Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I made a couple of gift bags the other day. I haven’t made a lot of gift bags in awhile. I have plenty for normal purposes.
However, I wanted to use one for my BAM swap.
The second one was just a way to use some fabric I was going to give away, but then decided I liked too much.
I took some of the made fabric I had assembled for the Yellow Improv donation quilt and made a journal cover.
I felt like I was taking away from the donation quilt, but I’ll be needing a new journal cover soon, so needs must. I figure I have a lot of scraps, so more donation quilts are on the agenda.
This one turned out to be just a smidge small, so I had to stretch it to get it on the journal (Miquelrius 6.5 in. x 8 in**).
I kind of used what I had rather than arranged the scraps because I didn’t think of using the pieces I was working on for a journal cover until I had already made most of the pieces.
I still have quite a few equilateral triangles from the Flower Sugar Hexagon quilt I made a long time ago. I am trying to use them up, but there seems to be a never-ending supply.
I am not very enamored with the inside. That corn fabric doesn’t look great outside of the Food quilts. At least it reminds me of the three food quilts I made and the people who received them.
As I may have mentioned, I have stopped adding fabric to the inside and just let the flannel be the other side of the cover. It makes the project go more quickly and makes the cover flatter. Of course, it doesn’t use as much fabric.
I think I have one more Miquelrius journal to use after this one, then I will switch completely to the Leuchtturm journals.
**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.
My UCAB is finally finished. This will replace part of my travel bag and it will fit nicely on the handle of my sewing machine travel bag.
I am happy with how it turned out and I am glad I feel comfortable putting the project together as I think it will make a great gift if and when I decide I have time to make more of them.
I am not 100% happy with the project, but I think that is true for all of my projects. I get to like them better after I have lived with them for awhile. 🙂
One thing I think I forgot to do was put Shapeflex** on the inside of the pockets. Some of them are a little floopy. They will be fine once I get some stuff inside them.
I still haven’t decided how to marry the use of this bag with the use of my Pink Tupperware box. I am not sure I am ready to give it up, though it is clearly not big enough for the stuff I need at Sew Day or when I travel.
As I may have mentioned, I didn’t install the front zipper. I wanted the front to be the front. In the pattern, the designers put the ironing pad in the back because she, rightly, doesn’t want you sewing over a zipper. I just omitted the zipper and made an open pocket. I think it will be much more useful and I think having the front (with the ironing pad) open to the front is much better. I didn’t want the front of the inside opening from the back. Also, I will be able to slip things, like my phone, into that front pocket easily without unzipping.
I haven’t made any pouches to use with this bag, like I talked about back in March of last year. I put some square ‘rings’ in the seam of the pockets, so if I have one to attach to the inside of the bag, I will be ready. I wasn’t careful about the way I placed the pockets and both ‘rings’ ended up on the same side of the bag. I don’t think it will make much difference, but we will see.
The back is a tight fit over the handle of my sewing machine rolly bag, but it does fit. There is another open pocket, for which I am sure I will find a use.
One thing I did was use Renaissance Ribbon as a trim on the handles, over the pink, and on the front pocket. I want to do more of that type of trim. I think it looks nice.
Stay tuned for some ‘in use’ pictures.
**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.
I am still tidying up after all the work in my workroom. One of the things I found was a piece of ‘made’ fabric (improv piecing) that was just the right size for a journal cover. I sat down and made one!
I am still not completely up and running, so it was good to make something that involved, at least, a little piecing.
I just used flannel for the inside. I didn’t add an inside cover. I did that once before and it seems to work fine.
My guild had their first in person meeting over the weekend. Maria organized a swap as a fun thing to welcome everyone back. I joined and was assigned Maria who wanted potholders.
Potholders are almost the last thing I would consider making. When I use potholders I want them to protect my hands from the heat and I have not found that homemade potholders do that. Still, Maria wanted potholders, so I made potholders.
I had some Insulbright on hand, so I used that in addition to two layers of batting. The sandwich was super fat. I didn’t want to do very much thread sinking, so I didn’t quilt it as much as I could have, but they turned out pretty thin in the end. I hope all the layers will protect Maria’s hands.
She also wanted lime green. Since I made her a pillow before, I decided to stick with that theme and use the same block. I had to redraw the block in EQ8, because I couldn’t find my block from the swap. The proportions came out a little different in this piece, but I think they still look good.
I didn’t think about a hanging loop until it was too late to put one on. Oh well.
I added in pink because I like pink and it made the potholders look cheerful and celebratory. The theme of the swap is Celebration! so the colors fit. I made a gift bag in the same fabric as the binding. The gift is ready to go.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to be saying that I finished the UCAB for my mom and gave it to her for her birthday! This bag goes with the set of items I am making from the Paint Tube fabric.
I am so excited because I spent a lot of time on this bag and got everyone excited about it, then the pandemic hit and all the excitement died.
I finished the bag on September 12, 2021 after spending September 11 ripping out a lot of what I had sewn the prior week. I spent the Sunday morning of the 12th thinking about construction and how I could avoid putting the bag together the way Natalie does. I know she has had success putting together a million of these bags, but the construction did not work for me. I can’t believe how flat she gets her binding.
What I ended up doing is putting the binding on before I constructed the whole bag. I know the binding is supposed to cover the edges of the sides. This made no sense since the sides were finished.
After thinking about how I could construct the bag without killing myself, I decided that I would put the binding on the exterior, then sew the side section to the exterior. The sides were already finished and the process worked very well. I lined up the bottom of the sides right next to the binding and clipped the living daylights out of it, then sewed that section to the exterior. It looked a lot better than my previous effort, which was a big mess. My effort is not as neat as Natalie’s, but I am happy with what I did. I am not embarrassed to give this bag as a gift.
The other thing I thought about is not finishing the bottom of the side panels. This would mean that only two layers of fabric along with the thickness of the exterior would need to be under the binding. I might try it that way on the other version of the bag.
Joelle quilted and bound this second of the Pop Parade donation quilts. I finished it in July, so the finish was relatively quick. Thanks, Joelle!!!
As you may remember, I added the large dark red batik fabric (left) with the yellow dots to round the variety of fabrics I had for the X Quilt. I am pleased the quilt is done, but I am also pleased that I finally used this bundle of fabrics. This is a great example of why a person should use the fabrics when they buy them. I loved these fabrics when I bought them and loved them a lot less when I finally used them. I don’t dislike them and I am very pleased with the quilts I finished.
I finally finished FOTY 2019 in June, but I couldn’t get a picture taken because of everything going on here.
My pals helped me hold up the quilt at Sew Day. I am thrilled with how it came out. Adding the grey is definitely a different look than Fabric of the Year 2018 with the black squares. It also, obviously, has a different look than the previous years with no constant color.
I really like the tulip fabric on the back. I don’t use a lot of green, but that emerald – or near emerald color is very appealing. I also really like that print and would like to see the Kaffe Fassett Collective release it in different colorways.
I finally got a picture of the finished Frolic! Some guild friends helped me hold up all the large quilts. Thanks to Tim, Mary, Amy, Marty and everyone who helped.
Colleen did a great job quilting it, as usual. She didn’t quilt it for a long time to help me manage my cash flow, which is part of the reason it took so long to finish. I think the part I like best is the border. It went together so easily and I still marvel at that. The quilt is great and I do like the colors, but those half blocks bug me.
I used some big background prints on the back, as usual. I added a white background print to fill out the rest of the back. I had it laying around and it worked. No Philip Jacobs on this back.
It might seem ridiculous to make another Sew Together bag for my latest project. I have plenty of fabric and I know how to make these bags, so that is not the issue. The issue is that have been using the area under my computer stand to store various supplies and tools. This does not make the project very portable. It does make it convenient to grab some pieces and sew when I have a work meeting.
I have been using my embroidery Sew Together Bag for this project, but I want to be able to take the pieces around and I need my embroidery STB to stay with my embroidery. I was also making some gift STBs so I thought I might as well make one for myself.
This might be a stopgap until I can make the A Place for Everything Bag that will be really useful for this project. I talked about it briefly in a Various & Sundry post. I have been collecting supplies and I think I would rather just toss the Sew Together Bag in the A Place for Everything Bag when I go somewhere. I am used to using Sew Together Bags for handwork and don’t want to try to learn new habits. At the moment. I just want to sew.
As you can see, this bag uses one Philip Jacobs recent prints. He recolored the Brocade Peony print and I thought it would be good to showcase a couple of the blooms on this bag.
I also used the striped binding, which is a favorite trick for adding interest to a bag. If I were making this bag again, I might use pink on the side bindings and reserve the stripe for the top zipper only. I don’t think the stripes as I have used them are too much, but they are verging on too much. I keep thinking of the striped stockings the witch wore in the Wizard of Oz movie. In general, I am happy with the exterior of this bag.
As you saw in another post, the white insides are mostly the same for the four most recent bags. It was easy to cut the whites all at once. I did put the whites in different places on the different bags, but I used, mostly, the same prints. I did run out of a few, so there are a few differences.
As I have said before, I like light interiors so I can see my tools and supplies.
I did vary the fabric in some of the pockets according to tastes of the recipient.
For mine I used a lot of pink and that great Anna Maria Horner print with the emerald green that I got in the Modern Quilter’s Box from Modern Handmade last year. I am not a huge fan of green, but something about that fabric is perfect. I also used it for a Retreat Pouch.
And look at this fantastic zipper tab. I carefully cut the fabric to match and used the directions I posted the other day for securing the zipper tab. I am really pleased with how it came out.
Now I just have to fill it with my supplies and tools for my La Pass project.
Yes, Put A Ring On It is finished. I have been slowly stitching the binding down. I was able to finish it on July 30, just in time to cross it off my list so I could start La Passacaglia. Hand sewing is about all I can do right now with my workroom still in disarray.
This is the first quilt I have made than has round corners…that I can remember. I have a vague memory of using that Katie’s Corner ruler on something, but I don’t remember what. I found it to be great not to have to miter corners. I did have to stretch the binding a bit to get it in the right place, but bias binding works great for that.
Colleen did a great job on the quilting! I like the way she highlighted the arcs.
A month or so ago, as I waited to start my new contract job, I finished these Falabella Pouches. I didn’t write about them sooner, because they are gifts for my younger (middle) sister and her birthday is today.
She is an artist and has no qualms about asking for what she wants. She wanted something to hold her pens, etc.
The Falabella Pouch is part of Sara Lawson/Sew Sweetness’ Minikins 3 set of patterns. I want to make more of the various Minikins patterns since I bought all three ‘seasons’. Her request helps me with that goal.
This is a pouch that gets taller if you pull up on the zipper or smaller if you pull down on the zipper tabs (shown vaguely in photos above).
I used ripstop nylon for the inside. If Lil Sissy’s pens open, I wanted some kind of fabric that was marginally cleanable. This was a difficult fabric with which to work. It frayed a lot. Some people said to burn the edges, but I was too chicken to do that.
This was the first time I used Zipper-by-the-Yard for a project. I bought it specifically for this project, because I found some zipper pulls with the Eiffel Tower on them. Lil Sissy loves Paris, so these are perfect. I used Sara Lawson/Sew Sweetness’ video on adding a zipper head to zipper tape.
I have tried this activity before and never been successful. The video has one trick in particular that makes the activity work. I couldn’t believe how successful I was! I also did not use a fork, which is what Sara demonstrates. I used the self adhesive towel holders** I bought from Amazon. I can see how a fork would work just as well.
I bought the zippers from the Sew Sweetness site and can’t wait to try them again. I want to make another Piebald with a double zipper and now I know I will use this zipper head technique to do it. I know I must sound like an idiot, but I can’t tell you how gleeful I feel about this zipper!
Anyway, I sent these off last week, after admiring them for a few weeks. I hope Lil Sissy likes them.
**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.
In a way the sewing I am doing at the moment is all about getting stuff off the floor so I can move it out of my workroom before the painting starts.
The other day I organized bits of batting and the edges that came back from my quilter after she quilted a quilt. I have at least one more quilt to make from ends.
This one is the fourth quilt I have made from the Pop Parade fabric. Most of it is not Pop Parade, but you can see the Pop Parade clearly.
I also used some Dit Dot Evolution fabric for the background. I bought the fabric online and it is the wrong color. I was going to give it away, then I thought I could just use it for donation quilts, so I did. I prefer clear white, but I prefer to use fabric rather than just give it away. Someone will like this quilt. It isn’t at all ugly even if I didn’t use my preferred fabric.
I have to make a back, which I would like to do before I go to the next Sew Day.
I used some of the Anna Maria Horner fabrics I received in the Quilty Box to finish some of the more recent I Spy Pouches. Once I finished the two large ones, I got all the pouches out and rearranged my templates.
I know it seems kind of ridiculous to make pouches for templates. On one hand, I like having them organized. I also like the fabric and enjoy using the coneflower print for something I am going to keep. Finally, the I Spy pouches are quick to make, so rather satisfying.
The two newest pouches are quite wild. I used a couple of the Bright Eyes prints. I didn’t really realize how exuberant the pouches would be using those fabrics. The fabrics clash a little with the coneflowers, unfortunately. Still, I like them and the coneflowers will show up when I put some templates inside.
I have a number of template sets that are too big for these pouches. I can use the same directions to make larger pouches. I just haven’t been up for that lately.
I made some I Spy pouches for my various templates. The I Spy pouches are from Sara Lawson/ Sew Sweetness’s Minikins Season 1. These are not difficult and there are a number of designers, including the Road Trip bag from Crafty Gemini, with similar patterns. I like this pattern, because mostly you don’t sew on the vinyl.
My idea is to put my acrylic project templates in these pouches. Many people have told me that it is silly to make these for my templates, but for now I am making them anyway. I like the idea of seeing my fabric in use. It makes me happy. I may stop at some point, but for now I am making them.
I thought the small pouch would fit my Falabella pouch templates, from Minikins Season 3, but it is a little small. There are several pieces of the acrylic templates and they are a little too thick for the small pouch. I think the medium might fit the Falabella pouch templates better. I’ll make either the medium or the large for these templates. In the meantime, they won’t fall out.
I am also thinking about making some of these for my upcoming La Passacaglia project. I may need some larger ones for the EPP sections of the La Passacaglia project. I’ll have to see.
This large pouch is 10.5×8 inch and I think I might need an even larger size for EPP. I’ll have to see when the first installment of the La Pass instructions come out. It fits the Piebald Pouch acrylic templates very well.
The medium pouch fits the Hackney pouch, also from Minikins Season 3, templates pretty well.
These are a pretty quick sew and very satisfying. If I had a bag in which to clip them, I could easily add a leash with a lobster clip to keep them in the bag. That is something to think about for another day.