This is a static export of a blog I put on ice many years ago, that still has personally relevant content. No promises can be made around linkrot, styles, or working functionality.
Last weekend, three shops in my area held a Shop Hop, and each gave away a pattern from Bloomin Minds along with a kit for the top. Intrigued by the prospect of a somewhat quick project, and willing to procrastinate on things I should be doing, I went ahead and did the piecing and fusing part of all three.
Thereās a lot of sewing and embroidery left for all of them, but thatās where they stand now. Iām not sure what to do about the dog oneā¦ the kit had fabric for letters that just doesnāt have contrast with the background. I hope that white stitching will help it stand out more. Iām going to try to finish them up this month to donate to my guildās boutique for our quilt show, but I do plan on making up at least one of the patterns in fabrics that will better match my house at some point.
As for things I should have been doing, and am working on this week:
These fabric pairs and zippers need to become samples for a class Iām teaching Saturday. None of them need to be fully finished, but I want to have visual examples of the different steps through construction. Oh, and I still need to write the instructions! So, back to that!
Every project has a story, but this one is more dear to me than most. It starts with a sewn tube of fabric that once contained cardboard, used to stiffen the base of a Vera Bradley bag.
Said bag was a gift to my youngest sister (Kaite) from our grandmother, who passed away last summer. It came into my possession via our other sister over Christmasāit was the only part of the bag that survived the fire that destroyed most of their possessions right before Thanksgiving.
Unpicked, it measured about 8.5″×16″, and miraculously had two full centered repeats of the main pattern. Perfect for a small zip bag with a boxed bottom, when paired with a mottled brown lining fabric from my stash and a couple of hardware pieces.
The dumb luck of the repeats meant that I was able to cut a matching front and back, making awesome matching patterns in the seams. I struggle to do this when I have a lot of fabric to work withāIām still in awe that I managed with such a small amount of fabric.
Itās hard to imagine that this bagās fabric started life as an odd little flat insert in another bag, but I hope its new life suits Kaite well.
Iāll find out soonā¦ Iām on my way to pick her up from the airport as this post goes live!
Itās February. Wow! January flew by and I accomplished less than half of what I hoped.
I hope to get back to posting more often now, but I still have a to-do list a mile long from January. Not to mention that my studio is in disarray thanks to an electrical problem that leaves me one (non-grounded) outlet. For reference, todayās photo is a Christmas present for 2012 that I finished this morning before work.
Having made six of these bags now, I think I have all the kinks worked out. Now I just have to figure out how to condense the time frame (it takes me about 3 hours to cut, quilt, and construct) into a two hour class. Good thing I have until May to figure it all out!
Things I should have sewn during free time last week:
A Tiramisu (I did finally trace the pattern pieces, at least.)
A quilted bag for a class sample (Iām teaching(!) in May, but need to have the sample on display at the next quilt guild meeting.)
A stuffed animal for a co-workerās baby (I had the other two done by the time the dads came back to work. This one has been back for two weeks nowā¦)
Take down Christmas decorations (We havenāt even managed to bring the boxes back up from the basement.)
Things I actually did with my free time last week:
Watched a lot of Doctor Who (couch lounging at its finest.)
Scraped a lot of wallpaper from the walls of our spare bedroom (and filled up a huge box, plus a 30 gal. trash bag of scrapingsāwith plenty more still on the ground.)
Messed around with free Embroidery software packages (rather unsuccessfully.)
Taught my friendās teenage daughter how to use her Christmas present (a.k.a. a sewing machine.)
The day was supposed to involve making PJ pants, but someone didnāt buy the right amount of fabric for the pattern when a gift of pattern, fabric, and notions was given (that would be me. doh.), so we cut out one leg, and realized we were short.
Never one to be stopped by so small a roadblock, Adele decided she wanted a stuffed elephant. We had plenty of fabric, but no pattern and limited notions. A bag was deemed ātoo simple.ā Iām starting to think you shouldnāt put two of us āthink outside the box despite little experienceā people in the sewing room together (or dining room, as it were). Grand plans of indeterminable possibility may be hatched.
Undeterred, she drew an elephant outline, we played with various bits of paper to figure out floppy ears, and a stuffed elephant was made!
The eyes have yet to be sewn onāitās not actually a voodoo doll, she just thought the pins were a good way of saving her place when stopping for dinner. Smart, if you ask me.
With the exception of one really problematic bit you canāt see because of the ear, caused by the ears and trying to sew a ¼″ seam with a lot of bulk right next to it, she did all the sewing. Not bad for the first time on her machine!
See, Iām now inspiring a new generation of sewists to come up with an off-the-cuff plan and find a way to make it work by some sort of fiddly magic as you go.
I donāt know if that is a good thing or bad. It seemed to work pretty well this time around.
Three presents down (including this one from last week), a handful more to go. I am making three of the cosmetics bags totalāthe finished one here, the one cut out and half quilted that is also shown, and one other.
Also, one more of the little zipper bags, and one or two other small things. By next Friday. Yikes! It has been fun working out the kinks in construction process for the big bags. I am not sure how to translate my finagling into a tutorial yet, though.
I havenāt been quilting lately, but I have been coming up with great ideas for the new year!
From around the web this week: The Oldest UFO from the Quilterās Newsletter Blog. Unlike the author, all of my unfinished latchhook projects are lost to the sands of time (I can think of at least three, one might have been finished). Did you do latchhook as a child (or adult, for that matter)?
Modern Mirage from Freshly Pieced. This is my favorite quilt I saw online this week.
One Christmas present down, quite a few more to go. The journal is store bought, but I whipped up the zippered pen bag. Quick, mostly pain free, and I only had to steal one thing from another project instead of running to the store (the zipper, but I have one in another color that will work for the other project anyhow).
The rest of my planned projects aren’t quite so simple.
My youngest sister Kaite loves Vera Bradley. She not-so-subtly hinted on Facebook to our other sister that said sister should buy her a laptop backpack for her birthday last week. Sane (also broke college) person that she is, other sister said no way, and so Kaite changed tack by claiming that she loves āRachael Arnoldā more than Vera. That little equivoque earned her a cosmetic bag in addition to the rest of her combined Christmas/Birthday/Finals Week present (Iād neither the time nor inclination to try making a laptop bag).
Itās quite a nice sized bag for toiletries or sundries. Itās around 11″×7″×4″. The outer fabric is quilted to cotton batting, and the zipper spans the entire top section, curving over about an inch on either side.
One side has a small handle with her initials, and a carrying strap attached via a clasp and D-ring.
I didnāt get a good photo, but Iām rather proud of how I managed to center the design on the hand strap.
The lining material is interfaced and has a label. All in all, the bag has a lot of body and was completely empty in the photos, so you can see that it stands fine on its own.
I believe Iām going to make another one or two of these in the next month or so. After I iron out the issues I had with this one, Iāll turn it into a tutorial if anyone is interested. The problem with making up a pattern like this as you go along means I forgot things like the lining when initially constructing it, and I still donāt know the exact length of the side piece, since I just sewed it onto the front and cut off the extra.
These are my youngest sisterās presents for her birthday/college finals week/Christmas (she get to go on a cruise over Christmas with her boyfriend and his family, so I wonāt see her this year). Iāll post more about the bag soon. The other is a hot iron sleeve for hair straighteners/curlers. I posted about it back in July.
The bag didnāt turn out half bad for something I made up as I went along. I never thought Iād use more than a 100m spool to quilt something so small though. I hate last minute runs to the store to buy thread for those last four inches of quilting. Happens to me all. the. time.
Now I need to remember to put them and the rest of the care package in the mail tomorrowā¦
ā¦and then maybe get a gallon of paint for our window seat š
Iāve been unproductive and messy and it has all culminated in my sewing room looking like this last night:
To be fair, itās because Iām trying to reorganize everything and had just removed the desk that served as my cutting table to make way for a new cutting table with storage (also known as a dresser), a new bookshelf, and a new desk for my sewing machine (anyone want a Singer Touch and Sew c. 1976? It needs service, but it comes built into a desk and has all its parts to the best of my knowledge. Free to anyone willing to cart it away from my house in Utica, NY. Ferris? Bueller?).
But, it was quite a mess to begin with and really has been for about 9 months since I originally set it all up. In that time, Iāve found some things that work, and some that donāt, so this week seems like a good time to start over, particularly because Iām sort of in-between projects and bouts of creativity (I do have projects that my brain wants me to be working on, but artistic me just isnāt feeling them).
In the past few weeks of non-posting, Iāve only made a couple of things. One was a present for my friendās son, which in now late and still not mailed. I decided to pull the embroidery unit out for it.
I downloaded this free (at the time) Pirate Octopus from Daily Embroidery a while back, and thought it was perfect. Because I donāt entirely trust designs I find on the internet, I stitched out a sample on a scrap.
Awesome (ignoring the jump stitches I didnāt snip cleanly). The final one is in different colors (but same thread types). It is stitched directly onto the bag. It isnāt nearly as awesome, because when my bobbin ran out halfway through, I grabbed a normal-weight white bobbin, not the spare bobbin-weight one I thought I had. Using bobbin thread really does make a differenceāwith normal-weight thread, the bobbin threads pulled up in certain areas.
Bummer. But, it is ok. I just need to remember to mail it.
The last thing I finished is a bag that will be filled with craft supplies for my quilt clubās service project. I made a pattern for them, which I hope to turn into a blog post later this week (I finished the pattern for the club about 30 min. before the meeting yesterday).
Now, I need to get everything back in order post haste, because I promised my sister a āRachael Arnoldā zippered bag in lieu of the āVera Bradleyā one she keeps asking our other sister for. Her birthday is tomorrowā¦ Iām a bit behind these days.
I havenāt sewn much in last couple of weeks. My motivation is about as deflated and floppy as this not-yet-stuffed dog I made to go with the baby quilt I have yet to photograph for you. Time got away from meāI need to get it in the mail, ASAP!
