Birdie Sling in progress

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

So sorry to hear of your trouble sleeping! I've gone through stretches like that, and I know it can be very problematic and frustrating. You know how I feel about exercise, so I'm glad to hear that you're taking it up a notch on that. Hopefully that will help you sleep better? This past week, with no studying on my plate, I have been treating myself to one Capital Brewery "Island Wheat Ale" each night, and I have to say *that* has helped me with the falling to sleep thing, though I don't recommend having to rely on it... (I've been wanting to try it, because it is made with wheat grown in Door County, one of our favorite vacation spots...and it *is* yummy and relaxing :-)

I spent some time yesterday and today SEWING! I'm working on an Amy Butler pattern, called "Birdie Sling."

I think I spent three hours cutting out all of the pieces (three different prints of fabric plus fusible woven interfacing to apply to the back of each piece) and then fusing the interfacing to the many and various pieces. LOTS O'PIECES:

Nice pockets sewn onto the linings:

Pretty plackets on the outside of the bag, now ready to have the top bands attached:

With all of the cutting/fusing done, things are going much faster. I think that the sewing is always the most fun part :-)

I know you are wondering about the sewing of the sleeves into my Two Hearts sweater... Well, you know how I am about the finishing -- taking my time on it, because I backtrack if it isn't perfect, and right now I've set it aside because of the fun bag (see above)...but I've made a commitment to myself to have the big brown sweater *done* by the time I'm back in classes in a couple of weeks.

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)