4th of July Tote Start to Finish

One of my fellow Peeps wanted to know where I've been lately and what I've been up to. I've been busy sewing.

A quick update on the last two projects I posted about. My Mom absolutely loved her chair pads and they fit her chairs perfectly. We celebrated Marge's birthday and she loved her new tote bag. It's always puts a smile on my face when I give someone something I've made and they truly like it. Both projects were a success but I didn't think to take pictures of the recipients.

Soooooo here are a couple of pictures of the latest Charm Party Tote that I just made for myself. I had picked up this charm pack when we were in Ohio. I decided I needed a new purse for the upcoming holiday. I changed up the pockets and did some decorative stitching on the handles using a star design my machine has. I put ties on the sides to help to shape the bag and sewed in a clip so I won't keep loosing my keys.

Next up I'm making myself another purse and then I need to put the binding on a baby quilt and binding on a wall hanging. I want all of these finishes done by the end of this week. Pictures to follow.

4 finished UFO's

My first 4 finished UFO's are done. I started thinking about these before retreat. My Mom recently bought a new dining set and she was looking for new pads for the chairs. She started out trying to crochet the pads by herself. A little history here, my Mom has Macular Degeneration in one eye and age degeneration in the other. She used to be a whiz when it came to sewing and it's been really hard on her that she can't see well enough to sew anymore. Her love of sewing and quilting is where I got my love for quilting and of course where her Granddaughter Jen got her love for it too. I suggested to her that I make her chair pads out of strips of fabric wrapped around clothes line and she jumped at the idea. So, I started looking for fabrics and I even looked while we were on retreat but didn't find anything. Once home I started going through my stash and came up with some dark browns and beiges that she was looking for. I added a piece or two more and made her a small sample to see how she liked the colors. She saw this on Mother's Day and really liked the combinations so Iwas good to go. I started out OK but every now and then I'd stop and just put them aside. I had the first three almost done by the time our challenge came about to finish UFO's. Those three just had to be finished off and odd threads cut off. Tonight I finished the fourth chair pad, finished off the other three and did the snipping of threads and now they get to go to their new home. I talked to her yesterday because I thought she wanted ties put on them but she didn't. I still have some strips left over so I might just try and make her a few coasters for the table top and later on a table topper since heaven forbid anything sits directly on the table. So, here are my first 4 finishes.