My Poppy Purse

A couple of month's ago I posted a piece about a messenger bag I made for my mum out of a fabulous poppy fabric. I thought I'd treat myself and make one for me. I'm teaching an Art in Action class on Georgia O'Keefe's Poppies painting later this week, so I thought it would be nice to show the kids another medium for creativity. I've taken the bag on a couple of outings recently and I am very disappointed to report that I haven't any compliments - can't believe it! It's so striking & unusual. Perhaps the kids will give a better response! Wish me luck with the class, we'll be using oil pastels & watercolors, so we are bound to overrun!

100 Rings

My oldest will be bridging to a Girl Scout Cadette later this year so she will be joining some of her troop members at the Girl Scout Golden Gate Bridging event this May 3rd. During the Spring Break we have been busy making 100 flower ring swaps for her to take along. We are delighted with how they turned out, and made a few extra so we're able to keep a favorite each.

We hot glued a combination of Making Memories Lemonade Blossoms and Buttons (available on Amazon) onto Ring Blank Bases from a great Ohio based Ebay store. The ring bases are also available on Etsy, but shipping takes longer. I needed them quickly and the Ebay store got them to me in just 3 days, beautifully packaged in little butterfly fabric bags. I had lots of other foam shapes & paper flowers, so we used those to vary the colors. It was great to have 3 of us selecting the flower & button combinations, as we each have different tastes in color & style. Finally to make the rings into 'swaps' we pinned on a mini printed card identifying the GS troop & city with a safety pin. 

It wasn't all fun & creativity though... after my oldest had cut out 80+ labels and my youngest had punched holes in 60 of them, my husband pointed out that the date was 5/3/14 instead of 3/5/14! Arghh, I'd typed the date the English way, no wonder I'm always getting the girls' birthdays wrong!

Mother's Day Poppy

Georgia O'Keefe art comes to mind when I look at this fabric. I loved it the moment I saw it, over 2 years ago. So what's the right project for such a luscious fabric? With UK Mother's Day approaching and a wonderful reversible messenger bag pattern, it was an easy decision. My mum has always loved Georgia O'Keefe's vibrant paintings, so I hope she likes this. It turned out beautifully, my 4th time using this pattern and I am now getting really comfortable with it. Next time I should make one of these for myself... oh, but what fabric to use??