And yes, the vampire will be a Scot

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I have been occasionally sewing these last few weeks. One weekend the girls decided that it was time their mother got off her fat butt and made them their own purses already. Even Harper, she of the I-will-never-allow-anything-girly-anywhere-near-me-except-of-course-my-sister-but-I-expect-extra-dessert-for-doing-that mentality. If it meant she could A) choose fabric, and B) stand around asking me every three minutes if it was done yet, then by God, she was IN. She chose a lovely series of green batiks, and Devon went for all the pink she could find.

"THIS IS MY CRAZY-ASS PRINCESS FACE!"

I made them from the same pattern as the one I made for our neighbor's daughter, which is small enough for them to use, but big enough that they can keep using it for several years. These purses now accompany us on any outing to a restaurant, as they contain strategic supplies for surviving the eternal wait for food that they are forced to endure any time their parents want to eat a meal they don't have to clean up after.

Then, of course, I was jealous and decided that I needed a new purse too. I've been hoarding some Jane Sassaman fabric and finally decided to cut into it. I used the same pattern that I had used to make this bag:

From The Bitchy Stitcher

Only, I modified it, because in that version there is a seam that runs directly down the middle of each side and it was gonna mess up my beautiful fabric. So I made it like this:

Apparently, I have a thing for spiders. Or, at least stylized depictions of them. And I loved the way it turned out so much, I also decided I needed a new Kindle cover to match. I have a feeling that matching one's handbag and Kindle cover is a major fashion faux pas, but since my stained t-shirt, ratty yoga pants, butch haircut and general body shape are all pretty much in the DON'T category as well, I guess it doesn't really matter much.

Then Harper came home with a school assignment to make an animal. Any animal, but they have to make it out of things they have around the house. Or in this case, things their mother has. Naturally, Harper wanted to make a snake (we got lucky - it could have been a tarantula) and we immediately started brainstorming how we could sew one. We decided that we could draw a pattern and cut out the fabric, stuff it with Kleenex, and even fashion a rattle out of a bit of plastic tubing and some beads.

Of course, this meant that Devon needed to have a stuffed creature of her own, and she wanted a butterfly, which has no end of logistical problems. How the hell was I going to join wings to a body? I got started by making a wing pattern and cutting out 4 pieces, and a body pattern. The wings were sewn together with fusible fleece and quilted a bit, then I ended up just sewing them together with a zigzag stitch (though I realized later that one wing was upside down). Then we made a body out of two pieces and I essentially appliqued them on, leaving an opening for stuffing and then slip stitching it closed.

Not gonna win any ribbons at the fair, but the kids are happy.

Oh, and now Someone Who Shall Not Be Named (Jake) has gotten me to start reading the J.D. Robb series of books, and if you don't hear from me for several weeks that is why. Now, I am enjoying them, obviously, but I have to say this, even though I know no one but me gives a shit. WHERE IS THIS WOMAN'S EDITOR? Seriously, you could make a drinking game out of how much she repeats herself. The worst is when she wants to let you, the ignorant reader, know something someone is saying is supposed to be facetious. "He put his tongue in his cheek." "She placed her tongue in her cheek." "...he said, with his tongue planted in his cheek." She does this like eighteen times in the same book! NORA. We get it. We can figure out that when Eve says to Roarke, "I only pretended to enjoy that," that she is NOT SERIOUS. Oh, and how many times does Eve say, "I only pretended to enjoy that"? At some point, Roarke better say, "If I had a dime for every time you said that..." or I'm gonna have to make some calls.

Sigh. I guess I'm just going to have to finally start writing that vampire-romance-quilting-mystery novel I've been planning for the last couple of months. Someone's gotta show Nora how it's done.


(Oh, and P.S. I have a new comment system, which will allow people (and me) to respond to comments individually. To comment, just click on the place below where it says "0 comments" (or whatever the number is) and then after the jump, scroll down to the end of the post, and there you will see the new form. It's a little different, but I'm hoping it will work out well.)