The Bag and The Wallet: A Tragicomedy Love Story

Still haven't finished catching up on my blog reading but this story happened a few months ago.  It's very wordy, because I love to be wordy (and had a blast writing it), so feel free to just skip to the pictures. Hah! 

Voiceover from the Trailer:
I used to love my old bag. But time had beaten it up and my needs had changed.  It was heavy and not that suitable for work. I was taking a separate tote, in addition to my purse, and that was taking its toll on my shoulder and sanity.

Act 1: Girl Meets New Bag
But I couldn't find one I liked.  Then I spotted the ByeByeLove Bag.  And needed to make it. It would hold all the things I wanted to hold - shopping bags, wallet, keys, sunglasses, headphones, clipboard, iPad, my pencil case of teacher supplies... yay!

I tinkered with the pattern.

I added a darker bottom and put feet on it, just to give it a little protection from the floor, and I changed up the pocket flaps.  I'm just not a rounded pocket flap kinda girl.  You understand.

It was a marriage of linen and cotton. I lined it with foxes.

I carried the bag for a couple of weeks.  It was glorious!  It was suitable for work, it looked professional, and it also didn't seem out of place for the rest of my life, either.  I got compliments galore, folks asking where I got it, and they were floored when I proudly said I made it. All was well.

Act 2: The Accident
And then one morning, at work, a flustered staff member knocked her entire cream & sugared coffee all over it.  And in it.

I did the mature thing, or at least I *appeared* to do the mature thing. With students around, I didn't want to give them a poor example of how to handle a first-world problem so with said co-worker being very apologetic and even more flustered, I was calm and proceeded to dab at it with paper-towels, wiped the coffee off the floor, saying all the while, "It's okay, it's just a bag, these things happen...."  Inside I wanted to cry and was trying to figure out whether it could be washed and whether the stains would be set before I even had a chance to TRY to get them out.

The second I got home I consulted the experts. I decided I could chance washing it. I soaked it liberally with the stain remover, crossed my fingers and held my breath, pushing fears for shrinking and other calamities as far out of my mind as I could.  Oh, the subtle ironies of a pattern's name....  Bye-Bye, Bag I Loved!

Act 3: Insult to Injury
While the bag hung on the drying rack, and I waited to see if the stains had indeed been removed, I also needed to meet a deadline. I needed background and foreground for a quilt I had to finish.  I needed to plunge myself into a project to distract me from the laundry coma my beloved was lolling in...

I went to my safe haven - my Cheers, to drown my sorrows in bolts and fat quarters, carrying the wallet that matched my old bag, the one I'd forsaken, in my hand.  I ran errands, and had quite the handful by the time I'd hit the quilt shop so I'm not sure if I'd dropped the tattered green beast in the parking lot beside my car or if I'd stupidly left it on the front seat and had the door not lock properly when I hit the button.  I don't know. But I didn't have it in my hands when I went to pay.

It wasn't in the store - all the patrons and staff helped me look.

It wasn't in the car or beside the car.  It had only been twenty minutes.

Gone. (Bye Bye Wallet!) I went straight to the bank on the corner to cancel my credit card and get a temporary debit card so that I could at least pay for all the fabric I'd had cut.  I was not incredulous when, after I'd explained my missing wallet situation and tried to cancel my cards, the bank clerk asked if I had ID.  Seriously???  I do have the app on my phone (always in my back pocket, thank heavens!) so I could list off the account numbers and last transactions...

I paid for my fabric at the store with the hand-written temporary card (with that big, white, shameful label that screams to everyone "I was careless with the real one") and trundled off home, heart sinking as I made a mental list of all the ID I would have to replace, and those departments and bureaus I would have to call on Monday, and all because of a stupid cup of coffee, if not for which I'd still have my bag, wallet inside, and not missing/stolen/otherwise AWOL.

I prayed that whoever had it, merely took the money and dropped the ID in the mailbox or turned it in somewhere claiming to have found it.  The money (though I certainly can't afford to just drop money in the street) really didn't matter if I could avoid calling the ministry of health, replacing my social insurance card, my driver's license, vehicle registration....  Someone could be going through my receipts and information and stealing my identity.  Yuck.  I felt violated and icky. AND! What if they cashed in my full loyalty card at the yarn shop - nooooooooooooooo! - and made a break for Belize with my Air Miles?  (Okay, in reality, the miles wouldn't get them farther than Edmonton, but still...)

Late afternoon on the Sunday, the doorbell rang and I ran to find a man holding my ID-laden wallet in his hands.  Before either of us spoke, I nearly burst into tears, thanked him almost a thousand times, and gave him a huge hug.  I had nothing to offer him in terms of a reward, other than my gratitude.  Anything immediately valuable had been stripped, of course, including my hidden small note euros and pounds.  (I live in the hope that a spontaneous scavenger hunt or some other impromptu excursion will take me overseas where that ten pound note would save valuable time or at least avoid calamity...) They even took the pennies. Canada phased them out of currency, but they hadn't yet been phased out of my wallet.  As my conversation with the ID rescuer continued, red flags went up and I began to suspect that he might have been involved in its disappearance as well, but I dismissed the idea as unimportant, in the grand scheme.  Again, I expressed my sincere delight at having my license and certificates and health card and social insurance card and all the other little bits that would have taken ages to list and replace back in my hands with hours of phone calls and running around now off my to-do list.

Act 4: Can't Even Look At It
So now I have the wallet back and, while I'm relieved, it feels tainted. Someone rummaged through the whole thing. It had betrayed all my secrets and didn't even put up a fight. I can't bear to put the new temporary debit card in it, no matter how temporary and laden with the still-stinging sense of recklessness. I surrender to the awkwardness of a sandwich-sized ziploc bag to carry my cards.  The wallet's gotta go.  It's beat up anyway. It was as old as the bag it matched which was now in the bottom of the closet.  It's time for the light bulb idea that our protagonist comes up with - new bag is lonely.

Flash to a furious digging through the notions box for hardware for a long-intended, never started project.  Cut to woman with rotary cutter and flying fabric.  Cue 80s-style sports montage or woman at sewing machine: close-up of foot pedal to the metal, iron pressed up-down-up-down, brow wipe.....

Act 5: Hello, Hello, Love!

They meet in the hallway, introduced by clunky best friend, Keys O'Lanyard.  "This is Necessary Clutch Wallet."  And you know what, these two?  Cut from the same cloth.  A matching set.  They belong together.

Add in one of those cheesy camera masks that zooms in a heart-shaped focus on the pair before the heart turns pink with the words...

The End

End Credit notes:

In all seriousness - these are great, well-written patterns, though not necessarily for beginners.  Use a denim needle and some WonderClips. Take your time and enjoy it.  And no, this isn't product-placement.  I haven't been asked or paid to put these things in my "movie." :-)

Organizing and inventory-ing

Yes, I know the proper form of inventory in this case is actually inventory and that there is no such word as inventory-ing but it amuses me. :-)

I have been wanting for  a while now to have a serious look at my stash. A number of people I read  keep a log of how much comes in and goes out - which is something I wanted to try. One of my goals this year is to use more than I buy and to whittle down my scraps.  So I hauled out my stash, every piece of it, and sorted, assessed, measured and organized.  I had estimated that everything, fat quarters and larger, would be about 100 yards.  I was wrong...  It was more but still quite reasonable, though given the limited storage space and budget I have, I wouldn't want it to grow much larger.

I pulled all my solids since I'm in the Simply Solids Bee and wanted to have an idea of exactly what I had and where my colour holes were... Turns out I had no pink.  Seriously? So I added some.

They're now in a box, sort of file-like, with my charm packs and a single junior jelly roll.

The rest of my stash I separated into colour. Ish.  I kept all my Lizzy House Peeps and Outfoxed together.  I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with it all but I'm also not ready to cut it.  It's a tricky bunch.  I also kept novelty prints in their own pile; I broke those down by type instead of colour. Here are my three piles:

They are all now neatly tucked back onto my shelf and I have a much more clear idea of what I have and how much of it.  Yay!!

As for scraps, while they are loosely organized, from less than an FQ to crumbs,  I still have some major work to do and I wonder how I'm going to track usage of them since they're, well, not worth measuring in any conventional way.  (I'm not calculating the surface area of each little crumb - are you kidding me? I'm not THAT crazy.)  So far, I think I might turn to weight.  I can whittle them down by pounds...  Can you imagine?  "Hey, gals! I dropped five lbs!" or "I couldn't stop chewing on my stash and I gained eight pounds!!" Heehee.

Stash at start of January:  134.25 yards
In since: 23.5 yards
Out as of Feb 5th: 25.5 yards (most of this on stuff I haven't shown you yet...)
Net: -2 yards

Stash count: 132.25 yards, unknown lbs of scraps.

And I made another Guild Bag, using the tutorial I wrote last week. :-)  Addictive!

Much happier with my zipper this time!

The QAYG Guild Bag: Tutorial

Our guild participated in the Madrona Road Challenge.

The rules were we could add more of the same line or solids.  And we preferred that whatever it was be quilted.

I needed a bag to take all my guild stuff to and from meetings in so the idea of using Madrona Road for it made sense to me. To make sure I kept it within the "rules", I made it quilt-as-you-go-style, which actually lent a lot of support to the sides and bottom.  Works for me!  The pocket design was inspired by that fabulous herringbone print.

It's got two exterior pockets, an inside zippered pocket, a large notebook or tablet pocket, and a divided pocket for little things and pens. There's plenty of room for my binder, clipboard and various supplies.  It's been working really well so far and keeps my all my guild stuff in one place. Handy!

I didn't follow a pattern - just a sketch I did quickly before I started. I've posted a tutorial  for the bag on the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild page, if you'd like to check it out!

TUTORIAL LINK: Click Here

Gifts, the Second

Aha!  A week has fled by and completely unbeknownst to me.

Well, almost.  I am, please hold your disbelief for a moment, yet again recovering from a cold. Say what??  Yes, that's three nasty colds in as many months.  Yes, I'm taking my vitamins, eating right, and getting enough sleep.  Yes, I'm aunt to a toddler who is building an immune system and a substitute teacher who gets the majority of her assignments covering for teachers who have been stricken by illness in various classrooms all over the city. I figure, by the end of 2013, I'll be immune to everything! Mwahaha! [Rubs hands together.] [With Purell.]

Anyways, I have stopped coughing intensely (sorry to the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild ladies who endured the very onset of my coughing during our meeting this weekend.... Yikes!) and can return to blogging without fear that a bronchial spasm will cause premature publication.

Here is second half of the gifts I made this Christmas.

A scarf for my dad using this pattern from The Purl Bee.  I splurged for the specified yarn and was very glad I did so - it's soft, knit beautifully! and is as warm as it looks.  It even held up to six different starts without separating into raggedly plies on me.  (The pattern isn't at all difficult but it took me a while to a) cast-on the correct number of stitches and b) read properly. Once I managed to do both those things at the same time, it was quick and smooth sailing.)  One thing to mention is that because the yarn is naturally hand-dyed, it turned my hands all sorts of black.  Luckily, it washed off easily but I made sure to soak the finished scarf in a vinegar bath before blocking to try and set the colour.  Dad has been warned not to wear it with a white shirt for the foreseeable future.  Luckily, he wears a lot of dark colours.

Mum requested a bag for taking on vacation. She wanted something that would hold a little bit of shopping and could double as a beach-taking bag - something that wouldn't show too much dirt.  She also was pretty specific about the pattern, too,  so I used Amy Butler's Birdie Sling.  I followed the instructions to the letter and took my time with it so I'm very happy with how it turned out.  However, I think I'm now addicted to the good-quality interfacing.  Yep, can't go back to the 99cent/yard crappy non-woven fusibles now...  Stupid Amy Butler, raising my expectations of everyday sewing notions! (Ok, I'm not really mad, but it does change my sewing budget.)

And since a certain auntie gave a certain nephew a train set, she also felt he should have a bag to put all his train pieces in.  I found a paper-piecing pattern on Etsy and then built the panels into a box bag using some fabric from my stash.  It was a last-minute project, but took the better part of a day since I had to take a simple idea and tweak it until it was no longer simple...  It's not the best sewing job but it has the choo-choos required and, perspective, the recipient is 2.  He's happy, I'm happy.

So that's the rest of my Christmas makes.  I have been doing some other sewing but that will come later.  I've rambled enough for one post!

Although..... if I squeak in one more ramble, I am overjoyed that the NHL lockout is finally over.  :D Seriously, I've been watching KHL highlights from Russia.  Still trying to decide how petulant a fan I'll be and for how long.  Mostly, I'm just scared that my beloved Leafs will trade for Luongo. If you've talked to me at all about hockey, then you already know that's my hockey nightmare....

Early gift

Yep.  I went AWOL again. It happens.  I get busy, life happens, you've been there.  Plus, most of what I was busy with is not interesting or a Christmas secret, and then there were real world incidents that break my heart so much that I can't bear to write about them.  I've had to filter a great deal of what I've been watching and reading because as a teacher and someone with a precious tiny person in her life, my grief is too much.  For everyone who has been affected by the horror of it, my prayers are with you...

It was overwhelming but now, I am choosing to concentrate on all the incredible blessings in my life and remember why I love this season so very much.  Peace, hope and love.  I am extremely grateful, extremely hopeful, wishful for positive change, and finally, finally, able and inspired to blog.  Sigh.  And here we go...

***

If you haven't come across Cindy's blog, Live a Colorful Life, you're missing out.  Not only is she talented, and marvellous, wonderfully funny, she's about the nicest person I've never met in real life.  :-)  When she asked me if I wanted to do a private swap, I instantly and nervously said yes!  We decided on pouches, though we were both a little skittish on zippers.

I knew the one I made would have to be full of colour so I went to the rainbow side of things.

Plus, I got to play with teeny tininess which always makes me happy. Then I added a little Saskatchewan and sent it off.  Cindy blogged about it here.

A week ago, this marvellous package arrived.

It's beautiful!! And huge!  It's now my new knitting project bag (and the zipper is perfect.  Yes, perfect. The one I did?  Well, Cindy was nice enough not to mention the amateurish installation...)  Cindy does these amazing things with selvedges.  And this hexy flower is no execption! Somehow, I've missed taking a decent photo of the inside (so hard to get good light these days!), but the fabric is perfect and there's two big pockets.  And then there were the goodies she threw in!

California honey, chocolate covered jumbo raisins and almonds (completely gone, by the way - so good!), a wonderful bag of pretty buttons (I have a weakness for buttons) and a box stuffed full of 1 1/2" squares. Joy!

Plus, something I've longed for since she opened her etsy shop, a custom pin cushion, all of selvedges and so completely perfect.

I won't lie and say that I didn't get a little misty-eyed, because I did.  I was terribly sick and had a bad migraine to boot so it's timing was amazing.  My thank you email feels inadequate.  I am so lucky to have such fantastic people like Cindy in my life...

And now, I have a month's worth of blog-reading to catch up on but as I am officially on holidays, officially done shopping, making and wrapping, and officially into the buttertarts, I will be able to do so before 2013.

Regardless of your faith, background, geography or politics, I am wishing you peace, love, and hope today and every day of the year.

Much love,
Carly

The Buttercup Bag

I just intended to make a gift for my sister - a little something to say, "Hey, married lady." But I had such a good time, I made a few more. In the days leading up to my sister's wedding, I showed them to some of my very supportive relatives who encouraged me to sell my wares....

The Buttercup Bag (featured above) was designed by Rae Hoekstra of Made By Rae and is used with permission. Rae is a very talented designer and lovely human being - you can learn more about her at MadebyRae.

Currently, my bags are available at Riverstone Massage Therapy in Saskatoon or by contacting me. The great part about going to Riverstone is you can grab a massage and a pedicure while you "think deeply" about which bag you'd like to make your own. I have not opened a shop on Etsy yet, but we'll see how the next few weeks go.

The bag above is on its way to Port Coquitlam, BC, to one of those fabulously supportive family members.

I also have some ideas bubbling in my mind for some other designs so I'll keep you posted when I get the prototypes (heehee- that word always makes me giggle for some reason) hammered out.

Have a sunshine filled day!