Sewing Bags and More

Before I get to the bags, I’ve been doing a lot of gardening. Harvesting blueberries every day is a such a meditative time for me. If I get up early enough, the dogs in the area are still asleep and it’s so quiet. Dave caught me out there harvesting the other day. I wear white to keep me cooler, but the long pants helps to keep the bugs away.

blueberry harvesting

So far I’ve harvested almost 15 pounds. What we don’t eat we freeze, so I am freezing every day also.

Blueberries

I showed you a picture of me picking cherries at a local orchard in the last post. Here are just some of the cherries getting a nice bath before they were frozen. Dave wrote a blog post all about how to process and freeze cherries here.

Cherries in sink

We also got our bees which was so exciting. We’ve already checked on them once and they appear to like their new home.

Dave installing our new bees
Dave installing our new bees

Then last week I attended a batik class at Studio 4950 in Henderson, Kentucky. I’ve played with wax – soy wax – but in this class we worked with batik wax, a combination of beeswax and paraffin. It works pretty much the same, but I think it’s  harder to get out of the fabric. I was amazed at all of the beautiful fabric that was created.

batikclass3
Jo, our teacher, at the ironing table
batikclass4
Fellow students apply wax
batikclass2
Sherry, owner of Studio 4950, talks to a student.

 I wasn’t real impressed with my pieces, but enjoyed the fun.

my batik
my batik piece

I have been sewing bags since my last sewing post.

Here is my first cosmetic bag. The outside fabric was made with an oatmeal resist. Here is my tutorial on that. I wasn’t real happy with the finished results, so I fan folded and overdyed it here.

Cosmetic bagThe inside is a piece of my soy wax batik fabric.

cosmeticbag2

I also made another one of those zip bags. The outside is one of my favorite pieces of color magnet fabric.

zip bag front back of zip bagThe lining fabric is another piece of color magnet fabric.

bluezip3I’m finally happy with my sewing of this little bag. I guess practice really makes perfect, or at least almost perfect.

What’s up next here? Well, after I finished the Printed Fabric Bee piece for Susan which I’ll post about in the next couple of days, I decided it’s again time to reorganized and clean my studio. It’s gotten way out of control (again!). It’s funny how I’m happy with the area and then I get to that point where I feel crowded and closed in and ready throw all of it away! I’d love to hear how you keep your studio under control. Do you have a system to keep it organized as you finish projects or do you, like me, wait until it’s overwhelming? I’d love to hear your tips. Thanks.

I’m off to harvest those blue berries. Have a creative day!