I finally got over the hump of the elastic on my Knitting Needle Case and started to make progress. It has been over a month since I started working on this bag and I thought it would go more quickly.
The problem was that I couldn’t believe I was reading the pattern correctly. The first instruction after cutting is to apply elastic to the right side of the fabric. I couldn’t believe that was right, so I procrastinated, then I DMed the creator and then I found her videos. There are two videos. I skipped through a lot of the first one, though when I found the section I needed it was really helpful.
Lining Up Elastic
Neither of the videos have talking. The sound is all musical (I turned the sound off), but there are some titles. It doesn’t matter, the visuals are helpful. The part about the elastic also gives a helpful tip for lining up the elastic as holders for needles.
After getting over the elastic hump and learning to add snaps, I was able to make good progress in a few hours. The last step I have is to sew on the binding.
I know I showed it to you before and it doesn’t look much different except that all the pieces are sewed together. I am really pleased with how this rosette turned out.
I received a nice package of blocks from Friend Julie the other day. It is so interesting to see these blocks. Julie mentioned that it looked like a real project now when she posted about the blocks I sent to her last week.
I can’t really see what they will end up looking like, but I can see that they will end up as something. I can see the possibilities now.
I have received more postcards and need to match them to fabric. I might be over the hump of fabric selection being a big barrier. We’ll see how it goes with the next group.
I was super pleased to see a quilt show up made from blocks I had donated. I made a number of these blocks this year, so they didn’t hang around very long, which is nice.
LeeAnn finished this quilt and showed it at last month’s meeting. The corner fabrics she chose make the quilt look like a night sky quilt.
I love seeing what other people are inspired to make from my blocks.
Yes, I made Julie a UCAB. This wasn’t planned for her, but she admired mine at Super Sew Day so much that I showed her the outside of the Brocade Peony UCAB and we made a deal. I would finish it for her and she would forget our conversation and be surprised.
I didn’t wait until the last minute to get the project done. About a week after Super Sew Day, I started on the pockets and just powered through. This is my third UCAB and I don’t find it any easier than the first two. Well, maybe a little easier.
Anyway, I sent it off the day before Thanksgiving and I am sure she got it. I can’t wait to hear if it is useful or her.
I found an interesting bag while scrolling through Instagram. It is called DIY Magic Twist Zip bag. It has a template for the shape included, though I don’t know what the template is made from. It comes from a shop called Dremmie.com, which appears to be just a shop to sell patterns and templates. There is no information about the shop except hidden in the About us on certain screens and that doesn’t even say that much, such as where they are located and the location from where they ship.
Crafty Gemini has a video on choosing bag interfacing.
Natalie from SewHungryHippie has a free tutorial for a see-through pouch called the Comet Case. In the tutorial, she shows you how to make it with vinyl.
The first clue for Bonnie Hunter’s FREE 2022 Mystery Quilt came out this morning. If you want to join in, take a look at the introduction and first clue. All the information is on the Chilhowie tab on her website. I have made two of her mysteries, En Provence and Frolic!. Lots of piecing, but it is broken down into manageable stages. I don’t always do the quilts, but I always save the clues.
Bonnie’s mystery quilts are great scrap busters and also a great way to hone your precision piecing. She gives lots of tips and tutorials on making your pieces fit.
I tried to teach myself to use the pliers I bought to add snaps to a project. I even found a tutorial that was helpful in getting me to understand what I was doing. It didn’t help. I rummaged in my tools pouch some more and found the Snapsetter tool. It was in an unlabelled box, so I had forgotten about it. Apparently, I didn’t end up using it for whatever project needed snaps. I do remember that Sew Sweetness has them, so I checked the tutorials link on her site. There, I found a video on how to use it. I did a few practice snaps then went for it. I am pleased with the way the snaps came out. Stay tuned for photos.
Tools, Books, Fabric, Notions & Supplies
Need colored elastic? Check out ElasticBytheYard. They have polka dot foldover elastic!
Media
I watched a GREAT Tula Pink video where she showed A LOT of bags made with her new Everglow fabric line. She showed a Bionic Gear bag that finally made me want to make one of those.
Yellow Improv Donation Top & Back – finished February 2022
Ready for Quilting
Nothing at the moment
In Process or To Make
The ‘In Process’ is used to denote projects on which I am actively working or are on the design wall waiting for me to stitch. I am continuing to try not to put away projects. I find putting a project away ensures I never work on them, because I just lose steam.
Quilts (machine work)
Who Am I? – this quilt is now hanging out on my design wall waiting for me to do something to it.
Quilts (Handwork)
I decided that some of my quilts are in a different class because they are hand piecing or embroidery or beading. They take longer. Thus I created a new category and have moved some projects here.
Half Hexie Stars Project– I am reignited about this project after working on it at the November Sew Day. I have been working away steadily and can see the light at the end of the tunnel
La Passacaglia – I am now working on Month 17 and am expecting Month 16 any day.
The Tarts Come to Tea – I am hand sewing the binding and will put on the sleeve I made soon. Nearly there!!!
Small Projects
Most of my progress involves thinking or just cutting. I don’t have a bag in process at the moment.
Ultimate Project Organizer – another project from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, also on my list, but not yet started
Retreat Organizer – another project from the Crafty Gemini Organizer Club, also on my list, but not yet started. Recently, I saw one of these made up and I am not so nervous about it
Rose Petrillo bag – I found the pieces for this bag cut out, but not sewn.
Superbloom tote using Hindsight fabric – not started
Still UFOs
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 WIPs. I just need to work on them!
Handbag Sampler – this is still the forgotten project. It should be on the UFO list. The blocks were teaching samples when I taught a sampler class some time before I started writing the quilt class sampler tutorials. I found one block recently, but otherwise I don’t actually know exactly where the blocks are hiding. I crawled up in the far reaches of my fabric closet to see if I could find them and they weren’t where I thought. I am sort of mystified as to where they could be. I haven’t even found a picture of all the blocks. WTH?
Ends n.13 is finished! I got to see it briefly at the meeting 10 days ago. It is such a hodgepodge of fabrics! Erin quilted this one as well and said that she enjoyed quilting happy looking quilts. This one is certainly cheerful.
We had a discussion of how many quilts we have given away and are in the neighborhood of 130 for the year. That is really great for a small guild like ours.
I am not finished yet, but I am making good progress on Month 17. The rosette with the peony center looks really good, I think.
I think the red-violet dots and the green solid look great together. They are sort of complimentary on the color wheel. I am also happy with the way the daisy fabric (in the diamonds) looks in that location. It was supposed to be the center.
After finishing the quilting on the Tarts Come to Tea, I realized that I still needed to fix the burn. Ever since I wrote about it, I have been very careful not to burn any other parts of the quilt. The center of the burn, however, did not get any better. Crispy bits of fabric and batting fell out until I had a hole I could see through.
As I worked, I also thought about how to fix it. I finally settled on some machine applique.
Tarts: Patching the Back
First, I patched the back. To make the patch the correct size, I made a template out of tracing paper by doing a rubbing of the satin stitching. The satin stitching is more 3D than other parts of the quilt so my method worked pretty well.
Then I cut a piece of fabric that wouldn’t stand out. I didn’t have (or couldn’t find) any more of that coffee novelty print so I matched the background with a solid. It isn’t a perfect match, but looks ok.
Tarts: Back Patch
Then I machine appliqued the piece on to the back.
It isn’t perfect, but I think it looks acceptable. It is so annoying and disappointing that this burn is in the center of the quilt. In the picture of the cup (above), you can see the blue fabric through the quilt. That is the patch on the back.
I needed to take more care with the front of the quilt. I had two competing feelings while I did the work. First, I just wanted it done. Second, I didn’t want it to stand out so much after a quick glance that people would notice it immediately.
Tarts: 3 Cups, Patched
I am pretty happy with the patch on the front. It doesn’t scream out that there was a problem, though you can see it if you look closely. Hopefully people will enjoy the overall look of the quilt and not focus too much on the details.
I went the last BAM meeting of the year the other and got to see some of my donation tops finished. This one, was quilted by Erin and I was so pleased to see it finished.
The quilting is really hard to see and I didn’t take the time to look at it up close at the meeting, but I am sure it is great. Thanks, Erin, for collaborating!
I know the photo I posted the other day didn’t show all of the tiny quilting lines.
In this series of photos you can better see my obsession. The first photo, left, shows the back of the upper left hand corner.
There are some parts that are not as heavily quilted as others. I was using the quilting on the front to express my vision. In this piece, the quilting is part of the design.
I struggle with the quilting being part of the design. I love piecing and never want the quilting to overshadow my piecing. In strictly geometric quilts, like Frolic! and Flying Around, this is usually not an issue when Colleen quilts for me. Her quilting fits really well into the design of the piecing. It’s different with a quilt like the Tarts Come to Tea.
Tarts quilting detail, upper left
In the second photo, an extension of the area covered in the first photo, you can see more of the differences in the density of the quilting.
The body of the triangular carafe is a lot less densely quilted than the the background, for example. I really struggled with how to quilt the larger tea pots, as discussed in September when I finally broke that barrier. I am not sure I did the right designs in the those larger teapots. My skills were not up to more curvilinear or loops and swirls designs, which might have worked better in the round green kettle and the tarty silver teapot.
Tarts: Tarty Silver Teapot – back detail
The quilting on the Tarty Silver Teapot shows up very well on the back. I did quilt in some gentle curves, though if I had had Colleen quilt it, I might have had her try to mimic the scrollwork or leaves and vines you see on some antique teapots.
Tarts quilting detail, right middle
In some respects the idea that the quilting is an integral part of the design shows up in my choice of thread color. Also, as it my usual philosophy, when the quilting lines were not part of the design, I want them to disappear.
I used the same thread on the back and front when I started the quilting. I think I really should have used thread colors that matched the fabric colors on the back. I think it would have looked better, but it doesn’t really matter now. I don’t think anyone will really care and I don’t know that I will put this quilt in a show, but I like to do my best work and this doesn’t feel like my best work.
Tarts quilting detail, cake
I am pretty pleased with how the quilting on the cake turned out. The cake is in the upper center of the quilt. I really like the way it turned out on the front. I kind of think using the stripe for the center of the cake was genius (if I do say so myself!). I like how the layers of the cake (horizontal) have been highlighted in the quilting. The quilting on the top of the cake is another plus. I love the way it looks like the pieces have been cut, or scored so they are ready to cut.
As per usual, DH and I are hosting about 1,000 people today. Not really. Somewhere between 25-30. I am not really sure. The result is that I can’t play with fabric.
I hope that you are having a wonderful day and are feeling thankful for the good things in your life. I am very thankful for YOU fabulous readers. I appreciate you joining me on this journey.
