Seeing Stars!

I feel like I should say, "Ta-Da!" as I introduce my latest bag. The reason is this bag has been so long in the making that it feels like I've finally accomplished some grand endeavor. My friend Granny Hawkins (her name is Connie, but we all know her as Granny) is, surprisingly enough, a granny! LOL! One of her granddaughters is a cheerleader in the young girl cheerleader groups. They go to competitions throughout the year. I wish I knew the name of her squad. I'm guessing it has to do with Silver Stars or something. When Granny first mentioned a bag, she was thinking of something "old fashioned," but wanted to think more about it. When she saw my "Emily Anne" bag (named after my friend Emily, whose middle name is NOT Anne, but I thought sounded good together), she decided she liked that style, with black & white, and "raggedy" edges. Hmmm, maybe it is now a Raggedy Anne bag.

I purchased some yardage of several black & white fabrics. I kind of went a little crazy. It was so much fun to see all the different varieties. I haven't even taken pictures of the inside, but the fabrics lining this bag are different than the ones you see here. I showed them to Granny via the internet (she lives in Georgia very near where I lived as a little girl) hoping she would make the decision to just LOVE certain ones. She told me to pick what I thought best (except a zebra print). I hope she likes these!

I knew immediately when she said silver stars with raggedy edges that I had to use lame (pretend there is an accent on the e & pronounce it la-MAY). Do you know about lame (laMAY)? It's a very shiny fabric that looks oh so fancy but is a royal pain in the patooty to sew. Now, it COULD be I think that because my first ever experience was making Barbie clothes for my girls. I was determined that my girls would have modest clothing for their Barbies. I created these amazing ball gowns, complete with long sleeves, late, LATE, LATE one Christmas Eve. It was then and there I understood why Barbie always wears strapless gowns. It had nothing to do with modesty. It had everything to do with the fact that her hands are shaped so you can't get long sleeves over her stinkin' fingers! I decided lame (laMAY) was lame (LAME!!!). It frays if you just look at it. Yep, you just set your eyes on it & it will start fraying. Touch it and the entire outfit falls apart. Not recommended for your next evening gown. Unless you have a second gown underneath, of course. However, that fraying is what came to mind when Granny said RAGGEDY EDGES on SILVER STARS!

I had the fabric before Craft Fair season, but once that hit, I got very little new work done that wasn't for a fair. Once I finished my fairs, I had some folks order potato bags from me that they wanted for Christmas. So I made those. Somewhere along the way I started quilting Granny's fabric. I got about 1/3 of the way done with the quilting then Christmas came. Then we got sick. Then we stayed sick. Now I am sick again. Blech! On my good days I hit that sewing machine hard (um, figuratively) and worked on this bag. Finally, FINALLY I finished this bag tonight.

Granny is with her granddaughter at a competition this weekend as I type, so I'm not sure she'll see the bag just yet. I need to get it wrapped up & mailed off to Georgia. Probably just as well it wasn't done sooner since I hear they've been iced in for some time in her parts.

Granny, I hope you like your bag! YOU are a shining star of a lady!