College Road Trip - Another Project Bag Project - with a Bonus Project

COLLEGE ROAD TRIP

ANOTHER PROJECT 

BAG PROJECT 

WITH A 

BONUS PROJECT!

Another trip to the five and dime for a plain bag and another trip to my sewing machine to make it pretty!

I got the pattern from a book by Nancy Johnson-Srebro called Block Magic but the flowers embroidered on the block is all me - and a pretty great sewing machine!

I keep a counted cross stitch pattern in this bag and it's just about done!

I just about finished it this trip which means I've got a Christmas present almost ready!  Nothing like sewing midnight on the 24th.  Nothing like it.

I didn't think I would like counted cross stitch, but it was relaxing, even doing the letters!  This garden one I did a year or so ago almost drove me batty!  I think it was because of all the color changes.

But the "Story Time" sampler was designed in just one color - no three stitch color changes!

I made a copy of the pattern - a safe thing to do if you ever take a pattern out of the house.  But you can also write on it since it's just a copy.

I would draw a dot on a row I would be starting and then a dot on the other end when I completed the row.  

So if and when I had to put it away for a while, I knew where to pick up.  Plus, it's less counting!  "One more on the end of this row, two stitches in on that one".  

And I got a second project from the pattern!

I created a picture from the pattern for my nursery school classroom!

(the school is cleaning the windows for the start of the school year - my classroom is more cheery than this picture states!  My circle time carpet is just below my "painting" of the Story Time pattern)

I bought a prepared canvas from the craft store 

 copied the pattern with a pencil (with a good eraser!) and colored it in with a black sharpie.  I did not do the letters - I can eye ball an animal but not the neat lettering.  The craft store also sells peel and stick alphabet letters!

I bought the pattern from a needlework catalog via a company called The Posey Collection - but it's not an original design.  The original is a mural in the Carnegie Library in San Anselmo, California. The design was created by Michael Schwab who is best known for his classical    poster art.

He created this adorable mural for the library's children's reading room.  Lucky kids!

How cute is that!

Sew on and sew on!

Pam