Bag and blocks

My friend Leisha Camden had her birthday in mid October, but she spent the day in Egypt, so her birthday pressie from me was only handed over today. She spotted a pattern for this make-up bag with an elephant on it before Christmas last year, and I found she expected an elephant-pressie... Well, she didn't get one then, but I did make her one now:

It is a fair size bag that will hold some books and stuff, or might come in handy for shopping (in stead of those non-environment friendly plastic bags). And for the elephant tail I had some fun with a star stud, a bead and a rusty bell :o)

***

Anyone remember this post? While looking through some old post last night, I found that I haven't shared the remaining blocks for this mini quilt - they were all done this summer!

They have been laying on the sideboard in the living room since I finished them, in hope that I'll work some more on this version of Sarah's Sampler. I still have to put the top together and figure out how I'm going to quilt it, but having all the blocks finished is a start. I'm still putting off those tiny pieces for the garden maze setting and the twisted border - this will have to be done over a peaceful weekend when I'm in a great mood and have no stiff neck!!!

Hope you all have had a great weekend!
Sincerely, Anne Ida

Elm Creek Samplers

For a long time I have wanted to make "Sarah's Sampler" from Jennifer Chiaverini's first pattern book Elm Creek Quilts - this is the quilt as it appears in the book (picture borrowed from http://www.elmcreek.net/):

(Ok, there are lots more quilts from these books I want to make!! *lol*). If you have read The Quilter's Apprentice you know this is the sampler Sarah makes when she first learn to quilt - and the storyline of the book is connected to each of the blocks in the quilt. But I have held back a bit on starting this one, partly because of the work of the setting but perhaps more because of the size. Then the other night I thought, why not make it as a mini? Ok, so I haven't eliminated the amount of work, but a wall quilt I can find room for :o) So I have drafted the blocks to 4" instead of the 12" in the pattern, and I think it will fit nicely over my desk! Tonight I sewed my first two blocks:

Yet again it's blue and white *lol* Maybe I'll mix in some other colours... I still have lots of small blue scraps, and the white is the cut offs from the baby basket... we'll see how long it lasts.

My heading says samplers, and the reason is that this morning FedEx rang the door bell, and they delivered my SBS! This was a lot sooner than I had expected, but I'm so happy my "baby" safely home again!

This weekend I'll be going to visit Inger Lise along with Hanne and May Britt - we are going to work on our Angel's Story quilts - I guess we are going to have lots of fun, and I hope to have some fun pictures to show when I get back :o)

Happy Quilting!!!
Sincerely, Anne Ida