Sorry - no picture today. I had one all ready for you but didn't get it posted before we had to get to the airport. We're on vacation until Monday and I will share a bunch of pictures then. Until then we have friends to meet, places to see, shops to visit, tea to drink, knitting to do and a wedding to watch (in fact I'm a bride's maid).

See you on Monday.

I don't know what it is about this heat but it makes me really want to sew. I spent Friday night and half of Saturday working on this bag. It's the Day in the Park Backpack Tote by Liesl Gibson (look for it on the left in the sidebar of her blog). I got the pattern and hardware kit last summer through Purl Soho but only recently collected the rest of the stuff I needed to make it. The fabrics are from Amy Butler's Lotus collection. They are home decor weight cottons and I love the patterns. I was a little intimidated by the idea of sewing such heavy weight fabrics (they are sewn together with canvas and interfacing too) but I followed Liesl's instructions carefully and used my walking foot and didn't have any trouble. Even though I was sewing slowly I found the bag came together very quickly. It's given me a bunch of confidence for dealing with heavy fabrics and I will have to try a few of the other bags I really like.

Though the bag came together quickly it took me a long time to choose my button. I'm developing quite a collection of buttons but most of them were too big or too small or completely the wrong colour for this project. I eventually settled on this clay flower and I think it works really well. It stands out just enough to be interesting without taking away from the rest of the bag.

I love the magnetic snap on this bag. It looks so professional - like something I bought - but it was really easy to install. The lining fabric is a quilting weight cotton that makes me think of sweet honey mustard. The patch pocket is so cute and a perfect size. I divided mine up to hold two pens (or pencils), my ipod (mini) and whatever other small things I need to carry. The zippered pocket turned out beautifully; there is lightweight interfacing fused to the back of the pocket opening. When I turned the seams and pressed it everything lay so wonderfully flat.

By far the fiddliest part of this bag was the rivets. I was using my awl to make holes in the straps but a punch would have worked better. There is so much fabric in between the top and the bottom of each rivet that is was quite difficult to get them to match up. They kept popping open while I was working. I ended up hammering them as much as I thought they need plus a bit more and so far the rivets seem to be holding (I tested cautiously).

The really fun part of this bag is that you can carry in as a tote (like the picture above on the doorknob) or wear it as a backpack (hence the name) and free up your hands. I'm really proud of how mine turned out and plan to get lots of use out of it. We're going on a short trip later this week and it will be perfect for taking all the essentials on to the plane (without weighing me down) and still be great for going shopping after we've arrived (thus saving me from having to pack a second bag).

Aside: This entry has been posted a day late. Just as I was getting ready to post yesterday the power went out to herald the arrival of the biggest thunder storm this year. We had lightening that lit up the sky and occurred with such frequency that your eyes could not get used to the dark. Thunder shook the house and on more than one occasion went on for over a minute; it woke us up more than once in the course of the night. Rain pelted down. The power came back up and went down again at least twice more (in the first brown-out we ran around unplugging everything we could). This morning everything was still dripping wet.

It's hot here today. At least by my standards (which include temperatures almost 70 degrees colder than it is right now). The sun feels very bright and there isn't much wind either. I managed to get a tan line on my shoulder while we sat outside for lunch and even in the office my skin felt sticky. By the time work was over though I had a plan...

When I woke up this morning I could hear rain and thunder and when I left for work the sky looked a little undecided about whether or not it would do some more so I had packed my handy-dandy (but limp in high winds) travel umbrella in my bag. For my walk home I pulled it out, opened it up and walked in my very own portable patch of shade.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching drivers swivel their heads around to stare at me as they went past. By the time I got home my glasses were sliding down my nose and I can only imagine how much more uncomfortable I'd have been with the sun beating down on me the whole way.