Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Lil Sissy asked me outright for king sized pillowcases. Apparently, she has giant pillows and the cases I made for her are too small. Initially, I said no, then I found a big piece of turquoise and decided to make some.
These don’t feel as exciting as the other pillowcases I have made for her, but needs must. I have more of the Paris fabric now, so I can make her some more if I find another large piece of fabric to go with it.
My sister is constantly messaging me on IG and FB with cool pouches and great quiltmaking techniques. I finally told her to learn to quilt. LOL!
I do like giving her gifts as she uses them all – well, I have seen her with various pouches and I know she uses the apron and the pillowcases.
Use your gifts! There is always more fabric!
When I made the Enigma Bag for Lil Sissy’s birthday, I went looking for another ‘Revisiting’ post and couldn’t find one for her. I decided to write one after all the Christmas gifts have been distributed. I went through my older posts a few times and kept adding gifts I had made for her. I kept finding various things I had forgotten about. I was really glad to be reminded.
With some of the leftover bathrobe fabric, I made some pillowcases.
Mom doesn’t want more bags, but pillowcases are always useful, so hopefully she liked them.
I realized later that I might have used the solid I intended for one of the FOTY quilts. Oh well, there is always more fabric.
My mom is in the hospital and the post surgery process is not going as well as hoped. I haven’t had time to post or even look at the blog. I hope to be back up and running soon.
Lindsay texted me with photos of a backpack she made.
This is the Archie Backpack by Knot & Thread. I made a pouch from one their patterns.
She made it as a test before she makes one with some of her precious fabric. One of her friends gave her the fabric and supplies for both backpacks.
I love it when people make bags so I was thrilled to see this effort.
It looks like a really useful bag. I have the Marlin Backpack pattern from Sew Sweetness and it looks similar. I haven’t made it yet, so I am having a hard time answering a couple of Lindsay’s questions.
She said the seams are rolling and I am not quite sure if that is a function of the pattern, or the fact that it is a backpack or if it is the way the seams are finished.
From these angles, the bag looks really great. I hope I get to see it in person.
I had a tough time deciding what to make for Carrie and Sue for Christmas. I don’t want to just make them anything. I want what I make to be useful. Eventually, after considering several Minikins patterns I hadn’t tried, I decided on I Spy pouches.
Is this a cop out?
No.
As I have said before, these pouches are like eating potato chips for me. I can make one quickly. I also really enjoy making them. Because they are fast? Maybe. Mostly because they are useful.
Sue gets a color wheel on the back to help her pick out fabric. I also remembered to put a label on the pouch.
Some time ago I made Carrie and Sue Kit Supply Totes. The Hackney pouches I made for them fit nicely into the Kit Supply Totes. I thought the I Spy would fit nicely in it as well.
A few fun things came up at Sew Day.
First, I had one entry into my post Y seams demo contest. SueG made an effort to try out Y Seams. She was the only one, so she won the fabulous prize, which was a small gift certificate to The Granary.
She chose a great pattern. I love the split hexies.
You should have seen the back! Those little seam intersections looked gorgeous. Check out my tutorial, if you want to try Y Seams for yourself.
I made some good progress on cutting up scraps. I didn’t cut all of my scraps, sadly, but more of them are organized into shapes I can use. People were kind of amazed at what I was doing, which was weird. I thought everyone processed their scraps.
I also saw a project Christine made from a Sue Spargo pattern. I love Sue Spargo‘s patterns, but have never made anything. Her patterns look so cheerful.
I love the little vase and the striped binding. Really I love the whole thing. Looking at Christine’s version makes me see this as eminently doable.
The inside is also great, but has the issue of not being able to see what is inside the pockets. Still, this is a gorgeous project.
The event was fun and I am glad I got to go.
I know it’s been a week or so since I posted about gifts, but we are back to it.
I posted last week about Sue’s I Spy pouch. One of the differences I made is that Carrie got a whole color wheel in the front while Sue’s was on the back. One of the reasons I like this fabric is because it means they always have a color wheel with them.
I found some nice zipper pulls in my hardware bag that I added. They are apples, which have nothing to do with color wheels, Carrie or Sue, but here we are. Zipper pulls, aside from being cute really help to pull zippers open.
This is the latest travel pillowcase for my youngest nephew. I sent it off a little late as we were out of town for the New Year holiday.
I am still on the travel theme. This pillowcase depicts steampunk travel. I am a fan of steampunk and really enjoy looking at the costumes and artistry. I thought this would be a fun installment in the series.
The colors are not as fun as I would have liked, but at least there isn’t a lot of brown.
I have one more pillowcase from those I made from the fabric I bought on my summer trip before I have to get more fabric.
Sometimes I feel like I need to review how many of a certain pattern I have made. I think I have made enough Lined Drawstring Bags to do that now. I also feel like I’d like to see all of them together.
This is a good pattern that can also be used for gift bags. They take more time and fabric than my tutorial, but are more useful as well. I’d like to start making a bag for each quilt I give away, but I haven’t done that yet.
I was certain I had made more, but I think I always think that!
Best wishes for a great year.
I don’t have high hopes for the US political situation, but hope for the best and plan for the worst, right? I have very high hopes for quiltmaking and bagmaking however, which I hope will spread joy throughout my little sphere of influence. What are your plans for 2025?
2024 blog posts: 375
2024 fabric used: 72.14 yards (170 yards overall with 27% used for Charity)
To compare, take a look at the 2023 Year in Review post.
Eight quilts and a table runner is nothing to sneeze at. I really wanted to make more and I can try again next year.
As you know, I don’t quilt (as in the stitching of the 3 layers together) much. I really enjoy the collaborative effort of making a top and allowing someone else to quilt and bind it. Thus, the quilts below are mostly tops, but I will include a finished quilt once someone else finishes it for the group.
This category covers bags, toys, aprons and knitting as well as other non-quilt projects.
I will post about some of the projects in the New Year, so please check back.
WIPs are projects on which I am working. This means that I am past the cutting out of pieces stage, some sewing has taken place.
I still have UFOs. Who doesn’t, after all? A project in the ‘UFO’ category means I am stalled, it hasn’t been worked on in awhile or it is waiting its turn to be worked on. The list is a lot shorter and the projects are newer, for the most part.
I am annoyed that some of these are still UFOs. I have to give myself credit for completing some of them last year.
Thanks for reading!
I went on to Instagram the other night and had an unexpected message from Free Spirit Fabrics. I won a prize! Yes, I checked to make sure it was the real Free Spirit and not some scam.
I don’t know what it is. Fabric, I am guessing. I’ll definitely let you know.
This excitement made me go and look at the Free Spirit website. There is a lot there. First, I checked what designers they represented beyond Kaffe, Tula, Philip Jacobs and Martha Negley. Jane Sassaman and Mary Engelbreit both work with Free Spirit. Mary Engelbreit has a new line of Christmas fabric and a Halloween line coming out. There is also a very strong projects section – lots of quilts, but also a few bags, an apron, a table topper and at least one pillow pattern.
Well, I am excited to see what is coming. Stay tuned!
This is quite a few donation blocks! I am pretty pleased with how many blocks I made this year. I know you saw many of these yesterday. Scroll down to revisit the ones I made earlier this year. I made 149 donation blocks. That is less than half of my goal, but it is still a significant number. I hope to do better in 2025.
On Christmas Eve, SIL#4 and BIL#4 hosted. We put our coats and bags on their bed where I saw the Christmas Pillowcases I made for them as well as their Red Scribbles quilt in use. I was pretty excited.
SIL#4 said that they use the quilt most of the year, which warmed my heart.