Various & Sundry 2019 #6

I have added a lot of new items and designs to the Artquiltmaker Store. Check it out!

This is a super-sized V&S. You’ll need some time. Enjoy!

Books, Research & History

Barbara Brackman has a new block book out called The Kansas City Star Quilts Sampler: 60+ Blocks from 1928 to 1961. She signed some at Quilt Market, but I didn’t see her there.

Martingale has a great post about some historical quilts. I was interested in a family member going back and making labels for the old quilts.

QuiltFiction will be having a discussion about Quilted All Day: The Prairie Journals of Ida Chambers Melugin.

Check out Facts vs. Myths About America’s Quilting Past. After a few clicks, you can find that the answers are footnoted.

Shows, Exhibits & Media

Thanks to Sonja, there is a new exhibit possibility for you. The Century of Women’s Progress exhibit is now accepting entries. I would enter Down the Drain, but they have very specific sizes and my quilt doesn’t fit. Darn it! I could make something else and have the germ of an idea, but I don’t know if it is in the cards right now. How about you?

“The state of Tennessee has a fabulous new museum building in Nashville. Their first temporary exhibit is a quilt show up until July 7th.” Barbara Brackman talks about it on her blog and shows some fabulous photos of amazing piecing and quilting.

Frances O’Roark Dowell, a children’s writer and quilt fiction writer, has now written an essay on why she makes quilts. She has several points, most of which I agree with, especially “A well-designed quilt is deeply pleasurable in a number of ways“.

Linda and Laura Kemshall have posted another free video. It is called  Linda’s Plant Printing Concertina Books Flip-Through.

I saw a blurb about Curated Quilts. I went to the link and ended up on the Color Girl blog where she tempted me to buy an issue. She has a discount code and the issue is about curves. I have been tempted by her ruler, the Classic Curve Ruler, but have been reluctant to buy because I have and use the Quick Curve Rulers (regular and mini). I am not sure of the difference between the two rulers. I don’t want to duplicate, though I am always on board to support small woman owned businesses.

Frances also shared a video of a grandson who explores his grandfather’s amazing journals. This gives me hope that someone will care about my journals someday. It is also a very sweet piece that honors a man’s life work especially the ordinary things he did.

Atlas Obscura did an article on Crimean military quilts. The author doesn’t know much about quiltmaking, at least in my opinion, from reading the first few lines, which isn’t big news. The author also spoke to a quilt historian, Annette Gero. I had never heard of her so went looking. She is described as one of Australia’s leading quilt historians,  and has been documenting and collecting quilts since 1982. She has travelled throughout Australia giving lectures, curating exhibitions of Australian quilts and documenting quilts. There is also a reference to her in the International Quilt Study Center. Fortunately, a lot of the story references different scholarly textile journal articles, which makes me feel better after the beginning of the article. Letters are also referenced, but I wonder if journals would have helped. Perhaps some poor solider kept a journal that included how he came to making an elaborate quilt.  If nothing else, you will enjoy the complexity of the designs included in the article.

HollyAnne Knight wrote a blog post called “Why Quilters Should Ditch Stash Culture.” I have a complicated relationship with my fabric closet. I really like being able to dive in and find a fabric to finish, or start, a project. Also, most of my quilts use many fabrics so having many on hand is good. However, the finite size of fabric closet is a problem, especially when the fabric spills out of it. What do you think?

Barbara Brackman has blog retrospective/tribute to Gwen Marston’s work. The post has a lot of links to other sources if you are interested in exploring Gwen’s work further.

Doing Good

Angels in Gumboots has an update to their Healing Hearts for ChristChurch project. I wrote about this project in April. One line really made me happy and thrilled to be part of such a giving community “We are thrilled to announce that as of today we have 461 finished quilts of either green or multi-coloured hearts. In addition, we have more than 432 quilts that are either at the quilting stage or are blocks still needing to be pieced into tops. ” That is more than 900 quilts!!! NINE HUNDRED!!! Amazing that so many quilts could be made. Good work everyone!

Tools, Supplies, Notions & Fabric

Scissors are critical and frustrating. someone recently posted about their pinking shears, which are hard to open and close. I have this problem with my very expensive pair as well. While this post does not directly address the pinking shears problem, it does talk about scissor care, in general.

Some people in my guild swear by Bloc-Loc rulers. I am pretty happy with my Creative Grids rulers, so I don’t think I will switch. In case I decide I will, I found a ‘how to use Bloc-Loc rulers’ video from American Patchwork & Quilting. What are your favorite rulers and why?

I found another bag hardware site. The site has a lot of movement, which can be annoying, but it has a lot of interesting and different zipper pulls. It looks like most of the pulls are attached to the tops of zippers, not able to attach to any zipper.

I have seen thread cutters for sale and always knew I didn’t need one until I saw the one from Purple Hobbies. It looks like a little flower and uses used rotary blades for cutting. I just might need one. All of the tools and toys are 3D printed and a lot of colors are available. The owner sells other tools like pincushions and bobbin clips as well as a few kitchen supplies.

I ran across Art Gallery’s Floral Elements line the other day on the Stash Fabrics site. I love those fabrics so much and thought for sure they were out of print. I want yards of all of them!

I really love Rock Baby Scissors work. Kristy Sachs, until recently, made custom orders from commercial patterns such as Sew Sweetness RockStar bag. Now she makes what she wants and fills her shop with them. She also has an Amazon page with all of the notions and items she uses.

Patterns, Projects & Tutorials

I am a huge fan of Larissa Holland‘s 12 Days of Christmas wool felt patterns. Note: I have not made any of these. I just love them. I have too many hand projects at the moment. Once I clear the decks with some of those, I will start in on this set. Recently, I found her blog and love her style when she updates patterns. The images aren’t just there for good looks,  but are there as adjuncts to the words.

I belong to Vicki Holloway’s Creative Corner 3 group on FB. She has been prepping hexies and I finally figured out she is working towards making a temperature quilt. I had an idea of what that meant, but wasn’t 100% sure, so I went and looked it up. I am not sure I found where this phenomenon started, but I found a few links that give you an idea what to do. Mel is using the high/low temp each day and making HSTs. Mel also lists her colors for temperature ranges and how to construct the quilt. Darcy talks about making her quilt and also gives some options. Her style is more conversational. She is also using high and low temperatures, but is making the quilt from the year of her birth. Darcy has some nice charts as illustrations. I like the two quilts that Live a Colorful Life made. She talked about living in a climate that didn’t vary much, like I do. We have a lot of 50-60 degree days. She also used squares, which produced a look that was really appealing. If you search for ‘temperature quilt’ on your favorite search engine, you will come up with a variety of examples as well. I think deciding on fabrics and assigning them temperature ranges is the key.

Curves are very trendy now. ColorGirlQuilts has a great ruler, mentioned above. Sew Kind of Wonderful has a couple of great rulers, which you have seen me use in Metroscape and the Lights table runner. Recently I saw a Curated quilts issue all about curves, also mentioned above. Victoria Findlay Wolfe has been teaching her Double Wedding Ring and Pies and Points classes as well. I, recently, found a new pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics. It isn’t that different from ColorGirlQuilts and Sew Kind of Wonderful patterns IMO, but has a slightly different look because it is a Cathedral Window, essentially.

Crafty Gemini has a free tutorial on pressing seams in quilts.

Yes, I am probably obsessed with ColorGirlQuilts right now. I saw her Bikini pattern and may need to get the ruler and make that quilt.

While reading a new blog, I found a scrap challenge called Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I read through some of the blog posts. It seems that the hostess/blog writer chooses a color every month and people link up with their creations in that color at some point during the month. The blogger also had a tutorial in May for a block using orange fabric. I was sad I couldn’t link up, but I haven’t started working on orange yet. Perhaps she will choose red for June and I can link my various quilts up with her then.

Crafty Gemini has a free video tutorial called “How to Cut Fabric for Right & Left Handed Quilters”

If you want to make a Jelly Roll Rug in half circle shape, check out the video. These are good for the floor in front of your sink.

I looked at the Noodlehead site and she has a list of tutorials for bags, wallets and zips.

Are you participating in the current Bad Girl Quilt-a-Long? There is a sneak peek at the finished quilt and it looks interesting. A recent week’s blocks are similar to the blocks used in En Provence. The difference is that this block uses Bias Rectangles and En Provence uses Peaky and Spike blocks. Make sure you check out my resources on Bias Rectangles. The bias rectangles in the quilt-a-long allow you to use a lot more fabrics. If you plan to use bias rectangles, review the resources. Also, just go buy the Split Rects ruler and make your life better. If you plan to use Peaky & Spike blocks, get the correct ruler. Yes, these are specialty rulers, but they will make the cutting much easier. I use my Peaky & Spike ruler frequently.

Other Crafts

I read the Maker’s Mercantile newsletter. It is a lot about knitting, but they also talk about sewing and crochet. Franklin Habit has a column, Fridays with Franklin, or a link to the column on the blog. His writing is very entertaining. He often has knit-a-longs. The most recent one is a Counterpane Pillow Knit-Along. You can find the discussion on Ravelry. It doesn’t start until July, so you have time. It looks cool and I might do it, if I didn’t already have a knitting project. I mention it to introduce you to Franklin Habit and also to suggest another project for you. 😉 Take a look at the most recent newsletter. Make sure you scroll down a little after the page loads. The page is formatted in an odd way. You can also follow Franklin online via Twitter (@franklinhabit), Instagram (@franklin.habit), his Web site (franklinhabit.com) or his Facebook page. He is witty and fun.

Jelly Roll Rug Continues

Jelly Roll Rug in process- early June 2019
Jelly Roll Rug in process- early June 2019

I was determined to make some major progress on Wednesday while DH was out. I added a couple of rounds, but ran into more problems. My machine started skipping stitches. I changed the needle, re-threaded, changed the needle again, switched stitches, changed thread. Nothing helped. I even took off the sole plate and cleaned out what little fuzz and such that there was. I thought I might be able to see something stuck in the bobbin case. No luck.

I was using a zigzag stitch so I switched to a project that just required a straight stitch. Same problem.

Fortunately, I got the rows in before the trouble started.

I just had the machine serviced and it has been doing fine. I meant to call the shop yesterday, but was busy and didn’t do it. So frustrating.

Thinking about Blocks

I love blocks. I have always loved quilt blocks. I love how they can be broken down into component parts and combined with different blocks built of the same component parts to form a whole new look. I love they way they can be combined. I love how you can make the same block from different fabrics and have a completely different look. It seems, though, blocks are not popular now, being deemed old fashioned by the Modern Quilt Guild.

I am in a closed Facebook Group that is talking, in a sort of roundabout way, about blocks. The overall theme is the 1930s, so naturally the block patterns in newspapers came up. I have been interested in block designs since I started quiltmaking. One of the first books I bought was The Quilter’s Album of Blocks and Borders, the precursor to the more complete Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns. Both are written/compiled by Jinny Beyer.

I don’t know the history of blocks, in general, though I have read enough about them. The most famous publisher, probably,  was the Kansas City Star, because they published quilt patterns in their newspaper. The patterns were syndicated across the country. Quilter By Design says that these patterns were published from 1928-1961, first weekly then monthly. I have not checked the veracity of these date. I am fortunate enough to have set of the newspaper clippings reproduced and spiralbound. In this set is a wealth of inspiration. There are amazing blocks and quilts that spurred on the quilt imagination of a generation of quiltmakers.

I have heard that many of the blocks were not designed by quiltmakers, but by journalists and were never made. The Snowball Wreath is one of those blocks and Barbara Brackman does a great job describing it and showing photos on her blog. Apparently few of this particular block pattern were made into quilts. I salute those ladies! I did a search and saw some that had been made recently. I did a project a few years ago to try and make a block. I made it a little differently than the pattern implies, but didn’t want to make myself crazy.

The oldest block design Jinny Beyer found in her research was from the January 1835 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book, a hexagon design. Ladies Art Company published quilt and other needlework designs starting in 1889. Beyer reminds us that many block designs in a publication such as Ladies Art Company were republished later by other companies.

One thing modern quilters have done is revived old blocks using new methods. Paper piecing is a great way to get good results without too many tears. Rotary cutting templates make the cutting of strange shapes easy. Jen Kingwell revived the Circle Within a Circle (Ladies Art Company, 1897. It was also published as Bird’s Eye View by Clara Stone in Practical Needlework, 1906**) block, calling it Steampunk. You can see a version of the current incarnation on the Diary of a Quilter page. My only objection to this revival is the lack of citing sources. I can’t complain much since Clara Stone didn’t cite her Ladies Art Company source.

I would love to make at least one of the all the Kansas City Star blocks. I would also like to make one of all the blocks in Jinny Beyer’s Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns. I don’t think I have enough time left in my life. I also am refusing to let myself think of that as a real, possible project. Perhaps a project for me and 100 of my friends?

One of the things I have is knowledge about blocks. I was taught to make quilts using blocks and in the teaching I learned about grids. Now, for the most part, I can break a quilt down into pieces and have a good idea of how to make the quilt. Sometimes having a pattern is easier, but not having to spend $12 on a pattern I will make once is something to think about. Of course, I support the designers when I think I will make a quilt. Remember Metroscape?

Anyway, I love blocks. What about you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

** This information came from The Quilter’s Album of Patchwork Patterns by Jinny Beyer, ©2009

All Rolled Up Tote Again

All Rolled Up Tote - open
All Rolled Up Tote – open

I did finish the All Rolled Up tote, but it has been sitting unused while I contemplated handles. Many makers in the Crafty Gemini group have just added handles to the top using a box stitch. I am afraid such handles would be ripped away after awhile so I have been contemplating handles that went all the way around the bag. Because of the way the bag opened up, I had to be careful not to impede the opening and the zipper.

Finally, I came up with the idea, in consultation with other bagmakers, of making a loop and just sewing it to the areas where there were only three layers. See the giant flower in the front? That would be one place to which the straps were sewn.

All Rolled Up tote with sample handles
All Rolled Up tote with sample handles

I didn’t have much time to sew over the weekend, so I snuck in time where where I could and came up with a loop made out of pleather.

On the side with the seam I sewed some of the Philip Jacobs fabric I used for the inside. I love that fabric!

I think the idea has merit, but I am not happy with the execution. I don’t love the handles – the width and the material. I will probably make another set of sample handles from fabric.

Thoughts?

Even More Jelly Roll Rug

Jelly Roll Rug in process
Jelly Roll Rug in process

I didn’t have a lot of time yesterday, but the time I did have I spent working on the Jelly Roll Rug. I am having trouble going around the ends, but I am trying to get better. It does get easier as the rug gets bigger.

I decided to use grey thread until I get to the darker part of the fabric so the bad stitching doesn’t stand out. I’ll switch back to the variegated as soon as I get to the darker fabrics.

Sewing Heritage

Kenmore
Kenmore

Sewing surrounded me as a child. I mentioned the women in my life being adept and prolific needlewomen. what I didn’t mention is that my dad was just as adept. I distinctly remember our house being filled with goosedown feathers as he and my aunt sewed sleeping bags, parkas, booties for a winter backpacking trip. Recently he pulled out the sewing machine on which I learned to sew and sewed up some curtains for his new guest room.

Dad sewing
Dad sewing

He doesn’t have the best ergonomics, but he did a great job.

I have no idea where he got the quilt. He has never mentioned it to me and I have never seen it before. I should say that I didn’t make it. It looks pretty, though.

More Jelly Roll Rug

I talked about sewing the really long seam the other day. I have, as you might have expected, continued to work on the Jelly Roll Rug.

Jelly Roll Rug -Fabric Quesadilla
Jelly Roll Rug -Fabric Quesadilla

In one of the videos I watched the presenter showed how to butt the batting together as you clip, then sew the edge of the jelly roll sandwich – really it’s more of a quesadilla- closed. Check out time stamp 10:46-11:25, approximately, for that gem. I started out using the strips I had sewn some weeks ago* so they wouldn’t be laying around waiting for some other project that would never happen. When I sewed the quesadilla closed. I got to the point with the batting strips where I didn’t even have to open the Bosal roll of 2.5 inch strips.

Jelly Roll Rug Ball
Jelly Roll Rug Ball

One challenge I had was with the tapered end. Fortunately, the second video, from Quilt Addicts Anonymous, I watched showed what to do (timestamp 8:55-10:31-ish). You have to buy the pattern to read about the tapering process, but once you have tapered the end the video shows what to do with it. The pattern is a little vague, or I couldn’t decipher what it meant. Basically, you have to create the jelly roll quesadilla with that tapered end as well. I started sewing the end of the long seam rather than the beginning (the piece that would be in the middle), so I could create a ball and would have the beginning on the outside of the ball. That means that the tapered end was at the end of the long seam. I had to unpick 8-10 inches of the long seam in order to do the tapering. Also, I had to re-cut the taper, because I had messed around enough with the fabric comprising the taper to make the end fray beyond repair. So the rug will be an inch shorter. I don’t think anyone will die.

First attempt at sewing the rug together
First attempt at sewing the rug together

My first pass at beginning to zigzag the rug together ended up with a kidney shaped piece. That is to be avoided, so I ripped out the zigzagging and will start again. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*I decided to only buy one of the 2.5 inch Bosal batting roll strips and augment the one roll with batting strips of my own. My idea was to use up what I had rather than buying something new. I cut an approximate number that I thought I would need.

Finished: Red Improv Top

Finished: Red Improv top
Finished: Red Improv top

The Red Improv top is finished. No back yet, but I will do that soon.

I am pretty pleased with the way it came out. It doesn’t have those bold graphic lines that the purple improv top did. I like that better, though it might look a little chaotic as well.

This is the last of the red scrap quilts for now. My red scrap drawer isn’t completely empty, but it is much less full than it was. Essentially 3 quilt tops came out of the drawer. Amazing.

Maybe orange next. Stay tuned for your break from red.

One Long Seam

I sewed one seam on Saturday.

First Step in Sewing the Jelly Roll Rug
First Step in Sewing the Jelly Roll Rug

Sew Day was Saturday and I went with the Jelly Roll long strip batting and 4 wound bobbins in my bag.

Amy and I pretty much got to it as soon as we got set up. She is making the rectangular rug and I am making the oval version.

Jelly Roll Rug strip-ready to sew
Jelly Roll Rug strip-ready to sew

Since I already had my strips sewn together, I started closing up the jelly roll’s seam. It took me several hours to make headway and I didn’t even finish that one step. I had grand illusions of getting the whole rug finished because I had sewn my strips together. HA!

This is not a difficult project. It is slightly tedious, but great for Sew Day because I could easily talk and sew and not make mistakes.

I used up one whole bobbin already. One seam one bobbin. It’s crazy since I am not even finished with that seam.

26 Projects 2019 #5

I have passed 50 yards net of fabric used. Yay! I am pretty pleased.

Finished 2019 Quilt Projects

Finished 2019 Non-Quilt Projects

This category covers bags, toys, aprons and knitting as well as other non-quilt projects.

Doing Good

  • Ends n.7 quilt top and back – finished 1/6/2019
  • Ends n.8 quilt top and back – finished 4/11/2019
  • Green Strips quilt top and back – finished 1/16/2019
  • Green Thing donation top and back – finished 2/2019
  • Libs Elliot donation top – finished 2/2019 – Cheryl actually did the quilting and the binding. She made me feel good by saying she really liked the quilt. I should try the technique using stripes instead of making stripes and see if I feel differently. I should do a lot of things.
  • Purple Improv donation quilt top – finished 3/2019
  • Purple Strips donation quilt top and back
  • Spiky Stars n.3 donation top and back – finished 3/2019

In Process
The ‘In Process’ is used to denote projects on which I am actively working or are on the design wall waiting for me to stitch. I try not to put away projects, because that will ensure I never work on them

  • English Paper Piecing Project– half hexies – I have a big stack of stars ready to sew into the quilt. I am still thinking of my friend Faye whenever I work on it. She says that I have to think of this as my slow project.
  • Flying Geese quilt – just started, still cutting and some sewing

Ready for Quilting

At the Quilter

Still WIPs
I still have WIPs. Who doesn’t, after all? A project in the ‘UFO’ category means I am stalled. A nicer way of saying UFO is a WIP. The list is a lot shorter and the projects are newer, for the most part.

  1. FOTY 2018 – this has to be on the list now as I have cut a ton of squares and need to arrange and sew it together. As I am still working on FOTY 2017, I haven’t made a start on this yet.
  2. Handbag Sampler – this is still the forgotten project. It should be on the UFO list. Too bad I don’t have one. The blocks were teaching samples when I taught a sampler class the time before I started writing the quilt class sampler tutorials. I found one block recently, but otherwise I actually don’t know exactly where the blocks are hiding. I have an idea and still have to crawl up in the far reaches of my fabric closet soon and see if I can find them. I haven’t even found a picture of all the blocks. Sad.
  3. Lobster – I still have more stitching to do and then I need to quilt it. Probably also a UFO, but it nags at me from the small design wall.
  4. Pies and Points from 2016 Victoria Findlay Wolfe class. The last time I worked on it was when Julie and I had a playdate in April 2018. I brought this piece with me so I could cut more elements (Julie has a Sizzix). I lost my excitement about this piece shortly thereafter and still have to get it back. Thus, I had to move this to the WIPs area.
  5. Pointillist Palette #4: Fourth is a series of 6 quilts; needs tiny square patches sewn together. No progress.
  6. Self Portrait: started in 2006 at a class at Quilting Adventures in Richmond, Virginia. I am still stalled on this again. As one of my oldest (I am pretty sure) UFO, I put it on my blog and out into the Twitterverse and Diane suggested that I not consider this as a self portrait. I think that strategy is a great idea. I am now trying to think of a new persona for her.
  7. Black and Red quilt – This came about because of two other projects. I made a whole bunch of bias tape as part of my failed attempt at doing the Mighty Lucky Club a few years ago. Another part of the inspiration came from my class with Tina of Little Blue Cottage fame. This was going to be for a nephew, but I think it will be for one of my SILs and BILs. I have rectangles cut and some bias tape ready. My next step is to sew the bias tape to the rectangles like pickup sticks. I don’t have any photos of this, so you’ll have to use your imagination.
  8. Who Am I? – This piece is off my design. I have lost momentum, but I think that just has to do with the amount of satin stitching I am facing.

BAM Fidget Quilts

BAM Fidget quilts - May 2019
BAM Fidget quilts – May 2019

BAMers made fidget quilts at the last Sew Day. I was there as I was in Portland celebrating the YM’s graduation.

BAM Fidget quilts detail - May 2019
BAM Fidget quilts detail – May 2019

I was really impressed with Peggy’s preparation and for all the work that went into these pieces that will help people with dementia and other memory challenges as well as kids who need something to calm their restless bodies.

 

 

More Red Improv

Red Improv Donation Top - end of May 2019
Red Improv Donation Top – end of May 2019

I spent a couple of days working on the Red Improv donation top in between the Chubby Charmer and other projects. I am getting towards the end (perhaps one more row along the bottom?), but making the rows takes time, because they are made from small bits of fabric that have to be sewn into larger pieces.

I have done a good job clearing out the red scrap drawer. There is definitely a lot less left. I do have a couple of pieces that were already sewn together that I may not use in this piece. I am thinking about cutting some blocks out of it and making a multi-colored donation top when I am done with all the colors.

Red Scrap Journal Cover

Red made fabric pieces
Red made fabric pieces

As mentioned, I have been working with red scraps. As I dived into the drawer, I found several pieces of fabric that had already been made from scraps.

Since I have a few Miquelrius journals that need covers, I decided to use some of the scraps to make a journal cover. It was fun to look at all of the made fabric and decide which pieces to use. I felt like I was picking out commercial fabric. It was nice to have a choice.

Red journal cover closed - May 2019
Red journal cover closed – May 2019

Because I had already done the hard work of making the fabric, I just had to make the piece large enough to fit the journal. (Sizing info can be found in the journal covers tutorial). It went really quick, which was great, because I was in need of a quick finish. I am pleased with the chair print on the front as well as the disbursement of dot fabrics.

Red journal cover front open - May 2019
Red journal cover front open – May 2019

I use flannel instead of batting for the center of the journal covers. It gives the cover a little bit of body, but doesn’t make it bulky. I’d like to just use ShapeFlex, but it doesn’t stick very well to made fabric because of all the seams. If I am using a favorite commercial fabric and there aren’t a lot of seams, then I will use ShapeFlex.

Red journal cover back open - May 2019
Red journal cover back open – May 2019

I always cover the batting the another cotton fabric, but I forgot to do that this time, so the flannel serves as batting and backing. It is on the inside and doesn’t show much, so I think it will be ok. I haven’t been carting my journals around as much as I have in the past, so I think the flannel will stay clean. I am glad, however, this is just for me. I think I will need to read the tutorial again before I make the next one.

 

Finished: Batik Chubby Charmer

Finished: Batik Chubby Charmer
Finished: Batik Chubby Charmer

I finally finished the Chubby Charmer I started making for myself a few weeks ago. I am really pleased with how it turned out. I started filling it with supplies for the Jelly Roll Rug class almost as soon as I had finished with it.

Finished: Batik Chubby Charmer
Finished: Batik Chubby Charmer

I used a violet batik for the handles and I am pleased with the choice.

I also did a few different things with the inside pockets. I didn’t make smaller pockets or slip zipper pockets. I even forgot to add Shapeflex to the pockets, but I did add a lobster clasp and a special pen holder.

 

All Rolled Up Tote - pouches (back)
All Rolled Up Tote – pouches (back)

My idea for the pockets had to do with the pouches I discussed when I made the All Rolled Up Tote. Yes, there is no D-ring like I discussed, but I didn’t have a D-ring that would fit with the lobster clip. I have a lot of those lobster clips. I will need to get some D-rings to go with them, but at this point I thought a lobster clip could still be clipped to a lobster clip.

Looking at the pictures now, I might just make a pouch to go with this Chubby Charmer as well.