It's time for the the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day again!  I'm very excited to participate in the Giveaway Day and giveaway a 20$ store credit from my shop, emmalinebags.com. You use it for handbag hardware, sewing patterns and/or sewing supplies and interfacing.

If you have't heard about Giveaway Day - there are TWO pages of giveaways.  One of supplies and one of handmade items. Enter as many as you can!


The Details:
- Enter here by May 16 at 5 p.m. PST
- Winner will be notified by May 18th.
- International entries welcome!
- Good Luck!!

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Hi friends! A lot happening this week.  Besides being sick at home, with a child that has panic attacks over conjunctivitis, a lot has been happening. (Yes, he thought his eye would fall out and he would need a patch like the skinny pirate on the Pirates of the Caribbean.)

The May Pattern for The Bag of the Month Club is out, and I just love Anna's Poolside Tote!

You can still become a member of the club and receive all 5 previous patterns, plus the one coming out in June. There are tons and tons of fabric and pattern prizes when you enter photos of your completed bag in the flickr group. Don't forget to enter!  Read about that HERE.




As most of you know, I have sponsored some prizes in Imagine Gnats current Selfish Sewing Week, and if you haven't already entered to win prizes, see the post below and enter to win patterns.  I have also had the honour of having a pattern review during the week, and you can read about Jill's version of the Necessary Clutch Wallet HERE.  It turned out gorgeous!



This morning I woke up to a very nice email from Shelley from Sew Creative Supplies in Perth, to say that the Perth Craft & Quilt Fair, running from May 21-15th this year, has picked my NCW pattern to be the No. 1 Hot Product at the show, and it's even been printed in a little book that goes out to all of the members. Way cool!!


BAG ZIPPERS!!:  I've just put in a small order of zippers to YKK, that I think will be a great little addition to the shop. These zippers will be specific to bag making, and right now are just coming in black. When I get them in and have a good look at what I've got, I'll order some more colours.  Can't wait to get these zippers!

Here is a little sneak peek of a bag pattern that I've been working on for AGES.  I hope to have this done soon so that I can share the rest of it with you.


Have you had a look at my cute cathedral window pin cushions?  I might have shared this photo before, but I just love these.. had to share again.


ALSO... This week all of my shipped bag hardware, paper pattern, and sewing supplies orders that go out from my shop at Emmaline, will get a free zipper pull in the package.  A thank you gift for YOU!  Thank you for your support!

Metal Zipper Pulls for your bags and purses.

Selfish Sewing Week Starts today!!  What are you making for yourself?  I am working on a quilt and possibly a blouse.  Read below to find out how you can follow along, link up your projects and win a sewing pattern!!

the featured stitchers

the patterns

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After seeing Melinda's (Quirky Granola Girl) Patchwork Death Star, I knew immediately that I absolutely had to make one for my Star Wars loving sister-in-law, Shelley.

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Melinda kindly provided the paper pattern for the Death Star on her blog and I downloaded it immediately. Then the very next day, I was at my quilting guild's sewing day and scored some great grey scraps (whoop!) and the plan came together very quickly.

That one section looks really green in these pics, but it's more of a grey!

The pieced segments are basted to paper (I used a glue stick) and then you hand sew them together, which was a bit fiddly, but didn't really take that much time. I changed it up a bit, because Melinda actually pieced the background sections to the Death Star, but I appliqued the star right on top of a large square of background fabric. I was thrilled when I found the background fabric, and I love it's blue hue which gives the whole pillow a nice "spacey" feeling.  I can't think of another way to describe it! It's called "Texture" by Janet Clare for Moda.


After appliqueing the star on, I layered the top with batting and a backing fabric and started quilting. I used a variegated grey/white pearl cotton to hand stitch the stars, an outer running stitch, and the detail in the circle for the super laser. I used black pearl cotton for the line that goes around the middle, which Wookiepedia tells me its an equatorial trench. I used Aurifil cotton quilting thread to machine quilt the black rings in the background, and the grey stitching in the segments. I don't know a lot about death stars, but I followed Melinda's example, plus googled and viewed plenty of pictures.


The back is a from the Ghastlies collection by Alexander Henry.  The zipper was supposed to be a hidden, lapped zipper... but I forgot how to do it.  I decided to go for it anyway and it didn't quite work out as "lapped" as I would have liked, but it's not too horrible ;).


The pillow was for Shelley's birthday, which isn't until next Saturday, but I just couldn't wait to get it to her. So after quilting guild today, I drove there to pick up my son, whom she was babysitting for me, and gave it to her right away. I'm very happy to say that I got the squeals and reaction that I was hoping for. She loved it!!!  And... so do I. Very happy day!


I can add this to my collection of other geeky projects, like the Minecraft Lapis Lazuli block, and the Lego Sewing Machine.


Thanks for looking, leave a comment!