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When I made my 241 tote more than a year ago, I ended up giving my mom my test purse that I’d made with scrap fabrics. She’s been hinting that she’d like a new one since then, and I finally got around to making one with fabrics I thought she’d love and the little tweaks I made to my own 241 tote.

My mom loves the color blue and most sea-dwelling creatures, so I used this jellyfish print (from Into the Deep by Patty Sloniger) as the main print. I picked out some fish and hearts to go with it, along with this Lizzy House print with a mom and baby whale (for my mom!)

I still love this pattern and it was a fun project to put together. I love the shape of the bag, and the opportunity to put together several prints definitely appeals to the fabric hoarder curator in me.

I did most of the same mods as I did for my bag – I added 1.5″ to the width of the center piece, put a key clip in one of the side pockets, made a longer adjustable strap,  and added a zipper closure to the top of the purse. I also learned that using a mostly-white print for the strap and piping was not a great idea for a frequently used purse – I can not seem to get mine clean.

I tweaked the inner pocket a bit to fit my mom’s phone, and made it in the white version of my very favorite Lizzy House print with one of my Stars and Sunshine tags. I love adding those to my projects!

Bag Specs:
Pattern: 241 tote from Noodlehead.
Modifications: 1.5″ added to width of center panel, included zipper on top, made a longer adjustable strap to convert to cross-body, and added key clip to inside of one of the side pockets.
Size: Roughly 15″ wide and 14″ tall.
Fabric: Main fabric: Into the Deep by Patty Sloniger; :Side pockets – Natural History by Lizzy House; Lining – Charlie Harper
Made for: my Mom’s birthday

 

Today (11 June) is the 23rd anniversary of the original Jurassic Park movie coming out in theaters! You’ve seen it, right? There’s a scene where Muldoon is hunting the Velociraptors, locks his sights on one, only to see another come out of the bush to his side. He has just enough time to say ‘clever girl’ before she bites his head off. It’s become kind of an expression of rueful admiration of intelligence. Ever since I designed my paper pieced dinosaur patterns, I’ve been wanting to make a pillow with the Velociraptor and Muldoon’s famous last words.

I got it made in time to take it to an evening event we were going to this weekend at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh to take photos with the dinosaurs. Unfortunately not all the dinosaurs were well lit, but we had a great time. It was an Indiana Jones themed night, with a whip show, giant snakes to touch, photo ops with a giant boulder, a scavenger hunt, a symphony playing Indiana Jones theme music, themed cocktails, and all kinds of other activities. It’s part of a quarterly event they have for adults called ‘after dark’ which I’m sure we’ll check out again.

The patterns for the letters to go with the 12″ pattern are now included with the Veronica Velociraptor FPP pattern in my shop – if you’ve bought the pattern before you should be able to download a new version with the letters included. As always, contact me at if you have any problems. I still haven’t finished my own version of my dinosaur quilt pattern, but when I do this will be a great companion!

Our favorite part though: dinosaurs everywhere. Did you know that actual Velociraptors are feathered and only really the size of a large turkey? The dinosaurs in the movie look more like they were modeled on a close relative, Deinonychus, which is a much less appealing name. We went on a docent-led tour around their dinosaur area while we were there and learned all kinds of interesting things, including that there had been a dinosaur named Draconus Hogwartsia (‘dragon king of hogwarts’), but then they found out it was just the juvenile form of an already named dinosaur, so there is no longer a hogwarts dinosaur.

We also wore our matching dinosaur dress and bowtie, which got more compliments than usual. Our only kind of picture of the two of us was this one from the scavenger hunt of digging for fossils – usually it’s a kids activity, but since this was an adults only event we finally got our chance to play.

A photo posted by Julia Eigenbrodt on Jun 11, 2016 at 3:23pm PDT

And I made a little embroidery in one of my necklaces for the event – this color is now available in my 3D printed embroidery hoop shop and glows in the dark!

on Jun 10, 2016 at 6:18pm PDT

Pillow Details:

Pattern: Foundation paper pieced Veronica Velociraptor (letters now included!)
Fabric: Background is Twinkle from Lizzy House Constellations, letters and body are asterisk in metallic sky from Lizzy House Whisper Palette.

I hope all my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving today! My family usually has our Thanksgiving meal on Saturday to accommodate some of our family members’ schedules, so on Thursday we eat at an Indian food restaurant because they’re open … and Thanksgiving is all about pilgrims and *indians*, right? It cracks me up every year 😀

Anyways, now that I’m selling my 3D printed embroidery hoops, I wanted to have a Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday sale! The mini hoops in my shop will be 25% off starting Friday morning, through Monday evening or when they’re all gone! They’re regularly $10, so this weekend they’ll be $7.50. Necklace and brooch kits will also be $2.50 off. The prices will be updated in my Etsy shop – no coupon needed! If you’re interested in buying a completed necklace or ornament rather than the DIY version, I’ll also honor the 25% off if you contact me by this Monday. Again, I’ll only have so many off those available. Email me () or send me an etsy convo of you’re interested in those!

They’re perfect as Christmas ornaments or necklaces as gifts for friends and family or to keep for yourself. Fill them with embroidery, cross-stitch, or just your favorite fabric! Check out the etsy listing here or pictures of my hoops on at .

You can read more about the mini hoops and see a video of how to assembly them here. Have a fantastic weekend!

There’s a new pattern in my Craftsy FPP pattern store!

This unicorn pattern is available here. The pattern includes templates for 9″x12″ and 13.5″x18″ blocks, along with instructions to square them up to 12″x12″ and 18″x18″, respectively.

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It’s an intermediate level pattern, but only because there are quite a few sections. The feedback from my pattern testers was that it was a good pattern for people who had tried paper piecing a simpler pattern already.

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I had the pattern tested by several people, and I love all the different fabric combinations they put together. They’re each linked under the photos of their blocks. A big thanks for all their feedback and being willing to test the pattern out!

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I’m working on a few more new patterns, and on a paper piecing tips list to include with my patterns, so stay tuned! If you want to know when those are available, follow me here or on instagram as .

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