Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I thought I wouldn’t make as many blocks this month as I was working on other projects. Also, I have had less time lately. I was pleasantly surprised at how many I was able to finish while working on the Metro Twist assembly.
I have the feeling that the border might take me as long as the top of the quilt. If it weren’t for that one fabulous rosette, I might just cut off the edges and move on with my life.
I did do some organization the other day, which gave me almost a week of evenings with hand sewing ready to go. I know there will be an end, but I haven’t seen it yet, so it seems to be an ever ending process.
I do get small bonuses, which include finishing some points, like the green ones shown in the photo, that I didn’t expect to finish. They will be sticking into the background, so will show up nicely.
At least I hope they will.
There is a certain amount of hunting and gathering that I have to do at least once a week. I have to figure out which rosettes to finish and which to cut off, then how I will deal with the background.
I just have to get some straight edges, then I can sew larger pieces of fabric to those edges and be done.
I saw some quarter square triangles (QST) somewhere and started to think about them in conjunction with the guild’s 16 patches. I looked up the dimensions for making QSTs in my trusty Around the Block** book. That simple block was not included. I was trying to avoid firing up EQ8, but had to as I couldn’t get the design out of my head.
The first design I made is ok. You can see the design and the secondary design. However, some of the motifs are incomplete. You know how I like my designs to be finished, so I decided to try and finish off the edges.
I wanted you to be able, at least, to see the full Ohio Star motif (block) even if I couldn’t finish off all of the secondary designs.
Honestly, I didn’t think through the whole process and wasn’t really prepared for a full-on EQ8 design sessions.
I took a stab. I immediately ran into problems. You can see that doing what I wanted wasn’t straightforward. I think I could have resolved the problem by adding another row of 16 patch blocks, but I didn’t want to make the quilt larger than it was. It will be a baby (ish) quilt for the BAM Community Quilts Project.
For the moment, I decided to leave it and go back to sewing. The second design is fairly asymmetrical, which means true Modern Quilters would probably like it. I don’t dislike it; it just doesn’t achieve my goal. I’ll work on it again another day
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I know it seems like this is taking forever. I have it on my design wall and every time I have a spare moment, I am working on it.
Overall the piece looks good and I am happy with the color choices I made.
It has been a month or so since I cut out this bag, but I remembered I hadn’t showed you the pieces. I talked about the idea of this bag when I talked about the Everglow fabric.
I still haven’t chosen an exterior fabric. All of the fabrics shown are for the interior and the trim. One reason is I thought I might make this as a gift, but am wobbling. I cut the fabrics to suit myself, but then thought I had the A Place for Everything bag for EPP and didn’t need another one. If I give this as a fit, I would choose different fabrics for the front. Part of the reason, I haven’t worked on this is that I am in an agony of indecision. Not really, but it sounds dramatic, right?
One thing I will note is that all of the Etsy links I posted before to allow you to buy your own pattern are no longer available. Chasing Tygers has a website with videos on making the bag, which is great, but very little other information. The Etsy link is also different. I eventually went to IG and called up the Chasing Tigers account‘s linktree, where I found they are now on Payhip. Thus, you can actually buy the EPPic Case pattern. Remember to buy the bundle as you get a better deal. I suppose I should have known that nobody updates their blog or website anymore and I should have gone to IG first.
I am making good progress. I now have three columns of 4 blocks sewn together. I still have another two columns to go, obviously.
I am beginning to wonder if I need to make this piece larger. I *think* it will end up as a large lap size. Is that large enough?
I guess we’ll see.
I have been slowly working on the Fish Hackney. I don’t have that many steps left, but the Metro Twist has been consuming my attention. I want to get the Metro Twist finished.
You can see where I am on the Fish Hackney. I probably have an hour left to work on it.
I have been looking at various fabrics from the Martha Negley Go Fish line and trying to decide if I would make more items for my Dad out of the fabric. I haven’t decided so I haven’t bought anything.
I pressed and trimmed all the blocks I made at Cyndi’s. Then I spent a few hours putting them on the design wall and preparing the final layout. I am ready to get sewing.
At my sew day with Cyndi, she worked on binding quilts. One of them was my Blue Strip #3. I am so thrilled because I just finished this one in July! I am thrilled that it is already finished.
We discussed colors to use as binding and eventually settled on a turquoise. I thought a purply blue would look better with the batik border, but she didn’t have such a fabric and I didn’t think it mattered that much. The turquoise turned out to be a great choice.
Cyndi did a machine binding that looks really nice. I have to try and learn that skill.
Laura, a longarmer who has been doing quilting for the guild, did the quilting. It is flowers and you can see it really well from the back.
TO MY PARENTS: STOP READING NOW. Everyone else, scroll down.
Back to regular programming.
I did all the prep for some new Hackneys after working on the Bristol pouch and the La Pass Border last weekend. These will be gifts for my parents. It just happened that I am working on them at the same time. It is kind of strange since they have been divorced for so many years. Don’t worry, I don’t have illusions of them getting back together.
I went over to Cyndi’s the other day to sew. This is not Cyndi of the bag, but Cyndi of the Guild. At first, we were going to work on the Enigma Bag together, but she hadn’t had time to cut out her pieces, so we’ll do that another day.
I took three projects over to her studio and ended up making good progress on Metro Twist. I sewed about 40 blocks, most of which I was able to trim as well. I am super happy that I got back to this project.
I put all of the existing blocks up on the big design wall (I had to take Scrappy Celebration down temporarily) and took a look.
I finished the Bristol Pouch. I am pleased with how it came out.
I am also pleased with the “fussy cutting”. I have to laugh, because I didn’t really fussy cut the big flower. It just happened: Happy accident!
I think I would construct it a little differently if I made it again. I think the foldy instructions for the bottom are cool, but I don’t like the way it looks on the outside. I also think this technique would be better without the foam. I might try this technique with fusible fleece. The finished piece just feels too thick in the corners. I am pretty sure this is personal preference.
From the top, the pouch looks good. It looks very sleek.
As you can see, I chose a striped binding. I love striped binding and I think the fabric combination looks good.
I am also pleased that my leftover zipper end worked in terms of color with this pouch. I struggled a little to get the zipper to work properly, but once I zipped it a few times, the teeth got themselves organized and there was no problem.
I really wanted to make this quickly, so I didn’t spend a lot of time choosing fabrics. I used the quilted combination I had from Colleen, but I probably should have matched the binding on the inside to the lining fabric. Maybe next time.
I am not sure how I will use this pouch, but some need will turn up.
This is just a short bag edition.
I took some time to trawl through IG for bag patterns. I do not, mind you, need more bag patterns, but I am still looking for the perfect ‘take my tools to Sew Day’ bag. Also, I can’t help it. Previously, I had done a search for bags on IG, which is a stupid search and librarians worldwide are cringing at my lameness. Obviously that didn’t work, so I went away and thought about how I could improve it using a moron-based search engine (e.g. no Boolean, no filtering). I came upon a solution quite by chance, though I am convinced my subconscious was working on it and came up with the solution.
As I was trawling through IG, I saw a new bag pattern announced that I had never seen before. I clicked. Then I went to the pattern company’s website and looked through their bag patterns. Thus I discovered Country Cow Designs. I wouldn’t name my company with a cow, but it isn’t my company, and cows aren’t terrible. They come across as sweet, if a bit large.
Country Cow has some basic tote bag and purse patterns. Nothing earth shattering. One of the bags I like and thought might work for a ‘take my tools to Sew Day’ bag is the Deskasow (why not deskacow? Is a deskasow a thing or it just a surefire name that nobody else would think of?) bag. It is a new pattern and a couple of videos on YouTube. The pattern (£7.50) comes with SVG files and an AO file. The size seems to be about the size of the Kit Supply Tote.
I also like the Kedemouth (is that a cow disease?) messenger bag even though it has no inside pockets. The company has a variety of patterns: bowling shaped bags, backpacks, pouches, etc. They even have a couple of free patterns, which will tell you whether you like their directions.
Next, I came up with SincerelyJen. She has the Rossatron Bag. This is another one that could be THE ‘take my tools to Sew Day’ bag. This one is also about the same size as the Kit Supply Tote.
This ad has a good number of pictures of the inside of the bag, which, you know, is a must for me. It looks like a Kit Supply Tote with a Superbloom top and Take a Stand pockets. Links to videos are included in the pattern. I also like the How YOU Doin’? Bowler Handbag. I like the shape, but probably wouldn’t use it. She also has a variety of interestingly shaped pouches, which would make great gifts.
I also saw a shop called K.Dill Handmade that has bag patterns. I didn’t see anything I had to hold myself back from buying. I did think that the Jot it Down Ultimate Bundle could be interesting for gifts. It is unclear from looking at the listing whether the pattern includes a size for a composition book**. If so, I can see this as really being a useful pattern, however, I can’t tell where the company is based.
I have been dabbling on working on the border. The other day, I tried putting a bunch of pieces together to make a larger piece. I wasn’t sure it was right, so I asked Lindsay, who said it looked pretty normal to her.
I laid this out on the coffee table close to the time I was finishing up for the night. I didn’t want to start anything new right then, but I took a photo so I could remember what I had laid out.
After Lindsay confirmed, I laid out the top and looked at it like that rather than bunched up on the coffee table. It looked like it would work, so I started taping the pieces together.
I have also been replacing some pieces where the motifs were never finished with background pieces. I don’t know if it will make the other motifs look better, but I think it will help them stand out.
I saw this video (Reel?) by Center Street Quilts on IG and was really intrigued by the construction. I was especially interested in the way the bottom is folded before it gets stitched. I decided to try and make one.
I thought I could make it without buying the pattern, but I ended up buying it. She has a second video, which gives more information. If I had seen it before I started, I might have tried harder.
I didn’t really follow the measurements and I used my pre-quilted fabric, so I didn’t use the accent piece either. I also added a holder, though not a leash.
The first thing is to cut a piece large enough. I made that mistake before I had the pattern. If I make this again, I will make the pouch wider. I don’t like how tall it is turning out in relation to the width.
I followed the pattern and eventually got a pouch looking thing.
I used a piece of a zipper that I had leftover from something else. Yes, the end hangs down. That is how it is in the pattern. I don’t know if I would do that again, but it does avoid dealing with a zipper along the top edge where there is also a bound [formerly] raw side seam.
I put the zipper head on wrong and eventually had to cut off the zipper tab and redo it. Will I learn to pay attention to details like that? I don’t know. I was inspired to use this piece of a zipper by the box of Sew Hungry Hippie zippers in cool colors that I ordered.
It took me awhile to get this far. I could probably do it faster next time.