag has some gray, some white, and some white-and-purple bags from Taco Bell.

For size comparison, here's the old, next to the new.

Hello Kitty Irish Chain

Months ago, I mentioned starting some Irish Chain quilt tops ...

I got the Hearts quilt top done a few weeks after cutting the pieces ... 

Finally, last week, I got out and sewed up the pieces to the Hello Kitty quilt top ...

Here, pieces to the Hello Kitty Irish Chain are stacked up, ready to sew together. (More pictures of my Irish Chain process are in this post and this post, from when I was making the Hearts quilt top.)

The pieces went together nicely into a quilt top that's nearly 50" x 50".

I love the cute pink Hello Kitty fabric!

It's for sale on eBay, so I'm hoping somebody will enjoy quilting it up for their favorite Hello Kitty fan!

And, since I'm incurably on the lookout for my "next" project ... I had to do something with the too-little scraps that were leftover ... 

So, dozens of inch-and-a-half squares went into a container for the beginning of a "real" postage stamp quilt. I've made postage-stamp-style quilts with 2- or 3-inch squares before. Thought I might try the real tiny ones ... We'll see if anything comes of it ...

I'll be linking this post to:

~ this week's Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

~ this week's Work-In-Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Tossed Nine Patch Frogs

The other day, I got out some cute frog fabric that's been in my stash ...

Some of the cute florals I've got looked pretty good with the frogs ...

So, I made some Tossed Nine Patch blocks ...

... and I sewed them together ...

... into a little quilt top.

It's small - 34" x 40", so it was quick and easy.

It's for sale on eBay ... so that someone can have fun finishing it up!

I'm linking this post to this week's Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life.

Lantanas ...

I bought these cute flowers a few weeks ago, in hopes that they'll love the hot weather and bloom abundantly. Apparently, lantanas tolerate summer heat well - and we usually have plenty of that.

I've got some pink ones ...

And I've got some orange ...

And it's looking like there are lots more blooms where these came from!

Finished White Hexagons Quilt

So, I finished the white hexagon quilt last week ... I got it done literally minutes before leaving for a bridal shower where this quilt was a gift.

After quilting around each hexagon (I mentioned that part in this blog post), I free-motion quilted all over the remainder of the center portion of the quilt. Straight lines on the border - and I love how the criss-cross effect worked in the otherwise-plain corners.

That's a lot of quilting, but it went remarkably quickly. 

Here's a view of the back of the quilt (before the binding was on, so pardon the batting) ...

I quilted this one with my favorite free-motion quilting design ... the kids say it looks a little like puzzle pieces. I think it looks like doodling on paper. Either way, I like the look!

Somehow, the quilt-draped-over-a-chair photo doesn't always look right ... but you get the idea. It's a nice throw-quilt size ... something like 60"x70" - but I don't recall the exact measurement.

This was a fun quilt to work on. It went together pretty quickly, and I had fun. I'm told it suits the bride's style just right, so I hope she'll enjoy it. 

I'll be linking this post to some of my favorite Friday blog link parties ... 

~ This week's Sew and Tell Friday at AmyLouWho

~ This week's Show off Friday at Pieceful Life

A Quilt Book!

Last week, I got this book in the mail ... Doesn't it look like fun?

Big thanks to Jo at Jo's Country Junction .. I got this book for free in one of her quilty giveaways!

So, I wanted to mention that Jo's blog is one that impresses and inspires me ... (and she seems to do giveaways frequently ... so you might want to pop by there sometime!)

Anyhoo, I see some letter-patchworking in my future ... actually, I've tried similar quilty letters in the past, with relative success, just never did much with them ...

One of these days ...

Light Blue English Paper Piecing

I got to a stopping point on this piece of English Paper Piecing ...

I first mentioned it here, and then again here, and it's the same style as the one here ... 

So, I'm looking forward to figuring out how to put it into a quilt ...

Hopefully, pretty soon! 

I'm linking this post to this week's Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life ...

Pansies!

Apparently, where I live, it's really handy to buy already-blooming pansies from the store in the fall. Once planted, the pansies somehow survive the winter and show up blooming again in the spring.

Sounds like a great idea, but I'm pretty sure I've never bought pansies. (At least not any that survived.)

And I'm really sure I never thought about growing pansies from seeds. 

(Around here, who does that?)

Until last year. When I was buying seeds from cheapseeds.com. I couldn't resist trying their package of 2,000 pansy seeds for only three or four dollars. Gotta be worth a try, right?

So, I bought cheap seeds, and planted lots.

Once again, the story of so many of last year's seeds: I planted pansy seeds last year in the spring. Had leaves in the summer. In the fall. In the winter.

We had a nice, mild winter, and, lo and behold, I've been getting pansy flowers all spring!

I'm loving it!

These pictures were taken at various times in the last few months.

 I really like the random splashes of color the clumps of pansies give.

I love to watch the sun filter through the leaves and flowers.

I'm so, so glad God thought of flowers!

White Hexagons!

So, I posted about green hexagons the other day.

The green hexagon project is still in progress, but, of course, there's another hexagon project in the works.

White and cream hexagons on a muslin background.

I really like the assortment of textures and "colors" within this very narrow color scheme. (Wait. Can you even call variations on white a color scheme? Anyway ...)

I'm glad I decided to put the white-and-cream piano-key border around the edges. 

It's just what it needed.

I ironed Heat-n-Bond to the backs of the hexagons, to hold them into place until I could quilt them on into place.

Quilting around every hexagon through all the layers: time-consuming, but worth it.

I'm loving the progress.

The quilting is looking pretty neat from the back, too. The back is mostly muslin, with stripes of white and cream ...

The "expanse" of plain muslin on the front will have basic, curly free-motion quilting on it, and the piano-key border will probably be quilted in straight lines.

So far, so good.