I worked hard on the Enigma Bag over the weekend, but, frankly, projects get easier the more often I make them. This project went very smoothly until the end, when I didn’t quite catch the lining bottom with the sides and had to do a lot of ripping. I think this goes back to the quilting when the fabric shrunk up and left some foam showing.
I wrote myself a note to quilt then cut the piece the correct size. Sara gives specific instructions about that, but my quilting isn’t up to par, so this is my new strategy as I expect I will make another one.
I wrote a similar post back in April. I took a look at it and it seems quite paltry compared to the actual number of Hackneys I know I have made. I decided to write another roundup post so I could see all the Hackneys I have made in one place. I have to say, though, that I thought I had made more.
Skeleton Hackney closed
Green Hackney closed
Sugar Skull Hackney
Hand Bone Hackney – top
Amanda’s Hackney -handle
Color Wheel Hackney – Carrie
Color Wheel Hackney – Sue – interior
Mom’s Hackney Bag: handle
Typewriter Hackney – interior
Coneflower #2 Hackney, Aug 2023 – front, top
Finished: Brown Stitch Hackney – handle
Paint Tube Hackney – open/exterior
Fish Hackney – done – open
Purple Couch Hackney
I really like this pouch, as I have said. Those for whom I have made one seem to like it as well.
Today is the day where we give the officers their gifts.
Carrie, Sue and I spent last Saturday at The Granary, a local quilt store that has a great restaurant nearby.
We bought gift cards for the officers and spent time, in between eating, looking at quilt supplies and wrapping the gifts. It was another fun time with Carrie and Sue.
Scrappy Celebration is finished. Well, my part is finished. Today I will bring it to Colleen for quilting.
This quilt was nowhere near ready to give to Colleen, but except for one mishap, it went together quickly and fairly easily (knock wood). I am pretty pleased with the way it came out. It is a lot more interesting to look at than it was to piece.
Scrappy Celebration back
As usual, I used a lot of the leftover fabrics for the back. Friend Julie said the look of the back is energetic. I hope that is good and not just a nice way of saying “what were you thinking?”
Notice that I didn’t use the Philip Jacobs chrysanthemum print on the back. I wasn’t ready to use it up yet.
The last time I talked about this quilt was in September! Since then I have been moving the blocks around my workroom in a desultory manner. I last had them all on the design wall in August and they don’t look great. I decided I needed to finish it and my deadline is on Friday. I have a date with Colleen and knowing my work schedule, will be unable to make another any time soon. So, I needed to get it finished.
Scrappy Celebration -what I had
I actually didn’t start from a bad place. I just needed to figure out where I was and where I needed to go.
The photo on the left is what I had when I put all the blocks up on the design wall. I ignored the block labels I had put on based on where the blocks were in the pattern. I rearranged blocks so they looked more appealing and, then, decided what I additional blocks I needed to make.
I worked on it last weekend and made good progress. I am now ready to sew the piece together.
I finally finished the Tula 2-in-1-Case. The binding gave me fits. I am pleased, however, that it came out so well. Choosing a Tula Tiny Stripe for the binding made coordination easy.
The inside is an old feather print I had. I like it and it is light colored so the recipient will be able to see what’s inside. I suppose, however that is not as important with a bag that opens flat?
Tula 2-in-1 Case – openTula 2-in-1 Case -back
The back is fairly normal. It is just the back of a bag. There is an interesting bit of symmetry because of the way I cut the exterior panel so that the lady would be centered on the front.
I don’t yet know who the recipient will be. Stay tuned!
Angela is a relatively new member who volunteered to make one of the 2-in-1 cases for the officers. She did a really wonderful job!
The colors are really great. I think the binding picks up and enhances the purple in the dragonfly print really well.
I love the fussy cutting she did, though she claims it was a happy accident. The cover really looks like the dragonflies were placed intentionally.
AngelaB’s 2-in-1 Case – interior
The inside mimics the outside, but uses a lighter print to still allow the owner to see what is inside.
She really matched the interior print and the zippers well.
AngelaB’s 2-in-1 Case – interior detail
Angela’s zippers also went in beautifully.
I am completely impressed with this version of the case. You can see the other completed 2-in-1 Cases in a previous post and my, second, in process case in a post from earlier this week.
I realized I needed one more 2-in-1 Case for the officer gifts so I decided to make a Tula version.
This is a really singular print and I wouldn’t normally choose it for a gift, but it kept calling to me for this project. I really hope one of the officers is a Tula fan!
I carefully fussy cut the image of the woman so that it would show up on the front.
Tula 2-in-1 Case interior in process
I also made the inside first so that any seam allowance problems, as mentioned when I made the last case, could be dealt with by cutting the exterior a different size.
This version is really coming together quite quickly. I am surprised at how easy it is compared to how difficult the directions seem.
Tula 2-in-1 Case-sew in magnetic snap + tab
This time I am also using one of the sew-in magnetic snaps. I used the edge of the square-ish zipper foot to sew around the magnet part and it worked pretty well. I can sort of see the stitching on the outside, which I am not thrilled about, but am leaving and hoping for the best.
This is the bag that I made for Friend Julie for Christmas.
Purple Couch Hackney
I finished this quickly back in October, which was fortunate, because I didn’t have much sewing time in October and November and December quickly became busy. When I was ready to sew, I surprisingly, found all the pieces already cut out. I don’t remember cutting them all out, but I must have at some point. 😉 It was like magic and reminded me that the prep for bags takes the longest time in terms of making the bag.
This bag matches the Mini-Maker Case I made for Friend Julie back when the mini Oliso came out. That was during the pandemic as I remember opening our gifts for each other in a parking lot! LOL!
Couch Hackney corner view
This is one of the best Hackneys that I have made. It stands up very well. I filled it with almost all of the Christmas gifts I bought for her. It is amazing how much it holds.
I am not sure this is exactly the right color zipper, but it goes pretty well with the bag, overall. I don’t think the regular purple zipper available would match any better.
Couch Hackney – interior
The interior is a completely different purple, actually more of a lavender.
In this version of the Hackney, I put a glitter vinyl pocket. It will be good for flat items, but does not stretch at all, like the mesh pocket and, thus, I think items might slip out. I hope not, but I thought of that later.
Couch Hackney interior – labels
I am still working on making sure I put a label in each bag that I make. I was able to add two to this one.
My goal is to always put one of my AQ labels inside. I am also, every now and again, adding one of the labels that Julie gave me as part of the 2022 Advent calendar. I really like those labels. That was a great gift.
As I said, I am pleased with how this bag came out and the more I look at it, the more I want to make a Hackney for myself.
I made this book cover for my mom for Christmas. I wanted to enter the Sew Sweetness challenge for the month, which used this pattern. I didn’t think I would ever make it as I don’t normally carry books around. Then I talked to my Mom about her book club and all the pieces came together in my mind. It seemed like a good opportunity to make sure she can take her Bible to book club (Bible study??) in a chic and personalized manner.
Goldenrod book cover – open
The Goldenrod Book Cover is one of the patterns that make up Minikins Season 4.
The idea is that you slip the cover of the book into each of the slip pockets and then zip the cover up. The handle is on the top (see above), which allows the owner to carry it. I thought it would be good to put a shoulder strap on it, but didn’t have the time to work out that change, so left it for another day.
Some of the construction is similar to the Hackney pattern– the gusset and the piece under the handle that connects the ends of the gusset. I am sure it makes sense in terms of pattern writing, but I appreciate it as I feel like I am gathering a bunch of skills that can be interchanged between patterns.
Goldenrod book cover – handle
I used a piece of cork (?) I bought from Sew Hungry Hippie. They don’t have the exact color any more, so I am not linking to the product. It is called cork microfiber backing. I had some trouble with skipped stitches while sewing it. I tried different needles and rethreading. Nothing worked so I have reached out to the team at Sew Hungry Hippie to see if they have any suggestions. Writing to them made me think that I had not tried different thread. As you know, I mostly use Aurifil and have a lot of colors. Of course, I have other thread, but not in the array of colors.
It is important that I figure out how to use this material since I want to use it for the Rockstar bag. I’ll need more of it for that pattern and don’t want to fight with it the entire time.
Mom seemed to like it and I hope she will be able to use it. She really liked the rainbow zipper.
Haha! I am off work for a week. While I don’t get paid, I am excited to have some time off. The YM is home, so we are doing a lot.
I will post more about these projects, but I wanted to show you all the gifts I made for Christmas and December birthdays. It doesn’t look like a lot, but I have been busy.
Purple Dot Project Bag
Disco Double Zip Pouch – finished
Couch Hackney – interior
Fish Hackney – done – top
Gerre’s project bag #1
Gerre’s Project Bag #2
BAM Swap pincushion 2023
Sue’s Kit Supply Tote
Carrie’s Kit Supply Tote
Paint Tube Enigma for Mom
Goldenrod book cover
I feel like I sewed more than are shown here, but I can’t find them if I did.
This is the Kit Supply Tote I made for Sue. As I said in the previous post about Carrie’s version, this one has a color wheel on the front.
Sue was the first one to open her gifts. Since the bags were the same and the small gifts were the same, it might have ruined the surprise for Carrie. They were both very good about it.
Sue’s Kit Supply Tote: bottom
One of the things I like about this bag is the way the bottom comes together. I can’t use vinyl or pleather for the bottom, because the side pieces become the bottom, but the bottom comes together so nicely.
This means the stitching looks good. I didn’t match the design of the fabric as I wanted to make sure the paint chips and color wheel were prominently displayed on the sides where people could actually see them.
Sue’s Kit Supply Tote: bottom corner
I am thrilled that the corner came out so well. I am going to try some Odicoat on the bottom of mine to protect it. I told them I would let them know how it went. I plan to paint it on theirs if it works out. If it ruin my Kit Supply Tote, I can always make another one.
Carrie and Sue both liked the turquoise handles. I was afraid they would be too glittery for them.
I made a couple of fabric gift bags to put them in so they looked a bit festive. I forgot to take a photo.
This the Kit Supply Tote I made for Carrie. It looks the same as the one for Sue, mostly because I used the same fabric for both of them. I highlighted the paint chips on this one and the color wheel on Sue’s.
We had a holiday lunch yesterday, which was super fun. I was hopping about the week before, because I could barely contain my excitement in giving these totes to them. I basically thrust the gift bags into their hands as soon as we sat down at the restaurant and made them open them. They seemed excited as well.
Kit Supply Tote: Carrie’s inside
I put a few small gifts in side just because I don’t like to give empty bags.
The insides are the same on both. I designed the pockets differently from the pattern as I wanted to put two layers of pockets for added storage. On Carrie’s tote, I separated the pockets more. Both have vinyl pockets on top of the fabric pocket. The vinyl pocket is edged with some turquoise doublefold elastic.
Carrie was super excited that this bag matched her Hackney bag. 😉
I am in the thick of the gift giving season. The YM’s birthday was on the 30th. Friend Julie’s birthday was on the 1st and Christmas is right around the corner. Yes, I am holding on to my hat!
Purple Dot Project Bag
I finished the project bag for Julie back in November, but as with a lot of gifts, I couldn’t show it until now. I did put in a 26 Projects post, but didn’t make a big deal out of it.
I made Julie one of these before. This is a little different. It is the Jumbo size, which just looks large to me. It is, however, larger than the large.
The quilted construction of this is the same as the Ultimate project bag, so next time I’ll just quilt a certain size of fabric sandwich and move on. The directions for that part of the project were long and somewhat tedious. I know they have to plan for any type of bag maker and Annie thorough, for sure.
Julie received her package after some drama at the post office, which is a relief. I thought for awhile that she wouldn’t get it. She also wrote about it on her blog and said some very sweet things. I was very pleased hear how she is using the smaller version I made her last year (??).
