{Post #849} Sew-y Tote Bag Gift

OK, so this should be on my secret projects blog, but I don't think the recipient will know it is for her.  I am not even sure she reads my blog any more.  A-n-y-w-a-y-s...I am uncharacteristically thinking ahead for some gifts for Christmas, birthdays, Christmas, babies being born soon, Christmas, etc.  I really wanted to sew tonight.  It's been a while since I've spent quality time with my Janome.

I got the bright idea to make this certain person a tote bag.  I was looking at patterns the other day.  I liked different things about different patterns, so I combined all of them into this bag.  It does not look that impressive in the pictures, but you know how sometimes pics just don't do an item justice?  My husband and dear-soon-to-be-17-year-old daughter both really liked it.

For the past few months I've been collecting selvages.  I had seen some cute ideas out there and thought I'd wish I had some if I ever saw a pattern I just had to make.  Being a scrappy quilter just overflows into other scrappiness.  I decided to make a band of selvages to fit at the top of my tote.  Here is a section close up...

I added a few non-Thimbleberries just to see who was paying attention!

For the handles, I took a 4" side piece of fabric x 25" long and ironed it in half lengthwise, wrong sides together.  I then ironed in a piece of (are you ready for this) IRON-ON interfacing 1" x 25" along the fold on the inside (I'm a little loopy tonight...don't know why).  Then I folded both sides in and ironed them.  I ended up with a 4-layer piece with no exposed seams with a piece of interfacing in there somewhere.  I topstitched it with 5 rows of stitching.  Cute.  Durable.  Not extremely stiff.  Matches the bag. 

One other "Joan" feature...I cut a strip from a leg from a pair of jeans from which I made another gift (pics to come) that was laying on my cutting table (are you following this?).  I used that to make the bottom of the tote bag so it would be more durable.  Genius, right??  Hee hee...

The whole shebang (except for the selvages) was meander quilted with a variegated heavy thread in primary colors.  It matches the spool fabric very well.

Here is a picture of the whole thing...

An hour and a half well spent.  Hope she likes it!!

~Joan

{Post #848} New Group and SOK Progress

Rachel met a woman at the craft show last week that invited her to a "sit and knit" group that meets at a local church on Tuesday nights.  Since R doesn't drive (not many 13-year-olds do), I drove her over and took my Apple Core/Seeds of Kindness quilt to hand quilt while we were there.  We enjoyed lots of conversation and got some handwork done, too.  It was a really fun time.  I am about halfway finished.  I was going to edit a picture, but it won't upload for some reason.

Rachel is knitting a scarf with a snowflake motif in it that she designed herself.  She is a knifty knitter...so fast and accurate. 

My log cabin quilt center is complete.  It is 43" square.  I am considering adding a very small border as a frame, possibly 1-1/2" finished.  I will need to measure the wall where it will be hung tomorrow and see if that will make it too large.  Here it is...I love it!

Also finished my I Spy quilt center for now.  This will make it easy to see if I already have a particular fabric in it.  I only have a limited amount of the blues (which is unusual since I'm usually not threatened with running out of a fabric because my quilts are scrappy and I'm cutting off bolts).  I had what I thought was a great idea for adding the sashing and cornerstones to the 4-1/2" blocks, but I now think that the old-fashioned way is best.  Here is one block.  I added a plain blue strip to the right of every block.  Those were ironed out.  Then I added a light blue strip with a dark blue square on the end.  Every block had strips on two sides.  It went fine, but I wouldn't do it that way again.

Here is one block...

A close-up of two of my favorite sections...



The whole thing...so far.  This is 32" x 43".  Once I get my cutting table cleaned off, I will cut up a bunch more of my I Spy fabric collection.

Hello to my new friend, Barbara, from Sit & Knit!  She said she'd look at my blog soon.  Hope she does!

~Joan

{Post #847} The Tale of Two Quilts

This pile is the beginning of a new I Spy quilt.  I'm making it for someone who is not pregnant yet.  It's going to be a big one (quilt, not baby), so I wanted to work on it gradually.  I will show some progress on it later (today or tomorrow).  After that, it will only be available on my secret blog. 

This is my log cabin quilt wall hanging for my very own house...most likely the living room.  I am sewing the rows to each other in between assembling the I Spy quilt from above.  I am going to hand quilt it.  Any design ideas besides Baptist Fans?  That is the way I'm leaning, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Off to sew a little more.  Rachel and I are meeting a group of local ladies for a sit and knit time tonight.  I will be hand quilting.  Think they'll notice?  At the craft show last week a man stopped at my table to make conversation.  He looked at all my quilts and said, "Someone's been doing a lot of crocheting!"  Yes--he was talking to me.

~Joan

{Post #846] Quilt Show

The workmanship on all of these was tremendous.  The first two have an amazing use of color.

The Baltimore Album was hand appliqued with needle turn method.  Whew--don't even want to know how many hours that took!  Plus, it was a mini!

I like scalloped borders.  Gonna make me something with one some time.

The last one is a mini.  I forget how small, but small enough to be admired!!

~Joan

{Post #845} More Quilt Show Pics

I have not done a lot of sewing this week.  My dear husband and two of my girls are gone to Wisconsin to check out a college.  I am preparing some gifts for this weekend that involve precise painting.  I aim to make my December "Count On It" quilt soon.  I did get background fabric and buttons for "baby Jesus" yesterday.  To give you something to look at, here are some more quilts from the Asheville quilt show.

This first one was paper pieced diamonds.  I have done some paper piecing.  Not a big fan (one word:  waste!).

Not one I'd have in my home, but cool techniques...

Wonky logs, houses and angels...cute!

Neat playing around with circle template...

My husband's stepfather made ceramic beads.  This quilt has beads made from strips of fabric on each little rectangle block.  A bonus?  A plethora of various textures of ribbon/stuff hanging from the right side.  Had an African feel to it.

~Joan

{Post #844} November Count On It Quilt Finished!

That means I better get a jump on December's before it's 11/30!!  Has anyone "blushed" cheeks on fabric?  Did you use something other than paint?  I am going to experiment with a nativity pattern and "blush" baby Jesus's cheeks before I sew the fabric onto the quilt.

Here is my November quilt.  I like it twice as much as my October one.  Here are some things I did differently that make it more likeable to me. 

I am probably spoiled because I am usually piecing quilt blocks and just use whatever thread without worrying about it matching.  I used clear monofilament thread and zigzagged around all of the applique shapes.  On my first one, I used matching thread and a machine blanket stitch.  I don't like the stitching to show that much!  I only had to change out to coordinating thread for the veins of the leaves.

For this one, I fused the pieces on, then sewed the outside edges to finish the quilt, then did the above zigzagging.  On the first one I did what the directions said and did my applique stitching before assembling the quilt.  That meant I had to quilt it after turning it right side out and all.

I did this hanging sleeve like I do on one of my regular quilts.  The way the book tells you to do it, the sleeve is sewn down before any quilting, so you have to quilt around them, which does not look good along the top of the quilt.

The book also tells one to stitch the opening at the bottom closed by machine.  I did this one by hand, and I think the result is much nicer.

So, overall, I am much more pleased with this one than the last.

On to Baby Jesus!!

~Joan

{Post #843} Border Quilting Begun

OK, so the picture is horrible.  See the lines on the above picture in the top and right side border?  That is where I've quilted so far.  I got a lot done at Rachel's music lessons today.  I had a slow start because I could not get my gray pencil sharp.  The lead kept breaking and that was so frustrating. 

I finished the little bit of hand sewing on my November calendar quilt.  I also tied off all the starts and stops by hand.  More explanation about that later.

~Joan