The New HTP! Bag and Some Great Questions!

How about the Hold the Phone! Bag first? Andrea wanted one using a beach theme! Here's what I came up with:

Sea shells, water, smooth stones.... gorgeous! I embellished with a beautiful glass fish bead; it was a great fit! The straps are some planking (for the boardwalk!) and a sand fabric. I also used those fabs on the interior of the bag!

What a fun, fun bag to make! Hope you like it, Andrea!

I also got some wonderful comments/questions on yesterday's post that I'd like to address! Let's get started!

First, Trace said, "I love the tulip one! At least, I hope they're tulips. Otherwise please delete this comment :)" LOL! Yes, they ARE tulips! They're sweet, pastel tulips in lovely shades of pinks, purples and lavender. Having said that, I like to name all of my quilts, or have them named. My husband has quite the knack for tagging things so... he has named many of my quilts. This was among his first. And what did he call my precious garden full of spring-like tulips? Here's the label:

"Shields and Arrows". Sigh. Well... he does have a point. You know... the tulip leaves are like the feathers on an arrow and the tulip blooms do resemble heraldic shields. Sort of. Sigh. So much for my sweet, pastel tulips! :)

Maxx, an extremely handsome Siberian, asked, "Mommy says they're beautiful. She can't wait to get started on quilting! She'll be going to the quilt store next week. She wonders if you have any suggestions on what to start with, for beginners? Thanks!!" How exciting!!! (And thank you!) The very best advice given to me when I was picking out what to do for my first quilt was - pick something you LIKE. Simple is great, but if it's not interesting to you, you won't be as likely to stick with it.

Mine was a Cake Stand, made in Amish fabrics. Was I crazy choosing a pattern with lots of triangles? Points to cut off? Probably. But I really was drawn to it! I mean, hey. A friend chose Double Wedding Ring as her first pattern - and made it queen-sized. Talk about CRAZY! :) But it was gorgeous. A group of us helped her hand quilt it (it was a wedding gift for her daughter). To thank us, she made us each a MINIATURE Double Wedding Ring out of scraps from the "big" quilt. Wow, was that special. Insane, but special! (I'll show you my mini eventually.)

My point? You can do ANYTHING for your first quilt; just make it something you like! There are some pretty cool simpler quilts out there, having said that. A lot of people will start with a Log Cabin - none of those aforementioned points to cut off. I did a tutorial for a "Magic 9-Patch" when I was blogging for our local (now gone) Bernina Shoppe. No triangles and really hard to mess up. I imported it to this blog, but the photos vanished. I'll have to add new ones, and will. Click here for the link; I'll shoot new pix of the process and get them up as soon as I can. What I like about it is that it's a simple pattern, with some fun "twists" to it. The one I made for the Bernina Shoppe, oddly enough, is also in my dining room, so it's next on the tour. LOL. Let's get to it!

I took it out on the deck for a better photo:

For whatever reason, these fabs are really hard to photograph; the true colors just don't come through! Here's a close-up:

That's probably a better look. I did all of the quilting on my Bernina - my first attempt at quilting something that large by machine! I love how it came out! I even experimented and made up my own quilting designs. Loved the whole process.

Here's the back:

I mean, you might as well have fun with that, too - right?

And ... the label:

The name for this one was a joint effort. :)

So... Maxx's mom - there's one idea for you! I'll work on that tutorial and get it polished up - just in case!

Here's a question for you all ... I made the quilt as a store sample for Bernina, to showcase some new fabs they got in. It was "mine" after being displayed in the store for a while. If I was thinking about someone the entire time I made it, thinking the fabs reminded me of her, that I thought she'd really like it... is it a cop-out to give it to her rather than making a quilt specifically for her? What do you all think? Does that even make sense?

Thanks for reading!