What Have You Done for Me Lately?

(ooo ooo ooo yeah! - a little Janet-Miss-Jackson-if-you're-nasty for you there)

So, I have started back to work full-time and am at my first of four residences for the next four months. So, needless to say, not a lot of sewing going on. (Incidentally, I love the phrase "needless to say" because it's always followed by saying the thing that is so-called 'needless'! "It goes without saying" is like that, too.)

I did make this little lunch bag from Ayumi's tutorial for my mom for Christmas. I really love it. It's a very easy to follow tutorial. (I had to take night-time photos inside, so they are a bit washed out.) I used some shoelaces for the ties.

I used a piece from a vinyl, flannel-backed tablecloth for the inside (so it can be wiped out). I also added some insul-brite. I have no idea whether or not that makes a difference but I figured I might as well try it as not :)

My mom really likes it and that's all that matters!

In other quilty news, I joined a new bee: Bee a {Modern}Swapper combines a bee and a swap, so I'm guessing we'll be in hives of 6 and every other month, we will make 2 blocks for one member of the hive. On the off month there will be an optional swap of some sort. February's is a pincushion. Given my travels and travails, I decided to opt out of this first swap, but I'm loving all of the inspiration mosaics. The TwitterB members are all deciding whether to re-up for round two. We're ironing out the details, as I type.

One of my newest quilt recipients was born on Wednesday, a smidge earlier than I was expecting, so I will be working on that, picking out fabrics for February baby, and possibly picking out fabrics for:

I fell hard off of the trying-not-to-buy fabric wagon, but I think it was worth it (don't I always...? Isn't that the problem? Needless to say... It goes with out saying...). Just a note that anyone looking for Annie's Farm Stand Seed Catalog, Kit at Blije Olifantje has some. Must.Resist.Yuwa.Honeycomb.Dots. OK, just had to get that out of my system. She has mad fast shipping, too.

I've had some awesome swaps lately, too. But I can't show them until I get back to Minnesota where I've left my camera. Love the swapping. Highly recommend it!