241 tote

I had a day off of work and I wanted to make a gift for a graduating senior. That means a trip to the fabric store to make a tote bag.

The flower print and blue dots are Denyse Schmidt's fabric at JoAnn's (no idea what line).  The green with white polk-a-dots is just a random fabric I found there.  Saturday night was spent cutting out fabric and interfacing.

I decided to use Anna's (Noodlehead) 421 tote bag pattern.  I've made it before, but after seeing Suzanne's (just another hang up) version I knew I needed to make it again.  I added 1" to the center of the bag and added fleece interfacing.  I adore how they turned out.

I interfaced the outside of this bag with Pellon's 'decor bond' and the lining with fusible fleece.  You can't see it, but the lining is the blue print and the handle is the flower fabric.



For this bag, I added 'decor bond' to both the outside and lining plus fusible fleece.  (I wanted to find out if it made any difference or not.)  This bag is a little more stiff ... but not by much.  It's lined in the green print and the strap is the flower print on the outside and green on the inside.  [It's hard to get pictures of the strap when it's hanging on the fence!]  Just for fun, I added the outside zipper pocket.  Thanks to my handy-dandy glue stick, it was a piece of cake to put in.  I think I'll like it for stashing my keys.  There really isn't anything worse than having to dump out your bag just to find your keys that are hiding in the bottom.

I hope my graduating senior friend loves her bag.

in progress: hst triangle quilt

It's time to pick a layout for my hst (half square triangle) quilt.  The fabric is Tula Pink's 'nest' fabric.  What's your favorite?

Option #1 - "Delightful" (pattern by Aneela Hoey)  Aren't the pinwheels fun?

Option #2 -  diamonds.  (The pattern of the original quilt that I saw in the Bloggers Quilt Festival and fell in love with.)

Option #3 - 'arrows'

Option #4 - stacked triangles (or rotate them 45 and let them be rows of triangles?)

Option #5 -lots of diamonds

Option #6 - windmill whimsy

Option #7 - triangles in formation (yes, I'm all out of names)

Option #8 - zig -zag (uh, with one square flipped wrong!)

So, sister of mine, what layout should it be?

quilt finish: postage stamp

It's finished!  My postage stamp quilt that I mentioned here is finished.  I absolutely love it.

I've been referring to this quilt as 'my experimental' quilt.  I ironed all of the seams open (first time ever!), I pinned very carefully, I used a cotton batting (another first), and I machine quilted it (second time).  As experiments goes, this one was a success.

It took me two tries at pin basting to get it just right.  Next time I'm going to make sure to make the back at least 2 inches bigger on all sides.  I pin based starting at the bottom - thinking I had enough fabric ... and was 1/4" short at the top.  I resisted the urge to stretch the fabric and unpinned the entire thing.  [I used this tutorial at Oh Fransson! to learn how to pin baste.]

I was going to use two layers of 'warm-n-natural' batting, but my sister convinced me to only use one.  I thought it would be more 'poofier' (just pretend that's a word) with two layers and show off the quilting better.   I'm glad I just used one.  It crinkled ever so nicely after a trip through the washer and dryer.  Plus, it's surprisingly warm!  (Yup, all of my other quilts have a polyester batting.)

For quilting, I stitched down 1/4" away from every seam.  It sounds like a lot of quilting, but it only took 4 evenings to get it all done.  The first night was the slowest with stopping every few seconds to remove the safety pins.

I did have to bend the metal on my 1/4" acufeed foot to keep the guide from catching on the seams.  I tried to just lift it up with some toothpicks wedged in there and then paper - but it worked best to just slightly bend it up.

I also purposely set the speed slow so that I could keep the seams as straight as possible.
 

sorry!   Taken at night with very crappy lighting ... but the quilting is pretty.

d just enough squares left over to put a stripe across the back.  I love it.  (And yes, I pinned every seam intersection with straight pins and safety pins to get the quilting straight across.)  I think the solid back shows off the quilting.

I didn't get a good picture of the crinkliness (yes, another made-up word), but trust me - it has the perfect amount of crinkle.  I can't think of anything I'd change about it.  It's just perfect in every way. 

drawstring bag

One day while browsing etsy, I saw some 'sock bags' to hold your knitting (or other crafts) - and loved the draw string. My knitting (or crocheting) won't fall out.  I (hopefully) won't loose my extra needles or hooks or rulers or all of the other stuff I keep in my knitting bags.  Here's my version, heavily inspired from 'the silver pumpkin'.

The big bag is 11.5" tall, 8.5" wide, and 4" deep.  The small bag is about 8" tall, 6" wide, and 4" deep.  1 yard of outside fabric, 1 yard of lining fabric and I now have 3 bags.  I love the stripes for the lining.


The big bag will hold a baby blanket or a sweater.  The small bag will work great for socks or crochet doilies or other little projects.

This was a quick project.  I drew the pattern in 'publisher' and printed it on the plotter at work.  Fabric was cut out one night while watching tv.  Two evenings of sewing and I had 3 really cool bags.

Aren't the bicycles cute! 

I couldn't decide which to use first.  So the baby blanket is in the pink animal bag and a sweater for me is in the bike bag. 

needle book

I keep my needles stuck in a piece of scrap batting. Every time I need a needle I end up searching through all of my sewing supplies to try and find it. Is it in the yarn basket? Is it in the other basket with yarn, scrap fabric, and a few patterns? Is it in the sewing supplies bin? Is it in the Ziploc bag of sewing machine needles? Or did I just drop them in my pin box when after I used it last time.  (It's always fun to search through the pin box for a needle!)  And when did I use a needle last? ... maybe it's still with that project.

It's always an adventure.

Last year when looking for new projects on blogs, I came across an entry on 'Twin Fibers" where she mentioned making a needle book with her daughter.  (She points you to a tutorial by "Sew She Sews" here.)  A book for needles.  With a pocket that could hold little scissors or thread.  This could be my solution to where are my needles.  Or at least a 'book' is bigger than a scrap of batting to look for.

I pulled out my scraps of 'Whimsy' while I was procrastinating working on taxes a few weekends ago  on a Saturday morning when I was in the mood to sew.  Lucky me, I had one square that wasn't used in the quilt, and it would be perfect for this project.  I cut it in half and had two 6" x 12" rectangles to make two needle books with.  Not quite the size mentioned in the tutorial, but it worked out just fine.

One book has the 'pink honeycomb' fabric for pockets, the other has the 'blue honeycomb'.   I really like the stripe the top of the pocket is bound in.

A couple hours of cutting, ironing, and sewing and I had two needle cases.  I hand sewed the bias binding.  (I have not mastered the 'machine binding' skill.)   I think it took longer to get the snaps on correctly than it did to hand sew it. (Note to self: a snap press would be a really groovy gift.)

Now to start searching for where my needles are.

3 more bags

Once upon a time I made a scripture tote bag as a birthday/baptism present.  I thought they were pretty handy (they fit a composition notebook, scriptures, and a few pencils very nicely).  I made one for a niece.  Then a nephew.  Then another niece.  Then 1 niece and 2 nephews. 

But not everyone had one.   To squash a minor bit of sibling rivalry, I needed to make one more for a birthday gift.  But if I was going to make one more, why not make 3 and be prepared!

Lucky for me, they're pretty easy to make.  The names take the longest time - choosing the font, tracing, cutting out, ironing them onto the bag just so, and then zig-zagging around each letter.  All fabric found at JoAnn's - I really like the orange paisley and the pink bird.

Hopefully everyone (when they finally get them) will be happy with their bag.

Lesson: if you make something for one niece/nephew, be prepared to make it for all of them.  Luckily, I love them, I'm a pushover  ... and this bag is fairly quick and easy project.

postage stamp in progress

My postage stamp quilt.  I got the inspiration idea for this quilt from p.s. i quilt's postage stamp quilt along.  I didn't want to do a twin size quilt (eek - big!), so I calculated how big I could make it from charm packs.

1 charm pack (42 squares) = 168, 2.5" squares

A quilt 44"x44" = 242 print squares and 242 white squares.  

1.5 charm packs = 252 squares 

Last April when my sister came to visit I split my Central Park (by Kate Spain) charm packs in half with her, cut some white kona cotton in 5" squares, and sent her home with a 'quilt kit'.  (Did I tell you how much I love this fabric?  I love the animals, the colors, the bricks, the flowers.  It's my favorite fabric.  And I shared it.)

I started sewing on it last summer by putting a charm square and white fabric square right sides together and sewed down both sides.  Cut down the center vertically and horizontally and I got a 1x2 squares.

They traveled with me to Walla Walla in August  (uh, why I though I'd get work done on them there, I have no idea.  I was way to busy having fun with my sister, her kids, and our projects.) where I mentioned to my sister I was considering ironing the seam allowances open as I read on "oh fransson!".  We tried a 2x2 square with seams pressed open and one with the seams pressed to the side.  Seams pressed open won and this became my 'experiment' quilt where I was going to try new things.   (While I was there I had my sister pick out the fabric for the back.  Kona cotton robin egg.)

Once home, I made it as random as my engineering brain would allow, dumping all of the 1x2's into a brown paper bag, shaking, and then pulling 2 at a time out and sewing them together.

It quickly was laid out on the floor where it was arranged, re-arranged, arranged again, and again, and again.  I sewed some 2x2's into 4x4 and then bigger squares ... but nothing ever worked out.  After walking around it (and on it) for about a 4 weeks in September/October, I picked it all up and put it in a plastic bin.  I had other projects that needed to be done - and I needed my floor back. 

January 2012 I had a few days at home before I could go back to work.  The postage stamp quilt was pulled out again.  (Did I tell you how much I love this fabric?  The aqua!  The orange!  The prints!) But I had learned the lesson of trimming after every seam from C's seeing squares quilt ... and I didn't like how my postage stamp quilt didn't look straight.   I sat down and took the entire quilt back to 2x2 squares, trimmed them all to 4.5"x4.5"- making sure they were as straight as possible - and started sewing them together.  (uh, I told my sister about taking it apart after it was almost back together!)

This time I sewed them in strips ... using pins on every seam intersection.  It took time, but the corners look great!  (Lesson learned: use pins!  Even when you think you can just line up the seams when sewing.)

I really liked it ... but I wanted it bigger.  I grabbed another charm pack and kept sewing.

I love it.  Here's a picture of the wrong side.

Now to finish a couple more projects so I can quilt this.  Size: 52" x 60". (390 patterned squares)

front pack carrier & randomness

I made this today for my niece K.   The pattern is from Oliver + S "Little Things To Sew"  She likes to carry her 'baby doll' with her, so this should give her some hands free ability.  Now that I've sewn a pattern from Oliver + S, I understand the hype.  It was well written, had great tips (I learned some new tricks!), and it was easy to whip out.  Two short hours of sewing today, with the obligatory 30 minutes to get the button holes right, and Buttercup the bear was modeling on the fence.   Hopefully K. will love it.  It's currently my favorite project.

I also tried out my bias tape maker.

The instructions sounded too good to be true.  I was prepared to fight with it and force the fabric through ... but the fabric just flowed through it like a dream.  Now to buy some bigger sizes.  It's time to conquer my fear of bias tape!

And this picture is included because looking in my cupboard this morning put a smile on my face.

Fiesta Dinnerware!  scarlet, paprika, tangerine, marigold, sunflower, lemongrass, shamrock, turquoise, peacock, cobalt, and plum.  They're a complete splurge and indulgence ... but I really love them.

cathedral windows

This is my favorite project of 2011. A pillow. A cathedral windows pillow. A pillow made with my sister.

My sister came out for a '4 day weekend' - a gift from her husband - over Easter weekend 2011. (She says it was more like a 6 day weekend, but I'm not counting the 2 traveling days.) It was the best 4 days ever. We made projects. Four lovely days of trips to the fabric store, cutting, sewing, changing plans part way through projects, more fabric shopping, ironing, burning fingers on the iron, talking, shopping, a little bit of running, and lots of fun.  We even finished all of the projects we started. (okay, we talked about more projects - but 'talked about projects' don't count.)

I'll have to post the HUGE swim bag she made. But this post is about the cathedral windows pillow. B and I have fallen in love with this pattern. We found a couple of tutorials on-line. Some looked hard, some looked a little less hard, and none of them felt right. Then B found it. A tutorial written by an engineer. 'Charming Windows' tutorial on Moda Bake Shop. Engineers appreciate tutorials written by other engineers.  It tells you where you have to be perfect, and where you can be a little less than perfect - with beautiful results.

We started out with 20 10.5" squares of white fabric and started ironing.  Two hours later, we had squares - and a couple of owie fingers.  (Yes, it really does take 2 hours to fold and iron the squares.  Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with slushies, popcorn, and a girl movie.)

The squares were sewed together - 9 squares per pillow. (We had two extras to choose between.) Now we had to pick the fabric. I had some charm packs of Kate Spain's 'Central Park' and Sanae's 'Arcadia'. We decided to go with 'Arcadia' and picked 12 fabrics.    B is way better at picking fabrics, so I just followed her lead.  Here's B's pillow laid out.

My pillow. 

We traded off pinning fabric in place and sewing.

Full windows are sewn.

1/2 windows added and sewn.

At this point we visited every fabric store and debated what fabric to use for the boarder and backing.  We tried every color combination that we could find that was contained in the fabrics.  Orange, yellow, greens, blues, browns.  Solids and prints.  We disliked all of them and hated a few. :)  Then we tried Kona charcoal.  I have no idea why the charcoal works.  There is no grey/charcoal in the prints.  The charcoal just works. 

The back has a zipper flap.  Tutorial found from 'House on Hill Road' zipper in your pillow tutorial.
It takes careful reading, but it works perfectly!

A beautiful pillow from a pretty perfect weekend.

quilt for a friend

In October a friend from church called and asked if I'd like some fabric and thread.  She was cleaning out her sewing room and getting rid of all the unfinished projects she'd never finish.  She gave me 3 shopping bags full of denim jeans, flannel, and some fleece.  She mentioned that she was saving the jeans and flannel to make a quilt - but knew she'd never get around to it.  (Uh, busy Mom of 3 kids - she's got a lot on her plate.)

I sorted through it and knew I needed to finish it for her.  I've never made a denim rag quilt, but my sister has made several flannel rag blankets.  With a few tips from her, I got started.

I knew I wanted reasonable size squares - so I choose the size of my square ruler - 6.5".  At first I thought I'd rotary cut everything, but it was easier to trace around the ruler with an ink pen and cut out the fabric.

I picked two fabrics for the back (red check and red plaid) and the rest for the front and the size was dictated by the amount of fabric she gave me. 8 x 13 squares for 104 squares.

I layered denim, cotton batting (cut 1 inch smaller) and flannel.  Sewing the x's was easy using the walking foot and marking a line on my sewing machine with blue painter tape.  I just kept the point of the square lined up with the edge of the tape and the lines turned out really straight. 

Layout just about drove me insane - but that's normal because I like patterns and I don't do random well.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough of each fabric to do stripes, so it had to be random.  It took several evenings of rotating squares before I liked it.

I was aiming for a finish by Christmas, but that wasn't going to happen, so the squares were stacked up and shoved to the side for a January finish.

The first week of January I was motivated to finish this quilt.  My machine chunked right through the thicknesses and I had the rows stitched together in the morning.  A quick break for lunch and it was all sewn together.  But I didn't like the aspect ratio.  If I had 4 more squares, I could move the bottom row to the side and make it 9x12 squares (108).  I found a few more flannel squares, found a pair of old jeans that had a hole in them and made 4 new squares.  I ripped the quilt apart, swapped a few squares, and laid it out again.  My only problem was that I didn't have one more red plaid square for the back so the pattern would be interrupted.  Ack!  But I liked the aspect ratio better so I decided to live with it and had a finished quilt that afternoon.

I waited until Friday (and a good movie) to 'cut' the fringe on every square.  Ouch is the only word for it.  2 layers of denim + flannel is thick.  And the seams where there were 4 layers of denim was insane.  I tried every pair of scissors that I own - the fiskars with the spring worked the best, but it was still a long and painful process. 

After everything was cut, I flipped over to the back and on a whim counted the red check and red plaid squares.  And realized that if I had just added the column to the opposite side, the pattern would have completely worked out.  So I ripped the column off, swapped squares again, and sewed it back on.  I really don't recommend sewing after you've cut the 'fringe', but I knew I'd regret if if I didn't.  (if it's worth doing ... it's worth doing right.  Ugh.  Stupid engineering brain.)

A trip through the washer and dryer and it was done.  (I ran the dryer in 20 minute increments to clean out the lint filter.  I was amazed at how much lint this quilt generated.)

I think it looks pretty great.   (Home Depot spring clams work great to attach quilts to fences!)

I delivered it on Saturday 7 January (only a little after my goal date of Christmas) and my friend loves it - and was surprised.  Yea!
Size: 49.5" x 66".  Big enough to snuggle under while watching tv yet small enough to not feel like you are being smothered.  This quilt is heavy!