How about a little bag for April?

Hello everyone!  Thanks for your votes on February's diaper bag.  And the winner is the Mama Mia bag!

Okay, so voting for March's bag will still be going until October 2, and voting for April's bag will start today, September 25, and end October 9.  Phew!  That's a lot of dates to keep track of.  Hopefully you'll like what I have for you this month!

I thought that since prom season will be rapidly approaching at this point, we could look at doing a little handbag or clutch that could easily be used as a formal accessory or for casual, everyday use, depending on the fabric you choose.  As always, if you would like to do something different, let me know!

Bag number 1 is the Charming Little Purse-O-Nality by Linda Rauld:

This handbag can be made with either a wrist strap or a shoulder strap, or both!  The strap connects with a hook, so you can change them out if you'd like.  The dimensions of this bag are 8.5" by 5" by 1.5".

Bag number two is the Haute Handbag and Clutch by Artful Offerings:

This pattern is for both bags, and the handbag dimensions are 11.5" by 15.5" by 4.5", and the clutch measures 5.5" by 11" by 2".

Bag number three is the Cash and Carry change purse by Atkinson Designs:

This pattern includes directions for three different sized change purses.  The top one can be made 3.5" by 5.5" OR 3.5" by 7.5".  The one all the way to the right is also 3.5" by 5.5" or 3.5" by 7.5", and the bottom one is 3.5" by 5.5".  The top two are called "Strip Zips," and they are made with strips (obviously).  The ones on the right might make two at a time, or they are two stuck together?  I'm not really sure on that one.   And the one on the bottom is just a simple change purse.  I'm reading all about the way cool zipper technique included in the pattern, so I might just have to try it out anyway!

So let me know what you think about April's bag, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Go green with a market tote! And, the winner for January's bag.

Thank you to everyone who submitted votes for January 2011's bag!  The votes have been counted, and the winner is The Fourth Quarter Bag!  So get excited to make this bag in January!  Woop woop!

As some of you may know, Earth Day is April 22 each year.  2011 will be no exception!  For March's bag, I would like to make a market tote, so you'll be all ready to display it with pride when you go to the grocery store in April.  These also make great gifts.  I have found three bags for us to choose from for March.

The first bag is the Be Green Market Bag from Paradiso Designs:

I think it's pretty clear that if you want to make this bag you have to have a huge dog.  Just kidding!  That was hopefully my only lame joke for this post.  The dimensions of this bag are 10" long, 14" tall and 6" wide.

The second bag is the Eco Market Tote by Favorite Things:

This bag may or may not have an outside pocket (it's hard to tell from the picture, and it's amazing how non-descriptive some pattern descriptions are!), and the dimensions are 15" high, 18" wide, and 4.5" deep.

The third bag is the Chic Shopper's Tote from Bella Nonna Designs:

This bag has a smallish outside flap pocket, and the dimensions of the bag are 17" wide, and 16.5" tall with an 8.5" bottom.

You will have until Saturday, October 2 at noon to vote on March's bag.  Thanks for your consideration, and I look forward to sewing with you! :)

Choosing February's bag!

Okay everyone!  We've had some votes for January's bag, and voting will be open for another week.  Voting for February's bag will start today, and will end Saturday September 25 at noon.  Just a reminder that we will have voting for a new bag out every week, and each month will be open for voting for two weeks, so there will be some overlap.  Please contribute your votes!

For February, I thought it would be fun to do a diaper bag.  I don't know about you guys, but it seems as if when spring starts I have a never ending list of people I know who are having babies, and I feel that I have to make something for each and every one of them.  Diaper bags are nice because they are handy, and they are (hopefully) easy and quick for the person making them.  Even if you say to yourself, "Pah!  I'm not doing this month's bag because I don't know anyone having babies," it would be nice to make and donate to your local pregnancy care center, or just in case someone you know someday has a baby.  Anyway, I have three choices for this month, but if you have any suggestions please feel free to put them in the comments!

Bag one is the Mama Mia Diaper Bag from Favorite Things:

This bag includes 8 elasticized inside pockets, as well as a pattern for a changing pad that folds up into a clutch style piece with pockets for diapers and wipes.  This would double as a great tote bag, as well. :)  This bag's dimensions are 14" high, 20" wide, and 9" deep.

The second bag is the Nappy Bag from Amy Butler:

This bag includes a changing pad as well, with it's own storage case.  There is also a cell phone pocket on the outside.  This bag would also make a great tote bag if you don't want a diaper bag.  This bag's dimensions are 24" wide and 29" tall.

Bag three is the Double Duty Bag from Sew Baby:

This bag is reversible, and six roomy pockets on one side.  This pattern also includes directions for a changing pad.  The bag dimensions are 17" high, 14" wide, and 5" deep.

Those are the options that I found for diaper bags.  Again, if you see something else you like and would like that put in the running, feel free to mention it.  You will have until September 25 at noon to vote for February's bag.  Thanks!

And......we're back!

Hi everyone!  I bet you didn't think that the blog would be taking the summer off, did you?  Well, neither did I!  I was so busy this summer that I had very little free time, and what free time I did have was spent knitting and sewing.  I do hope you'll forgive me for that!

We just got back from the Houlton Quilt Show, and we had a great time!  We have lots of pictures, so we'll share them with you soon.  But I want to talk about something else that we are very excited about today!  Starting in January of 2011, Garden Gate Fabrics will be doing a bag of the month club.  We'll do a different bag each month, and you can purchase the kit complete with pattern, and we will also offer a class each month for whatever bag we make.  I have looked through a lot of patterns, and now we're going to let you choose what you would like to do each month.  What I'll be doing is posting a couple of choices for each month, starting now.  We'll leave the choices up for voting for two weeks, but I'll post a new month of choices each week so we will hopefully have chosen all 12 bags for 2011 before 2011 actually starts!  You can submit your vote by commenting on the blog post.  Also, if you are interested in doing a bag a month with us, but live far away, we will definitely ship a kit to you, so you can be a part of the fun too!  So, on to the fun part!

For January, I thought we could start with a simple pieced tote/handbag.  I'm going to show you three different patterns that I thought were cute, and you can choose your favorite or tell me if you don't like any of them. 

The first bag is called the Building Blocks Bag, from Indygo Junction:

  This pattern includes instructions for both bags, which are made using 6.5 inch squares.  I've been told this pattern is pretty simple as well, which is always a plus! :)

The second pattern is called Charming Totes 4 from Whistlepig Creek.  This pattern uses charm packs.

This pattern includes instructions for all three bags.  Additional yardage will likely be required for lining, handles, etc.  Using precuts is always fun, and makes things faster, as some of you know.

The third pattern is the 4th Quarter Bag from Silk Road Creations.

This pattern uses 4 fat quarters, and has 14 pockets.  Wowzah!  Talk about a place for everything, and everything in its place!

So all that I need you to do is comment on this post and say which bag you would prefer to sew in January, or if you would rather do something totally different.  If you aren't interested in doing a bag of the month on 2011, that's okay too!  Hopefully we can find something else to keep you busy.  So let me know what you think, and let me know if you have any suggestions for bags for 2011.  Thanks!

*IMPORTANT!* Voting for January's bag will end on Saturday, September 18 at noontime EST (just in case anyone is in a different time zone!).  Voting for February's bag will begin Saturday, September 11.  Happy sewing!

Product vs. Process Crafting

I hear a lot about "Process versus Process" in material that I read and listen to.  I have mostly heard it referring to knitting, but it can be applied to sewing as well.  It can actually be applied to anything that you can think of (some you may have to think harder than others), but we'll just focus on crafting.

Process crafters are simply crafting for the sheer bliss of doing something.  Knitters love the hypnotizing rhythm of the knits and purls, quilters enjoy cutting large pieces of fabric up into many small pieces, and then sewing them back together, scrapbookers could happily sit for hours trying to find the perfect colors of paper to complement each other.  If you find yourself working on projects and you're not really worried about when you get them done, but rather are enjoying the creative process, trying new things and maybe taking risks with the projects, you may enjoy the process more than the finished product.  Being a process crafter can be described as crafting for yourself, rather than for other people.  This means crafting for the purposes of relaxation, maintaining sanity, etc, not necessarily making crafts for yourself.

Product crafters are more pleased with the finished product, rather than enjoying the time when they are making the project.  This is pretty self-explanatory.  Your projects may have a deadline (even if the deadline is vague or mobile), and you may not particularly love the project while you're making it, but once it is done you do like it.  Product crafters will craft for other people, whether it is for the purpose of gifting or selling.

I have tried very hard to decide which type of crafter I am.  I really do enjoy the process of most crafts.  I love knitting and sewing, and I'm happy to do either of those all day.  Scrapbooking is another story.  I love the finished scrapbooks, but I am not really good with colors and patterns, so I don't enjoy trying to figure out what should go where.  I got a scrapbook for my wedding from a cousin who makes them for a living, and it is beautiful.  When it got to us, all that we had to do was choose pictures and insert them into the book.  I chose the pictures and had them printed, and there the scrapbook and pictures sat, for a year and a half.  Finally, a friend of mine was visiting and decided to do it for me, since I clearly was never going to do it.  The finished product looks great now, but the process was not very exciting for me.

There also seems to come a point for me in most projects that I stop enjoying the process and am just waiting for the product.  I tend to go pretty wild in choosing really large projects, like queen sized quilts, six foot long cable scarves, and the like.  I can temper this disenchantment by keeping smaller, simpler projects going on the side, which messes with my deadline but keeps me from tossing the larger projects altogether.  I also have this obsession with making lists of projects that I am either working on currently or have promised to people, and I love to cross things off that list, which appeals to the product crafter side of me.  My husband also tells me that if I were truly a process crafter, I would knit a huge piece of fabric and then rip it all out, and just be happy because I was able to knit for a while.  I'm not that in love with the process.

What kind of crafter are you?  Do you appreciate the time spent working on the project, or do you relish the finished product?  Or, are you a little of both?  I would love to hear your points of view on this subject!

(finally) Finishing your hat!

Hello!  I want to apologize again for keeping you all hanging on finishing your hat.  Hopefully I will be a bit more on the ball for the next knitalong or quiltalong.

I did, however, finally finish my hat so I can tell you about it!  Once you have finished your final round for the leaves, you are done with the red yarn, and the decreases are worked using only the green yarn.  Cut a short tail off of the red yarn (maybe 2 to 3 inches), and leave it hanging inside the hat.  Start round 31 in the pattern with your green yarn.  You've already done some k2tog's if you did the earflaps, but here's a refresher video:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/decreases

You can choose to do either the k2tog on the left at the top, or the ssk on the right at the top.  I tried it both ways and it didn't look too terribly different.  Follow the pattern until you have 9 stitches left.  You are then going to knit those stitches for six rows, forming the stem.  Then, the final row consists of k2tog 4 times, and then knitting the last stitch.  You'll have five stitches left, and you will need to cut a tail and thread your tapestry needle with that tail.  Then you need to draw the yarn through the last five stitches, and pull them closed.  I then put the needle down through the center of the stitches (or as close as I could get), and pulling the stem inside out, tied a knot to secure the yarn, and wove the end in a bit.  To weave in all of your ends, I basically just thread the ends on my needle, and then pull them through some of the purl bumps going in one direction, and then I come back through a few bumps in the other direction.  There are lots of videos on youtube if you are interested in seeing how other people weave in their ends.  Here is what my hat looked like before weaving in the ends or adding straps:

Once you are done weaving in your ends, you can add straps to your hat in a couple of different ways.  I knit what is called an Icord, and a video to show you how to do that is here.  You'll have to scroll down until you find the video, it's close to the bottom.  The Icord is a knitted tube.  To do mine, I picked up three stitches at the bottom of my earflap like so:

I then started knitting the icord off of these three stitches.  You can also pick up a few stitches and knit back and forth, creating a flat strap with the purl bumps on both sides of it.  Another option is to pull one long length of yarn through each of these three stitches, and then braid them together to create braided straps.  Or, you can leave straps off altogether.

You can then embellish your hat by adding seeds if you would like, using the duplicate stitch.  Take your black yarn, and duplicate the v's made by various knit stitches wherever you would like seeds to be.  I chose not to do this once I finished my hat.  After this, you are done!  Here is a picture of my finished hat:

It would be nice if I had something other than a glass to model the hat, but times are tough and we have to use what we have!

That's it for this knitalong.  I would love to see pictures, you can email them to me at alexandyjATgmailDOTcom.  Is there something in particular you would like to knit or sew next?  I will try to be better about timely posts in the future, so let me know what you are interested in doing.  I hope you enjoyed doing this knitalong!

I'm still here!

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I am still here!  I know I haven't blogged in a really long time.  It's been a little crazy around here, with the Maine Shop Hop happening during the month of April, and my husband and I are getting ready to move, and we have family visiting.  I haven't had any time for any knitting, let alone working on my hat and taking pictures.  I have a baby blanket on my needles for a baby born last Saturday, and I thought I would be done by the time he was born, but I'm only half done.  I promise I will blog about the rest of my hat soon, but until then, if you have any questions just drop me an email at alexandyjATgmailDOTcom, or comment on this post.  I apologize again for the long absence.