Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
The YMG has a collection of rubber duckies. When I saw the flannel rubber ducky fabric, I decided to make her a pillowcase.
I made it last weekend and will save it for Christmas or her birthday.
Tim commented that she isn’t five, but I decided that she could use a snuggly pillowcase in winter. I also bought a yard of the same print in regular quilting cotton. I’ll put it on the inside of some bags I plan to make for her.
A long time ago, in this galaxy, Friend Julie gave me a jelly roll. I don’t usually like jelly rolls, but I like this one.
One reason I like it is that the serrated edge isn’t deeply serrated, so the width is actually pretty close to 2.5 inches. Also, the strips seem to be pretty much cut on grain.
At Sew Day, Molly was working on a jelly roll quilt. She also didn’t want to cut up the jelly roll into squares so she was using the strips almost as is. She made a cut in the middle where the color really started to change and inserted a KFC fabric.
Molly’s quilt got stuck in my mind and I couldn’t get it or the jelly roll in my workroom off my mind. I tried to stay focused on Scrap Dash, but the jelly roll kept creeping in.
One good thing about Sew Day is that I get to be inspired by projects on which other people are working. It is also a good thing about the guild.
Almost as soon as Scrap Dash was ready to be quilted, I opened the Jelly Roll and started putting strips on the wall. I want to add the background to the outside of the strips.
I didn’t realize the fabrics were ombre! This makes the project much more interesting. Just putting them on the wall is exciting.
I am starting out keeping the strips in order. I may move them around later after I see what I have. I am also planning to use the Art Gallery fabric I used as a background for Scrap Dash as a background for this quilt.
I finished these organizers at the end of April, but I couldn’t show you until today. They are gifts for my mom for Mother’s Day. As I mentioned yesterday, she opened her gifts early when I saw her on Friday. Good thing I got them done early!!!
Purse Organizers were a special request. As I said, I was showing her the new Minikins Season 3 patterns and she immediately saw these and loved them. I had already made her a gift, but I have put that item aside for her birthday.
There are two sizes. She can choose the one that works best for her handbag or tote bag. She already has an idea of how she will use these. Someone said that using these for a tote bag would be a good idea. It never occurred to me, but I have to agree. How often do you scrabble around in your tote bag for whatever it is you need. I’ll need to think about whether one would work in the bag I take to quilt shows.
For these pouches, I used Laurel Burch fabric that I purchased to make items for Mom. I know it doesn’t go with the Artist Paint tube fabric, but these won’t be with the items I make for her to take to Sew Day. I made an effort to fussy cut well so the cats faces would show. The fabric has two sizes of cats, so I used the small cats on the small pouch and large cats on the large pouch. I am pretty happy with the fussy cutting.
One thing I didn’t think about was the outside pockets. I realized that the outside pockets would cover up the cats, so I omitted them. It means fewer pockets. I made a note on my pattern and will use the main fabric for those pockets next time.
One side of both pouches already has mesh, which obscures the cats, but doesn’t cover them up completely. In my large version, the cats look like they are peeking over the edge of the mesh. Total luck, but cute, don’t you think?
A lot of people don’t like mesh pockets, because items get caught. I don’t mind them. One has to pick carefully what to put in them.
Even without the outer slip pocket, these bags have a lot of pockets. In addition to the mesh pockets, there are two slip pockets, a zipper pocket and two pleated pockets.
I am a little concerned about how much can be put inside as the Organizers look so slim, but I hope Mom can put enough in to make them useful.
I am also ridiculously pleased with the grab handles. Aren’t they cute?
There is no top to this pouch, so everything will fall out if it is tipped over. I hope Mom likes these pouches and they work for her.
Finally, I can show all of the eye masks together. I delivered the last eye mask yesterday to my mom for Mother’s Day.I know Mother’s Day is a week away, but she came over and refused to wait to open her gifts. It was fun to see her open it.
She has a gel mask, but I had already started making her this when I found that out. She said the one I made is much softer and larger, so will work really well for her.
You might remember that I showed my mask in January, which is when I finished all of them. Then, I showed Gerre’s mask in March after International Women’s Day.
You can see that I used Mom’s fabric so this goes with her set of small items. I have used the Dia de los Muertos fabric for Gerre before and this is now the fabric I am designating for her gifts since I ran out of the purple Asbury fabric.
I am making two of these purse organizers because I am not sure of the sizes. I made good progress over the weekend, after I was finished with the Rings top.
I am enamored of the way this bag goes together. The photo above shows the center of the pouch. Unlike the Sew Together Bags and the All Rolled Up Tote, this zipper pocket is fully enclosed. The edge of the zipper pocket, however, is not enclosed in the seam allowance so there is less of an issue with layers being too thick to go through the machine.
I haven’t put the whole thing together, but that is the next step.
Many of the Minikins patterns come with multiple sizes. This one comes with two sizes and I am making both at once.
Tim showed me the start of his baby quilt. He is making it loosely based on the Give & Take Quilt by Tara Faughnan. (You’ll have to do a search as there is no good way to link out to her site for a photo). I love his colors much more than in the original.
The blocks that look yellow are actually more of a chartreuse (icky green), which is one of Tim’s go to colors.
He is figuring out how to put this together as he goes along, which I applaud. I told him to tell me if he needed help, which may have been too smug as he is a very competent piecer.
I realized, after posting yesterday, that I should have showed the whole bag, prizes and everything.
There are a variety of little prizes and a couple of books. I hope the recipient likes everything.
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.
I wrote about the eye mask I made for myself in January. At the same time I made two others and this is the second one, which I delivered to Gerre for International Women’s Day. It went with the Purse Organizer.
These eye masks are simple and quick to make assuming you have some rice on hand. I want to try adding some lavender, but don’t have any so I haven’t done that yet.
I showed this pouch briefly after I made it at New Year’s. The other day, I sent it off to Gerre to celebrate International Women’s Day (same day as her birthday, but she doesn’t celebrate her birthday anymore).
I want to make sure she knows she is remembered and valued so I try to whip something up at each holiday. This was the second of the Purse Organizers that I made, but the other one is for a gift in May. Look for the post then.
I struggled more with the construction of this pouch than I did on the first one, partially because I made some changes. One was to sew the two zipper slip pockets at the same time rather than with some other steps in between as the pattern says. That may have been a mistake as I had to do some ripping.
I am not a huge fan of her method of constructing the inside [regular] slip pockets. They seem too thick to me and I may try and construct them using a different method next time.
The pattern also neglects to remind the maker to clip the corners. OR I didn’t see that instruction. Not clipping the seam allowances made poking out the bottom corners on the first Purse Organizer difficult and the corners didn’t look that great. For this pouch, I rounded the corners using a 2 inch circle template** and they came out a little better. I am not sure if that change impacts the usefulness of the pouch. For example, Svetlana’s picture shows the inside can hold a tablet. Since I don’t have a tablet this size, I don’t know if the rounded corners will change the size so the tablet will no longer fit.
I also added the leash so that it could be clipped to another bag. The leash is a useful feature if you are storing things in this pouch. Taking things in and out of a larger bag is better if you have them organized in pouch like thisand are concerned it will fall out.
The good part of this pattern is that makers can adjust the sizes so the Organizers fits the stuff you need to carry around.
I didn’t choose to put the snap on the back pocket, but since I received a snap installation kit for Christmas, I plan to try that out. I thought that back pocket might be good for my journal**. It was a passing thought and I haven’t measured them yet.
I look forward to hearing how it works for her.
**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.
Yes, I seem to be on an eye mask kick. I bought a large bag of rice and, with this mask, have used it up, so my eye mask efforts are finished for now. I like making a project a few times so I can get it right. This project will be a good quick gift going forward, assuming I buy more rice I want to use in eye masks and don’t want to eat.
Renee is the Grand President of the Native Daughters of the Golden West. NDGW is the female version of the Native Sons of the Golden West. There are more dresses and more pomp and circumstance as well as more efforts to assist with various California History related projects. They also have a vibrant effort to help kids in various ways through their Children’s Foundation. If you are interested in joining, check their website. It is definitely an organization trying to find its way with a new generation, but there is potential and they do a lot of good.
The Grand President will be having a Parlor visit in April. Apparently, people make gifts and the Grand President opens them at this event. I am not able to attend this year, but I feel a special rapport with Renee, so I made her a gift. I will drop it off with the District Deputy and it will be sent on to her. Her theme is butterflies, which guided my choice of fabric.
I put together the latest door prize. It was given away at the meeting last week and Alison won. I need to send it off, which means, finding a box, addressing it…. You know, the usual mailing tasks.
I really like the tote bag, which is from a pattern by Aneela Hoey, the Kit Supply Tote. It was made by Angela.
I originally wrote this to support Bay Area Modern‘s various swaps and activities. Once their new website was live, the blog was discontinued. I think this is a useful post (and not just because I wrote it!), so I decided to rewrite it, update it and post it here.
Please note:
Apron
Backpack
Bath bombs tutorial
Bionic Gear Bag
Board/ruler bag
Boxy bag
Bunting
Camera case wristlet – pattern
Camera pouch – pattern
Camera strap – tutorial by ikatbags.com
Catch All Caddy by ByAnnie
Car trash bag – pattern
Car ditty bag – tutorial
Cargo Duffel 2 – Noodlehead revised tutorial on the Robert Kaufman site
Casserole carrier- Sew Sweetness pattern
Cell phone sling
Changing pad – pattern (make sure your giftee has a baby!) Might be useful to look at my vinyl tips and tricks page.
Checkbook cover tutorial from SewVery
Clipboard (fabric covered) – tutorial from SewVery
Clutch bag – pattern from Clover & Violet
Coasters
Coin purse
Cold pack tutorial from SewVery
Composition book cover tutorial from Hip to Be a Square
Craft organizer tutorial
Cup holder/ coffee cozy
Cushions / Throw pillows
EPP Travel Kit
eReader /Tablet bags and cozies
Eye pillow / Eye mask
Fabric basket (One Hour Basket)
Fabric boxes
Floor pillow – tutorial from SewVery
Garment bag tutorial from Sew4Home
Gift card holder -Little Wallet pattern from Valori Wells
Glasses case
Grocery bag
Hanging toiletry Basket (pattern found in In Stitches book)
Happy Birthday banner
Heating pad/ rice pack
Holiday banner
Idea pouch (pattern by Michelle Patterns) – holds notebooks, pens, pencils, etc
Iron Caddy
Ironing Board Thread Catcher + Tool Caddy tutorial
Jewelry
Jewelry roll
Journal cover
Keychain
Lanyard (tutorial)
Light switch plates (covered) – tutorial from Craft Buds
Luggage tag tutorial from Clover & Violet
Manicure roll-up bag tutorial from Hip to Be a Square
Mask
Mini ironing table (pattern/tutorial)
Mini quilt / wall hanging
Mug rug
Name tag
Napkins
Needle safe
One Hour Basket (One Hour Basket pattern)
Pattern weights (tutorial/pattern)
Pencil case
Pencil roll (The Pink Chalk version is an excellent pattern)
Pencil pouch – tutorial from Craft Buds
Pillowcase
Phone sleeve
Pincushion
Placemats
Potholders
Project bag
Purse
Purse organizer
Remote control organizer
Sash with Beaded Fringe (pattern found in In Stitches book)
Scissor Sheath (tutorial)
Sew Together Bag pattern
Sewing machine cover
Sewing Organizer Bag – handwork tutorial
Sketchbook cover tutorial
Sleeping mask (pattern found in In Stitches book)
Softies
Stitching folder
Table runner
Tablet cover/stand
Tea cozy
Tissue box cover tutorial from Craft Buds (you might want to include a box of tissues so the giftee knows the size)
Tissue holder
Tote bag
Wallet
Water bottle strap
Wrist pin cushion
Zipper bag
Zipper pouch
There are numerous other resources with multiple projects, including:
**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.
A friend of mine has Stage Zero Breast Cancer. I have never heard of Stage Zero Breast Cancer either, but she explained that it has something to do with calcifications. You’ll have to look it up, if you are interested. She said that her health system is one of the few that actually treats Stage Zero Breast Cancer. She will be having surgery on Friday.
I decided to make her an eye mask as I wanted to make her something that would provide comfort. After finding a piece of pretty fabric, I whipped it up and will be sending it off this morning.
After I made it I thought the curve would accommodate using it under her arm as well. I don’t know if that will feel good, but it is an option. I used the small amount of leftover fabric to make a small gift/storage bag.
I am, once again, president of my local library association. Not what I wanted to do again, but circumstances required that I step up. One thing that I did was want people to read my newsletter/”Message from the President”. As an incentive, I offered a fabulous prize, which was a journal cover for a composition book.
Since I didn’t know if a woman or a man would win, I chose neutrals – mostly blacks and greys, but one piece had that great orange triangle, so I used it as a centerpiece. I wasn’t excited about making something with those colors, but I am pleased with the way it came out.
I picked the winner and now just have to get it to that person.