Live, In Print!

It was a giddy day in the PoldaPop household yesterday.  I received a copy of the Stitch Summer 2013 magazine that contains my first published project!

Lisa Polderman??!  Who is she and what does she do, you ask?

And the bonus?  My friend Amy's project (she lives less than 2 miles from me) is on the page next to mine:

You can check out some of Amy's other creative projects on her blog and in her Etsy shop, form*work.  She has some adorable screen-printed tops.

I am ashamed to admit (although not ashamed enough to hide it) that I carried the magazine with me to the girls' dance class at the Park District and then to a PTA meeting in the evening just so that I could share my giddiness.  Ah, a good day!

Seven Bags in Seven Days

It sounds like a competition, doesn't it?  If only, because now I would get some kind of prize!!  Instead, I got this on my thumb:

The little round whole in my thumb came from pinning and unpinning around a thousand pins.  I guess I must use the same part of my thumb to do that each time!

But enough about my sacrifice; here are the seven bags:

Or do I get to say that I made fourteen bags since they are all reversible?

Thus ends my largest order to date - a total of nine bags for Devon's Aunt's Christmas list.  She bought the fabric and mailed it to me (and she included extra yardage so my stash has grown!) and I got to mail a big box of handmade handbags back to her.  It was great to have so many to do because I found a new way of sewing the MaiseyBelle that saves about three hours of time per bag and I discovered some new ways to make fabric flowers, like this one:

and this:

Whew!  Not a bad week's work for a naptime/night-time worker!  I have one last order to finish up and then I'll be making five pairs of kids' pajamas, four little zipper bags, three fabric flowers, two clutches, one party dress . . . . and a partridge in a pear tree.