TGIFF! - Lunch Bag

Happy Friday, all! I did get in some sewing this week and managed to finish this lunch bag. It uses Ayumi @ Pink Penguin's fabulous lunch bag tutorial. The fabric is Rashida Coleman-Hale's Washi line.

I've made this bag many times before -- here, here, here, here, here and here -- and I love trying to find a good fabric combination. This is the first time though I made this bag for me! On Tuesday, I will be starting a new professional adventure and returning to the federal public service. Yes, big changes are coming for the Quilt Matters household. I'm very excited and very nervous! Very, very nervous. Deep breaths. :)

We're heading into the Labour Day weekend here, hoping to see some hot air balloons and spend some time with family. I hope you have some great plans of your own!

It's TGIFF! is over at Ms. Midge this week. She has a beautiful quilt made using the Quick Curve Ruler -- gotta find me one of those!

Lunch, Anyone?

April Fools's Update: We tried switching the kids in their beds last night. One of them woke up though and wanted to return to his bed. Oh well. The other two thought it was funny when we told them about it this morning though.

The auction for the OMQG went really well last night. Such a great group of people! I put the placemats out as two sets of four, as many of you recommended. Thank you! Both sets were bid on and sold. Yay! We also approved our Constitution, By-Laws and Procedures and approved a motion to officially join the Modern Quilt Guild. Double yay!

On the theme of dining (placemats yesterday), this is a lunch bag I made for a friend's birthday. I used this favourite lunch bag tutorial from Ayumi at the Pink Penguin. Still love the design of the bag!

I had picked up the fabrics for they exterior separately and then noticed that they go so well together. Then I looked at the selvages. D'uh! They are both from Jay McCarroll's Center City line for FreeSpirit. The lining bag fabric, which is not from that line, looked like it went well with the outer fabrics when I made it, but it's looking off in the photo. Hmm.

I don't know what it is exactly, but I had a really hard time giving this one away. I love map fabric! My friend better like it 'cause I don't have enough of that fabric left to make another for me. Will have to find some more, I think.

Off to cuddle the little one now, who is home sick today. Poor little bug! Have a great April Fools' Day!

TGIFF! - Lunch Anyone?

Surprise! We've had a change of plans so TGIFF! is over here again this week. My finish this week also has something to do with a surprise. It's another version of Ayumi's lunch bag! I just love this pattern. I did a similar one back in June and liked the fabric pairings so much that I had to make another one when I needed a gift for a friend's 40th surprise birthday party. The party and the gift were well received! Phew! :)

Now for OctoberQuest 2! Please make sure you READ the rules BEFORE you link up. We had to unlink several folks last week and I'd rather not have to do it this week!

Your quest is to finish up those quilty projects and link up at any of our fab four hosts throughout the month of October. The rules remain the same as last year:

1. Your quilty project must be completely finished (As much as we love celebrating quilt tops or completed blocks, they will not be eligible for the prizes so we will need to unlink them).
2. You may enter more than one finish and even more than one finish each week. Just add a link for each finish to one of the linky parties. The linky parties will stay open until the end of the month.
3. Your blog post or photo on Flickr/Picasa must have a link back to the TGIFF! site and the particular party you are participating in. Posts without links will be deleted.
4. Link up your quilty finish in any of the TGIFF! linky parties this month:
   • October 4 - Laura @ Quokka Quilts
   • October 11 - M-R @ Quilt Matters
   • October 18 - M-R @ Quilt Matters
   • October 25 - Jen @ Quilter In The Closet
5. OctoberQuest will be open until October 31st at 11:59 p.m. EST. Winners will be picked via Ms. Random Number Generator on November 1st and notified via email. Please make sure we can contact you via email or we will blow the gift certificates on ourselves need to run Ms. Random again.

1) Mad About Patchwork is giving a $50 gift certificate to two lucky participants! There's something for everyone too - Pam's offering a 10% off purchases for the month of October to all OctoberQuest participants -- just use TGIFF10 at checkout.
2) Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is giving a $50 gift certificate to two lucky participants! They too are offering 10% off purchases (excluding classes, clubs and block of the month programs) for the month of October to all OctoberQuest participants -- TGIFF10 at checkout!
3) Christa Quilts is giving a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant! Christa is having a special fall blowout clearance sale - take an extra 10% off her clearance section when you use the code 13CLEARANCE at checkout.
Just think of what deliciousness you could get with one of these prizes?! So exciting! Thank you to our sponsors for offering these goodies! So to help us celebrate OctoberQuest 2 and be in the running for these amazing goodies, start linking! Here's the linkup:

Random Acts of Randomness

Pool hopping, splash pads, thunderstorms, soccer, forts, bike rides, and only a bit of Wii is what our summer has started out with. Love it!

Strawberry picking has become a tradition for us to do the week after the boys are done school. The strawberries are huge this year and we were done picking in no time.

Our favourite way to consume said strawberries? Dipping them in plain yogurt (or sour cream) and then brown sugar. Yum! Or just using them to apply lipstick.

There has been a little bit of sewing too. A last year-end gift, again made with Ayumi Mills' lunch bag tutorial:

The Stamp On It blog hop, organized by Sew We Quilt, started on Wednesday and it's been fun to see what others have done with this theme. Definitely worth checking out!

Here's a sneak peek of the background of my Stamp On It piece that I will be sharing on Monday (Canada Day!). I know, low volume? Me? But yes...for the background!

While I'm way ahead of the stage you see here, it's not done yet so I'm getting a little nervous. A late night or two ahead, I think.

Linking up to Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts for TGIFF! and Cindy @ Live A Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday (and Friday).

Hope you have a great weekend!

TGIFF! - School's Out

It was the last day of school for my older boys yesterday. Woo hoo! We can sleep in. Yeah, right. The two younger ones were up an hour earlier today. WTH?! If today is any indication of what this summer is going to be like (no naps), it's probably going to be a lot quieter on the blog this summer.

End of year teachers' gifts were lunch bags again this year. I love, love, love Ayumi Mills' lunch bag tutorial!

This fabric is from a fabulous giveaway I won from Kirsten at Gemini Stitches back in December. Thank you again, Kirsten. I love the fabric! And the teacher loved the lunch bag too. Phew!

This one went to my sister for her birthday. Funny thing is she actually pinned it from my blog. Hee hee.

I also finished this Katherine Wheel for Anne-Marie of my Simply Solids Bee. A great tutorial for this block can be found on Lawson and Lotti. It was a fun and challenging block! 

I'm linking up with Aunt Marti at Thirteen in '13 for TGIFF! Check it out and link up your own recent finish.

Happy Summer Solstice for those in the northern hemisphere!

TGIFF! - School's Out!

School's out and Camp Mommy begins today. Yay! Gulp! First on the agenda, strawberry picking. Is there anything better than fresh picked strawberries? We dip them in sour cream or yogurt and then brown sugar. Bliss!

My TGIFF!s for this week are the teachers' and bus driver gifts I made this past week.

These lunch bags were made using Ayumi Mills' @ Pink Penguin's fabulous tutorial. I made some last year and couldn't resist making them again this year.

One side

Other side

And some coasters, made using the Super Duper 5 Minute Coaster tutorial by Laura @ Quokka Quilts.

I still have a few lunch bags to make for Micah's teachers. Then, I can get back to my trees...

I'm linking up with TGIFF!, which is being hosted by Gemma @ Pretty Bobbins in New Caledonia! She's made a gorgeous bag and travel sewing kit. I've got to make me one of those! Check out the great finishes and feel free to link up one of your own!






Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

One Thing One Week Challenge Done

Nailed it! ;) Okay, well, I didn't give myself too big a challenge this week, being the last week of school and all. That said, I did finish the last of three lunch bags for my sons' teachers. The teachers seemed to really appreciate them so Yay! These bags were made using Ayumi Mills's lunch bag tutorial at Pink Penguin. Her instructions are clear and easy to follow and I'm quite happy at how the bags turned out. I think that I'll be making more of these...