I eeked out the last few blocks from what was left of my blue scraps. Most of the scraps went to the Blue Improv #2 donation top. Mostly they are too small for the blocks, so were perfect for an improv top.
I have also included some blocks I am making for one of the upcoming Sidewalk donation quilts. As mentioned before, they are half 16 patches. I am so used to making the 16 patch blocks that it feels weird to include these half blocks. Still, they make up really nice quilts, so I am trying to get over the weirdness by including them.
I was really pleased to see this quilt come back from quilting and binding. Lee Ann did the binding. I was pretty unhappy with this quilt when I finished it, but I think it came out really well in the end.
I used the leftovers from the Angel Family pillowcases and some scraps from Melinda. I was pleased to be able to use up as much of the fabric I bought as possible.
SIL#2 led at swap at the meeting on Saturday. As mentioned, I made a pencil roll. I decided at the last minute to make another organizer in case a new member or potential member came and wanted to join in.
I found the pattern in a book I reviewed some time ago called Make It, Take It: 16 Cute and Clever Projects to Sew with Friends by Krista Hennebury. I am glad to say that I did notice this project when I reviewed the book.
Make It, Take It needlecase
I am very pleased with the needlecase I made. It is kind of a portfolio and holds quite a bit of stuff. I like it because it is useful and practical, but also has scope for creativity.
I used some of the leftover improv piecing from the latest improv donation top. I think it would work to use Quilt-as-you-go to make the cover as well. I could just as easily use one piece of fabric for a very quick finish.
I was also pleased to see the way the zipper was installed, because I thought it would help me with another project on which I have (mostly not) been working.
Make It, Take It needlecase – open, inside
This was a fairly quick project. I had all of the supplies, which helped. You do need some wool felt and a long zipper.
Each section could be used for a different type of needle, if one were that organized.
One of the reasons I am pleased with the pattern is that it gave me a different way to install a zipper on a circular piece. I can use this technique. I need more practice, but it came out better than my other project.
Make It, Take It needlecase – open, outside
I am also pleased because the exterior looks really good. There is ton of scope for creativity with the outside, as I mentioned. This might be a great project to work on in a group.
As mentioned, we had an organizer swap at the guild yesterday. I was not the organizer of the swap, but I was put in charge of selecting swap items for a couple of people who weren’t able to attend.
Christine and Mary thought the swap was at Sew Day. Since it wasn’t, they gave me their organizers and put me in charge of selecting something for them.
Mary’s Atlas
Mary made the Atlas again. I made a couple of these and still want to make one for myself. Remember one was Cal themed? I am not done with this pattern yet, but I have other things to finish first.
Mary did a fantastic job on hers, as usual. The fabric is so fun! She also used some specialty vinyl with sewing motifs for some of the inside pockets, which is super cute. I normally stick to the glitter vinyl, but some of the specialty vinyl is tempting me.
Mary’s Atlas – open
As I have said before, this is a great portfolio. It is so useful and I think it would be used much more if you had one as pretty as Mary made.
Mary’s Atlas – zipper pull
I really love her zipper and zipper pulls. The actual zipper reminds me of the zippers I found at Sewlarium.
Mary’s Atlas – zipper ends
Mary has been experimenting with different methods of finishing zipper ends and the photo on the right (above) shows one of her favorite current methods. The pattern has the maker fold the zipper under into a kind of curve. I have had mixed results on my efforts using the recommended method. I haven’t tried Mary’s method yet.
Christine’s swap divided basket
Christine made a very interesting divided basket. I went and found the pattern, because I thought it was so cool.
There are a lot of pockets and storage areas included in this pattern. I think it is a great idea to have some slip pockets on the outside.
Christine’s swap divided basket
We discussed the construction and decided it would be worthwhile trying some different interfacings to see if they made a difference.
The shape and positioning of the handles reminds me of the One Hour Basket. I have made several One Hour Baskets, but I put the handles on the sides as I find it more useful.
I also like the shape of this design. The skinniness would make it easy to tuck into certain spaces.
Christine’s swap divided basket
Christine used some great Philip Jacobs fabric for the outside.
As I have mentioned recently, my sewing time is short these days. My job isn’t especially demanding, but it takes a lot of my best hours.
Pencil Roll open
Back in May, I decided I needed to do a two birds one stone project. I needed something for the Fair and a swap project, so I pulled out my Pink Chalk Studio Pencil Roll pattern and the fat quarters from Family Threads and got to work. I was done in time to enter the project in the Fair. Today it will go to its new home as part of the organizer swap at the guild.
I am trying to squeeze as many projects as I can out of these fat quarters, so I cut enough strips to make another pencil roll.
This piece is at the painfully growing stage since the last time I showed it. The rest of my blue scraps are either very small or weirdly shaped, which makes it hard to use them. I am trying to use as many of them as I can, despite the problems. I am not sure the piece will be big enough for a donation top. It might be close and I’ll have to figure what to do with it if it is.
I worked on Sunday to get Sidewalk #2 off my large design wall.
I am really pleased with how it came out. I like the differences between this one and the first one. I am excited about how it looks, excited about the possibilities of other versions and excited that it is finished.
I think the scrappy strip blocks look good. I will be curious to see how they look in different colors. Maybe I’ll use a colored background for one of these quilts?
Sidewalk #2 back
I delved into my box of blues to find backing fabrics. I came up with oldies, but goodies.
I’ll give this one to the Community Quilts team at the next meeting.
WOW! Sew Day was a mob scene on Saturday. It was great, but very busy. I thought there wouldn’t be very many attendees, because of the holiday weekend, but I was wrong.
We even had a person Julie and I met at the Fair come and visit. I only got to talk to her a little bit, but I hope she joins. The more the merrier!
After reading several installments of the Jenny Starling series** (The Castle Mystery** was the one I really remember the cake playing a part) and hearing about her delicious walnut cake, I decided to make one. I looked at a few recipes and decided on one by Nigella Lawson. I had everything except Caster sugar, so was pretty much set.
Sew Day is a great way to try new recipes as I have a lot of good tasters available. Also, usually I only want a piece, or two, so a whole cake is too much for the two of us. I came home with one large piece left, which tells me it was a success. I think I will add a little more of the coffee flavor to the batter next time I make it. I posted about it on IG and like to think it was the lure of cake that brought some many people out to Sew Day.
I got a lot done. I cut out the final Triumphant border.It was a struggle, but I did it. I felt like I had totally forgotten how to use the HuRTy rulers since the last time I worked on the quilt. 🙁 I got a free HuRTy PuRTy quilt pattern and may make it just to cement the use of the rulers in my mind.
I cut a few pieces for a Hackney pouch that I have been working on since I visited Birch Fabrics. This was sort of an in between project while I waited for Lynette to be free to work on my lesson.
Anchoring lining to exterior – ready to sew
I brought the 6 Open Wide pouches I had prepared and we went through anchoring the lining to the exterior.
I have done the technique before, but needed a refresher and this was a great one. It all came back to me as we worked together.
I also showed Lynette what I was doing with the zipper tabs. I was able to
After I got home, I did a yoga session and saw some fabrics I can use for more zipper pouches.
All in all a good day!
**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s 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 website.
While I worked on the Chain Link top, I used blue improv piecing as leaders and enders. I am really enjoying watching the improv piece grow as my blue scrap pile shrinks.
I still have a big pile of pieces that I am working on enlarging. As the scrap pile shrinks it gets harder to match up pieced units and make them bigger. Still, I seem to be doing it and I am having fun.
Hooray! I have some blocks to report. 44 is a good number. I had to start on blue strip blocks even though I didn’t make a white improv quilt after I finished the white strip donation top. My blue scrap drawer is overflowing. I can’t shove anymore scraps in it, so here we are.
I really like making these strip blocks. They are so much more fun than the Half 16 patches, though it could just be that I was sick of them because Sidewalk came out really well.
I plan to use the blue strip blocks for another Sidewalk quilt. The blocks are the same size and I am not done with that Sidewalk design yet.
I keep filling pet beds and I am still working on my most recent.
We aren’t filling them up as much with schnibbles any more, but just how much is something I have to confirm.
As mentioned, the schnibbles don’t wash well and become giant lumps that pets can’t mold into a comfy shape. I knew this and it worried me, but I was happy to be using my schnibbles for something.
We are now filling the pet beds with Poly-fil** and batting. I am confused about whether we aren’t filling the pet beds with schnibbles at all or only a little bit. I have already stuffed this one a bit, so am now wondering if I will need to remove the schnibbles, put them in a different type of bag and hand them in separately to fill the cubie?
**N.B: Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s 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.
The BAM meeting was good yesterday. I loved the Bag Trunk Show that Lynette did. I admire her work so much and she is a fantastic presenter. She was super well organized. She brought the patterns as well as the bags, which was really nice and stepped up the trunk show game!
She talked about the designers she liked, starting with Aneela Hooey. She showed the patterns as she talked about the bags she has made including the Boxy Clear Pouch, the Kit Supply Tote, and several others, which I haven’t made. She then talked about the patterns she has made from the stitched Sewing Organizers book, which I have also discussed and used for patterns, including the 2-in-1 Case. I have made a lot of Aneela Hoey Patterns, but Lynette, I think has made more. I tend to make several of the same ones.
Lynette’s bags
She also likes to make Minki Kim patterns. The one she talked about was the one she used to show all the different interfacings when she did a skillbuilder demo at a meeting last year. It is kind of a dome shaped bag in the center of the photo with several examples.
I love bags, bag patterns and other people’s bags so this was a great trunk show for me. I especially love Lynette’s work. I think I am a pretty good bagmaker, but I have a lot to learn from her.
The presentation started off with a quilt that Lynette made as part of a challenge when the guild was young. All of the quilts were shown in November 2011. It was great to see her quilt again as it was one of my favorites from the bunch.
Bonnie’s Holiday quilt
The other thing I was thrilled to see at the meeting was Bonnie’s Holiday quilt. She worked really hard on it at the 2024 Retreat.
Show and tell was pretty good. I showed Sidewalk (unquilted) and talked about my plans for the Blue strip version.
I finished enough of the blue strip blocks to make another Sidewalk quilt. This will be the third blue strip donation quilt I have made! Apparently, I use a lot of blue. I am really excited to try the Sidewalk pattern with these strip blocks.
This is not all of the strips blocks I need. It is the group I put up on the design wall as I was making them.
I have made a little dent in my blue scrap drawer. I can probably close it now. I plan to keep making these blocks until I have used most of the strips. I did find that a lot of the scraps are smaller than 4.5 inch strips, so another blue improv donation quilt is in my future, too.
Since I had some free sewing time, I spent as much time as I could grab sewing this quilt top together. I concentrated on the half 16 patches first. I had been kind of limping along sewing them in between Triumphant block 2 pieces and was sick of it. I only needed a few more half blocks, so I sat down and sewed them.
I had a few hours while DH was out one evening so I started sewing the blocks together and just continued snatching time wherever I could. Once the half blocks were together this was a relatively easy quilt to sew together.
Sidewalk back
I decided to use red for the back. Shockingly, the back went together very well. Instead of fighting with pieces like normal, this back went together really easily.
I am glad this is finally done! I have some ideas for other versions, but want to get Chain Link and Triumphant pieced.
I decided to call this quilt pattern ‘ Sidewalk’. There are other quilt patterns called ‘Sidewalk’, but this one looks more like city blocks surrounded by sidewalks than any of the other others. Besides I can’t keep calling it Half 16 Patch Sashing quilt. That name is too much of a mouthful.
I am making good progress. I have sewn the blocks together and am working on sewing them into pairs.
