This is what I finished a few weeks ago, right before Mom Chapman went into the hospital. It is a kit called the Three Quarter Bag, by Susan Terpin for Connecting Threads. It's in the Whirlwind Romance collection, and I think has been waiting for me to stitch it up for about 6 years. I checked the Connecting Threads site and they no longer seem to offer it, either in kit or pattern form. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, although the fusible fleece, heavyweight stabilizer and medium weight craft interfacing were additional things I had to buy before attempting the kit. The heavyweight stabilizer didn't stay fused very well when I was doing the fiddly bits with the bottom and lining of the bag, but I glued it with some spray-on adhesive and it seemed to work well enough. I blunted a needle and my walking foot came apart at one point, but I was able to replace the needle and put the walking foot back together.
It also features a zipper, and I hadn't done a zipper in about a decade, so it was time. I really like this fabric collection; so much so that I bought the gray/yellow colorway fat quarter set, and some yardage, in the hopes of making a quilt someday. It's a little matchy-matchy for the way I've been quilting lately, but I could make a quick quilt, there's a thought!
The trim is pretty. It may be my new knitting bag.
While I was conquering my avoidance of zippers, I made a zippered pouch and a zippered pyramid bag. Neither one took more than an hour or so. I still want to make a box-shaped pouch as well, in leftover coordinating fabric.
If I were still tracking UFO's (I never really started it for either 2016 or 2017) I could count this as one. When I hunt up my project notebook from under one of the piles in my sewing area, I'll be sure to note that the Three Quarter bag is now finished! I like it a lot, actually. I have another two bags in my long-term UFO list, and one that I really need to just cut and sew. Like this bag, it is a larger project that involves some advanced sewing skills and a lot of stiff interfacings and hardware that quilters don't normally use. But this project was a confidence builder, and I just need to get up the gumption to do it. Then I can tick off another UFO.
By the way, my mother-in-law was over here tonight for dinner, with Steve's sister who flew in from Phoenix, and she just bought a new motorized scooter for getting around at her retirement home. Combined with her new medication, it seems like a good solution to get her mobility back. I look forward to seeing her zip around on it! In the meantime, school is out for both girls now; Tertia's last day was today, and Quarta's was last Tuesday. The weather has finally improved and has been downright pleasant the last few days. I keep chucking snails that I find on my potted plants into the street for the crows, and I am enjoying my flowers in my hanging basket.
I can't decide whether I like the magenta or the purple petunias best, so every few days I turn the basket around to get a change of pace. Variety is great!
