Here is a close up of the hearts on the blue bag.

My young nephew is into Hot Wheels. I thought this bag would be a great place to store his vehicles when he is not playing with them. I downloaded a few free embroidery designs of cars and added his name. The gray fabric is a ultra-suede. Another of my bargain fabrics. Very guy-ish!

My daughter and I took a Martha Pullen class last summer. One of our projects was this cute scissor case. The plaid is actually created with the serger - a fancy one they let us use. Mine does not have that capability. Cute idea, but not something that I use too often.

As I practice my embroidery skills I look for new items to embellish. I made this notebook cover for my daughter. The embroidery was free on the web. I really like the Spirograph motif. I also like the art deco lettering.

I made this very sturdy bag from upholstery fabric. It is a great tote to take to the grocery store because I can trust that it will not break. Unfortunately, I habitually leave it in the trunk and don't remember it until it comes time to bag my groceries. Drat!

This was the first project that I made with my new machine. The embroidery design was one that came with the machine. I thought I was pretty snazzy when I added my name and the machine stitching.

I made this little bag from some sale upholstery fabric that I got at Hancock. It ended up being a bit too busy and a bit too Pepto pink. Also, the handles are much too short. I wonder who I ended up giving this lovely to?

I made this hanging bag in serger glass. I embellished it with machine embroidery. The fabric is from my stash.

I saw this style of bag being made on PBS and had to try it out for myself. I used leftover linen, and added this cool design that I downloaded from the web - it's for my daughter, Madison, not me. I must say that with my new machine, I am a zipper sewing queen. It is so easy with the zipper foot. These bags are so easy to make. They'd make great gifts for anyone and for any purpose.

Here are the three bags I made for my sisters-in-law for Christmas. I think they turned out well.

I made personalized bags for my mother in law and sisters in law. Everyone appreciates something with their name on it, right? And with the new eco-friendly grocery bag trend, you can never have too many bags!

I made this little purse for my niece. She was 4 at the time. It goes with the denim jacket (below). She is all girl, and into Tinkerbell. I purchased the embroidery design off the web and embellished the jacket with colorful trims. The lining for the back inside of the jacket is the same plaid fabric. Although the jacket was a bit big for her, I think she will still wear it. I had fun making it!

A friend who works at a hospital that uses my product (did I mention that I am a full-time medical sales rep?) was becoming a first time grandma. Since her grandbaby's name is the same as my daughter's, I made her this sweet burp cloth from a diaper. These are fast, easy, and very useful!

I made this from left-over blue velvet fabric. The inside is a toille left over from a duvet cover that I made for my bed. The fringe was from the bargain bag. Kinda sassy, don't cha think?

I tried to be cleaver with this reversible bag. If you look closely, you will see that the black fabric has little dogs on it. The rust colored toille also has dogs. The band is made of coordinating trim. The fabric was first used at the Lupus Black and White Butterfly Ball - which I chaired. We used a variety of black and white fabrics to theme the tables. I wonder what the theme was with this fabric?

I made this hanging bag out of upholstery shantung. I found this fun embroidery on the internet and thought it would perk up this otherwise bland bag. I think it turned out well.

This tiny purse was made from a small scrap of upholstery fabric. I loved the design of the fabric - you cannot really tell, but the flower petals are textured. I ended up creating a child's purse and again, donating it to charity.

At another upholstery fabric shop, they had sealed bags of miscellaneous trims for a steal. I thought the jeweled trim would be fun on a kids purse. Although the bag turned out cute, the beads had to be reinforced since the threads that held them together kept breaking. I guess that's why the trim such a bargain.

I found this cute embroidery design on the web and had no place to put it so I made this bag. You cannot tell, but the pink squares have tone-on-tone hearts in the center of them. Again, this bag was donated to charity.

I made this bag to be donated to The Masquerade Theatre Gala, but did not get it in early enough to be in the auction. I just love how the embroidered toes shoes seem to make it look like legs under the tutu. I hope it brings lots of bids at the next auction.

I just love this bag. The fabrics are from the grab bag at my local upholstery fabric store. I found this retro bird embroidery design on the we, and had to find a place for it. I ended up donating this bag to CCSC for their silent auction. I need to check to see what it brought in...

These coasters were so much fun to make. I found the instructions on the web and made a bunch of them. Initially, I created a set for a friend who admired a lotus flower tattoo on another woman. I sewed a free form lotus flower on the coasters. This pattern is from an embroidery design. Much nicer. I donated this set to charity.

Here is an easy project that I made - a tissue holder for my purse. It takes just a bit of fabric, a couple of seams, and about 5 minutes, if that. I mass produced them to give to a senior center.

I attended a serger class and we created this holiday table runner - all on the serger. Obviously, my serger and piecing skills are minimal. One day I might finish it. One valuable thing that I learned from the class and from my classmates, is that there are people who are greatly skilled at coordinating and matching fabrics for a beautiful quilting project. I am not one of those people.

Here is a second attempt. See what I mean about my color selection skills...

Now I think I did a pretty sharp job on these coasters. On one side, they accommodate the base of a wine glass. On the other, they are standard coasters. I made these on the serger as well. Notice the holiday fabric on the inside? Nice!

Here is a nifty project I learned in the serger class - a coffee cup coozie. We took the cardboard outer wrap of a Starbucks cup and traced around it - making it a bit longer to accommodate a Velcro closure. We sandwiched padded interfacing between pieces of fabric, and serged around the outside. Note the cute coffee bean fabric. I found it at Hancock's.