Fast Fabricating Saturday & Slow Sunday Stitching

I spent Saturday morning grocery shopping and Survival Bag shopping. My daughter and I have had a joke since she was probably three years old about having our Survival Bags with us. A Survival Bag is a bag with items that will help you make it through a day if you get stuck somewhere (airport, car repair shop, hospital, etc.)! My Survival Bag must have a hand work sewing project with a small sewing kit, a book, EOS lip balm, and my iPod. I usually keep a Survival Bag in my car at the ready and you would not believe how often it gets used! I made these tote bags as Survival Bags for my sister and her family.

My sister's husband has a brain tumor that was only diagnosed a couple of weeks ago. They rushed from their little town in Nevada over to Denver. They only had a day to close up their house and pack for a 2-3 month stay in Denver while he has surgery and rehabilitation. Needless to say, this is a difficult situation! Instead of sending flowers, I decided to make each of them a Survival Bag. I used the letter patterns from Moda's Spell It With Fabric for each of their initials. I had to improvise with the R block because that pattern will not be out until next week. I combined the top of the B block with the bottom of the K block and I think it came out just fine. The T block improvisation was a piece of cake.

I made these tote bags using kitchen towels as the base fabric. They are durable and inexpensive, plus I have a whole tub of them on hand, so the hardest part was selecting the colors and fabrics from my stash! I made up a pattern for these tote bags years ago, but I think I will make a tutorial for my blog...Would you be interested?

I have stuffed the bags full of goodies for each of them. Card games, drawing books, jump ropes, craft items, and snacks for the kids. EOS lip balm, breath mints, crossword puzzle books, and snacks for the adults plus some more personalized items. Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday and my mom and dad are going over to help with the kids (they are 8 and 9 years old) for at least 10 days. I will send the Survival Bags with them and hope they offer a little comfort!

This is my Triple-Zip Pouch all stuffed with goodies for my partner. The rules stated that all the goodies must fit inside the pouch, but they said nothing about it closing! It was such fun to think of goodies for my partner. It should arrive tomorrow.

This is the pouch unstuffed! I hope no one minds that it was not zipped up. It is tucked in a Ziplock bag, bubble wrapped, and in a box. These swaps are quite fun. Here is a link to another one that I am signing up for http://www.flickr.com/groups/simplesweetscrappyswap/discuss/72157641285441754/

Today for Slow Sunday Stitching, I will work on this perpetual calendar from http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/ and get binding on a quilt. My mom surprised me by having one of my sampler quilts beautifully quilted by one of her amazing long arm quilter friends! I had just dropped it off at mom's house with the intention of practicing my long arm skills on it myself. I will share some pictures once I get it bound!