Blog Hop Bus Bag

It's my Blog Hop Day! Hello again to those of you who've been here before, and to those of you who are new - hope that you like it here!

If you're new here, my name is Sarah or Sarah-Lou, Sarah Louise if I'm in trouble, and Little Sarah quite often as there are lots of Sarahs around and I'm 5" nothing. My Dad calls me Weezy because I used to have trouble saying Louise - but he's the only one allowed to call me that. My friend's little girl calls me Auntie Sar-dah, which is just the cutest thing ever :)

I'm 26 and live in North London with the lovely Hubs, who doesn't quite understand why I *need* to take over more of the house with the growing fabric stash. I'm a teacher which means that I don't have lots of time for sewing during term time, but the holidays are more productive.

I've been sewing nearly a year now, I started when I found out that my lovely cousins were both pregnant, and my friend Charlie suggested making them cushion covers. I then started working on my first quilt just after Christmas, and Hubs bought my lovely Janome for my birthday - yay!

Beth suggested that we answer some questions to help us "get aquainted!" Here are my answers:

Favorite quilting tip(s)

I wish that I'd known the importance of keeping seams allowances consistent earlier - I'd read it somewhere but it hadn't got through my somewhat thick skull, so I've just spent ages unpicking my Half Moon Modern quilt as the sashing really didn't match up.

Favorite blogging tip(s)

The main thing that I've realised is that it's important to get involved - I haven't had time to join any swaps yet, but I love getting comments and then replies to comments.

Favorite fabric

Ooooh, there are so many! I love the Liberty prints, but my bank balance hasn't stretched to that yet! Of the fabrics that I actually own, I think my favourites are either my solids, or the Raindrops by Erin McMorris which I used to make my first ever handbag.

Favorite craft book

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Elizabeth Hartman's Practical Guide to Patchwork

Favorite book

By far the hardest question here! I'm currently reading the latest Game of Thrones book and Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, and I've been trawling through Les Mis for over a year! I also love Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer's books, and Jane Eyre, and Terry Pratchett. Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey is fantastic, and I love love love Animal Farm, and........ There are just too many to name!

Favorite children's book

I read the Hobbit with my Dad aged eight and it lit my imagination up. I also love the Weirdstone of Brisingamen which was set in the area where I grew up. I have a real thing for early C20 girls' fiction, things like the Chalet School and Abbey books, and the classics like What Katy Did. Can you tell that I'm a bit of a bookworm?

Favorite quilting tool

No contest here - 1/4" foot all the way.

Favorite music to listen to while quilting

I rarely listen to music whilst sewing - usually it'll be whatever Hubs is listening to. To be honest, I don't have an MP3 player and only listen to Radio 2 in the car (old before my time or what!)

Favorite TV show while handstitching

Box set of The West Wing, or whatever's on E4 (UK channel showing things like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother)

Binding - by hand or by machine?

Machine on the front, by hand on the back

For the Blog Hop, we were asked to choose a novelty fabric to work with. My friend's little boy is about to turn three, and is obsessed with buses and books, so I thought I'd make him a present that combines the two! I used the Child's Messenger Bag pattern from 101 Great Ways to Sew a Metre.

and made it using fabric with a London bus pattern from Fabric Rehab. I'm afraid this is more of a pattern review than a tutorial I'm afraid as it was from a published book and not a self-made pattern, but here we go!

Overall, I thought it was an excellent pattern - easy to follow with clear instructions, making good use of the fabric (I have a decent amount left over) and leading to a nice final product. More specific thoughts on certain parts of the bag are below.

The fabric was just quilting weight, and on reflection, it might have been a good idea to use some interfacing to strengthen it. The pattern does suggest using a heavier weight fabric. However, it can hold the weight of a decent sized cookbook, so hopefully it'll be ok for a trip to the library.

Nice boxy corners, made by folding a flap into the fabric and sewing in place. I was really pleased with this, even though I had to read this step quite a few times!

The velcro lined up quite well on the front, but I wish I'd ignored the instructions and left it off the front flap so that they could be lined up with the velcro on the body more closely.

Cute little pocket! Knowing the birthday boy, it'll probably end up with a toy car or digger in here.

The straps came up a little long on Little Miss Cheeky here, but the birthday boy is taller than she is so hopefully it'll look ok on him.

The persuasive power of chocolate buttons is amazing!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you liked what you saw. Don't forget to visit the other blog hoppers this week - Catherine from Knotted Cotton today, and  Di from Willowbeck Designs &  Jennifer from Knotted Thread who posted on Tuesday.

Sarah x

PS - I'm rearranging my layout at the minute, any feedback is gratefully appreciated!