We draw names at Christmas, so we can get a nice gift for one person rather than a bunch of small gifts for everyone. I usually purchase something off of my giftee’s wish list, but occasionally I like to make something as well. This year I got one of my SILs and really wanted to make something.
The Cotton Candy pouch is still a favorite, soI started another one on Friday as an additional gift. I used a similar fabric as I used on an apron I made for her a few years ago. I forgot that I used the blue instead of the purple. Oh well. I hope she likes purple.
Butterfly Cotton Candy pouch side view in process
I am still struggling a bit with this pattern. This time the side panels were MUCH larger than the main panels. I checked the measurements multiple times, but still can’t figure out why the side panels don’t match. And this time they are WAY off. Regardless, I can still make it work.
Sometime ago I bought a fruit basket and flower piece of fabric. The designation on the selvedge is “PWPJ 067 Market Basket”. I think of it as a panel, but it really isn’t. I really like this print, so I bought another piece.
The Pink Squares quilt is not exactly rocket science. I don’t have all the exact fabrics, but I plan to use various Philip Jacobs prints I have including the Market (fruit) basket fabric. I plan to fussy cut various prints and make this my own.
I bought some Martha Negley prints recently from Cool Cottons and I want to incorporate the purple carrots into this piece. The example has various colors- not just pink – which is my model. I plan to add more purple to the piece than shows here. I also want to include some of my favorite Philip Jacobs prints. Yes, this is a pattern and very simple, so the challenge will be choosing the fabrics after I figure out the redesign of the center.
Market Basket selection for quilt
I know I will have to adjust the center of the quilt pattern to fit my center. I want to use a certain part of the print.
I went to look at Friend Julie’s version of this quilt. Kaffe tends to use the same patterns over and over, chosing different fabrics. She made one in Blue after seeing his red version in Heritage Quilts**. I like the way she cut a bunch of squares and then chose fabric for the center. Friend Julie chose an Amy Butler print for the sashing. I think I will stick with a pink solid, depending how much I have. Perhaps I will switch out the pinks as I move out from the center.
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I haven’t been working on donation blocks lately, for the most part, but I have made a few.
For the moment, these are earmarked for the quilt I plan to make with a bunch of different colors of strip blocks. I may have mentioned it before, but I don’t remember. I had a few leftover blocks from the other Color Strip projects, so I thought a multi-colored quilt would be a good idea. I am collecting blocks right now as I make the other donation quilts. I have a ways to go before I can put a quilt together. I haven’t done pink or yellow and and I have more green scraps so I can make some green blocks.
I finished the Black Windmill on Monday night. It is a Christmas gift, so I took it straight to the Post Office Tuesday morning and these are the only two photos I took. DH was kind enough to be my quilt holder.
In this version of the windmill quilt, the windmills are much more hidden some of them can be seen, but most the variation in colors hides the others. As mentioned, I kept sewing until I used up all of the pieces. I want to be done with this pattern, though it is possible that I will make another one at some point in the future. We’ll see. For now, I am done with the pattern.
I am finally posting about a finished FOTY 2018. I actually finished the binding a month or so ago, but somehow it never made it on to the blog 9as far as I can tell!). I finished the top in July and took it to Colleen shortly thereafter.
Once I got it back, I had to sew the binding and the sleeve. The piece is ready to hang and I can move on to getting FOTY 2019 quilted.
I made good progress on Sunday on the Sheffield Bag. There was very little ripping until I got to the zipper installation, which was all ripping all the time.
I have the handles clipped so they are out of the way. You can see a good view of the various pockets. I think the pocket construction on the gathered pockets would be much easier than the similar pockets on the Oslo Craft Bag. If I make the Oslo Craft Bag again, I will use this pocket construction.
I am kind of on a Sew Sweetness binge lately, aren’t I? Oslo Craft Bag, Sidewinder Pouches and the Sheffield Bag all within a month. I do have quite a few of her patterns and feel like I need to make my way through them.
I finally sewed the embellishment down to the third of the three Sew Together Bags I am making. I also received the zippers so I can proceed. Last time I received the zippers in two days and this time it took over a week. I guess the mail is really jammed up.
While I was waiting, I appliqued this strange hexagon design on to the outside of the third STB exterior. I think it kind of looks like a DNA strand. I think it will be ok once the bag is complete and rolled up.
I really need space to layout the fabric pieces so I can move forward, but I just don’t have that space, so I have to make the best of it. As soon as I finish the Sheffield bag, space constraints will lessen.
Yesterday, I taught a class on machine applique. In the course of the discussion, I brought out Down the Drain to show different examples of satin stitching. I also showed The Tarts Come to Tea.
This brought up the idea of quilting, which I tried to gloss over, but my intelligent students wanted to know why they had never seen the Tarts and I had to admit that I hadn’t completed the quilting.
I felt silly admitting that the quilt was partially quilted and languishing in a project box. Will I get back to it? Maybe. They didn’t think it was weird or out of date looking, so it might be time to get back to the quilting. I quilted Down the Drain and survived the process, so perhaps it is time to get back to it?
Sidewinder pouches from Minikins Season 1 have been on list for Christmas gifts. I finally started them last week. While I was on the phone, I cut out most of the pieces. I say most because I found out later that I forgot to cut out several pieces. I found out once I started to put the pouches together. I guess I was paying more attention to the call the cutting. Oops!!
I decided to make 4 of these pouches for various family members. Part of the reason I wanted to make them was the striped fabric version in the Minikins ad is so cool looking. I also wanted to make use of the patterns I bought. I have made several Cotton Candy pouches from Minikins Season 1, but I want to make more of the projects. Also, I enjoy making pouches and there are only so many I can use.
Two Sidewinder pouches in process
I have to say that I felt giddy after making good progress on Saturday. It wasn’t that I didn’t struggle a little, but I was just so excited about how cute these pouches were turning out to be.
I still have a bit of work to do on them, but they will be great. I hope the recipients like them.
I participated in the swap that was part of the guild year end party. Sadly, I can’t show all the gifts because we were all on Zoom, but I can show my gift. Of course, you saw the gift I made, the Oslo Tote, earlier this week.
Swap Gift Tea Cosy
I received a tea cosy.
As you can see the colors are perfect for me. They mimic the colors of my Aqua-Red Sampler. Some of the fabrics are even the same.
The front has a little pocket. I don’t what I could put in there aside from tea, but I’ll think about it.
Swap Gift Tea Cosy back
Cyndi made it (it was a one-on-one swap, which I didn’t know until I received my gift) and she did a great job. Of course, I asked for turquoise and red, but she chose great fabrics in those colors.
Swaps are fun way to challenge myself. I am not often up for such a project, but I try and participate in swaps the guild sponsors.
I used a smaller zipper than my pillow back and added zipper tabs to make the zipper fit the back. This worked really well and I have nice stops on the back.
I also like this technique, because the zipper is covered, which is something about which I have been wondering.
I am so pleased with these directions and how they worked on my pillow cover. I plan to use them again for future pillows. They work so much better than the overlapping option. Also, this technique is much easier than the Spoonflower zipper in the seam option. There are reasons for having a multiple options and I can see using the Spoonflower method when I have a great piece of fabric on the back.
It is nice to finally have this done. I am kind of over the Journey2Nebula project. It is sad, because I was eagerly anticipating the Gazebo project.
I still plan to make the Gazebo table topper** soon. I want to complete the whole group of projects.
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I joined the most recent guild swap and made an Oslo Craft Bag for Cyndi. She said she wanted any kind of tote bag. I was on the fence about this bag as it doesn’t strike me as a straight tote bag.
A few years ago I wrote about this bag and have been wanting to make one ever since. This was a great opportunity. I put a note in the bag that I would make her a real tote if this wasn’t what she was expecting. I thought about making her a Multi-tasker tote as well, but lost steam and didn’t get to it. I kind of want to make her a Superbloom tote as well.
Oslo Craft Bag Swap Gift
This bag went together with no problems. I thought the pockets with the yellow binding were a little too fussy. However, I like it that they have dimension. I don’t know if I would make them the same way again, but I like to make the pattern as is the first time, as you know.
I saw another version in the Facebook group (a good use of FB, IMO) where the maker put two pockets like the top photo shows, but put a second mesh pocket over the first. I am thinking about making another one and I might do that. I like mesh for some reason, though I am not sure what it is good for in terms of storing sewing items.
Oslo Craft Bag Swap Gift – interior
I was disappointed in the interior. Not the design, but the saggy-bagginess of it. The seam allowance was 1/2 inch, which I thought meant that Sara had included enough to take up some of the lining so it wouldn’t sag. No such luck. The exterior was sewn with a 1/2 inch seam allowance as well. I tried a few things to make the lining fit better. Short of taking the whole thing apart, none of my efforts worked.
It is a nice rectangular bag and I think it would be useful for various tasks including bringing things to Sew Day. We’ll see what Cyndi thinks.
I finally finished FOTY 2019. It seems like it took forever. I starting putting it on the wall on September 11, but I had just torn the ligament in my foot and I just couldn’t work on it.
I started to make some slow progress starting around October 4. I didn’t really start sewing anything until about October 31.
These quilts usually don’t take that long, but like many things in 2020, this piece took more time. I am going to move away from UFOs and make something I haven’t started after working on a few bags and Christmas gifts.
