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!

Design Wall Monday - May 28

This nice long weekend included some quilting time! I pieced the top for this lap quilt - Urban Cabin by Atkinson Designs. It was really quick and fun to put together - this is a pattern I'll use again for charity quilts. The large rectangle can be strip pieced, or you can use a striped fabric and skip that step. This still needs some borders and then it can be quilted.

I also had time to finish up my Doc quilt for the Schnibbles Parade.  I added a row, to make this a lap-size quilt.  That meant that the borders needed to be adjusted to fit, so I had to get a little creative with that.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out - the fabric is Lovely by Sandy Gervais.

A couple wool projects got finishing touches this weekend, too...

Tulip Basket Table Mat

Pincushion Candle Mat

The other quilt I'm working on is last summer's Block of the Week from Primitive Gatherings.  This top needs to be done before June 6, when the 2012 BOW starts!  The borders are taking forever!  I've been working on them for months, but I think I'm getting close to done.  I'll post these when they're finished.

Hands 2 Help Update

Deadlines are a good thing!  If we didn't have these updates, I'd never get around to posting, or to finishing anything, for that matter.

My Hands 2 Help quilt is done - quilted and bound!

 I love how it turned out - see how nicely it matches my Mother's Day flower basket?  I didn't have a partner choose a palette for me, since I wanted to use some of my novelty prints.  This was a fun quilt to make, and a pattern I'll use again for charity quilts.  It went together pretty quickly.

The back is pieced, too...

It uses the same prints found in the front, along with a little lime green. 

Now I just have to decide if this should go to the chemo patients or sent with the church group to New Orleans - any thoughts about that?  It's more of a kid's quilt, since I used the novelty fabrics.  It finished at about 60" square.  It's really prettier in real life than these pictures show - the pink looks pretty overwhelming in this picture! 

About a year ago, our guild had Ann Wanke from The Quilted Basket teach a workshop, and I made this Twister quilt from Dilly Dally charm packs and a little yardage.  I loved working with that fabric - it was so soft and silky, and such bright, happy colors.  This quilt finished at 44", so it's a little under our limit for Hands 2 Help.  I machine quilted it with the flower motif that's in the fabric.  It's done and ready to go to a new home, too.



Since I haven't blogged in so long, I have a couple wool things to show, too.  I finished this little candle mat this spring - I guess it's for next Easter.

And the wool Banner of the Month for April was a topiary...

Work is progressing on the May Banner of the Month!

H2H Update

Ever since I made an I Spy quilt for my son many years ago, I've had a serious addiction to I Spy fabrics.  Whenever I go to a quilt show or store, I always look for them.  As a result, I have a pretty big selection of kid's prints fabrics.  For my first H2H quilt, I thought I'd pull out all the fabrics that have a black background and use them in one quilt.  I had a lot of this pink fabric, and it looks great together.  The picture doesn't really do it justice.  This quilt has guitars, geckos, dogs getting X-rays, dinosaur skeletons, bingo cards, flip flops, pizza slices, a marching band, golf balls, chickens, frogs at the opera, and other stuff.  Aren't these fabrics fun?  Timeless Treasures makes a lot of great prints that can be used for I Spy quilts.  I think some girl will enjoy this quilt.  It's probably way too pink for a boy! 

I've been looking for a pattern that would allow big chunks of these prints.  This pattern was in the recent Quilts and More magazine, and was really quick and fun to do.  The large pieces are 8x18", so you can really see the prints. 

Now I've got to get around to quilting it.  That part probably won't be as fast as the piecing, but I've got a month and a half!

It's Snowing...Petals!

Our large snow crabapple tree is at full bloom today, and the time between full bloom and petals blowing off seems like about ten minutes!  All the white on the ground isn't snow - it's white petals from the tree.  It's very pretty while it lasts.  Every time the wind gusts, it looks like a mini blizzard.  Holly is enjoying the show.  I have a great dandelion crop, too, don't I? !!

A Room With A View

 This is the view out of my sewing room today, and it smells great with the window open, too!  The crabapple tree is in full bloom, and Skittles is enjoying the view.  This is the prettiest week of the whole year in southeast Wisconsin.  All the crabapple and redbud trees are blooming, the tulips and daffodils are blooming, and the lilacs are blooming.  We have this pink tree in front of the house, and three white snow crabapples and three darker pink crabapples in the back yard.  All of this spring blooming activity is about a month earlier than usual, so I don't know what summer will hold, but I'm sure enjoying today!

Design Wall Monday - Pigs and Cross Stitch

Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend.  This was a quiet one for us, so I had a little chance to work on my Pork-a-Dots quilt.  I moved the ears around - you can see them a lot better this way.  So now everybody is joined into the center of the quilt, and I'm ready to start thinking about borders.  The pattern suggests a pinwheel border, but I didn't trim these pigs to the right dimensions, so I think that's out.  I didn't want to make that many pinwheels anyway!  I thought I had plenty of the black polka dots to sash and border this, but since I didn't stop and measure before I got started, I had to improvise a little.  We'll just pretend I planned it that way!

I used to do a lot of counted cross-stitch, but haven't done much now for a number of years.  We had a great cross-stitch shop here in town, but it closed about 15 years ago, and no one nearby carries the supplies anymore.  Lately, though, I've seen some pretty cute patterns on With Thy Needle and Thread website, so I've dived back in to cross stitch.  My first project was the Word Play pattern for April.

The designer shows them finished to hang on a doorknob, but my linen was bigger than the pattern called for, so I finished mine to fit around a purchased pillow.  This way, I can do one each month, and slide it over the same pillow.  Both March and April are finished, so I need to order May and get going! 

There are just never enough hours in a day, are there?