Don't try this at home

I'm getting a little panicky about the rate at which I am running out of yarn for Tilia, so I decided to do a little avoidance sewing. I started this bag the other day and put it on hold until I could figure out what I wanted to do about handles. I found the fabric at Jo-Ann's (on sale). In real life, it's a little more pastel and reminds me of those meltaway candies. It's an Alexander Henry print from last year!!! [If you are not a quilter, imagine finding Adrianne Vittadini yarn or Prada bags at Wal-mart.] Anyway, I needed another bag and didn't have any fabric (liar liar) and wanted to play around with these cool letter brads I found. The pattern is modified from a quilted bag that uses double-sided pre-quilted fabric. I was feeling too lazy to quilt it myself, so I had this "brilliant" idea that I would fuse it to some cotton duck cloth (a light weight canvas). That part was OK. The trouble started when I actually tried to sew through 4 thicknesses of it. My sewing machine beeped and flashed this message at me: STOP FOR SAFETY PURPOSES. It then refused to work (Oh, I tried!)

How many other computerized gadgets in your life look out for your well being in this way? Can you imagine getting into your car after a few too many Mojitos and receiving this message? It would probably stop quite a few accidents.

I couldn't ignore the message, but I could pull it out and start again, and again. Must have been more than the fabric that was too thick. Eventually it must have given up on me because !pop! the needle broke. I could have lost an eye! (That's how these things happen).

Despite my bad intentions, I never was able to sew over the problem areas. Let's just say that there's some glue involved and leave it at that. I'll post a full size picture when there's natural light - otherwise you would see the chaos I call my sewing room and that is not a pretty sight!