Growing Hope: 4th entry

Team Leader Krystal of Solsisters choose to make a framed wall quilt for the challenge.

Team leader SolSisters submitted this framed wall quilt titled Shanira (African for "warmed by the sun")

Obviously, from the name of her shop, she has an affinity for all things solar.

"I am drawn deeply to the fires of creation and the warm glow of friendship and family. The circles in my quilt are representative of the centers and anchors in our lives, the things who make us what we are and ground us. The winding threads are the unexpected connections that allow us to grow and change through learning."

The quilt is decorated with many small seed beads and tiny chips of rock. It also has flat squares of stone with a gorgeous rich orange, yellow and red marbling.

The fabrics are a mix of commercial, hand dyed and hand painted. The hand dyed came from etsy seller Karen of Ruby Mountain Dyeworks and the hand painted orange is from another etsy seller, Molly of Monkey Shine Design.

Shanira measures 9.5" square and is in a 13" square deep bronze chocolate frame. 

Visit her shop and blog.


Check out this and other Growing Hope entries as well as items from our two previous challenges at our team shop. 

Read more...

Growing Hope: 3rd entry

Team Member Wendy Martin of Bags and Buds submitted her Blooming Buds Linen and Batik Pouch. It features Wendy's signature folded flowers. 

I took this challenge rather literally and chose to do a bag that shows the growth of a single flower. This bud gets more beautiful with each stage. Growth can bring great beauty, power, knowledge and love.

The front of this pouch is natural linen, and the back is batik cotton. It is fully lined in ivory cotton. There is a swivel clasp on the side so you can attach it to your bag, belt or key ring. Measuring approximately 5" x 7", it's big enough for all of your daily essentials-cell phone, cash, cards, comb, lip gloss, and keys. The front is embellished with three Kanzashi buds.

Care-spot clean only.
Free shipping.

Visit Wendy's shop.

Check out this and other Growing Hope entries as well as items from our two previous challenges at our team shop. 

Read more...

Growing Hope: 2nd entry

 

Team Member Sandra of Sandra's Bohemian Bags subbmitted this great rucksack for our Growing Hope Challenge.

The theme for this challenge was growth. I believe we grow the best and strongest as human beings when we dare to travel in new directions and find the way to let our dreams take flight. I’ve chosen the butterfly to symbolize this.

This charming little Grab N Go bag will be a great accessory for your spring and summer outings. One side of the bag has a 5”x5” snap flap cargo pocket with a small butterfly appliquéd to the front of it. The other side of the bag has a larger butterfly appliqué that really shows off the swirling motion of the mod print. Created from golden tan cargos, recycled retro mod print from a sundress, and light blue brushed denim for the handle.

The body of the bag measures 9” wide x 9 ½” high. The handle is on a brass buckle slide and will adjust from a 12” drop to wear short and under the arm up to a 23” drop to be worn long and low as a messenger. The bag is lined in a stripe of white and 2 shades of blue. There are two interior pockets. The bag closes with a magnetic brass snap.

Visit Sandra's shop at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SandrasBohemianBags

Check out this and other Growing Hope entries as well as items from our two previous challenges at our team shop. 

Read more...

Carried Away member is Artfire's Featured Artisan!

Congrats to TM Cynde Clark. She's the Featured Artisan this week on Artfire's main page!

read the full interview here

Read more...

1st Kiva Contribution

Check out this lovely little zipper pouch from Amy at SewArtsy. Can't wait to see what everyone else submits. We're off to a good start. Here is the link to the post in our team shop.

Read more...

New members

I've got a backlog of new members from over the holidays. Please give them all a warm welcome.

Loving this orange bag with great detail stitching by Judi from Apollo Hill Crafts. Judi joins us from Wisconsin where she sews in a 100 year old house on a working dairy farm. Judi is a quilter as well as bag maker.

This wild clutch from Marisha of My Patterned Mind is certainly a show stopper. She specializes in frame clutches and purses. Marisha joins us from Texas. You can visit her blog and get to know more about her.

Brooke of Sew Brookie out of Virginia is just getting started on Etsy.  This red Kimono wallet is striking. She's already made 6 sales and I am sure many more will follow.

For the more conservative fashion lover, this Agatha Pintuck bag from Puddinhead and Potluck's shop shows off a command of precision stitching by bag maker Sonya from out of Texas.

Melissa from Made by Lissa has a whole series of these grab and go bags in all kinds of prints. Melissa joins us from Pennsylvania.

I love the many textures and complimentary shapes in this winter wool tote by Debi from Do-Rah Designs. Debi comes to us from California. You can be a fan on facebook or check out her blog for more.

Kim of Ap2Creative joins us from the UK. Her style is very modern but reserved as shown in this elegant. She is awaiting her first sale on etsy. You can visit her on facebook as well.

This eco-friendly bag is made from discarded plastic bags given a new life by Tali from Talies Bags out of Israel.

Unleash your inner rock goddess with these  attitude driven bags by Leigh-Ann of Lan Cole out of New jersey. Leigh-Ann also makes a line of wedding bags and accessories at her other shop,  Leigh-ann Kline's Weddings.

You know the  resolution you made to read more this year? This purse is cleverly re-purposed from a vintage Reader's Digest Condensed book by Liz from Liz Bags out of Canada. Ok, maybe it doesn't actually count as reading, but it is unique and is sure to start a few conversations.

Read more...

SPRING activity - Growth Challenge

The team has decided on our SPRING activity:

Growing Hope

Creations for this challenge can represent growth in a literal sense, such as growing food or plants or a more abstract sense such as growing your heart or growing a community.

Once completed the bags and other creations will be posted here and put up for sale in our team shop. As with all of our challenges, we'll be supporting a particular cause. Given how the entire world shook with the events of the last year, we want to start a cycle of continual assistance and spread some hope.

In order for our funds to keep on giving, we've decided to start a team account on Kiva.org. Kiva is a micro-lending site that allows you to pick a business person or cooperative group in the developing world and make loans as small as $25. Once the loan is repaid, we will RELOAN the money to another enterprising person and keeping the cycle of community and individual growth going.  Our goal is to raise $150 in order to make  three $50 loans.

Stay tuned for more details and watch here for creations as they come in.

Read more...

New Year's AYE call

If you wish to remain an active member of the Carried Away Bag Team, you MUST be part of our NING group and you must post to this forum thread by January 15th, 2010.


http://cabteam.ning.com/forum/topics/aye-call

At that time, everyone who does not post an AYE! will be removed from the team.

If you need a NING invite, please email me.

Thanks!

Krystal of Solsisters

Read more...

Team Challenge #2

Great news...our team has had another sale from the team challenge #2-Change Purses for Change. Anita from MadeInTahoe contributed a very cool gadget bag which sold today.



So far, we have had 3 sales and the proceeds from the sales go to Women for Women International. I am attaching an image from the online donation. This is such a great charity. I hope you will all read up on it and maybe make a direct donation online.


Happy New Year Everyone!

Read more...

Team Shop Sale

We have another team shop sale. The item that sold came from SewArtsy-Pink Ice Cream Change Purse. Yay!

Don't forget to shop handmade this season. Tell all your friends about the team shop too.

Read more...