sewing for moms

Happy Mother's Day, if applicable. I'll be visiting my mom in a couple of weeks (she lives 1000 miles away), but tonight I'll have dinner with my in-laws. Of course, that means sewing something for my mother-in-law. Here's what I made:It's a variation on the Buttercup Bag, which uses a single fat quarter for the outside, and a second one for the lining. I decided to make it bigger, but since I still only had a fat quarter of the Good Folks, I compromised and made the strap pink (like the lining). I also added jumbo ricrac, which is probably my favorite part, and some striped pockets inside. I hope she likes it! I'll probably make something similar for my mom, too-- and I'm glad I have a couple more weeks to do so!

Irish Chain revamp

You saw the 25-patch blocks that I made out of the Amy Butler Lotus. As I previously mentioned, I kind of screwed up making a traditional Irish Chain quilt. I hadn't sewn the blocks together, but I had already made 4 of these:I wanted this quilt to be a 2-block quilt, with the 25-patches in between the other block. So, I put those aside and came up with a few of these:
Closer, but still not quite right. Too flat. I tried reversing the colors, with an outer white border and an inner red one. I kind of surprised myself with how long it was taking me to find something to make me happy-- typically, I'll just dive right in and be happy with the result.
And as they say in Pulp Fiction, "DISCO." This is right. Here it is, nestled among its' 25-patch friends on my design wall. I got some Good Folks in the mail yesterday, and decided to dedicate 2 of the fat quarters to this cause. The yellow-green in the Lotus is complimented by the yellow in these, and that inky gray/blue also adds some interest.
The orphan blocks will probably make it into the back. This quilt is for a friend of mine who asked for me to make him a quilt. This is a modern floral quilt-- and yet I think it's still masculine. What do you think?