chugging along

after the laundry and the trip to the hardware store yesterday, I did get to spend some time at the sewing machine 

the second side part of the bag is complete, and while doing the first side with all those layers and zippers meant I broke two sewing machine needles, the second side went really well, with no needles lost 

and that side piece went so quickly that I went right ahead and prepared the bottle pocket pieces for the sides of the bag 

I know, these look somewhat like parts of an odd corset, in fact, the DH came in and held them up over his chest and ask if I thought they would fit -- but these actually are designed to hold a bottle of water (or whatever you prefer to carry for drinking) so they won't slip out -- the original pattern called for cord and cord locks, but for our purposes, the elastic in the top edge works just as well and will launder better when the bag gets washed  

the next step is to attach these pockets to the side panels and start putting the pieces together


this has to qualify as the best picture of this project so far 

the scalloped edging on the sides is complete now, and I've started doing some textured fill there on the right hand side at the top












 this is the progress made so far on the next visioning piece 

when I pulled out the fabrics, I was not sure this would convey what I was thinking of when I did the sketch, but as I've worked on it, I'm more and more enthused by the colors and the idea itself