Quilted bags for the women in my family!

I LOVE fabric, so when I saw this wonderful group of Bali Batiks at Alley Kat's in Marquette, I bought the package of 2.5" x 44" cut strips. I also bought a great handbag pattern that was perfect for these colorful strips. So I layed the strips down, choose color groups -purples, pinks, greens & blues, and followed the instructions. I'm actually going to get a total of 8 handbags out of these fabrics, as I only needed 9 2.5" x 22" strips for one bag.  I have another group identical to the ones I'm showing you here in my sewing room!  The lining fabric in the bottom photo was purchased while I was in Texas last summer. It is a great batik, and just happens to be perfect for the lining in each of the handbags. It's amazing how well it goes with each color group, and that I bought plenty of it without knowing what I was going to do with it!
I normally don't do a lot of sewing on beautiful sunny, summer days, but if it's cloudy with even a chance of rain, I'm sewing!!

Dogs are so funny-they never check the temperature of the water before they dive right in, and Brinkley is no exception. Lake Superior is cold right now, and may stay that way for quite some time since we haven't had tropical temps to warm things up. Ok, 'tropical' is probably a misleading term when referring to UP summers!

Summer, almost!

It's the middle of June already! Brinkley & I have been out doing some exploring, but if I had a choice, I'd forgo work to explore every day. We recently went to 12 mile beach, which I mistakenly called 11 mile beach. I happened to mention this to a co-worker and he said "You're only off by 1 mile". There are days I feel I'm off by a dozen miles! Anyway, Brinkley & I are going to go to this beach whenever we can this summer, if it ever really warms up, because it's beautiful and long!

Chatham in January

My sister, Ginny, asked to see photos of the house I'm renting in Chatham, which is 17 miles from my job in Munising. Actually, a few people have asked to see photos of my new digs, so here they are. Mind you, this house is for sale and I'm not advertising it, really! I so don't want to move again, but if the house does sell, I'll certainly have to move. I like this house and who knows, maybe I'll buy it!!

Photo out of sequence, but, hey, it's Brinkley!

Notice the nicely cleared drive! That takes work, baby! So, enough of the outside, here's great photos of the inside. I spared you the bedrooms and full bath. I'll tell you this, the upstairs bath looks like the downstairs, only there's a double sink, bathtub/shower combo, same style toilet and carpeting-yes, carpeting in the bathroom! Not my favorite, but I've warmed up (literally) to it. The bedrooms are huge, but the www does not need to see my bedroom. Also, I don't have much on the walls because I don't feel like I should start putting holes in the walls! So I've hung stuff wherever there are existing holes.

I LOVE this kitchen!

And finally, the sewing room. Now, it may appear messy, but believe me when I say this, it's really creative organized chaos, but chaos is such a harsh word!

I have been working on finishing some quilts I started long ago.My favorite saying is 'the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step', which is how I look at my UFO's (unfininished objects).

The carpeting on the stairs looks dirty in these photos, but it truly isn't!

Brinkley loves it here, so much room to run around, carpeting to sleep on, stairs to bound! Well, there you have it, my home in Chatham.