Lucy, my longarm, is not working.....again. Sigh. My husband has been commenting that I haven't been myself lately and I think this happens when Lucy is not working. It puts me in a huge funk, knowing that I have these quilt tops that won't be finished, at least not for now.
Now, I get that other people don't understand why I get so upset. After all, most people go through life not being upset that they can't make quilts ;) But just imagine that you've bought a new car, and you've now had it for 3 years, but for most of that time, you couldn't drive it. And you can't really afford to buy another one to replace it. That's how I feel about my longarm not working.
I have this fantastic machine that alot of quilters dream about owning, which was me 3 years ago. We finally made the plunge and bought one. Unfortunately, it's never really worked right and I am at my wits end to fix it. I have quilted 30 or 40 quilts on it, when others are quilting hundreds on theirs, making a living off of them even. I will be calling a repair person to let me know, for once and for all, if this machine is fixable or if I should just forget it! Honestly, I just want to know.
Anyway, so I didn't really feel like working on a quilt top today, knowing my longarm is broken and I wouldn't be able to quilt it up. Yes, I could quilt it on my domestic machine, but that has come to really bother my hands and my shoulders and my back (no, really, I'm *not* getting old!), which is why we decided to buy the longarm in the first place.
A few days ago, I was organizing my scrap stack. When I cut pieces for a quilt, I cut the scraps into usable-sized squares for future scrappy quilts. I just pile them on a side table until the pile threatens to topple, at which point, I sort them into piles and file them away into bins. Sounds organized, right? I'm not really a terribly organized person by nature, but I am with my craft supplies!! It doesn't really matter to me if I can't find the duster, but I can get very upset if I can't find the right tool to craft with :)
So, today, I'm looking at my piles of squares and all of a sudden, I thought "gift bags!" I took my pile of 6" squares and within half an hour, I had 25 little gift bags, all ready for the holiday season.
The one at the top of this post is my favourite, and I'm definitely keeping her for myself! It has rain, of course, like all good things do. And sweet vintage girls holding gifts and umbrellas. I am just going to use this little bag for decoration. It holds a bar of soap perfectly, and that also helps it stand up.
I'm also thinking of having a few of these around the house at Christmas, with something little in them, maybe soap or chocolates, in case someone comes over with a gift for me and I don't have one for them. You know that always happens, and this way I can just grab a little bag and give it to them! And if they're still there after the holidays, I can eat the chocolates myself ;)
These are so much fun to make, I'm thinking they may be making an appearance in my Etsy store so be sure to watch for them!
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