The Sassy Saga

Much of the fun of making your own totes and handbags is in putting the fabrics and pattern together. Usually these bags are easily explained in a few words.

I made this because my son likes trains.
I made this because my husband is an Eagle Scout.
and I made this because I like turtles.

This is not one of those "few words" bags. This is a story of epic proportions.

So grab your coffee, get comfortable, and enjoy this Sassy Saga.

The Beginning:
This story begins not with the pattern, but with the fabric. Three fat quarters in crazy bright colors, purchased at a quilt show in Seneca, SC in the fall of 1999. Lazy Sister Sue was up from Aiken, SC, working a booth for the quilt shop she worked at. Mom and Terri (and Cindy?) and I went up to Seneca for the show - and the shopping.

I was just a fledgling quilter at the time, Lazy Girl patterns were not in my lexicon yet (not even sure if Joan was designing them yet?) and Fat Quarters were a new language to me.

"What are you going to do with THOSE???!!!" Lazy Sister Sue asked. She thought I was crazy for buying them - but something about them was fun and funky, and so they were purchased.

These FQ's were soon tucked away, as a short 2 months later I moved from SC to NY, and they bounced around in packing boxes until we purchased our house in the summer of 2001, when they were parked in storage in my attic studio.

The Middle:
Enter Lazy Girl - great patterns first introduced to me somewhere around 2002-ish when LSS made me a Wonder Wallet. I think she gave me the pattern for Christmas that year, or soon thereafter.

In 2006, LSS introduced me to the Summer Tote pattern, which was my 2nd Lazy Girl pattern. She also encouraged me to join the Lazy Girl Yahoo Group to share ideas and photos and other tips with other Lazy Girl fans. I got more and more interested in more of the patterns, and for Christmas 2006 I bought the Sassy pattern and some Tinkerbell FQ's to make a Sassy for my niece.

I decided to make the bag for myself first, before cutting into the Tink fabric, and when I opened the box of FQ's in my studio, these three long forgotten FQ's jumped out at me once again.

I cut the pattern out, and then for some reason I put it aside. Either something in the pattern spooked me (like the "optional quilting" for the front flap - I was afraid of machine quilting then) or I did not have all the components (velcro or the elastic?) or I just ran out of time before Christmas?! At any rate - my niece received a beautiful Tink Runaround for Christmas 2007, and my Sassy languished, unfinished, in a drawer in my studio.

The End: (or the new beginning?)
Fast forward 2 years - and I am now a moderator for the Lazy Girl Yahoo Group. One of the fun things I get to do as moderator is facilitating contests and challenges.

In June I ran a challenge for members to make something new - a Lazy Girl pattern they had never made before. I talked about my long lost Sassy, and how I needed to make it. Well, June came and went and Sassy stayed in the drawer, untouched.

Determined to get this albatross off my back, I promised all our Lazy Girls that I would have my own little July challenge to GET THIS DONE!

And I did!!!
In 2 hours!!!
Even with a cantankerous machine (does not like it when the thread gets looped around the needle) and some walking foot issues.

And now the new Sassy saga begins -that of deciding what fabrics to use next!!!