Dioramarama: Scooped!

Thanks to a speedy delivery by our friends at the U.S. Post Office, my Back-Tack II partner, Bertha, scooped me! Despite my best efforts, it even got to her by the deadline. Well, here are some pictures taken at my house anyway.

(You can see why I had polka dots on the brain earlier.) Bertha's new craft was knitting so I made a bag and needle roll. The bag is fastener-free to prevent yarn snags, wooden handles for fast picking up and going, big enough for an average project but not too swimmingly big. The needle roll fits unless you're going for vertical. The apple print is vintage -- the apples are almost like iron-ons, they have a velvet-poster texture compared to the lineny background. The polka dots and lining is new.

I put thick interfacing in the needle roll because I wanted the option to fold it in three or roll it up. Given that, I was kind of confused about how to make a closure (any ideas?) so I just sewed a ribbon into one side. I sent along a small sample of needles in different sizes and materials, and some smaller accessories. Bertha has more comprehensive pictures of those things.

This kind of pocket is so easy to make, I don't know where it's been all my life. My pattern (Simplicity 5541) showed me how ...

And what is an intro to knitting package without yarn? Bertha is allergic to hardcore wool so these guys have little to no wool content. She already had a good start on knitting and didn't seem to need instruction books, and I couldn't bring myself to get a pattern book because that's such a personal thing, so I picked the new Yarn Harlot book. It turns out she was close to getting it for herself, so, yay!

wow! that set is cute,cute and cute! really nice stuff, hope you make a bag like taht for yourself!

Love your backtack for Bertha!
I use an elastic band as closure/s, - if small I sew it in the middle, if larger I sew one onto each side, as one or two loops.
Works ok for me.

that was a lovely bag - needle roll gift. Love the material. Lucky girl!

Wow! The cuteness of vintage strawberries is almost too much to bear, and then combined with green/white polka dots?!? Too much! Beautiful package - I'm sure she's completely thrilled!

Oh, I'm so glad you posted these, your pics are much better than mine! Yes to what Kelly said, I am completely thrilled!! I love it to bits! I put all my needles in the roll last night and it looks so satisfying to see them all in there! And I'm using my bag to carry around my current project and it's perfect! Thanks so much again Kim!

Oops - I meant apples! But strawberries are cool too... ;)

That's a great bag! I love the handles. My needle roll has ribbons on two sides, and they wrap around and tie in the middle.

Oh my god! I love that bag! The fabric, the handles the lining - so gorgeous!

I finally finished my quilt, but can't seem to get through your email Spam Guard to send you the link to my post about it.

http://blairpeter.typepad.com/weblog/2005/11/once_upon_a_tim.html

I'm on a cloud and feeling very proud of myself. Thanks for putting this quilt along together.