I put down my needle and thread, and picked up...needle and thread...

No, I haven't been drinking.  That was at the work picnic on Thursday...and Saturday night at the bar.

This weekend, I put down that cross stitch needle of mine, and picked up (ok, figuratively picked up) my sewing machine needle.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I finally procured a sewing machine.  I got it a few weeks ago, right before I got really sick, and haven't had the chance to do anything with it.  Well, this weekend I decided to get to it.  I had to break it in sometime, and there's no time like the present.  I figured I'd do a little project I'd been dying to try before finishing Katie's baby gift into a pillow.  Kinda warm up the sewing machine, if you will.

Moda fabrics has some fibbity faboo patterns in their Bake Shop, and that's where I found this little ditty.  It's called the "Bookkeeper", and is a cover for your B&N nook or your Amazon Kindle.  It could also fit a journal or a paperback book for those trips to the beach, or anywhere for that matter!

I already have a leather cover for my nook, but it's boring black.  Bleh.  When I saw this "recipe", I knew I had to try it!

Here's the finished product --

It looks like a lil' clutch, doesn't it??  Now, if any of you are quilters, I am profusely sorry that I cannot, at this time, do proper binding.  This project was VERY easy, especially for someone like me, who is not nearly as proficient with a sewing machine as I am with a cross stitch needle.  The only thing that was difficult for me was the binding.  If any of you are quilters, and have some pointers for me as to how to do that part of this quicker and EASIER, I'm all ears.  I wanted to stab someone with my straight pins by the end of the night.

There are some things that I know I'll do different the next time around, if it's another one for me, or if I do it as a gift, but I think it turned out pretty darn good for a first time pattern-follower!  If I do say so myself!  Ha!

Here's a peek inside --

You can kinda see the leather of my nook cover peeking out overtop the pouch.

Here's my nook outside the "bookkeeper" so you can see it in perspective --

I'm not sure if the iPad would fit in here -- but this pattern is definitely easy enough to alter it to make it wider if need be for a tablet.

The fun thing about this project (besides the fact that I was doing something new!) is that I got to try out the decorative stitches on my machine.  Here's a close-up of the top stitches on the cover --

Fun, huh?!?!  Again -- quilters, turn a blind eye to that binding.  Hooo boy does it need  a helping hand.....

Anyways, that was my creative fun this weekend!  Hope you all were able to get your creative juices flowing, too!!