Back to Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors - main zipper installed
Running with Scissors – main zipper installed

I was able to get back to the Running with Scissors tote on Sunday. Not for long, though I planned for at least 4 hours of sewing, but was distracted by various things.

I sewed the two quilted pockets on. I had forgotten to do it, or skipped doing it, in the correct sequence. This worked, though, so I now have the full compliment of pockets.

The major step was to sew the main zipper to the bag. This zipper goes all the way around the bag.

In the photo, you can also see that I started to add the center facing. I caught the handle on the other side in my first attempt so there was some ripping involved. I may be able to finish it this week. 

 

Flying Around Top Finished

Finished: Flying Around top
Finished: Flying Around top

I finally finished the Flying Around top. I wasn’t able to take a straight on photo, because the piece is quite large – 81 in x 77 in.

It has taken me since April to finish the top. Yes, I have made other things in between, but no other large tops.

I finished the top on Sunday and made the binding on Monday or Tuesday. I started working on the back and hope to finish it soon.

Progress!

Orange Improv Donation Top Finished

Orange Improv Donation Top Finished
Orange Improv Donation Top Finished

Yes, I sewed the last piece (bottom row??) to the top and it is done. I need to make a back, but I haven’t done it yet. The top is 41 in x 43 in, slightly smaller than the others,  but in the range.

The funny thing is that I have, perhaps, 5 orange scraps left and they are super tiny shards. I might as well just toss them out.

Retreat Donation Blocks

Retreat Donation Blocks
Retreat Donation Blocks

I needed something for leaders and enders at the Retreat. While there, I made donation blocks for the Community Giving Project at BAM.

I didn’t have it in me to gather up and bring the pieces I needed for my new strips donation blocks, so I grabbed my bin of 2.5 inch squares and used those. Peggy always appreciates more blocks and I have been wanting to make more for her. Since I have been focusing on my strip quilts and improv quilts for the community giving project I haven’t made as many of the postage stamp donation blocks.

I had a slow start, but eventually ended up with 6. I made these while I worked on the Running with Scissors tote.

Retreat Project

I brought 4 projects with me and only worked on one. The project I worked on was the Running with Scissors tote I cut out last week at Sew Day. The project is pretty complicated and had a lot of steps. It was complicated and I really enjoyed working on it.

Running with Scissors pieces and parts
Running with Scissors pieces and parts

As you might remember, I cut out all the pieces last week. My first step was to do all the little things: install zippers, make pockets and handles, etc.

That took a long time and I started to feel  like I wasn’t making and progress until I started to install the parts. The thing about making bags, I find, is that all of a sudden the bag starts coming together.

I really like the supplies I got from ByAnnie. First, the zippers were really nice. Good quality, operated as advertised. I also got the supplies two days after they had been shipped. It was amazing service.

Running with Scissors inside of bag
Running with Scissors inside of bag

This one took longer than others, but it is complicated. More complicated. The inside of the bag required a bunch of pockets and some of the pockets had zippers.

One thing I didn’t like was that I had to manipulate the zippers. One I had to cut up and remove one of the slides, then put it onto another zipper. I don’t want to have to do stuff like that. I think it is a good skill, but I’d rather buy zippers that were correct.

Rotary cutter pocket
Rotary cutter pocket

I did modify some of the pockets this time. I don’t always do it when I am making a bag, but I decided I wanted space for a rotary cutter this time. I might put a small piece of binding over the stitching on the rotary cutter pocket. I am not sure if I did something wrong. It seems somehow unfinished, but I’ll have to believe the pattern.

I am pretty far along, but the bag isn’t done yet.

Back from Retreat

Back from Retreat stuff
Back from Retreat stuff

I had organized a class with Rosalie Dace. Due to circumstances beyond my control, we couldn’t have her teach, so we had a mini-retreat. We basically sewed for two days.

Due to more circumstances beyond my control, I brought home more stuff than I took with me. I took plenty with me, too, so I didn’t really need to bring more stuff home. Still various people needed me to bring stuff to the meeting next Saturday, so I have to house a few things until Saturday.

Lots of space and projects
Lots of space and projects

We moved the retreat to the place where we normally have Sew Day. There was plenty of space for people to work and people brought some serious projects on which to work. I liked the little chest that Maureen brought. 😉

Marie S.'s quilt
Marie S.’s quilt

Marie made this quilt and was contemplating the quilting. I really like the way it looks like some squares a flying away from the center of the quilt to the lime/chartreuse border.

Colleen came to the Retreat as well. She is doing great work. I have seen some of her finished quilts, but never her in process quilt. I love what she’s doing.

Colleen's duvet cover
Colleen’s duvet cover

First, she finished the top that will be a duvet cover. I love the way she has gradated the colors. I also like the way the rings interlock

This is a John Flynn Double Wedding Ring pattern. The intersecting section looks cool and is made from a pinwheel type block. It makes the centers look better – more spinny, I guess. The thing that always bugged me about John Flynn’s patterns was the blockiness of those intersections. Those pinwheels take care of that and make it work.

Colleen's Tucker's Taco Loco
Colleen’s Tucker’s Taco Loco

Colleen was also working Tucker’s Taco Loco pattern. This looks like my  Interlocking Triangles quilts, Spiky Stars and Interlocking Triangles quilt #1. You can get this pattern from her website – you may have to email her and tell her you want it. I don’t know if the templates are on her website yet.

Now that I know Colleen can get templates made, my mind is spinning about Interlocking Triangles quilts again. Rotary templates would prevent me from having to make these quilts with paper piecing.

More on my project later.

 

Flying Around the Corner

Flying Around with cut corner
Flying Around with cut corner

Gosh this must seem painful to you! I said the other day that I was nearing the end. I am still nearing the end, but even closer! The corner pieces are all cut and I just need to sew them together.

30 seams, maybe?

Then I have to sew the giant chunks together. There is quite a bit of partial seaming, but that is not difficult. I have been doing it all along. Check the tutorial if you need to know how to do partial seaming.

SIL Friendship Star

SIL #2 Friendship Star
SIL #2 Friendship Star

We did a fun activity at Craft Night the other night. We helped SIL #2 rearrange her HSTs to make sort of a gradation in color for her quilt.

SIL is making a quilt for a former work colleague who is having a baby (well, his wife is). Two of us went over to SIL’s house for Craft Night and she asked us to help rearrange the HSTs. I have done it a million times, but our other member has never done it. She mostly crochets and is getting into knitting. She was great and had a good eye.

I thought it was fun to work on someone else’s project. The photo above isn’t even the final version. I thought it was, but we kept rearranging. At one point we couldn’t find a center we liked for one of the blues, so we rummaged through SIL’s scraps (her scraps are tiny!) and found a piece of fabric we liked. Then, we made her rummage through her yardage so she could cut a piece that was perfect. 😉

I am not a huge fan of Friendship Stars, but these look really good. I like the small size and the scrappiness. I think Friendship Stars are better small.

Orange Improv Donation Top – almost done

Orange Improv Donation Top - almost finished
Orange Improv Donation Top – almost finished

I put another border (row??) on to the Orange Improv Donation top. I am nearly out of orange scraps. Truly, I have some large Philip Jacobs flower scraps and a few very small triangles left. This is the goal but the top isn’t square and I would like it to be, at least, square-ish before I hand it in. While figuring out what to do, I made those new donation blocks I talked about the other day.

New Donation Blocks

I am not quite finished with the Orange Improv Donation Top, but I had to start on new blocks for leaders and enders reasons.

I won’t have enough strips in these colors to make the number of blocks I need for a quilt top, but it is a start. I will either make chunks like I did for the Red Chunk Donation top or put the blocks aside until I get more of the right color scraps. I could also combine these blocks with the greys, but that might muddy the brightness of the quilt.

September 11…Again

September 11 comes around every year.

If anyone says September 11, I think about my mom calling me and telling me to turn on the TV and how that changed everything even though I didn’t know it. I was home alone that morning as DH was out of town and I was trying to get the YM to pre-school and get to my job. I couldn’t process those planes crashing into the World Trade Center, the passengers taking over the flight that eventually crashed in the field in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. I think of how quiet the skies were for days after. I remember watching TV for hours with DH and seeing the same images over and over. I think of the years of violence that make up our lives today.

Fireball
Fireball

I made two quilts to do something to mark-commemorate-remember (I don’t really know the right word. Send a message?). The first was done very quickly and sent off to Houston to be displayed in a commemorative display at Quilt Festival and Market.

Fireball is a reaction to all the fire that was shown on TV. It is a woven quilt. I have made a few woven quilts, though not in a while. I cut the strips and wove them together, then quilted over the top of the weaving. The strips were raw edge.

What Comes Next, 2011-2012
What Comes Next, 2011-2012

The second quilt is also an art quilt. It took me longer and was my wish/prayer for the future. It is called What Comes Next. Clearly my wishes were not acknowledged because the things I wanted to come out of that terrible day were not what came out of it.

This quilt has similarities to my Blood and Oil quiltand the more recent, Down the Drain quilt. Someday I’d like to use those paper doll motifs again.

Sew Day Progress

Sew Day for September was Saturday. I know I always say this, but I really enjoy seeing what other people make. I was focused on a couple of projects of my own, so I didn’t even really get a chance to see everything that people were working on.

Patti's Class Project
Patti’s Class Project

Patti’s Project caught my attention right away. She had the pieces from the guild’s recent Latifah Safir class on her table and I loved the look of the block! I loved what she had done, because of the HRTs I have been playing with on and off over the past several months. I know the design is not original and came from a Latifah Safir pattern. It is cool and makes me wonder if I could do something like it with the Split Recs ruler by Studio 180 Designs.

The class must have been great, because a number of people had brought their pieces to work on. I haven’t seen that before at a Sew Day – or I hadn’t noticed.

Runs with Scissors Tote
Runs with Scissors Tote

I worked on cutting out pieces for the Running with Scissors tote. I had pulled all of the fabric on Friday after work, so I got the whole thing cut out except for one piece, which I will cut next weekend. I hope to work on this at the mini-retreat I am attending next weekend. I am thinking of making a couple of them as gifts depending on how the project goes.

So far, the directions are very clear. I have some experience with bag directions so I was pleased. I don’t think I have made a ByAnnie’s pattern before and perhaps the good directions are a sign of quality. There are a lot of aspects to this bag, so I was a little worried. I was surprised that there was less to cut out than I though.

Lee Anne's donation quilt
Lee Anne’s donation quilt

Lee Anne is a major donation quilt maker and she was working on a really cool quilt at the retreat.

As you can see this is a lozenge quilt. I am not sure if she had the fabric or used fabric from the Community Quilts stash. It is a great looking design and wonderful quilt.

Another member, who we call Baguette, and I are planning a Bag-a-Long for the guild. We had a meeting during Sew Day to organize ourselves for the next meeting. We will all make the same bag using the same pattern. Baguette and I will stay ahead of the others (or try to!) and offer clarifications and modifications to the pattern. The pattern is the Ultimate Carry All by Quiltessa Natalie. I wrote about it a little bit in my Quiltmaking Go Bag post a few weeks ago. I will definitely talk about this bag in future posts as we make it. The creator, however, has video tutorials, so I probably won’t do a Bag-a-Long on the blog.

I also had a meeting with Mary about the retreat this weekend. It will be held at the church so we had to coordinate.

Mondo Bag Again

The Mondo Bag that I started in March (yikes!) has been languishing. It hasn’t been out of my mind, but I haven’t had a chance to work on it. I took it with me to Sew Day on Saturday and finished laying out the squares on it.

Mondo Bag - half
Mondo Bag – half
Mondo Bag - other half
Mondo Bag – other half

I may move a few around or change some out, but mostly, the bag is ready to sew together.

This bag uses the same process as the Midi Bag I made in class with Julie. The next step is to iron the pieces down and then sew. I have to look at the lining and handle directions, but my goal is to work on the bag next weekend and get the thing put together.

FOTY 2019 – More Squares

FOTY 2019 - early September
FOTY 2019 – early September

I have been working on cutting up the fabric on my ironing board. It was getting pretty fat and hard to use as an actual ironing board for piecing. As a result, I got a full design wall of squares.

There is a lot of orange because I have been working on the Orange Improv donation top, but other new fabrics as well.