Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
Another quilt that was handed in at Sew Day was made during the February 2020 Community Sew Day. I made a bunch of blocks and may have even sewn them together.
This is a really nice quilt and I hope the person who receives it enjoys it.
I keep thinking of cutting more pieces these sizes so I can make more of these donation quilts, but I haven’t done it yet. It would be better if the pieces were more standard sizes, like 5 inches and 2.5 inches.
Another one of my creations that was handed in at Sew Day was Ends n.8. I only have a bad photo, so it was hard to figure out that this gorgeous quilt was actually the one I made.
Tim, again, did the quilting and Mary C added the binding. I like using up the edges of quilts and this one turned out great. As mentioned in the previous post, the ends that make up this quilt came from the Stepping Stones n.2 quilt, I think. I also added more Bonnie and Camille fabric.
As usual, Tim did a great job quilting it. the swirls are a little different, but organic looking and interesting.
I finally finished the binding on the X Quilt!!I feel like I usually get the quilt bindings done faster. This one felt like it took forever.
Fortunately, I had a deadline and I got the quilt done before the deadline. I watched some Midsommer Murders with my Mom and was able to sew while I watched.
I took the photo in a hotel room. The best position was laying it on one of the beds. I was pleased that the quilt fit, with an overhang, on a queen sized bed.
Friday, I spent some time looking through all the patterns I have collected to see if there was a quick project that would inspire me. I moved some to other places my computer and deleted some in which I was no longer interested. It is always good to do a bit of Spring Cleaning.
This Spring Cleaning reminded me of the Triple Zip pattern from A Quilter’s Table. I have had this Triple Zip pouch pattern waiting around for 7 years. I thought it might be a good quick go-to gift pattern I could make over and over. I haven’t found such a thing and hope springs eternal.
Kelly Orr and I talked about this pouch years ago and she gave me the zippers to use before she moved away. I have had them segregated out from my other zippers all this time.
I know I didn’t tell you that I started this project. I started cutting on Saturday and nearly finished it by Saturday evening. I had one more seam to finish sewing on Sunday, then turning it and done!
The pattern doesn’t have a lot of pieces, but they do need to be labelled. I didn’t do that and was somewhat confused. The pattern requires careful attention, especially to the renaming of the zippers part way through the project. Labeling the pieces can reduce this confusion.
If I made this again, I would omit the fusible fleece on the top of the project (where the yellow dot fabric is in my pouch). It made turning the project a little difficult and the top too thick for my taste.
I was also confused about the finishing. I think I did ok, but the top of the inside still has some raw edges. They are less than an inch and don’t show, but I am concerned that there will be unraveling. I am unclear whether I finished the inside correctly. I also wonder if there is a different way to finish the inside. I plan to send the extra pattern I printed to Lynette to see what she thinks.
I also added a leash, which I always like to do for pouches.
A Quilter’s Table had a sew-along for this pouch and the post showed over 70 pouches! She also has a tag in which you can see many other Triple Zips as well as links to others doing classes and other sew-a-longs with the pattern. It is very popular!
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 finally made a One Hour Basket that has been on my list for a long time.
I finally made it thinking I was making it for the multitude of remotes I have in my workroom. I am not going to use it for that, because I used fusible fleece and not Soft & Stable, so it wasn’t as stiff. I wanted a One Hour Basket that I could use to organize my various card decks. This one won’t work for the remotes, but it will work for the decks.
I have undoubtedly become a Sew Sweetness groupie. I want to spend time making all of the projects I have in my library.
The Piebald Pouch is my first finished project from Minikins Season 3. I have to say that it went better than many of my other pouch and small bag projects. For whatever reason, all of the pieces and parts went together smoothly and I had very little trouble.
Except for the front panel. You can see that I didn’t line up the flowers properly, so the ones on the front panel are sideways. I still like it.
The pouch is a little bit of an odd shape. This one is for me and I am not sure how I will use it.
This was a fairly easy sew. I started it last week and would have finished it sooner, but have been so swamped that I just didn’t have a moment. It was fun and a charge to finish it on Sunday.
I might be having a fit of reorganization. At least you might be thinking that after seeing yesterday’s post and reading today’s. I am sort of.
I have a number of acrylic templates for various projects. Many are for pouches and bags that I will make over and over. They come in thin plastic bags. Ideally I would like a set of map drawers in which to store them. Until I can take over the entire house, that isn’t happening. I have been looking at various bag patterns for ideas on how to store them.
This is my first attempt. The I-Spy pouch from Sew Sweetness’ Minikins Season 1 fits my templates for a Minikins Season 2 project called the Day Trip Wallet. Not all of my templates will fit in the various sizes of the I-Spy pouch, but some will and that is a start.
The pattern comes with 3 sizes (this is the medium size). It is a very quick sew, so I can look through my other templates to see which will fit in the various sizes. I am thinking I can easily adjust the sizes to fit other templates. Finding the right-sized zipper will be the challenge if I change the size. I have a bunch of different sizes, so I should be able to manage.
I am still looking for a bag pattern with slots in different sizes that I can just slide the templates into and not worry about resizing. I have been looking at Yoko Saito’s bags, especially this rectangular bag from Natural Patchwork. It might be too small, but I like the shape. I’d have to make different blocks for the front.
The Pink Kaffe quilt is finished. Colleen did a fantastic job quilting it.
Tim kindly held this monster while I photographed it. It came out so well! I am really pleased with the quilting.
I am really thrilled with the Superbloom finish!
First I am excited with how well the bag came out.
Next I am excited at how well the fussy cutting looks.
Third, I am thrilled with how the Linework print and my strips fit together.
Fourth, I am ridiculously happy about the top zipper placket. I don’t know why this bit of a bag makes me so giddy. I don’t think I have ever done one before, so that may be part of it. I’ll probably come down off my cloud tomorrow.
Finally, I just love those turquoise zippers. Could they be any better? They add such a spark of color.
The lining is a little baggy even though I followed the directions and used different seam allowances. Not sure what that is about, but I will do better next time.
I was surprised at the size of the bag. I thought it was much larger. It isn’t a stupid size or anything. It is a reasonable size, just smaller than I thought. I really like the angled shape, though I don’t know if you can tell that from the top photo. I forgot to put a D-ring in it, though I know where I will put one next time. I plan to make another of these, especially since I bought the templates. So many bag patterns…so little time.
I made another Retreat Pouch the other day. I cut up the fabric when I went to visit Tim, then decided to sew the pouch on Saturday.
I am ridiculously pleased at how this Retreat Pouch came together. I think it looks great!
It is also a great project. Once the pieces are cut the bag goes together in a couple of hours. I think I talked about this before.
First, I love the fabric. This fabric is one of Anna Maria’s Hindsight prints. I received it in one of the Modern Handmade subscription boxes I received last year. Can you believe how lucky I got on the cutting? It looks like I intended to match the flower on either side of the zipper.
I really wanted to make the larger size, but one fat quarter is not enough to make one pouch, so I resorted to this size again. I bought two frames in each size, so I can choose some different fabrics that I have in larger quantities to make the larger version.
Second, the sewing went very well and the pouch looks professionally sewn. I am pleased with how the zipper ended up looking based on the instructions. I went an extra step by pinning the zipper down rather than holding it while I sewed and I think that helped. I knew where to pin it because I measured. I think this is another version of ‘veering’ the zipper that I have talked about with the Cotton Candy Pouches and the UCAB 45 degree angle technique.
Third, turning the pouch using the interior zipper pocket was a smooth process. Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness has a tutorial. I don’t know why I don’t add these pockets for turning all the time.
This is not part of the pattern, but it is easy to add to any pouch or bag. I had to think carefully about the size because of the boxed corner. Despite my care, I still think the bottom of the pocket goes below the curve on the bottom of the pouch. I don’t think it really matters. For the moment I don’t know what I will put in that interior pocket.
I say this is an easy pocket to put in, but I always need to refer to general directions. I also have Sara Lawson’s Acrylic Zipper Pocket Template (no affiliation) and that makes the marking super speedy. I also saw one by Piera (no affiliation), which includes purse feet measurements as well.
I did watch the video before I sewed the first Retreat Pouch. I vowed to watch it again before making this one, but I didn’t. I don’t know why because it is a good resource.
I put my new Snap Setter and all of my Snap Setter Supplies in this pouch.
Here are a few more pictures of the zipper.
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.
Some time ago, I though about making some eye masks as gifts.This came up when my eye doctor said to put a hot compress on my eyes every night to prevent something I can’t remember now. I was suffering from whatever it was (stys?) at the time and the doc was concerned. I had never had them before, but when I told my mom, she said she gets them all the time. Then another friend said the same thing and here I am.
I know the side I closed after filling the eye mask is oddly shaped. The others came out better.
I used the Chloe Mullaney pattern with some changes. I guess I basically only used the pattern piece. This isn’t a difficult project: cut out the pattern piece from fabric, sew right sides together, fill with rice and close up. Yes, I used rice, because I wasn’t sure how other fillings would act in the microwave.
I bought a hand towel at Tuesday Morning to use as the back, which was not part of the pattern. I thought a towel would be more comfortable and more absorbent than quilting cotton. I wanted something pretty for the front, but purely functional for the back. I was able to get 3 pieces out of the fluffy part of one hand towel. The Tuesday Morning towel was very good quality, but not expensive.