Market Bag Finished

How satisfying it is to get things finished! After I'd had my breakfast this morning, I had the option of cleaning the bathroom or finishing the Alabama Chanin market bag I've been working on. Naturally, I chose the bag. Every seam in this tote is hand stitched, and I've made it in a raw-edge patchwork technique. I've only used old cotton t-shirts (5 long-sleeved ones were required), so it was a great way to reuse fabric that otherwise would have ended up in the bin. After I discovered Natalie Chanin's books I can never throw away old t-shirts again. Every patch (8 in all) is slightly different from the other ones, so I'll show you both sides of the bag. The directions for the basic bag type can be found in Alabama Studio Style, on page 107.

Side 1

Side 2:

 And a detail shot:

And now there's no getting away from what's next. I've had my fun. Now it's time to roll up the sleeves and do some housework. After that, however, it's back to fun and games again!

Have a great weekend! - Annika

Angels and Peonies

Sunday evening again - a weekend passes by so quickly! (Lucky for me, I have two more days off from work. That suits me very well.) This weekend was spent in the company of Mum, who came down for the traditional Women's Christmas Fair in Helsinki. Last year we sold our own artwork there (read about that here and here), but this year we just went as customers. I wasn't really in a shopping mood at first, but then, just before we'd gone through everything, I was charmed by a herd of angels, and bought three pieces from the same ceramic artist, Mette Helve: two angels and a soap dish. I like the way she's used a crocheted doily to pattern the clay. I only bought the soap dish and the big angel with the candle at first, but after a couple of minutes I rushed back and snapped up the little angel too. I just love the mischievous look on her face and the way she leans a little backwards! I couldn't risk anyone else walking away with her.

The Dynamic Angel Duo

Soap dish

Apart from shopping, we spent most of the weekend crafting. Mum has been knitting wrist warmers to sell at a the Women's Christmas Fair in Vaasa on Tuesday 6 December and, when I haven't been busy with my Doodlendar, I've been working on an Alabama Chanin Market Bag (see Alabama Studio Style for directions and inspiration).

One of the leading ideas in Natalie Chanin's books is to recycle old t-shirts for cool projects, instead of throwing them away when they're past their best. This struck a chord with me, and I've been saving my t-shirts for a while. A few weeks ago I made a stencil in the shape of a peony and printed on cotton jersey pieces that I'd cut out of my old t-shirts.

I've also learned to be more frugal with my paints, and I flipped the wet stencil over onto white fabric after each print and got a second print from the same application. I haven't decided what to do with the negative prints, but they would look cool raw-edge appliquéd onto something like a skirt or bag.

Although I'm using just red and burgundy, I'm trying to vary the colour combinations as much as possible. I have 8 blocks in total, and I want each block to be different.