A Year of Schnibbles - Leap Year

Leap Year by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company

The June Schnibbles pattern is Leap Year.  This one was easy and quick to piece.  I made mine lap size.  This was made with the Civil War reproduction strips that I rejected for the Block of the Week quilt in the last post.  Luckily, they were already cut the right size for this pattern.  My plan is to quilt this with cotton batting and wash it in hot water.  I'm hoping it will look like an antique quilt when I'm done.  I'm really happy with the way this has turned out so far!

Thanks to Carrie at Miss Rosie's Quilt Company for sharing this pattern with us!

Finally!

This is the Summer Block of the Week 2011 from Primitive Gatherings.  I promised myself I wouldn't start this year's blocks until I had last year's border appliqued, and it is done.  I'm doing a happy dance here!  These borders took forever - I think I started them in January.  A few small projects worked themselves in there, but I've been working on this big one steadily.  The flowers are all stacked, so it takes two or three trips around each one with the blanket stitch.  I really enjoy the process, but this one got a little tedious after about the 20th flower.  (Each of the cornerstone flowers is stacked, too.)

The store used a different setting, with piano key sashings and borders.  I pieced the sashings and borders that way, but didn't like the way it looked, so I ended up with a purple/tan Civil War reproduction fabric for the sashing and borders.  I'm happy with it - mine just looked too busy with my piano key fabrics. 

 Now I've just got to figure out how to quilt it.  This is a big quilt - at least big enough for a full bed.  I've seen some great quilting on the blogs; now if I can just replicate some of it with my sewing machine!  I got my Bernina 1230 cleaned and oiled, so I'm ready to tackle a machine quilting project when it's too hot to be outside this summer.

It's a good thing this is done - Block 4 of the 2012 Block of the Week arrives tomorrow.  It's going to be hot for the next few days, so I think I'll sit in front of the AC and get caught up on this year's Block of the Week!  I really enjoy these Block of the Week projects in the summer - this is my fifth year to do them.  Two of the year's projects are completely done and hanging on the walls, the 2011 quilt has the top done, and the 2010 quilt has the blocks made but nothing done with them.  I'm still waiting for inspiration on that one!

Thanks for stopping by.  I'm on vacation/staycation this week, so I'm hoping to have lots more to post about by the weekend!

It's Done!

The Professional Tote by The Creative Thimble

A few months ago, I saw The Professional Tote on another blog, and decided that was exactly what I need for traveling.  When my friend Donna and I went on our own personal quilt shop hop a couple weeks ago, my primary quest was fabric to make this tote bag.  When we walked into the second quilt shop, the owners were just unwrapping the new fabric from Buggy Barn, and Donna and I were both drawn to the wonderful paisleys and colors of this fabric.

I wasn't sure if I had what it took to make this bag - it has 3 zippers, two velcro tabs, two cord locks, and a ton of topstitching, not to mention sewing through interfacing everywhere - sometimes many layers of fabric and interfacing.  The pattern is great - it looked intimidating at first, but if you follow the instructions step by step, it goes very well.  I got to use lots of little-used features on my sewing machine, like the zipper foot, buttonhole foot, and topstitching foot!  I guess I'm used to doing quilts - I was wondering if I'd be able to get this bag done before my trip later this summer.  It never occurred to me that I'd be able to make it in a weekend LOL.

This is the back side of the bag.  The feature that sold me on this pattern is that horizontal strap right above the pocket.  It's a strap that slides over the handle of your rolling suitcase, so the bag will sit on top of it and not slide off to the side.   The pockets at the sides have cord locks and elastic cord, so your water bottle or umbrella can be cinched up in there.

The inside is also a Buggy Barn fabric.  There is a key fob, zippered pocket, velcroed pocket, and three other pockets inside as well.   The top zips shut to keep everything inside safe.  When you get done with this bag, there are no raw seams left exposed.

The only thing I'd do differently if I make this again is make the zippers all zip the same direction (duh!).  I didn't realize until I was done that the top zipper zips left to right, and the inside pocket zips right to left.  Maybe I can consider that feature a pickpocket deterrent.

I can't wait to go somewhere so I can use this!