Japanese Quilt Books

It was a three-day weekend for me but not for Mr. and Miss Main Street.  They had their usual Saturday class schedule, graduation on Sunday (lovely ceremony, all the faculty and underclassmen attend to give the seniors a big send-off), and exams began on Monday.  (When you are in independent school, you can make your own schedule and ignore holidays.)  So, I had a lot of time in which to entertain myself.  I got out my my collection of Japanese quilting books, had a good browse, and found some items to add to my list.

In this book, I found an idea for the seed packet panel. 

It is a kind of log cabin block variation where the center square (or rectangle) is large and the strips are very narrow.  I am thinking of doing this in green, with black as the final strip.

This book is pretty much all about making bags.  I found one that I might need to make.  We've got a family wedding over Labor Day weekend.  I'm planning to wear a dress that is eggplant colored, and don't have a suitable bag to go with it.  I need one that looks dressy but is big enough to hold my glasses and camera, which excludes most of the evening bags I saw at Nordstroms.

I have quite a stash of vintage linens and lace that I could raid and combine with some eggplant colored fabric (assuming I can find a good match to the dress).  The side gussets make the bag bigger than it looks in the model's hand, certainly large enough to hold the required glasses and camera (plus lipstick, hotel room key, and tissues).

The wedding is that of niece #2.  Niece #1, married almost three years, just announced she is pregnant.  Woo-hoo!  An excuse to make baby quilts!