Avon, my youngest daughter, turns 4 on Sunday.

When I was sewing a backpack for a little friend of hers a while ago she wanted one too. She especially wanted the fabric with blue and white dots. When she saw scraps two very sweet Crafty Mamas (Papillon and Missmagic) sent me, Avon picked the Owl fabric.

Unfortuantely I can't remember which CM sent me the owls, sorrry :( I've asked for scraps for projects just like this one so I can use up my stash (the black and white dots) and the cute fabrics. Thank you both of you nice women for taking the time and effort to send me a bag with your fabrics. ♥♥♥

So...I sat down today, acutally wanted to do it on sewing Wednesday :) but okay I'm on Africa timing it seems. I used a Starry, starry night background for the cute owls.

Again my scraps of zpagetti came in very handy for the draw strings and farbenmix ribbo I still have to use. I'm almost at a point where I'm allowed to buy new ones ;)

It is not visible but I've stitched a fancy stitch looking like twigs in green all over the top of the bag on the black just to over do it hie-hie.

Pirate Drawstring bag

I got this nice order from a friend to make her little boy a drawstring bag and that he likes pirates.  I surfed the internet for for some patterns and made him a drawstring backpack and used pirate scraps I got from a Crafty Mama.

Recycling jeans into a bag

I've been wanting to do this/try this for a VERRRRY looooooooooong time and this past Wednesday I've done it! And did some Wednesday sewing (yeah Crafty Mamas!). I actually kept these Hello Kitty pants to mend the knees but never got to it and in the meantime my kids out grew it. But I wasn't in dispair as I've had a plan B -grin- ok a plan C because plan B was to cut off the legs and use it as shorts...
As it is a size 116 it turned out a sort of clutch purse with long handles :)
I've added left over zpagetti for fun because MY NAME IS MONIQUE AND I LOVE ZPAGETTI!

The crocheted flowers are from a spring swap at swap-bot

Hello Kitty Poochie bag

For a swap at swap-bot.com I made a poochie bag. The theme was to make one for your swap partner using Happy Zombie's (great!) tutorial. I used stash for this project and used an iron on Helly Kitty that was just waiting for the right moment. My swap-partner is a HK fan so it was very appropriate to give her a poochie bag with a HK somewhere :)

Zpagetti bag Milano

I've finished my zpagetti bag

as soon as I've received my ordered handle!

Pattern:

Milano

Zpagetti colours:

Pinkorange & Fuchsia

Bag handle with beads:

from Marutska

I had to improvise a bid as after I've crocheted the bottom part the Zpagetti was half the size, so I had to put away my zpagetti 12mm hook and take my crochet needle of 9mm to finish the job.

At first just continued to crochet with the zpagetti hook but the "holes" were so far apart and the bag became much to floppy and elastic at the top. I had to unto it all and then swap to the smaller hook. I guess that's on of the things what I like about Zpagetti,

the elelment of supprise :)

I've added a funky braided rosette for detail and added a large wooden button

so the bag can be closed.

Giveaway woot! woot!

This is just awesome,
on a cold wet day I got a package from Australia to brighten my day!
I've entered my name for this and got so lucky to receive the most beautiful hand made items from Peta (read her blog: one stitch away as she makes awesome things that are just perfect)
A beautiful large bag where you can fit in everything when go shopping, even the dog lol! (just kidding about the dog). The bag if from "weekend sewing" by Heather Ross
A cute fabric booklet(awesomely neatly made) to store needles (REALLY need this)
and cute self covered buttons and Peta used some really nice fabric from Amy Butler for that!
I'm now posting without photo because have to install my cart reader again and I"m afraid if I wait till it is done I might forget to post in this hectic time.
Thanx so much Peta it really made my day

drawstring bag

I needed a b-day gift for dd7's friend. As I've already given her with a previous birthday a personalised painting I had to think of somthing else. Something personalised (I like that) and not to intensive to make as I have a time pressure at the moment with a couple of orders and of course wee baby of 1 month.

I let dd draw an animal, paint it with textile paint and then I've made a drawstring bag from it 45cx45cm using orange fabric with white dots. I googled and find this perfect drawstring tutorial made by schetched soul, plain enough for me to follow.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to make it a bit more interesting with applications or reversable or with a quilted backing. This just'll have to do and next time I must start sooner!

Poppies, daisies and corn flowers

A dear internet friend of mine, ordered a bag from me. It is the second time she gives me a theme to paint on a textile bag. The first one was in autumn and this one in The Summer. She said I could take my time and has a lot of patience because it did take some time to get it to her!
she asked me to paint poppies, daisies and corn flowers in a meadow. I wasn't sure if I was able to do that. You see the result and here is the other side:

I've painted it with textile paint (washable) and lined it with gold, black and white on a cotton bag.
It was a joy to paint because I love the flowers she picked, too ;-)

Reversable handbag

I bought these handles at happytex and got a pattern for a handbag for free. I'm still a beginner sewer and had some difficulty understanding the (easy) pattern so improvised. I wrote the shop asking for a bit more detail on the instructions and got very good service. So The next bag I'll follow the added instructions. I'm anyway happy with the way it turned out. I'm thinking of added d-rings to clip my keys on and maybe a chain so it is possible to carry the bag over one's shoulder.

fabric: Ikea

handles:Clover CL-6341

Size: without handles: 62 x 28 cm

The April challenge was...

At CraftyMamas

"April's Challenge, mamas, is to MAKE SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF!!! ( for a change...we deserve it!)We spend so much of our craft time making items for our family...this time it's ALL ABOUT MAMA!!"

This is what I write 24/4

"I've actually sewn myself a bag. Yes will all the painting and stuff I'm doing I've never made myself a bag except for the felted one I've tried and decided to keep.Well this time it was another bag made with the sew baby pattern bought in the shop, easy and neat for a beginner like me (hint hint to all other beginners out there) I've made it once before now I've made it in pink unfortunately just as I wanted to take the pics then of course the batteries failed....so I owe you a pic but in the mean time I'm enjoying my bag"

At last I have the pictures:

The bag is huge, you can throw in the dog as well on the first photo the pockets are inside, in the 2nd outside

from the corner of my eye

We were driving past orchards round dusk when from the corner of my eye

I saw movement in a little broken window of a wee little barn It was this little fella

I've finished another order: a textile painted giraffe. Somebody ordered it for the 30th b-day of her friend. I had much fun painting this...needed some colour in my life ;-)

Granny Square Bag

At last...finished. I've crocheted these squares in August while my husband drove as to and from our holiday location in Denmark. If it wasn't for the Autobahn(highway in Germany where one can drive at top speed) I would've ended up with more squares but probably end up being a square too!

I ran out of hairy yarn when short stitching the squares together. I didn't want the pink that much but the purple was nowhere to be found. To work away the hairy tails isn't that much fun either because the hairs get caught up everywhere. Anyway it is finished now:
19 squares
30x45cm measured without handles
I still want to add a wooden button and crochet a loop and maybe sew an inside/lining.

I got the idea for doing the bag this bag here, when I was looking for something interesting to do with the granny squares.

Dee diddy dum

I've been itching now for a long time to do this; felting. I've crocheted this diddy bag with pure wool I've won here with a Green bag swap. The bag was 31x31cm. I've agitated it by washing it on 30 degrees in the washing machine. It shrunk only 2cm in the width and nothing in the length.

Before

So then I washed it at 50 degrees and the end result was a good and solid felted diddy bag:
26cmx28cm.

After

A perfect bag for a crochet project!

wool used:Moda Dea by Cartwheel

50gr 71m

crocheting two strands simultaneously and used 5 balls

color: 9823 sea blue& color:9745 rasberries

quatro fun order

Michelle (Crafty Mama) asked me to paint her two bags with sea creatures in greens and blues. So I've done that with lot of enjoyment. 2 bags with 4 different scenes. I used a lot of pearl paint to give a nice effect.

Then as I was busy she asked me to add another bag. She's making a quilt with fun animals and a lot of dots I believe (can't wait to see the finished quilt). She asked if I can paint a zebra in lime and purple and add dots. Well, how exciting...I'll used the dotted effect more as I had a lot of fun.

Then...she asked me if I can paint a bag for her mom. Mom loves bluebirds, gulls and bishops. So..I had to look up a bluebird as I've never heard about them. They seem a lot like a red robin to me ;-) apart from the colour of course! I decided to do the blue and the red birds ;-) really enjoyed it and when crazy on the background.

Thanx a million for this great order Michelle!

In total I've painted 4 bags but with 8 different scenes as the two sides of each bag is painted totally different! Please see my Flickr album for more photo's. Don't be afraid; enjoy the colours ;-)

What I've been up to

I've completed 4 bags for a great order: sea creatures, birds and a dotty zebra. Had a lot of fun with alle these great colours and had to part with them throwing them on the post to Australia. I wish their receivers a lot a warmth and joy!then I've absolutely stunned myself by sewing a bag. Not any bag; it is a reversable bag. I've bought a pattern from SwapMamas' shop because it was on sale and I love bags. Never thought I had the guts to try anything else but the morsebag. It is a double duty bag from sewbaby and I can really recommend it. As it is reversable you it has a great finished look. I was just sewing in a clip-on for car keys in one of the pockets when my friend came in. Well, she bought if fresh from the oven! It is such a great bag, either using it with the pockets outside (see photo) for easy access or reverse it with the pockets inside. I've used 2 fabrics to create the different look like you have two bags for the price of one ;-)
They say it is easy and I can confirm it is.

Striped donkey

A friend stimulated me by ordering

a zebra linnen bag from me.

Starting with the back which is clear to all: The background is painted with pearl textile paint,

the beast lined with gold and black liners.

Well, if you don't draw attention at the market with this bag...

Yesterday I've finished this bag and manage to finish both the swaps I'm joining in!