Temp Quilt

A 100 degree day seems to be the perfect day to work on the temperature quilt that I haven't done anything with since February.

It is based on an idea I borrowed from the knit/crochet world where several posts at the beginning of the year were promoting making an afghan using a color code to represent the temperature of the day. 

 I thought this would make a great quilt with a lot of variety as I live somewhere with widely varying temperatures.    Our record low is -17 and  high is 111 F (-22/44 C)  with average high and low of 25/91 (-4/33 C).  It is also normal for our high and low in one day to be 30-40 degrees apart.  

The "high" strip finishes at 1.5" and "low" at 0.5".  Each day is 12" wide.  Each week starts with Friday since that's what day January 1st fell on.  

The magenta near the top was our low at 5  and the orange was a fluke day March 20th at 70 degrees.

I made it through March today.

Holster Bag Part 1

Three pockets added . Time to figure out the rest of the design.

So maybe being a hoarder isn't always a bad thing 

Surprise!

Believe it or not, I'm still here!

Instead of doing quilty, creative things, I've been doing a lot of traveling.
In June alone, we rode over 3000 miles (easily 5000 km) on the motorcycles.  All for fun.  Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada, Montana.

And another 1200 miles (2000ish) in the car to check on my mom who lives on the other side of the state and recently underwent 2 back surgeries.

I am enjoying an unusual day at home with no work or other obligations,  Thought I'd invite you along this creative adventure.

About 6 months ago, I fell in love with a "purse" by Jungle Tribe. 

Super clever design that can be worn several different ways.  I didn't buy it for 3 reasons.  1) cost  2) size 3) rivets

If it met all my requirements, I would have paid the price.  

It is too small to hold the 3 required items I want this bag to carry.

I plan to wear it on the bike, so all the cute metal fashion details will scratch my bike. 

My mission today:  take all the detail notes I've been storing on paper and in my head and turn it into a similar bag. 

I have leather from a pile of leather coats that I bought off-season with the intention to repurpose the leather.  3 coats at a second hand store with 1/2 price off season discount = $30.

 This impacts the design as I want to use the placket pocket for the deep bag.

Also, that flap detail on the ugly coat is also 2 potential pockets to re-use.  I may actually get the whole purse out of the $20 ($10 discounted) coat.

A couple weeks ago, in anticipation of this project, I went on the hunt for belts and findings.  Splurged $17 for a new belt to build off.  $8 worth of second hand belts for leather and findings.  The trigger snaps were my splurge, but also 1/2 price at the leather store. 

So, with about $50 of raw materials....it's time to start designing on the fly.  Wish me luck.