I needed to get back in the swing of sewing last week after being out of town. I don’t know why I have so much trouble getting back into the swing after being out of town, because all I really want to do is sew. I am sure there is some guilt about having fun mixed up in there. Oh well, I think about that later. 😉
Paris Pillowcases
Anyway, pillowcases are easy and I wanted to cement the process in my mind. I had just ironed some Paris prints and decided to make them as a birthday gift for a friend who has everything.
I was inspired by my sister’s love of Paris and France to buy these prints, but I decided that they were too brown and muted for me. I bought the Black Dress print at Scottie Dog fabrics in January and thought that fabric, used as a cuff, would tie the set together.
I know that three is an odd number for a gift, but that was all the cuff fabric I had. I am not even sure I will be able to cut a piece of it for FOTY 2014. I might have another piece somewhere. We will see.
I am pleased with how they came out and think the recipient will like them. I hope so, at least.
This was hanging outside of the cafeteria at the BAMQG Retreat. Cheryl is a biologist and she told me that this is wisteria. I have never seen wisteria this small before. Usually, when I notice it, it is hanging down in long purple or lavender hanks. I thought it was really beautiful.
I have talked about using French seams in pillow cases and gift bags. They really make the seams look nice. Perhaps I can use them on the free motion tote bag I haven’t yet made if I cut out the batting? I’ll have to see. Here is a tutorial that might give you more information.
I found a video of Sue Nickels machine quilting and was pleased to see that A) she marks and B) she doesn’t run the machine at a demon speed. I don’t feel like such a fish out of water after watching this video and I think it opens up the possibilities of machine and free motion quilting to other quiltmakers who didn’t feel comfortable moving the machine a long as fast as it would go.
I love this binding. the designer embellished it. It is the last thing I would have thought of, but it does provide another venue for embellishment and surface design.
Torie showed a picture of the beginning of her Texas Braid quilt, which I thought was a cool unit. The teacher has a post with students showing long strips of braids. I kind of like the units alone and wonder what I could do with one.
Joe Cunningham, of San Francisco, has a video on the TQS blog about sewing something to something else. While it is a simple idea, it is also profound and opens up your quiltmaking to a host of design possibilities.
Remember the Sarah Ann Smith online class I reviewed? Recently I saw a Melinda Bula video that illustrates the idea in a couple of minutes. I don’t think this video replaces the Sarah Ann Smith online class (which you should buy, if you haven’t already done so), but it does give you a good reminder of the steps in only a couple of minutes.
I like the layout of this Disappearing Four Patch that ZAnyMouse shared on Twitter. I like the way the small squares form, what looks like sashing and the larger part of the blocks form real four patches. Peggy at BAMQG said she has laid out some of the Disappearing 4 Patches this way. It makes me want to make a Disappearing 4 Patch! If you want to make something like this, check out the Material Girl tutorial.
The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is trying to pay off their permanent building so they can have more financial options. To do this they are having a fund raising campaign. They write ” 37 years, 37 weeks, 37 reasons why you should join us to Realize the Dream. We have raised 50% of our $1.4 million goal but we need your help to Realize the Dream. These funds will eliminate the debt on our beautiful permanent building and home. Make our dream a reality by giving!” 50% is a fantastic start! Even if you can give $1, $5 or $10, every dollar counts. Give now to help maintain a resource celebrating all quiltmakers and available for all of us.
Media, Blogs and Other Artists
Kathy Matthews is a reader here and she does a quilt column for Chicago Now! Head over to her online space and tell her you read about her here. One interesting post was about a guy who wanted to return to work, because he had no hobbies. Can you imagine? The dude needs to start quilting.
Torina has redesigned the Tubaville Blog and looks cheery. She is working on the Gypsy Wife project. I will have to look that one up as I am not familiar with it. She also shows a picture of her finished City Sampler quilt on an April 29 post.
Anna Maria Horner gives the backstory of her new collection of fabric, which is sweet and sad and triumphant, but all in very lowkey ways. We think of designers in our realm as superstars and this post gives a very real view into the very real life of a woman who is mother, daughter, caregiver, nurturer and how all of that can overwhelm that woman when the roles get out of balance. The description of how her art and craft helped her return to her normal balance is heartwarming and inspirational.
The LA Times had a series of stories about Modern Quilting. Thanks to Pink chalk for the tip.
Quilt Market Recap
My pals at quilting Adventures have great posts on what they bought and saw at Market. Day 1’s post includes Carolyn Friedlander’s booth, which must have been a stunner (anyone have the list of booth winners?), because everyone is talking about it. One of their photos has a wonderful Dutchman’s Puzzle quilt where each block is made from 2 fabrics. I also really like the gridded flying geese quilt with the grey background. I could replace the flying geese with other shapes to make it a little different, but the flying geese are great.
They also did a Sample Spree post. I have a basic understanding of Sample Spree, but it is still a bit of a mystery to me.
Phoebe, on Day 2 of Market, was having so much fun she forgot to take photos for the blog! What a girl! Still she produces a valiant post. She reminds readers to check back for a Market giveaway.
If you haven’t seen Angela Walters post, be sure and read it. It is very poignant and makes me like her all the more. I am very partial to grandparents and she talks about her grandpa in this post quite a bit.
Deer with giant horns were prevalent. I saw a number of prints in various blog posts as well as a full on mounted, stuffed deer head – made form fabric. I think it is a strange trend, but to each her own.
Do you need a good laugh? Check out these photo captions from The Fat Quarter Shop. You can also see the thoughts of the FQS girls by taking a look at their Twitter feed during the show.
Lazy Girl Designs talks about her demos in the Clover Booth of “Press Perfect.” She also has some great photos. Short but sweet recap.
Nicole from Modern Handcraft (I wonder if this was the name of her blog before ‘Modern’ became a thing…when did ‘Modern’ become a thing anyway?) has a photo collage and lots of detail shots of her Market experience.
Riley Blake has a two part blog post recapping the market experience of that fabric manufacturer. Part 1 talks about their booth theme (sea, beach) and shows stuffies, including a whale!, made from their new fabric lines. They say that navy and orange are the hot new color combination of the season. I guess I won’t be buying much fabric this season. I do like the flamingos (I’ll have to look for a pattern) on the pillows, but wish they were pink and the tree silhouette quilt is wonderful, though I wish it were made from different colors. Part 2 talks about more of their fabric lines, shows many, many projects and fabrics.
Bonnie Christine shows her booth, Winged, which is named after her new fabric line for Art Gallery Fabrics. Her post has mostly a fabric collage and she promises to talk more about Market soon, so stay tuned for that.
Jaybird Quilts has a nice post with a lot of different types of pictures: her projects in various booths, schoolhouse, setup. There is a picture of tula Pink’s new ribbon, one of which has the octopus motif that I used in one of the City Sampler blocks on it. I am not sure on which project I would use octopus ribbon, but I still kind of love it.
It is fun to look at a random sampling of different posts to get a sense of what Quilt Market was like. If you search for “quilt market pittsburgh 2014” recap you should get some interesting results as well.
I don’t know how seem to miss blog hops. Moda had one recently called Spell It with Moda. It included patterns for letters, numbers and punctuations. I found it a link on Camille Roskelley’s blog.
I have been thinking about dong the Farmer’s Wife project. It will be awhile since I am working on the City Sampler/Tale of Two Cities projects and a person can only handle so many blocks at one time. I do like looking at them. Lori from Quilting Unleashed posted a nice picture of her blocks in the midst of a vacation post that makes me envy how much she got done.
Fabric
You’d think I had enough fabric. Not in this case. I need the right fabric: fabric with images of California. I want to make shirts for the boys to wear when they are travelling together as Grand Officers, or to wear at Grand Parlor. There seems to be a dearth of nice (read: suitable for grown men to wear on their bodies) California themed fabric. I have seen the following:
California Poppies Floral – I’d have to consult with them to see if this is too girly. The California poppy is the state flower, so they might be up for it.
Spoonflower has some great designs and I would love to use some of them, but the fabric is pricey. Some of them would have to be cut and matched very carefully and I am not that good at making garments.
Traffic fabric – a reality of life in California and it is entertaining, but I don’t know if the boys would like it that much
I left my heart in SF – I don’t think this would work very well for a shirt, because of hte directionality. Again, I don’t know that much about arranging fabric for garments so it might work
I’d really like something like the vintage silk pieces that I saw online at Etsy or another on Etsy or on Flickr, but there is not enough of them to make a shirt and they may be too fragile. I wish Michael Miller or Robert Kaufman would reprint fabrics like this. Tell me what you have found. Perhaps there is some old bolt of awesome fabric that you have found.
Tools and Supplies
A downloadable PDF version of the Aurifil color card is now available! the colors may not be completely true, because of the color reproduction on your computer, so just use it as a backup to your printed (real) color card.
A Fiber Artist’s Guide to Color and Design is back in stock at Amazon! Click below to order it if you have not already bought a copy. This is a fantastic resource for those of you following along with the design series.
Poppy Montgomery, actress, Unforgettable, Without a Trace
opium poppy
Seattle restaurant
Definition: “A Poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, Papaver somniferum produces edible seeds, and is also the source of the crude drug opium which contains powerful medicinal alkaloids such as morphine and has been used since ancient times as analgesic and narcoticmedicinal and recreationaldrugs. Following the trench warfare which took place in the poppy fields of Flanders, during the 1st World War, red poppies have become a symbol of remembrance of soldiers who have died during wartime.”
poppy fields
Poppy was initially made for our research project about understanding biped locomotion, and full-body physical and social interaction in robots and humans. (The Poppy Project)
Poppy tea
California Poppy Reserve
The California Poppy is the state flower
1936 movie (Poppy)
Connecting the visual image of the poppy with the sacrifice of service made by our veterans has been an important goal of the American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Program since its inception in 1921. On Memorial Day and Veterans Day, millions of red crepe paper poppies—all handmade by veterans as part of their therapeutic rehabilitation—are distributed across the country in exchange for donations that go directly to assist disabled and hospitalized veterans in our communities.
The Poppy Program raises community awareness and respect for our veterans by educating Auxiliary members and the public about the symbol of the poppy, taken from a line in the poem “In Flanders Fields” written on the battlefront during World War I by Lt. Col. John McCrae, M.D.
The 2014 California Poppy Festival was scheduled for April 26-27, 2014.
(chiefly UK, Canada) A simple artificial poppy worn in the buttonhole to remember the fallen in the two World Wars, especially around Remembrance Sunday.
Dresses for women and girls. Follow the story of Poppy and Fred around each dress. Vintage inspired and made in Great Britain.
Poppy Daily – poppymag.com – a site for young creatives
Rain Poppy is an herb gatherable by herbalists that can be found in The Jade Forest, Vale of Eternal Blossoms and Timeless Isle. (World of Warcraft)
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and/or your blog.
We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.
As I mentioned, I was avoiding the Petrillo bag on Saturday and ended up working on this project.
One of the annoying things about this project is that it takes 36 seams to make a block. This means that I sew and sew and sew before I make any progress.
On the good side I sew and sew and sew and then, all of a sudden, I have 6 blocks done. It is nice to see the blocks once they are done.
I have been trying to work through each color and then attach it to a different color to avoid duplication when making the 2-octagon subunits. It doesn’t always work and will look better once I have all the blocks done. The problem is that, in a picture like the one above, it looks like I have used the same fabrics in all the blocks.
To a certain extent I have and it bugs me, but then I remember that I am not going to, necessarily, put the blocks above next to each other in the quilt.
I also get bored with the same fabrics, so I try and move through the stack of colors so I have more from which to choose. As a result, I have some quarter block units to put together still and octagons waiting to be paired with other octagons.
The progress continues, though I only have 10 blocks at the moment. I will keep sewing and make more.
I had these two blocks mostly cut out before I went to Grand Parlor, but didn’t get around to sewing them until last weekend when, after finally getting my sewing mojo back, I worked hard at avoiding the Petrillo Bag.
These are the next two in the crosses section (Blocks 1-15 of the City Sampler Project). No.9 doesn’t much look like a cross, but No.9 makes me think of a Maltese Cross.
I, unintentionally, used pretty subtle fabrics in No.9. It will be one of the blocks that gives the viewer a reward if s/he comes closer.
I like the way No.8 looks on point and wonder what kind of secondary design the block would make if I made a lot of them and set them right next to each other? Of course, it depends on the fabric. I imagine NOT putting background fabrics in the corner would be key, but I really can imagine how it would look.
Tale of Two Cities, No.10
I usually cut out the fabrics in sets of two, but my design wall was crammed with Russian Rubix blocks, so I did No.10 as a single.
It is also subtle and I had to take the photo a couple of times to make sure I got the piecing. the center is Art Gallery fabric and I just love the feel and the color.
Wash fabric AKA The Great Unwashed (I am guessing this will never be off the list, but a girl can dream) – I washed and pressed another bunch of fabric. It made more of a difference than I expected and I had some fun doing it. I still have a lot to do.
Make stiff bucket or box for TP in main bath
Make stiff bucket or box for TP in second bath
Dragon Box (gift)
Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote (gift-due Holiday 2013- oops)
I went on a fabric pressing binge and now have at least one post as a result.
I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I couldn’t seem to get my act together to sew last week. I have spent a couple days on the computer tweaking my blog and reading other blogs, but no sewing. Bleah. I think the machine problems are getting to me.
Pressing fabric seemed my best bet. Aren’t these fabrics pretty? They make me happy. And forced me to sew on Saturday and Sunday. That was a good thing.
I thought of waiting until next week to post this, but I just couldn’t wait! Last night I finished the binding on the Disappearing Pinwheel. Hooray!
That means that another project is finished.
This is probably the fastest that I have completed a project of this size in a long time. I started it in January and here it is barely June and the entire quilt is done. A new era of completion? Perhaps. I have to acknowledge that Colleen is back on her gamenow and that helps.
This quilt is part of the Niecephews series and will go to one of the small nephews. I have to finish his brother’s quilt first and hold off sending off either quilt until I show them at my guilds.
If you want to see how the retreat was set up, some in process and fun shots, check out the post I wrote a few days ago.
Mystery Quilt
I won’t tell you what mystery quilt we did, in case your guild does it. I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, but I will show you some of the examples of what came out of the blocks. Please note that most people basically threw the last two clues (after the blocks were made) out and did their own setting. They did great. All of the tops are really their own. The mystery quilt designer might have a heart attack, but I love the diversity and the creativity. The most of the mystery quilt was that everyone was working together on the same project.
Kelly
The Boss took all of her blocks apart and rearranged them into this piece. She had to add fill-in pieces to complete the background.
Amanda and Cheryl
They became the retreat twins in my mind. They sat across from each other (behind me) and it was fun to see them bounce off each other. Cheryl was the fantastic retreat coordinator and she actually got work done. I borrowed pins from her since I forgot my pincushion ALL THREE DAYS.
Lynnette’s blocks (no layout yet)
It was pretty amazing how Lynnette used different fabrics, but they are really cohesive. I didn’t think they were a line, but I could be wrong.
Ruth & Rhonda
I am not sure Rhonda actually put hers together like the photo, but I wouldn’t be surprised. There was a quite a lot of hilarity going on and the above photo might have been part of the hilarity.
Ruth‘s piece is on top and she did a fabulous job with her final result. I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo.
Michelle’s Mystery
I can’t even believe that Michelle made this quilt out of the mystery pieces.
Angela
Angela would not give me her quilt even though it is in my colors. I was mad at myself for not thinking of this color scheme. I love what she did and the photo doesn’t do it justice. The blues are more turquoise.
Gerre
Gerre started and got this whole piece quilted. She only lacked a binding and a label. Amazing!
Diana
Diana was working on a couple of different projects and the ones I saw were made from Autumn-y colors. Isn’t this version cool?
Buff
Buff made this adorable baby quilt. I love the bunny peeking out of the top of the fabric strip.
Charity
Donation block
People worked on donation blocks as well.
To the left is the only donation block I finished, but I had half of another parts of two others done as well. I’ll finish them this week.
Piles of donation blocks
My block is only one of a giant stack of blocks that piled up throughout the weekend. I was amazed that every time I went into the cutting room, more blocks were in the pile.
The great thing is that people just did them. There was no big drama; they just did them and the pile grew.
Peggy’s donation top
Peggy is working on a series of half square triangle quilts. Her latest top was finished at the retreat. She said she is enamored with the diamond offset on the top. I am really glad she is playing with the blocks. It makes me happy to see people having fun.
Donation Fish Blocks
I saw that a few fish blocks were made as well. There were a lot of kits available for those. I couldn’t make any as I didn’t bring any blue fabrics that would have been suitable.
Did you see the patterns for these blocks? If you want to make a small quilt and donate it, please do. The guild will be happy to accept it and I am happy to facilitate. They would make a fun baby quilt as well.
Personal Projects
In between the charity quilts and blocks and the mystery quilt, people worked on their own projects. There were finishes (Gerre, Bonnie, Angela, Diana, etc) and major progress that happened. It was fun to see all the projects where people made major progress.
Angela finished her mom’s Mother’s Day quilt. She did some lovely embroidery on the back as her label. You saw the quilt on the post where I talked about the BAMQG meeting.
Diana finished an auction quilt. It is a good thing as the auction already took place and she just needed to finish the quilt! What a hero for making such a big project for a school auction!
Diana’s Auction Quilt -front
Diana’s Auction Quilt -backRhonda’s Round Robin
Rhonda worked hard on quilting and binding her Round Robin piece. I love the spiky border on this one. The quilt is actually a lot brighter than the photo shows.
Cheryl’s Giant Feather
Cheryl brought out a giant feather quilt. She said that she wondered what the Anna Maria Horner feather would look like super sized. If you were wondering that, too, now you know. Isn’t it cool? I almost want to make one of those feathers (in a much smaller size)!
Cheryl’s Table Runner
Finally, Kelly made a thank you for Cheryl while at the Retreat! It uses Cheryl’s favorite Tula Pink fabrics.
Definition: “Jellyfish or jellies[1] are the major non-polyp form of individuals of the phylumCnidaria. They are typified as free-swimming marine animals consisting of a gelatinous umbrella-shaped bell and trailing tentacles. The bell can pulsate for locomotion, while stinging tentacles can be used to capture prey.
Jellyfish are found in every ocean, from the surface to the deep sea. A few jellyfish inhabit freshwater. Large, often colorful, jellyfish are common in coastal zones worldwide. Jellyfish have roamed the seas for at least 500 million years,[2] and possibly 700 million years or more, making them the oldest multi-organ animal.[3]” (Wikipedia)
moon jelly
In the heart of Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, Jellyfish, an intimate pan-Asian restaurant and lounge
Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and/or your blog.
We are also talking about this on Twitter. Use the hashtag #CPP
The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group, which you can join to post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.
jellyfish sting
Jellyfish and comb jellies are gelatinous animals that drift through the ocean’s water column around the world.
JELLYFISH is a tool for fast, memory-efficient counting of k-mers in DNA.
Meduzot (2007 movie)
Jellyfish is a global boutique intelligence firm that combines on-the-ground intelligence collection and analytics with an unprecedented country-to-country economic diplomacy program that helps governments, corporations, institutions and private individuals forge secure partnerships, discover new opportunities and mitigate operational risks.
Jellyfishbuzz- Whether you’re looking for a new case, headsets or even a charger, jellyfish brings accessorizing to a whole new level by offering a mix-and-match collection of products in four delicious colors. So show off your style, get noticed and change it up!
Jellyfish Eyes: the debut film by Takashi Murakami. A big screen tale of poignant memories and wondrous dreams.
Jellyfish Recordings is a Vancouver based record label
I am not sure if I will get through all of the retreat info in one post. It might just be too much. We’ll see.
Retreat Location
The retreat started on Friday, but I didn’t get there until mid day on Saturday as we were traveling for the Native Sons back from Grand Parlor. I was a commuter, so I drove back and forth. It is about an hour each way, but after the intense people time of Grand Parlor, some quiet time in the car made me more human at home and at the retreat.
Two things that happened right as I got there, practically before I got set up, was that I got a bag of goodies and I won a prize! The CQFA Retreat does not include goodie bags or prizes (someone has to organize all that). It was fun.
Mystery Quilt in process
People were working on the mystery quilt and I was 3 clues behind, but they had just gotten Clue 3 when I arrived, so I made those units and used Clue 1 as leaders and enders, so I had most of Clue 1 done as well by the time I got finished with Clue 3. I had my fabric and I had cut out all the pieces, thus I was ready to dive right into sewing, so I got busy on that.
I really liked all of the different fabric choices that people came up with for their mystery quilts. People admired mine, but by the end I wasn’t liking the combination very much. the funnest part of the mystery quilt was working on the same project as everyone else. I enjoyed that with Scrapitude as well.
I have only been on CQFA retreats, which are very basic. This retreat was kind of the deluxe edition!
Cutting Room
There were 3 rooms we could work in. One room was set up as a cutting and ironing room. We also gathered there for Clues and prizes and the donation blocks were as well. People put their finished blocks there and kits for blocks needed were also available there.
It was great to have those high tables for cutting out large pieces. I used them when I was working on my bag.
Hard at Work
There were 6 tables set up on each side of the two rooms (room were linked by a very large opening). Ruth set up a design wall at the end of the room (I believe the Steampunk blocks belong to Cheryl). My spot was the spot from where I am taking the photo. People were pretty diligent, but there was a lot of laughter as well. Some of the laughter was fairly crazy.
Design Floor
I sat across from Corky. I don’t think Corky and I had had a chance to talk at a meeting, but we were chatting and borrowing tools like old pals. It was nice to get to know her a little better.
Quilts and quilt parts were everywhere. Any open space was fair game and people just hopped over them and continued on their way. It was awesome, in a way, that people would just take it in stride that quilts were everywhere.
I had my mystery quilt on the floor for awhile while I laid it out.
Special Math
The whiteboard was right across from my workstation. Right after I arrived, Kelly added me to her list of Instagram names. Somehow after that, the Instagram names morphed into IQ. I didn’t say anything about my IQ; I just watched the points increase.
Peggy & Amanda
I couldn’t sleep and got up at 5:30. After doing a few of my morning things, I got on the road and was at the retreat by about 8:30. Monday morning found us all a little more punchy than the previous 2-3 days. References to music started coming up and Amanda played songs for us on her phone. One got Peggy and Amanda up and rapping together.
Anyone who thinks that Modern Guilds are for young people only should meet Peggy. Peggy is the most ‘modern’ of anyone in the guild and she has only been quilting for about 5 years. She has a great and inspiring and practical attitude and is also the most prolific charity quilt maker. I would do well to take after Peggy.
BAMQG 2014 Retreat Group
We took a group shot. I am pretty sure not everyone was in it, as ‘everyone’ was hard to wrangle. It was a fun shot, especially that Kelly got herself, or part of herself in it. I stole this version from Kelly’s Instagram.
I am always on the lookout for inspiration and I have to say that I was overwhelmed by my choices. there are so many creative people in the group that everywhere I looked, there was something I wanted to try or make or know more about.
I’ll write about actual projects in another post. This one is long enough. I would love to hear about retreats you have attended.
Detail of Gusset I added to make the bag bigger, if necessary
The BAMQG retreat was over Memorial Day Weekend. I wasn’t able to attend on Friday, but I had been cajoled for a couple of years and decided to join as a commuter this year. I really had a good time and will post some more of the fun in a different post. Short bit of advice: if you have the opportunity to go on retreat, GO! You get a lot done and really get an opportunity to get to know your guild-mates much better.
After working on the mystery quilt, I switched to working on the Petrillo Bag. This a Sew Sweetness (Sara Lawson) pattern. Pam and I worked on a Petrillo Bag-along last year. Since then, I had wanted to make another with some changes.
Since I commute to work by train and do not have a car at work to store stuff, I have to carry my stuff or leave it at work. Thus, I have developed very specific ideas about what I like in my bags.
Part of what I like in a bag is security. I don’t want people reaching into my bag and grabbing stuff out. Thus, the bag has to have some kind of flap and closure. I also like lots of pockets and a light colored interior so I can see all the stuff inside. Easy, quick access is also a must.
One of the things I didn’t like about the Petrillo Bag, as written in the pattern, was the skinny top. I liked the look a lot, but the functionality needed to be improved for my use. The side panels are shaped like ice cream cones. After you insert them the top access is very thin. This does help with security, but it makes it hard to stick stuff in and pull it out.
I had been thinking about changes to the pattern in my mind for awhile and had started cutting out pieces several months ago. As you know this bag has been on my to do list for awhile.
Petrillo Bag back
After being frustrated with another project, I started working on this bag and was able to get most of the outside done on Sunday, late, and Monday at the retreat. It is a good thing I was commuting, because I switched lining fabric midstream and was able to get some Michael Miller red with white Dumb Dots from home and start recutting lining pieces. I’ll use the previous lining choice for another bag.
I got to the point Sunday night that I was ready to construct the gussets and on the drive home, I turned over the process in my head, so I really felt ready to tackle it on Monday when I returned to my sewing machine at the Retreat.
A number of people at the Retreat had never heard of Soft & Stable, so we had a little talk about that. Many are not bag makers and since I never heard of it before the Petrillo Bag pattern, I wasn’t surprised.
When I got home I worked on the lining and, as of this writing, I am ready to start putting the lining together. I am not sure what I will do about the side panels of the lining. I don’t want to put another set of clips on the inside. Elastic, maybe?
I don’t know if this will be the perfect bag as I have just realized that I forgot to put on side pockets for a water bottle or my cell phone, but I will try it out and see if I like it enough to use it or if I will give it as a gift.
– I washed and pressed another bunch of fabric. It made more of a difference than I expected and I had some fun doing it. I still have a lot to do.
