This past weekend, the weather could not have been better — it was, in a word, perfect.

The skies were mostly clear, the humidity was not too high, and the temperatures were in a range that allowed me to take several walks with my dog and without a sweater, and while I was not a bundle of energy, I did make substantial progress on my front burner projects.

The project that got most of my attention this weekend was the one I had intended to decorate with hearts.

I started by finishing up the seaming of the five and ten-round granny squares, and then, when that was done, I turned my attention to making the two-round granny squares I would need to form a finishing edge and straps for the bag.

Using the eighteen colors that form the body of the bag, I made two two-round granny squares from each, and before I knew it, I had the thirty-six squares I would need to complete the project:

Then I got two group photos of the the bag-to-be with the straps/trim-to-be. One photo documents one side:

and another photo documents the other:

With most of the weekend spent putting the pieces of the bag-to-be together, making two-round granny squares, and weaving in ends, there was just enough time left for me to decorate one of the donut squares for a bag to coordinate with my new shoes.

I decided to put my efforts into a yellow frosted donut; here is the result:

One thing that became clear to me as I cut the lengths of yarn and decorated the top of the donut was that this part of the process is not going to be quick, and there are no shortcuts.

I am going to have to enjoy this part of the project one stitch at a time.