BAMQG – Page 16 – Artquiltmaker Blog

UCAB: Front and Back Panels Finished

During the tutorial session on Saturday during Sew Day for the Ultimate Carry All Bag, Lynette showed how to complete the front panel. I had tried and messed it up. Don’t worry, though, I will write a tutorial for this step now that I know how to make it to post here later.

Lynette went further than I had planned. I had planned on just doing the front zipper pocket, which I talked about the other day. She showed us how to complete that pocket, plus apply the pocket to the front, add handles and make the back panel with handles. I am really glad as it makes the tutorials move along faster and I have to create fewer. I am not afraid; the work just takes time.

One thing that came out is one piece was missing from the list on the pattern of pieces we needed for this step. On part 2, pg.16, you need to add L6, an 8×8 lining piece, to the list of pieces you’ll need. This pattern would improve significantly if the designer went through and numbered all the pieces. I know you know that we did that at the beginning, but you can’t number pieces in the pattern that aren’t listed.

One thing I did was use the handles I made for the All Rolled Up Tote, which I ended up not using for that project. I decided that those handles would work for this bag even though they are a little wider than called for in the pattern. One side, which you can see in the other blog post, is pleather and the side you can see above is the accent piece I sewed from Philip Jacobs Brocade Peony fabric to cover the pleather seam.

I had to unsew and redo the back luggage sleeve because I forgot to put SF101 on the back. I thought it would be ok, but decided it was too flimsy. I am much happier now that I redid it, though unsewing takes awhile.

Finally, this project is starting to look like something. With the back and front panels finished, I can see the end of the road in the distance. In some part of my brain, I feel like I am wasting time when I am working on this project. I feel like I could be working on better projects. In another part of my brain, I tell myself that I am making progress, this bag will use up some fabric in my palette, etc. It is so weird. I just think this project has been hanging around for longer than I like and I want to be done with it.

I have to remind myself that one of the reasons we started this was to encourage people to make bags and show them they could do it. Perhaps we didn’t choose wisely with this weird and difficult bag. Fortunately, it will be a useful bag. I don’t know if people will be encouraged to make other bags or be daunted.

Finished Rings Top

I finished the Rings top over the weekend. Yay! I also started on the back. It is small enough, so it shouldn’t take long and then I can get it ready to be quilted.

Latifah Saafir Class

Even though I can teach a vast number of quiltmaking skills, I don’t know everything. The guild hosted Latifah Saafir on Saturday via Zoom to teach us her pattern, Put a Ring on It*.

This pattern uses two of Latifah’s Clammies, the 12 inch** and the 8 inch**. I was super pleased to receive these as gifts between my birthday and Christmas.

The pattern is fairly complete and pretty easy to follow. The class was worthwhile, because Latifah gave us tricks and tips and helped us troubleshoot. The Clammy tool and the pattern really make this, essentially a Double Wedding Ring, pattern accessible to almost anyone. Obviously, I wouldn’t suggest it as a first quilt or if you haven’t tried curves, but otherwise, you can do it.

We had to select fabrics and cut pieces before class. I used an older Martha Negley fabric for the background. The background isn’t very much of the quilt. I wanted something different after looking at all the various versions of this quilt plus other DWR versions online. I didn’t want to make the traditional light background. I also didn’t want to copy the version on the cover. I thought of text prints for the rings, but defaulted back to my Frolic! color scheme with a variety of red-violets and the dark blue.

During class I was able to finish two rings. I wasn’t pleased with the green I chose for the squares. That was one good thing about being at home. I was able to grab some other fabrics and switch them out. I’ll mix up the rings so the green doesn’t look like big green blobs in the center of the quilt.

I am making a 9 block (1 ring=1 block) quilt. It will be about 48 inches x 48 inches. I didn’t want to commit to something larger and even this number of blocks is feeling like too much. I am going to power through. If I can get a ring a day done this week, I can finish all the ‘blocks’ by the end of the week and be ready to put the quilt together at the weekend. I don’t want this to become a UFO. I want to get it down and ready for quilting.

What I really wanted out of this class was to learn to use the Clammy rulers. I think I have started on that process, but didn’t get very far. This class was all about the Put a Ring On It pattern and making that. Learning various Clammy techniques was not on the agenda. That was sad. I hope Latifah comes up with a Clammy Sampler class. I get the sense that this tool is an awesome method for making circles in quiltmaking.

*No affiliation. Both a PDF and print pattern are available. I got the printed pattern and really liked the format.

**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item 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.

More on the Kaffe Donation Quilt

I was amazed and thrilled that Tim had bound the small Kaffe donation quilt he quilted a few weeks ago. He put a binding on it sometime last week! He almost never does that, but wanted something quick after cleaning his studio all day.

He machine bound it, but that was a good choice since the quilt will go who knows where.

BAM Kaffe Community Quilt by Patti (detail)

I love the quilting – spirals. They look so great.

Guild Generosity

Cheri's Bags and Coasters — Cheri’s Bags and Coasters

I was thrilled and amazed by the largess I received this week from my team of Door Prize people.

First, Cheri gave me a full year’s set of coasters and bags. She had given it to me last year, but I told her to hold on the gifts until the next month, then we stopped meeting. Tim picked up the items from her house and I picked the items up from him.

Sue's Zipper Pouches — Sue’s Zipper Pouches

Next, SueG brought me fabric and some zipper pouches. I am all set on zipper pouches and have some good fabric to include with future bags.

The purple and blue paper airplane pouch was actually made and donated by Tim. It goes well with Sue’s contribution, though.

Carrie's Door Prize efforts — Carrie’s Door Prize efforts

Finally, Carrie made some cut little bubble bags and sent me needles, needle threaders and WonderClips to include in future bags.

I really have a great team!

HST Donation Top Layouts

I moved the HST top in progress to my large design wall so I could try out different layouts. One thing I definitely wanted to see was how it would look with space between the columns.

Compared to how the blocks look right next to each other, this version is a poor substitute. Still, I needed to try it out.

March Guild Door Prize Bag

St. Paddy's Jane Market Tote — St. Paddy’s Jane Market Tote

Last weekend I made a bag for the door prize at today’s meeting. I used the Jane Market Tote for the pattern again. This is a practical pattern that isn’t too big and goes together relatively quickly. I spent about 3 hours from finding the pattern to clipping the last thread.

It is scrappy green. I chose green for St. Patrick’s Day. I thought it would be fun to have green/St. Patrick’s Day as a theme.

I chose to make it scrappy so I could use up some smaller pieces of green.

Plaid Donation Top Quilting

Last year, I made a plaid donation top and back with the leftovers from my cousin’s quilt. As you might remember, I was glad to be done with all the plaids.

Wednesday, I helped Tim put the piece on his longarm and he started to quilt it.

He is quilting a combination of squares/rectangles and swirls. He is not doing an all over pattern, but is quilting in the piecing, which I like.

He and I have talked a lot about our tastes in quilting, so he knows I like my piecing to shine. He does all over patterns for some community quilts, but he often does custom for the quilts I have made.

Plaid Donation Quilt in progress - detail — Plaid Donation Quilt in progress – detail

For donation quilts I do not tell him how to quilt them. I let them go after I am done piecing and let him decide the best design. Like Colleen, longarming is really his jam and he is good at it. It is also something he enjoys. I leave him to it. In this case, he focused on the blocks and did a couple of different motifs in the various patches. He combined spirals and rectangles, which I thought looked really good.

Doing Good with Tim

I went to have lunch with Tim. I ended up helping him put two small baby quilts on his longarm. One of these was picked up from the guild community quilt project dropoff/pickup time the other day. He thought since the quilts were the same size they could be loaded on the machine and quilted at the same time.

It didn’t quite work out. We still got both quilts on the machine and he was able to finish quilting Patti S’s quilt. The plaid donation top I made was half quilted when I left.

I was impressed with his work on one quilt. I thought he might get two done, but quilting is tiring.

Patti S’s quilt was made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics, perhaps a jelly roll (or Free Spirit equivalent). I know she is trying to clear out her fabric closet, so this might be an older group of fabrics. It is a fun quilt and I thought the quilting would just sink right into it, but the quilting sparked up the top even more.

KFC Community Baby Quilt by Patti S - detail — KFC Community Baby Quilt by Patti S – detail

I like the swirls that Tim used to quilt the piece. I always enjoy watching him work on the longarm. He is so careful and knows so much about how the machine works. It makes me want to try it out, under his guidance, sometime. Shocking after my bad experiences longarming before.

Yes, we wore masks the whole time we were together and both of us are really careful otherwise. We are about the same age so we have awhile to wait for our vaccines. We have, however, kind of ended up in the same bubble and it has helped to relieve the tedium.

Ends n.9 Quilted

Alison also quilted Ends n.9. It is an appropriate quilt to post on Valentine’s Day because of the colors.

Like Blue Strips n.2, this will be donated to the Project Linus project near where Alison lives.

I forgot about this one even though it was the last one that I made. It makes me think that I need to look and see if I have some more ends that need making into a quilt.

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