Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Book Club Door Prizes: Hedgehogs!

Since moving across the country, I have had to make a lot of effort to try and get to know people.  I've joined two guilds and two mom's groups.  One of the mom's groups is trying to put together a book club and I eagerly signed up.  I love the idea of a well functioning book club and I even volunteered to host the first meeting.  One of the advantages of our move is that I can finally have more than two people over at a time!  I've been dying to have a little party, so I decided to go "all out" for this event.

We all voted unanimously to first read The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  I wanted to force myself to read fiction (I almost always read nonfiction for pleasure reading) and we'd all "heard it was good."  Well, I have to admit that the first half of the book was agony.  I procrastinated and read two other books.  I put in a library request to reserve a copy of the movie based on the Hedgehog book.  Luckily I talked to a fellow book club member and she encouraged me to press on and it did get better.   But as far as the ending goes, let's just suffice it to say that I threw the book after I'd finally finished it.  

So while I didn't enjoy the book very much, I had a lot of fun making these door prizes:


I had to order the green hedgehog fabric because although I do have a lot of fabric- I only had one fat quarter with a few hedgehogs on it in my stash.  Making this library tote happened in just one evening- mostly thanks to Nick taking over with the kids after work yesterday.  I didn't use a pattern.  I used wool felt to make the "read" on the front of the bag and I couldn't believe I had some apple-colored webbing on hand for accenting the handles.


I lined the exterior pieces with some thrifted pre-quilted fabric instead of interfacing.  This Stof red/white fabric is so pretty and added some grown-up charm to the project:


Finally, I made two pouches.  The first patchwork pouch was made using this tutorial.  I like how it turned out but I wish I had finished the zipper ends differently- there is no way to make the two top corners not look kind of lumpy.  The other pouch is the famous "Open Wide Zippered Pouch" by Anna - I am very late to that party but I love how it came out and can't wait to make more!


Book club is on Friday and I plan to finally break out my crepe makers for the refreshments.  Can't wait!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Purse Palooza 2014.

3 comments:

KerryQ said...

I started a book club almost 10 years ago. I have never, not ever, sewn or had door prizes at meetings. Can I join your book club? A bit far, perhaps.

Caitlin and Jared said...

I want to come to your party! : )

Kim said...

Love the fabrics you used for the pouch. Beautiful bags too! Thanks for using my pattern :-)