computer bag

I have never been fond of those big black briefcase/computer bags that have become the required piece of carry-on luggage if you want to travel with your laptop. Sure, Costas has one and it looks great on him. It's a nice size, fits everything he needs to go back and forth to the office each day, and even fits both our laptops when we travel. But I feel guilty making him carry both of our laptops when my carry-on is full of a few toiletries, my paper journal, a book, pencase, and quilting project. We're flying to Chicago next Saturday (the first plane trip we've taken together in 16 months) and I wanted to have a better way to carry my own weight.

Made of pre-quilted fabric and designed to keep my laptop safe and snug inside of a more stylish carry-on, this is my new computer bag and I'm really happy with it.

I made it in a hurry on Thursday night-- stopped at Fabric Place on my way home from work, set up the sewing machine (which i hadn't used since sewing the table cloth for Thanksgiving!!) and had it completely finished by 9:30pm. The handles are pieces of the pre-quilted fabric folded in half and edged with maroon bias tape. The ties are made from a deep brown ribbon that came with a birthday present I got last weekend. I hardly measured a single thing, just went with what looked and felt right. Of course I laid the laptop down and wrapped the fabric around it, but other than that, just a snip snip here and slice with the rotary cutter there, and Voila! Sure, it doesn't fit the power cord or anything else except maybe a thin notebook and a pen, but I always have a purse or other bag with me anyway. The other nice thing is that now I can take it with me when visiting people at home and show them my photographs or EQ projects.

It's been a slow month for crafty stuff around here. I won't blame it on "the holidays" because it's not like I've been running back and forth to the mall a million times. Honestly, I've spent most of my free time at work, putting in more 12-hour days than are healthy, but I really love it there. Thankfully Costas has been understanding and quite busy himself. Only 4 days to go and then 2 weeks of vacation where I can completely forget about work and find out who I am again. Thanks for bearing with me.

And a final picture of some inspiration that struck me last night. I worked it out in EQ5 too, but for some reason it won't let me make a quilt with more than 24 blocks horizontally (the blocks are about 3"x15"). I'd like to try it as a king sized quilt (half green, half blue) but haven't been able to do up a layout that I'm happy with yet. I compromised by doing it with 5"x15" blocks and piecing them vertically so that it appears to be smaller strips. I don't know, I'll keep working on it...