Tuesday Night Finish and My Inspiration

It was another warm day today. It’s been quite a summer. It was the type of day where the dogs were happy to hang out all day long on the patio and in the shade of the trees while I worked.

Bender was out cold on that bed for at least an hour. One of the effects of the drugs he’s on is that when he sleeps, he sleeps really hard! He wasn’t actually sleeping in this next photo but he laid in this position for a crazy long time!

He came in the house today with this teeny tiny feather on his back. I suspect fowl play.

After our walk this evening I hit my sewing room and whipped up another bucket shoulder bag.

That lining fabric is one of the batiks that a co-worker brought me from her vacation in South Africa. It worked really well as a lining. It’s a pretty beefy batik so this bag is a little more substantial than the other ones I’ve made. It feels sturdy.

It makes me sad when I see a nice bag with a bland lining. A nice pop of excitement for a bag lining is a wonderful thing!

And I’m happy to announce that I actually put the snaps on the correct side so the fabric I like the most is the front of the bag. What an accomplishment!

Here’s some detailed photos because I like the details.

It’s been fun seeing the plants that are growing in the pots my neighbor gave me when she moved last fall. One of the hostas she gave me is blooming right now and it’s spectacular!

There’s still a lot of buds that need to open up.

So now… onto some things that give me inspiration. I check out Instagram pretty much every day. I curate my Instagram feed a lot more carefully and intentionally than my other social media feeds. I don’t follow very many of my friends. I don’t follow any news organizations. And I don’t follow celebrities.

Instagram for me is a place to find inspiration, to see beautiful things that people have made, and to see things that make me smile. It’s a place to get away from the realities of the day.

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite Instagram accounts with a brief description of what they do that I love. I hope you can check them out.

1. This woman makes amazing embroidered pieces of vegetables. They are realistic and absolutely gorgeous!
2. This woman makes gorgeous and fun hand embroidered Converse high top athletic shoes. Seriously, you have to check her out!
3. This is Tiina from Finland who I’ve mentioned before. She does amazing crumb piecing and makes gorgeous quilts with amazing color combos. She is wonderful with color.
4. This is SotakHandmade who did the tutorial for the bags I’m currently making. She does really lovely and quick videos that show how she makes her bags and pouches. Everything she makes is impeccable and she makes it all look so easy.
5. This account shares amazing photos of the Pacific Northwest, from Northern CA, Oregon, Washington and up into Canada. Some really amazing landscape photography can be found here.
6. This is Sue Spargo who does amazing hand appliqued and embroidered pieces from wool, among other things.
7. This woman makes gorgeous small paintings that I love. She uses lovely bold colors and her designs are Southwest in feel. She actually inspired me to try some small acrylic paintings and I was really happy with what I came up with. You can see my paintings here. The first few small landscape paintings in this blog post are the ones inspired by this woman.
8. This is an artist in Salt Lake who is married to a former co worker and friend of mine. He makes amazing sculptures from canes that he makes from fimo clay. He actually has his pieces in art galleries. he’s also an amazing painter. He painted a gorgeous portrait of my Forrest (the dog memorialized in my tattoo).
9. This is Alice Loves Drawing. She does really fun pen and ink drawings, combines them with water colors, and does really approachable tutorials on how to draw different flowers. \
10. This is Sheepishly Me, a woman who runs a working sheep farm in Canada with her husband. She shares to man fascinating videos about lambing, taking care of her sheep, and other things from her farm. I love this account.
11. This is Portraits by Hercule. He draws really funny and crude portraits of animals that people submit to him. When an animals private parts are exposed in the photo, he draws underpants on them! This account makes me smile every day!
12. This last one is Haiku Quilts. She makes impeccable bags, pouches and other things that involve simple piecing, beautiful fabrics and amazing Sashiko embroidery.

That’s just a few of the many Instagram accounts I follow. I’ll keep track of other accounts I love and share them occasionally.