I finally finished Grama’s 2d Grab Bag. She lost the first one, perhaps I mentioned it? I am really sad she lost the first one, because I really liked that one. Oh well.
I wrote (sewed??) her name with my stitch letters in the handle, so perhaps the next finder will return it to her. Perhaps I should start the next one? 😉
I used Aurifil thread and two different light fabrics for the inside so she could see what was in there. The leaf fabric is one I have had, but since I hadn’t used it, I thought it would be fine to use for this project.
I really like the Martha Negley giant vegetable prints. I am not sure why except that they are really different. This one was a much darker color than I thought when I bought it (online), which I mentioned when I made this pattern back in October. I was a little unsure what I would do with it.
This tote bag pattern is great! It is a good size and it is a useful size. I sew the straps a little differently than the pattern suggests, because I prefer the straps to be inside the seam. Otherwise this is a very clever pattern that goes together relatively easily and quickly.
I also think large scale fabrics show up very well on this pattern design.I finally learned to put the contrast fabric behind the pocket! TFQ likes to use the same fabric for the middle panel, but I like the way I have done it in the picture. I hope I remember to do it that way next time!
I have an idea in my head to make one of these a month all year. We will see: two months down, 2 bags complete.
My next wishlist item for this pattern is to make a bottom out of the fusible Timtex like stuff that Anna Maria Horner uses for the Multi-tasker tote and insert that to give the bag some stability.
I can’t wait until this bag is done, but I also haven’t worked on it much! I know, really I do, that they don’t get done by magic. The side shown above is half sewn together.
Sugar Pop Chubby Charmer side 2
The side show above is completely sewn together.
I was really busy working on FOTY 2010 over the long weekend. I tried to work on it every spare moment I had, because I don’t want it lingering. I want to finish that baby and take it to the quilter. Since I am using the Chubby Charmer (CC) piece as leaders and enders, I didn’t get much work done on it, because I just used other FOTY 2010 diamonds as leaders and enders.
I was thinking about the inside of the CC, the straps and the filling, however. I think that I will add some interfacing to the straps as well as batting just to give them a little more substance. If I have enough fabric I will use the icky green/white dot (bottom photo, 3rd fabric from the right, 2 up from the bottom) as the inside. I may only have half a yard, which won’t be enough.
I was also thinking about using some leftover batting instead of the fusible fleece. I have batting scraps and would have to buy fusible fleece. I wonder if there would be a noticeable difference? I don’t remember the fusible fleece sticking all that well when I made the first Chubby Charmer. I do remember it being stiffer, though. I could add fusible to the batting I have. I do want this one to stand up like the first one does, but I would also like to use what I have. I’ll have to think about it.
I figured out why the other layout didn’t look right. In very tiny writing at the end of the first instruction, the pattern said “repeat for side 2.” I generally skim directions, so I didn’t see it the first time around and had to carefully read every word to find that crucial piece of the process. I am glad I did!
Sugar Pop Side 2
I picked out a dot to go with these fabrics. The charm pack didn’t have quite enough squares for the pattern, but that shouldn’t be a problem. However, I didn’t finish FOTY 2010 at the retreat, so I will have to put this on the back burner until I do finish it.
I finally broke down and am making another Chubby Charmer. I use my first Chubby Charmer all the time. It is a great bag.
TFQ gave me a charm pack of Sugar POP squares by Liz Scott for Moda. I like it because it is a cheerful pack. I needed some leaders and enders while I worked on other projects, so I laid the charms out on my design wall and sewed a bit.
My favorite fabric is the flower fabric with the turquoise background (second from the left, top row).
The layout you see is not exactly correct in terms of the Chubby Charmer pattern. It is correct in the placement of the fabrics. Notice I have placed the browns on the bottom? 😉 I haven’t wrapped my head completely around the Chubby Charmer pattern yet, which is why not much has been sewed and I have layout wrong.
This fabric was really a pain to cut. I cut it raw edge to raw edge, because I wanted the coffee cups to be right side up when I carried the bag. It really took a long time to cut, as a result.
I am pleased, however with the results. I wish I had switched the pocket fabric and the front panel fabric, but the colors go together, so I am ok with the way it turned out. I do have to sew up the opening on the inside that I used to turn the bag.
I am not working on one in the Martha Negley black vegetable print that I used before. I wanted to use up that fabric in the black for these style of bags.
I am trying to decide if I will make enough of them to give as gifts at Christmas. Shock, horror, I know, but I have to start thinking about it now, because I have to make 12 or so if I do decide to make them.
I stumbled across this on Great Recycled Gifts website. I don’t think I want to use a metal bag, but I can definitely see the advantages. I also love the shape of this bag. I may have to see about making a bag that shape.
This is the finished Flea Market Bag by Grand Revival Designs. It is made with Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner in the grape colorway.
I have mixed feelings about this bag. The straps weren’t the same length when I went to topstitch them together at the end of the process. The bag was easy to put together and especially to turn, but the straps ended up a different length (probably my fault when I traced the pattern), so I had trouble sewing the straps together.
Also, the maker has to press all the edges of the strap under before topstitching, which was a pain, but turned out ok in the end.
The bag is a little small for a tote. It is more handbag sized, but may fit an iPad or Kindle or something. I don’t know yet if I’ll keep it or give it as a gift.
As I mentioned, I opened a Cafe Press store around Thanksgiving (http://www.cafepress.com/Artquiltmaker). I was thrilled to check on the sales and had two sales after only two days. AWESOME! if you are reading this and you bought something, thanks! I know it doesn’t sound like a lot to you big time retail executives, but I am excited. Don’t worry! I am not going to harangue you with sales pitches all the time, but won’t you go take a look and buy?
American Patchwork & Quilting Winter 2010
The Henry Glass Designer Holiday showcase of Project Goodness (or whatever it is called) just ended or is about to end. Linda Lum DeBono (Mark Lipinski’s friend) started out the first day with her blog post. She showed the picture above and I thought it was very like It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap, but much cuter. Is there another Christmas quilt in my future? I don’t know. I’ll buy the magazine, though. In general I found this blog hop confusing and gave up after a day or two. I did enjoy seeing the artists’ work.
Heather Muldur Peterson is also on the Project Hit Parade (or whatever it is called) and she has a great project in her blog post using her new fabric line called Artful Home. I like the way the stripes work in the piece. The colors are very vivid. She must have great light (or a special secret) for photographing. Her project is a dish passer, which I needed the other night. Perhaps I will make one. I assume I will have to make one for each of my baking dishes, so perhaps not.
I joined Creating the Hive when Lisa F of C&T Publishing invited me. I don’t do much there except repost my blog post and respond to comments. I was thrilled when my Red Journal post was featured last week! It makes me feel like all this writing is valuable! If you want an invitation, leave a comment and I will invite you. I think you can join without an invitation as well.
Last week I talked about the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting I attended. At that meeting, Adrianne brought a bag she had made. I really liked the bag and was thinking that I should buy the pattern. I thought I might have bought it already as the Grand Revival name rang a bell. I did a search in my blog to see if I had bought it and found that I had THOUGHT about buying that exact same bag pattern, but apparently didn’t. I wrote a blog post about it back in September. Perhaps that is a sign that I should actually buy the pattern, which I didn’t. Yes, I am still lamenting hte fact that I have so many bag patterns and haven’t made many fo them.
I did see a free bag pattern from Rebeka Lambert of Artsy Craft Babe, which might satisfy my urge for a new bag pattern. I really want to make some gifts for the holidays, but time is slipping and I am only wishing. We’ll see. Not having to wait for a pattern to arrive buys me time.
Somehow, in clicking around, I ended up at Kathy Loomis’ blog. She didn’t have a lot of pictures and sometimes I am too pressed for time to read a lot of words (I should remember that when I am going on and on, right?), but her post about taking a leap in art quilt imagery was interesting. I don’t know if I agree with her completely, but it was interesting to read some writing about going beyond the “bad, citing “clunky, obvious images” and “sappy, crappy ugly quilts or embroideries or puff-painted sweatshirts.” I think I got a glimpse of reaching beyond during the fabric exercise at the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting. I have been struggling with putting fabrics together and that exercise (which I am more and more in awe of as time goes by) really helped me. I don’t want to make representational quilts or quilts about AIDS or depression or the impending train wreck that is environmental disaster. I do want to reach beyond what I am doing now. I am not sure what that means quite yet, but since this quilt adventure is a process for me, I am sure I will reach and find it.
REACH BEYOND
I saw a feature story on the web about a grave in Massachusetts on Andi Stern’s blog with a really interesting carving of a cephalopod on it. Cthulhu was in the title of the story and I didn’t know what what it meant so I looked it up on Wikipedia and found some clarification on some other aspects of the story. Regardless, the image looks like a cheerful beast and I thought some child might like it on a quilt some day, so I saved the photo to my inspiration file.
Remember this bag? I was reading the Martha Stewart blog and saw it referenced again there. This version by Liesl of City Weekend fabric by Moda and her own company, Oliver + S. I am not a big fan of that green, but the whole look really works. I need to get the pattern out and make it! I have all hardware and have for awhile. Love those dots. I wonder if I have them? 😉
TFQ and I spent a fewer days at PIQF this year, because we wanted to sew. I think that was a good choice, though we didn’t really find a quilt we wanted to make together. I enjoy it when we work on blocks together. I always learn a lot and think we do good work together.
Grab Bag by Sandy's Designs
As I mentioned I bought a bag pattern called Grab Bag from Sandy’s Designs. I wasn’t able to find a website, but I found it at the Cranberry Quiltworks booth. When we returned, I worked on this bag and got advice from TFQ while she pressed fabric.
When looking at the bag from this angle, it is a great bag. I thought this pattern was a little bit fiddly. I didn’t really like making the patchwork for it. I think that is just a personal preference and not a problem with the bag pattern. Fortunately the designer gives directions on making the bag with longer strips. I want to try that. If I make these in any large scale way, I wouldn’t make a patchwork inside.
The designer gives options for different sizes and ideas for fabric placement.
The triangles used in the bag are all half square triangles. They are cut in that manner so that the bias is along the hypotenuse. The top of the bag is no exception. I think the pattern would be stronger if the designers suggested that people cut those pieces in the manner of cutting quarter square triangles so that the bias is not along the top of the bag. Granted, the makers sews the top right away.
The bag looks good in the photo, because I stuffed it full of batting to make it look good. I am not sure I like the unstructured nature of the bag as a whole. I am also having a hard time imagining how I would use it. It would be a good gift bag.
I added a little batting to the handles, too, and applied them using the method described in the Chubby Charmer pattern.
Jane Market Tote
I also, finally, tried the Jane Market Tote pattern from Posy Gets Cosy. The pattern is a downloadable PDF, so you can go right now and buy it. I bought the Martha Negley fabric some weeks ago. I had been searching for the violet colorway, which I found. At the same time, the shop also had this black colorway. I couldn’t tell if it was black or a very dark purple before I bought it. When it came, I found the colorway to be a little grim. Still, it is a good fabric for tote bags, especially for boys moving out on their own. I do like the design of the vegetables scattered over the fabric.
Martha Negley Fabric
Anyway, TFQ has made a number of these bags. She uses them as the wrapping for gifts when she gives new parents receiving blankets. She encouraged me to make the bag while she was here, so I could ask her questions. I learn a lot better when someone shows me what to do as opposed to trying to figure things out from reading a pattern.
This is a great pattern. Lots of good instructions, no mistakes or weird things happening with the instructions. There are some nice little touches the designer uses to make the pattern a little more finished.
I do want to use some interfacing in the bottom just to give it a bit more structure. I’ll try it out and see how that works for me.
I think the bag is a little small. It is much smaller than a grocery bag. In a way that it is good, because it means I won’t fill it up completely and not be able to carry it.
I applied the put them on applied the handles using the method described in the Chubby Charmer pattern.
I plan to make a few more of those bags with the black Martha Negley fabric.
This is the larger size of the Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote. I wanted to make a bag that worked with the Moda Half Moon fabric after the Mini Multi didn’t turn out as expected. I am pretty pleased how this one turned out.
Half Moon Tote – detail
I might be done with this pattern. I dug the Cruzer & Little Cru pattern out and may start working on that.
This is one of the totes that made over the past week or so. I think I bought the fabric when I was in Maryland a few years ago. I bought the fabric specifically for a tote bag. It has been in my tote bag fabric box for awhile. I started to wonder why I bought it and then I found a great use for it. I like the fabric, but it turns out not to be a fabric that I would carry around. I think I bought it at the beginning of my tote bag making mania when I didn’t have a lot of tote bag fabrics.
I was on a mission to start using some of the fabric I bought on my recent trips. I decided that after hauling the regular sized AMH MTT around for a couple of weeks that it was time to test out my mini version.
AMH Mini Mult-tasker Tote
Bottom line: I don’t like it. My basic problem is that it is handbag sized, not tote bag sized. What I really wanted was the AMH MTT in a slightly smaller tote bag size. I definitely did not want a handbag. I use leather handbags, because I am brutal on them. This bag looks fine, especially from this photo angle, but looks slightly out of proportion to my exacting eye.
It went together pretty well until I had to insert the lining into the exterior. I found out that the lining was much too big (did I forget to downsize?). I used tucks to make it work.
I used the pink straps instead of the straps I had originally made for this tote. I really liked the straps I made and only had a half yard of that fabric. When I decided I didn’t like this tote, I decided to save the straps for a different bag. I think the pink looks nice against the black and white. You’ll see the second version soon!
AMH Mini Mult-tasker Tote (detail)
The fabrics are fabulous and I have enough of the Moda Half Moon large dot to make another regular sized tote. I don’t have anymore of the lining fabric. It reminded me of a 1940s bathing suit fabric.
AMH Mini Multi-tasker tote (size comparison)
Above you can see the size comparison to the regular sized AMH MTT. I thought I only cut off 1″ on each size of the Mini MTT, but must have cut off more.
My mom had a good idea, which was to take the original pattern sheets to a copy place and have them reduce the size proportionally. It is a great idea and I wish I had thought of it sooner.
I have a bunch of other small projects that I have made and will post soon.
I met Faye on a list back in the dark ages of the Internet, when normal users couldn’t upload any photo they wanted and write in a blog.
She and her husband came to visit me when I was on maternity leave and took a shine to The Child. They became his unofficial New Zealand grandparents. Every year for his birthday, they send him a classic New Zealand children’s book and write him a nice note.
Faye and I have also kept in touch, sharing our recent quilt projects, bags and stories about our families. Faye had less time to sew during the past few years as she cared for ill husband. After he died, she went on a world tour to visit her family and has started to sew again.
Faye's Rose Bag
She calls these bags her Yin Yang bags. The pattern is by Jaime Kalvestran of Scrap Bags o Minnesota.
Faye's Rose Bag - backFaye's Black & White Ying Yang BagFaye's Black & White Ying Yang Bag - backFaye's Black, Brown & White Ying Yang Bag
Faye writes about these bags “I made several in the same Japanese fabrics; the blue and white ones were from unpicked antique kimonos. There are two inside pockets, suitable for a mobile phone and for keys, and the bag is deep enough for a wallet. Now I am “bagged-out” but may make more for gifts later.”
