Sewing in AK…

Each time I go to Alaska I like to take a project.  Generally it’s a big project.  Last time I took a quilt and I wanted to get the top done…beginning to end.  I got so close but I had to bring it home unfinished and…it still isn’t done.  {sigh} 

This year I just took a couple of little things to work on.

On the trip up, with all of our luggage in tow, we had 6-7 hours of waiting in a ferry terminal in Ketchikan.  The ferry is about 2 miles from downtown so I decided to walk into town…I thought that sitting there for that long just might make me a crazy-girl. 

Ketchikan is a beautiful place with a bit of a small-town feel.   Tourism is high during the summer months as the cruise ships fill up the harbor each day.

Ketchikan has a sweet little fabric shop, The Silver Thimble.

I quickly worked my way past the enormously, not-to-mention impressive collection of wildlife prints and found a beautiful yet small selection of contemporary prints. 

I love to touch and feel fabric and envision what this print would look like with that print.

can anyone relate?

As I was meandering {and taking my time doing so…because I had a lot of it} I saw an adorable grab bag made up as a sample {wish I had taken a pic}.  I noticed that there was a slip of paper attached with the website for a free pattern download for it.  I began to clumsily navigate my fairly new iphone to see if I could find the pattern.  I think the lady working there was feeling sorry for me so she went and got her laptop to see if she could find the pattern.  As she was looking, I put on my best whiny-yet-sweet face, telling her that if she found the pattern would there be any way {I may have added a kind of squinty-smile here} that she could also print it for me?????…I’m pretty sure that I told her I was heading to the ends of the earth for over a week and there would be no internet connection….AT ALL!  …and I would have no way to print the pattern once I left her store. 

Such a sweet lady that girl was!

She not only printed one for me but also one for her and a few more….not realizing that it was a 9-page pattern until after she picked them up from her printer.

Sweet lady, indeed! 

With my FREE pattern in hand {I LOVE free}, I picked out everything else I needed  to make these cute little bags {even with that FREE pattern these were not inexpensive bags…about $20 each}.

It added a little something special to the over-all look when I hand-stitched around some of the detail in the fabrics.

…and, I have to just say that everything is made better with polka-dots!

Here is that oh-so-wonderful {and easy to make} free pattern!  allpeoplequilt.com  and the pdf that takes you right to the pattern.