The SSB Reveal

Happy Labor Day!  It's a holiday in the United States and I am enjoying some much-needed rest and relaxation.  Including some time in my studio with NeedleB this weekend!  These things work together to make The Joyful Quilter truly joyful.

It's been a few days  since my last post (which was MONTHS overdue!) and I thought I'd do a bit more catching up on the blog.

I hope you've been doing well.  We had another life-threatening medical emergency in our house since I've been away.  Not to worry!  Although, this did include a late-night trip to the emergency room and a complete diet overhaul for my DH who is not a heavy man (by ANY stretch of the imagination!), but who had a great love for unhealthy snack foods which brought his blood glucose to dangerously high levels.  Two weeks and two different meds later, things are under control once again.  Hooray! for modern medicine.

I'm writing to share my SSB project with you.  Those initials stand for The Secret Sue Bag.  It was a custom bag for a good friend who (jokingly - since I charge a fair chunk of change for my bags) commented that she would love to have one of my custom bags.  (Special thanks to NeedleB for sharing her bag-making technique!  I've tweaked it to make it my own, but I'll always refer to it as YOUR bag.)

Little did she know that I was planning to make one for her birthday last month.  Of course, she figured it out once I asked her to choose fabrics!  :P

The bag itself was still a surprise, since I didn't reveal any of the details of the bag until it arrived in Knittingsuek's mail box (well in advance of her birthday.)  The note on the package instructed her NOT to open before her special day.  Her own DH took my note literally and hid the package!  I wrote right back telling her to let him know that she could open it if she really wanted to, but she decided to wait.  Whew!  Crisis averted.

The back of the bag with a view of the side pockets and strap detailing.

A free-form "S" applique adorns the front pocket of the bag.

This shot shows a glimpse of the interior pocket and the sewn-in label.

I had a lot of fun deciding on the details for this special bag.  I was rewarded with a huge "OMG! OMG! OMG!  I LOVE IT!!!"  That's pretty much the best response that a quilter can hope for in this day and time.  :o)

I have to tell you that I also created a challenge for myself when making the handle for the bag.  I'm still not quite sure what I was thinking when I cut the strips for the handle!  They weren't the proper width to form a tube (without the handle being uncomfortably narrow.)  My solution???  I turned the edges and added a piece of grosgrain ribbon to finish it off.  Brilliant!!!

Knittingsuek loves Sock Monkeys.  Adding a Beanie Baby Sock Monkey to show off the fun print on the interior pocket was a last minute decision.  The bag was such a hit that the poor little Sock Monkey hasn't been mentioned... for all I know someone took him out of the package before it was delivered!  :o(

Well, I'm off to take my college boy back "dorm".  He was home for the holiday weekend and needs to be back for tomorrow's classes.

Until next time...

Happy Quilting!