EPP Tuesday and more catching up!

It's the fourth Tuesday in the month and so it is time to link up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches with all things EPP.

There is not much to report on the EPP front though - just that as well as these

I have altogether 47 diamonds and 26 hexagons basted and ready to add to my Hexathon hexies. They are my project this year for our month in Spain - and we leave tomorrow, so am now very excited!

Just a couple of things to quickly show you - this lovely Christmas postcard arrived for me from Sheila  of Sheila's Quilt World.

 Isn't he jolly! Thank you very much Sheila and I am sorry it has taken me so long to post about him.

Lastly, a last minute project before our trip has been this Noodlehead open wide zippered pouch.

 I had saved all the scraps from the Shibori bag that I made last year and already had the zip so it made up very quickly. Follow the link for Anna's excellent tutorial in three sizes - mine is the largest as I wanted to store all my art materieals together to take away.

By pieceing the lining I had just enough fabric! The base of the bag is 4.5" x 8" and it stands 8" high - looks enormous in my picture but thats the angle I was taking the picture from.

I hope to be posting some pictures of sunny Spain in the next few weeks but they have had a very poor winter and there was even snow on Alicante beach last week.

Have a great February.

UFO update and A Holiday Tote

 

I thought it was about time that I got on with another UFO project and going through my box I came across these shibori fabrics that I dyed a few years ago. There are six fat quarters and as I did not know what I was going to do with them - but definitely not a quilt - I left them on the dining room table for a few days waiting for inspiration to strike.

Reading through my blog list I came across this post on s.o.t.a.k handmade - thirty three tote bag tutorials, what a lot of choice! When I saw this market bag pattern I thought it would be perfect for my fabrics. Here is the original bag using Tula Pink fabrics which are stunning.

The design is free with just one download for the shaped pocket. 

This was it! So I had a look through my stash for a suitable lining fabric and came up with this which I am really pleased with.

So off I went. No in progress shots - sorry. I have tweaked the pattern a little. I didn't use the shaped outer pocket but just a plain one as I wanted to make them different sizes. Also, piping and me do not get on so I did a sort of faux piping on the pocket tops. Inside I added an extra, extra large pocket as I want to use this as a holiday tote and I always need somewhere to store ticket and hotel reservation printouts. The handles are my own method too as I like sturdy handles. So here is my finished tote.

 Two pockets on one side for sketchbook and paints.

 Three inside pockets

 A large pocket on the other side for essential holiday reading and two smaller pockets - one will hold a ruler and the other pens.

 

Inside view

 

 

I am very pleased with this pattern - the positioning of the outside pockets means that the bag sits nicely and the front and back of the main bag  use two pieces of 18"x18" fabric which cuts down on waste/scraps. I have one fat quarter left over and a few oddments so I feel a zippy pouch is on the cards.

Have a great week - it looks like it is going to be hot and dry again here!