I’m alive! I’m still here, I’ve just been enjoying a slow start to the year, and recovering from the busyness of Christmas, and all that goes along with the winter holidays. I hope you all had a nice end to 2017. I had some sewing goals for 2017 that I didn’t quite get to, but I’m not upset about it either. To be honest, I’ve never been much for resolutions. I feel like if things are worth changing, they aren’t worth waiting for. So, before I move forward with any projects in 2018, let’s take a look back at 2017. I got this picture generated from 2017bestnine.com, and it does all the work for you if you enter your Instagram ID. 

Sew Sweetness released this amazing bundle of quick-sew projects, just in time for the holidays. The Minikins bundle includes 12 patterns and an instructional video to go along with each. This Zeppelin Pouch was my 4th make from the bundle and I can’t wait to make the rest! I whipped this up one night when I realized I still needed a teacher gift for the next day, yikes! 

Emmaline Bags’ Luxie Lunch bag took up one third of my top nine! No surprise really, since I made so many. The top two were for coworkers made with Alison Glass and Cotton + Steel fabrics, all from Fabric Spark. The bottom one I received in a swap, it was made by Jenny ofSincerely Jen. Here’s the one I made for the swap, using Libs Elliott’s Tattooed fabric collection.

For another Instagram swap, I made this foundation paper-pieced unicorn mini quilt. The pattern is from Robynie Patterns. I haven’t done a whole lot of paper piecing and this was definitely a challenge for me. It wasn’t particularly difficult but I did find it overwhelming at times, as it was much more labour intensive than I had bargained for. For the quilting, I chose scattered lines to go with the pieced fabric, but I also included some stars (you can see one quite well in the bottom right corner of this picture). I’m so proud of how it turned out and it was pretty difficult letting it go. I did receive a gorgeous mini in return so it all worked out.

I tested this bag when it was part of the Bag of the Month Club, but you can now get this as a stand alone pattern, or bundle it with an online workshop/video. You can read more details about this bag in my post from when it was released.

I made this adorable kiss-lock frame purse for a little girl for her birthday. I used Patty Sloniger’s Into The Deep collection from Sitka Fabrics. My son picked the fabric and was quite proud to give this as a gift for his friend, while announcing his mommy made it. I figure it won’t be long before they’re too embarrassed to give gifts I’ve made so I’ll take it while I can get it. The pattern and instructions are part of a Craftsy Class, or you can get the pattern by itself.

I can’t believe it took me so long to make one of these! The Retreat Bag is a free pattern from Emmaline Bags and is the perfect way to get your sewing fix in. I received this gorgeous Cotton + Steel Menagerie fabric as a gift and had big projects on the go, but I couldn’t let it just sit there, so I chose the Retreat Bag as my quick project to display the fabric. 

This is the project I was most excited about last year. My friend Lysa Flower designed this paper pieced pattern for a cassette tape and asked me to use Kim Kight’s (at the time unreleased) Snap to Grid fabric to turn a Polaris bag into a 3D cassette. You can read more about the project inthis post here. 

Along with the ones above, here are some of my favourites:

Backpacks for each of them! Details can be found in this post.

Castell Day Bag. I love this bag so much I hosted a sew along for it! I also personally used this pattern for my own carry on luggage and thought it was perfect.

Blue Calla Clover Convertible Bag. I wrote all about it at the beginning of last year when the pattern was released as part of the Bag of the Month Club; find all the details here.

What were your favourite makes of 2017?