Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I thought I would combine the July and August blocks, because by mid-month I hadn’t made any donation blocks. However, finishing the Diagonal Nine Patch gave me the opportunity to sew some. Not tons, but every little bit helps.
I definitely need to cut more 2.5″ squares to keep up the project.
If any project required attention to process, this one did.
My friend has been talking with me about helping her make a bag. I have been putting it off because of work and other things. Since I have a break from a lot of responsibilities, I felt it was time to get the bag made.
I had hoped that I could convince my friend to use a pattern, but she was certain she wanted to copy the bag she took traveling. I am a good bagmaker, but beyond cobbling together some basic tote bags or modifying patterns, like the Petrillo hack I created, I have not had a lot of experience creating new patterns. I was concerned about the pitfalls I wouldn’t even know I was facing.
We met a few weeks ago and I was able to get a better idea of what she was thinking. That meeting and seeing the bag allowed me to think about the bag and process before we met the other day. I had a basic plan and figured that I would work things out as I went along.
The worst part was getting started. The best part was that my friend didn’t have many preconceived notions about how the bag would look. We kind of muddled along and resolved issues as they came up.
The first issue was the fabric. She has a limited piece of upholstery fabric that was leftover from recovering her living room chairs. I have done a few things with heavier fabric, but I can’t think of a project I have done with upholstery fabric, including a pencil roll, but this project was different in that I would have to deal with layers of upholstery fabric. I tried to minimize it, but wasn’t always able to.
Next was the bottom. My friend wanted to use a thin piece of leather (maybe suede) for the bottom. This made sense, especially since she wanted to use it for travel. My Microtex** needle was not happy. Shockingly, I had a leather needle**. I have never used these before, but did on the bag bottom and it worked.
The lining was fairly straightforward. I knew what I wanted to do, which included adding an internal zipper pocket that I could use to turn the bag right side out.That worked perfectly, though I had to look up a couple of references to make sure what I had in my mind would work.
The turning of the bag is very satisfying, so I had my friend do it. It was her bag, after all and I thought she would get a kick out of the experience. She did.
I used my friend as studio assistant. I asked her to mark the lines for the zipper pocket, press seams open and sew on Velcro. These are all tasks I didn’t want to do. She did a lot of pressing and marking while I did most of the sewing. I also wanted her to be involved and since she had not sewed since junior high, I preferred to do the sewing. It is my machine after all.
When we got to the handles, she brought out the idea of using rope (like clothesline weight rope) for the handles. I wouldn’t normally do that and really didn’t have a clue how to do it. After searching the web, I came up with a great tutorial that expanded my skills. The result was what my friend wanted, too.
I used the Cotton Candy pouch pattern to remind me how to put the outside of the bag together with the lining.
I used the Petrillo bag pattern to make and install the flap.
I used the The Complete Bag Making Masterclass : A comprehensive guide to modern bag making techniques** by Mrs. H for some information on attaching the straps.
I used the RsIsland Crafts video on turning a bag through the internal zipper pocket to remind myself how to do that.
I used the Seaman’s Mom corded handles tutorial to make the handles.
I am pleased with how the bag came out, though it is certainly not perfect and it is not a bag I would use. My friend was happy and that is all that counts.
**Obviously, you should shop at a local quilt shop. However, I use 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.
Ends n.14 (Typewriter) was also in the batch that Laura quilted for the guild. It wasn’t very long ago that I put it together.
I saw it Saturday and couldn’t tell whether what I was looking at was the back or front! I had forgotten that I did a lot of small piecing for this top.
Laura did a random meander and it looks pretty good. It doesn’t overshadow the piecing.
I know many of you are melting in 100+F/35+C heat. I don’t want to taunt you, but it is a grey day here. The fog is in and the light in my workroom is weird. I am really glad I have Orange You Glad on my design wall and not this purple quilt.
This quilt by mom is now quilted. I wrote about it a few weeks ago and the speed with which it was done is astounding. Longarming really moves the pipeline along.
At the meeting, Peggy was looking for people to bind.
Friend Julie and I started a project together. This isn’t the first project we have worked on together. We have worked on Bullseye quilt projects together, the Windmill quilts and Julie’s Tumbler quilts. I enjoy working on projects with her.
This project started with me asking for the Pantone Postcard Box for a gift. Friend Julie got it for me, then we started talking about doing something quilty with it.
We threw ideas back and forth, but recently we got together for lunch and laid out our guidelines. It was a lot easier to make the list when we were together, though I suppose we could have done it on the phone as well.
We decided we would use the units Doreen Speckmann recommends in her Pattern Play book. I LOVED Doreen Speckmann’s classes. I have had the book for a long time, but Friend Julie bought it recently. It is a technique book, though there are a few patterns. Doreen shows readers how to make and use different units to make quilts look more personalized. These were the types of books that were written in the past whereas now people just write books that tell you how to make a certain quilt with certain fabric. I don’t see that I have written a book review on this book, but it might be time.
That being said, this is a block based book and, thus The Pantone Project will be a block based quilt.
“Supplies” Needed:
Decisions to Make:
Every week or so we send each other a postcard. The interval is pretty random, but we aren’t letting months go by. I was on a trip recently and didn’t send any that week, but sent one as soon as I got back.
The postcards have a certain Pantone color. From the color we will choose a solid, tone-on-tone or ‘reads as solid’ fabric to use for the block.
We decided to use the same background and bought some together the other day. We bought a cool grey called Blossom by Riley Blake. Christopher Thompson is the designer. I don’t know why it is called Blossom since there is not one blossom-y color on it. Some of the other fabrics in the line are more blossom-like. Anyway, this is a really good grey, which is now washed and waiting to be incorporated into blocks. You can see more of the design of the fabric on Julie’s blog.
Our units will be 4 inches finished (4.5 inches unfinished).
We will make two blocks, plus cut two squares and send one block and one square to the other person. At the moment, I am behind and won’t be able to get started until later this week or next week. Julie has a nice picture of the postcards I have sent on her blog. She also made one block already. I need to get busy, and will soon.
I hope you find a friend and play along.
Resources:
**Obviously, you should shop at a local quilt shop. However, I use 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.
I got back on the donation block bandwagon this month as I was finishing up the Ends n.14 (Typewriter) donation top. I didn’t make many, but every little bit helps, right?
I spent yesterday afternoon at the guild meeting. I went to drop off the Ends n.14 (Typewriter) top and back and the American Jane Plus donation top and back. I also needed to hand over the door prize.
The skills of the whole team are shown off here. Sue’s drawstring bag and Carrie’s little wallet are in evidence. So many people from the door prize team contributed to this bag that it warms my heart.
Lee Ann was the lucky winner this time and she was at the meeting, so no mailing required.
I may not have mentioned that I ripped out all of the Big Stitch quilting on this project. I am preparing it to go to Colleen.
To do so, I had to find some fabric for the binding. I wanted the main turquoise used for the background. I couldn’t find it anywhere.
I did find a slightly darker solid turquoise that I think will frame the piece better than the same color. I know the differentiation is hard to see, but I think you can see that the slight difference looks good for the binding.
I still haven’t done anything with the bits and bobs included by the others who worked on it.
I put the blocks I with Friend Julie’s backgrounds on the design wall so I could look at at them. I took them off, cut out the back and put the block on the ironing board to be pressed.
Half the blocks are Friend Julie‘s backgrounds and half are Adrienne’s. The top four rows are Adrienne’s backgrounds and Julie’s circles. The bottom four rows are Julie’s background and my circles.
I decided to look at them together as I moved Julie’s off the design wall. It turned out that I needed to put Adrienne’s blocks on the design wall to select the fabrics for the second round of circles.
I only had cut about 10 squares to make circles for Adrienne’s blocks. I thought I had cut all I needed, but I am glad I didn’t. I ended up looking at each block to decide what it needed.
My first thought was to lighten it up.
I have finished cutting out the circles and am now starting to pair the circles with the backgrounds. I hope to sew these this week in the evenings.
I didn’t really sit down and cut all of the circles at one time. Each time I had a break or a few minutes free I would cut 1 or 2. I finally completed the task a few minutes at a time over a few days.
The pressed cross is so I can line up the circles in the middle of the background. I prefer to line the circles up exactly even though this is a bit of an improv process.
Now I am not sure if I want to press the creased out then sew or just leave them in. I’ll have to press creases in again later, but I don’t want the creases to interfere with the sewing. I want the circles to be flat along the background.
I have sorted the ‘ready to sew’ backgrounds by the color of the circles. This is a selection of the blues. I want to match the thread color to the circle so it doesn’t show up much.
The other day I talked about completing my squares for Orange You Glad. Now I am on to cutting.
Mostly I grabbed handy fabrics and cut squares out of them, then folded and pressed them. I didn’t spend a ton of time deciding on whether a certain fabric would fit in with the orange. I did eliminate fabrics as I was choosing, if they were too close to orange and wouldn’t show up or were obviously not suited to the project. I also eliminated all browns, blacks, predominantly white fabrics and fabrics with too much white in them.
I used templates I made when I cut circles for one of the previous versions of the quilts, Seeing Red, I think, but maybe Passionate Purple.
The paper template is a circle I made the right size by using a compass or a plate. I don’t remember as I had to use both for different sizes of circles we agreed upon for this project. The circle template is folded into quarters.
The scissors have to be sharp. I want a smooth cut the first time. I hold the paper in place with my left thumb and fingers, but you can also use WonderClips or pin the template in place.
Friend Julie has some great photos of making the templates, using the templates and holding them in place in her blog post today.
Or maybe this is the second round?
I received Julie’s orange squares last week and have been diligently cutting the fabrics that I will applique’ to the top. I had many of them cut, but not all.
The background squares are 10″ and, during this round, we are supposed to applique’ an 8 inch circle to the top. I do this by first cutting 8.5 inch squares, then cutting a circle from the square.
I am using mostly cool colored fabrics, as you can see. I selected these from the stacks in my fabric closet, but may switch some out if I don’t like the way they look.
Looking at the fabrics I chose alongside Julie’s backgrounds has got my mind working on which to pair. I feel excited!
Friend Julie and Adrienne are, presumably, doing the same to my squares and Adrienne’s squares.
We have a month to applique’ the circles to the backgrounds. This is a fun project.
I thought the last bullseye I sewed with Julie and Adrienne was Passionate Purple. I looked back on my blog and found that the Original Bullseye was actually the last one that I finished. I am not sure when I started that one, but from my various blog posts, it sounds like I had stuck it somewhere and then found it again. The Original Bullseye was part of the project with Adrienne and Julie, but it was the kernel that started the whole Bullseye project.
Passionate Purple, Feelin’ Blue (I don’t think I actually wrote a post when this quilt was finished), and Seeing Red are all part of the series.
We are now working on an orange bullseye. We will cut 48 squares of fabric at 10″ and then send them on to the next person, who will add a circle and send it on to the third person who will add another circle. Then the squares will come back to each of us. We will add another orange circle, cut the blocks into 4 and keep two. The other two quarters will be sent to each other.
Friend Julie has also started cutting and I think she landed on a good name, Orange You Glad. I have finished cutting my squares, but will press them so the centers are clear and to make it easier for my team members to line up their second circles. I cut my squares bigger so I can square them up, if necessary, later.
I also started cutting the small squares for the last round. I am getting ahead of myself, but I couldn’t help myself.
In order to find enough squares, I rummaged through my entire fabric closet. I found a lot of orange in random places and will take this opportunity to rearrange it.
I am considering the strip for the binding, though it isn’t quite the right color. I’ll have to see once the top is done.
Orange You Glad?
Cindy made an amazing Improv top during Sew Day also.
This one is super cheerful and I love the way she used those curved blocks.
I am always amazed at how different the Charity Sew Day quilts look.
Mary and I did finish the top at Sew Day. I brought it home to make a back and will be handing it in today at the meeting.
I am pleased with how this came out. The ugly bits we started with turned into a really great quilt. It isn’t made from the colors I would normally use, but I am pleased with the result.
I am also pleased with how many of the orphan blocks and chunks we were able to use up overall during Sew Day. Sadly, none of the shards I brought were used. There is always next time.
Mary wants to do another with me next time, which I think will be great fun.