Nancy Drew is a Clue -- and I've got so much to show you!

I've been waiting for this blog hop for months -- and today's the day! If you're a regular reader of my blog, you've seen a few of these projects before. But there's a brand new one at the bottom of the post, and a giveaway for my followers. Did I mention that I'm excited?!

For as long as I can remember, I've been crazy for the Nancy Drew books. As soon as I saw that Moda had a line of Nancy Drew fabric coming out, I knew I had to make a quilt with it. I didn't go to bed that night until I had my pattern idea written up and submitted to Moda. Then I was on pins and needles until I heard back from them.

I stayed on pins and needles until Nancy's Mysterious Quilt was quilted and bound and looked just like it had in my head at 2am when I was trying to quickly draw out the pattern with felt tip pens I'd stolen from my kids.

The back up plan for this quilt was to buy the panel of book covers and make a two color Irish Chain to applique them onto. As hard as the fabric is getting to find, I still think that's a decent option.

 

While I was waiting for Moda to publish the pattern so I could actually show it to all of you, I kept myself busy making a protective sleeve for my vintage Nancy Drew books. It also fits my Kindle Fire -- and I wrote up a tutorial, if you want to make your own.

 

I had extra blocks from the big quilt, so I made the baby version.

And now for my blog hop project!

When I was working on the big quilt, I knew that I wanted to save some of the book spine print for a tote bag. I did wind up buying yardage later, because the spines on the layer cake weren't complete and I wanted full books on my bag.

 

The blue fabric is from one of my thrift store scrap bags. I love the way it looks like the blue tweed book covers. And the red lining -- that's a sheet I bought at Goodwill last week. I wanted it for the background of some quilt blocks I've got planned, but it was the perfect color for this project. Maybe I've got enough left for the blocks, or maybe that quilt will be smaller. I'm flexible!

I love the way this bag came out! Thanks to the boxed bottom, it stands up by itself and it's big enough and sturdy enough to hold a ton of books.(There was going to be a tutorial, but I had problems with the measurements. If anyone wants a sort-of-how-to post without exact instructions, let me know and I'd be happy to write it up. I've got measurements, but not a lot of progress pictures because things kept changing as I went along.)

I did straight lines of quilting between the book spines and meandered the rest. All in black thread, because it reminds me of the black details on the blue tweed spines.

I've still got a little fabric left, and a few more ideas. I made myself a camera strap cover and used some of the blue on blue silhouette print to make a Kindle cover with an applique typewriter for Teenage Daughter after she tried to swipe the Nancy Drew one from me. (I would've given it to her if she actually liked Nancy Drew, but she doesn't, so I made one that was more her style. Then she picked the Nancy Drew fabric for the background -- I'll never figure that girl out!)

And now for the giveaway! I've got a blue tweed copy of The Haunted Bridge to send to one of my readers. Why that particular Nancy Drew book? It's the one I could get my hands on. I'm not an expert on dating these books. This one has a blue tweed cover, no dust jacket, and is in pretty good shape considering its age.  That's about all I can tell you.

To enter, be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post before 11:59 PST March 18, 2012. I'll notify the winner then.

Don't forget to visit the rest of today's Nancy Drew bloggers -- Life in the Scrapatch, Debby Kratovil Quilts, Selina Quilts, Meadowbrook, Hilltop House Creative Works, My Sister Made Me Do It, Whims and Fancies, Pieced Brain, & Just Let Me Quilt!