Two of Seven

The weather here has been quite nasty today, a good day to stay inside and work on projects. Like my self-imposed seven bags in seven days.

I picked up this fabric from a vendor at the Tokyo International Quilt Show with no ideas in mind other than the thought "oh, soooo, cool!"

When my friend asked me to help her figure out a Japanese pattern, I knew just the fabric I wanted to pull from my stash.

I've learned a lot going through this process, the Japanese have such an interesting way of combining different textures that I also knew I was going in search of the patterned natural cotton I had tucked away somewhere for the cloth handles. The running stitch was a detail I've seen used on a number of bags at Swany's. I think this detail turned the bag from being ho-hum to something quite unique and left me of course ... inspired.