Covered in Threadmalaka’s adventure in sewing

Most people don’t really get the whole quilting thing, and I can’t explain it.  I’m so glad that I have my neighbor and friend, Aimee, to share all my sewing stories (sagas!) with, since most people don’t understand it a bit.

Baby quilts are so very satisfying.  They are small, so before you get tired of cutting, that part is done.  Before you get tired of piecing, that part is done.  It’s time to quilt before you know it, and that is scary but exhilirating.

I made my friend Elia, who I haven’t seen in so many years, a quilt for her new baby boy, Rex.   I wanted to find fabric with airplanes in pastels so bad, but after scouring the fabric shops and online, the only really cute airplane fabric I could find was part of Michael Miller’s Tot Town collection.

Since I free motioned for the first time on my sister’s graduation quilt,  I decided to take it one step further and free-motion all over this one.  I did it, and it was fun.  I realized I need to practice free-motion meandering a bit, it got sloppy in places.

Also, I used basting spray and it was easy and awesome! I still had to pin the corners but that’s a lot easier than pinning the whole thing.  Hooray!

This is the first time I’ve used a whole piece of patterned fabric as the backing of a quilt, and I like the way it turned out, especially for a little boy.

I finished this quilt in 4 days, just like the last one.  This one was much easier, though.  Another reason to love small quilts, they can be finished in a week (provided you have a husband who will make all your meals and run all your errands while you do nothing but sew sew sew!)

Next: baby quilt for my sister’s best friend, almost finished!

Whoa, it’s been over a month since I’ve updated.  In that month, I’ve done little to no sewing until this last weekend.  Well, I whipped up some baby bibs, but that was more frustrating than spectacular, mostly because I don’t have a baby to fit a bib to.  Anyway..

I finally got back to it when I woke up this last Saturday with an idea for a scrappy quilt.  My sister is graduating from her master’s program this coming Friday.  She’s crafty, too.. and has been making surgical caps for years and sending me the leftover fabric scraps.  I decided to take some of those scraps and make her a quilt.

I didn’t purchase anything (except red thread for the quilting) for this quilt, which makes me happy! I had to cut out all the squares for the pinwheels (30 10″ pinwheels = 120 5″ squares) which took forever.  I’m so lazy when it comes to cutting, I much prefer using pre-cuts like charm packs or jelly rolls.

Right in the middle of the project, I decided to teach myself how to paper piece.  It wasn’t hard to learn, but it was hard to do.  The scrappy star on the back of the quilt is my first paper peicing experience.  I love the way it turned out, and I should try another paper peicing project.. maybe I’ll like it.

I’ve decided that I really don’t like primary color quilts.  Of course, this isn’t for me, it’s for my sister who can be summed up in one word: Red.

I didn’t intend to add sashing, but because my pinwheel blocks were all different sizes (oops!) and all different colors, the quilt was too crazy when I laid it out without the sashing.

Sashing is awesome, it leaves so much room for amatuer quilting mistakes but it also gave me a great place to free-motion quilt.  I was concerned with thread color, since the back is mostly black, but the front had all different colors.  I knew that if I used black for the quilting my mistakes would be blatantly obvious.  So, I decided to only quilt the sashing, which is all red, and this will also make the pinwheels pop up because they aren’t quilted.

I just went for it.  Meandering about, trying not to cross over any line.  I did have to cross over a few times, but overall I’m pretty happy with my spacing and stitch length.  Considering this is my first real free-motion quilting project, I’m super happy with it.

For the back, I put the pieced star (from the scraps I used on the front) in the middle and added panels of a material from my sister’s scraps that represents things she loves: shoes and purses.

Then I put a strip of zebra print, again from her scraps, around the panel.  I considered taking all the other scraps and piecing the rest of the backing but at this point I’d spent the entire weekend working on the quilt and I was done with piecing!  So, I made it black.. knowing that I had plenty of black material in my stash.

Here’s the paper pieced star:

I’m happy with the way it turned out, mostly.  I made a few mistakes because I was working with scraps that weren’t big enough.  Turns out, points are a lot easier to line up when paper piecing.

The quilting I did on the front loosk pretty good on the back since it’s only in the sashing, it makes kind of a grid pattern on the backing.  But, since the paper pieced star wasn’t directly in the middle, I ended up going over the red border of it with black thread.  Oh well.

Lastly, the binding.  I could have gone with a solid color here but I wanted to keep with the scrappy theme and use more of her scraps.  It took me an hour to cut and piece that thing, but I like the way it turned out!

finished size: approximately 50″ x 60″ - no where near perfectly square because that’s how I roll.

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You’d think after spending the entire day Saturday, the entire day Sunday, then all of Monday after work, and part of Tuesday after work on this thing that I’d be sick of quilting.  But no! I’m back on my kick.  I have the Stepping Stones quilt top that needs a border and back, and I’m ready to finish it! I was hoping I could finish it by Mother’s day (Sunday) but since we’re leaving town early on Friday I don’t think I’ll have time, and my husband might very well kill me if I disappear to the sewing room with a short deadline in mind, again.

Things I learned:

• Heavy usage of black material is annoying because it shows threads and lint like crazy.
• Free-motion quilting IS fun, stop being so scared.
• I need something smooth to put over my sewing table extension so that the quilt glides easier when I’m quilting.
• measure rows before sewing them together, I ended up with a really short row of blocks and had to chop off other pinwheel blocks because of it.
• Do as your teacher says: start your quilting from the middle so you don’t end up with a giant gather in the middle of the quilt.  I had to sew over said giant gather and although I disguised it pretty well, a real quilter would be completely put off by this
• Paper piecing isn’t hard in concept, but it is hard in application.  Give it another try.

I’m super excited about my first full-sized quilt.   My mother-in-law was making it with me, but I had the instructions and I forgot to tell her how to Seminole Piece it -  cut down and set back together by staggering the block, creating a band of the design.  This made her rows too short, which is totally fixable but something I have to get creative with!  I’ll take pictures of the whole thing once I fix that and add the borders.  For now, here’s the gist of it..

Then.. I have to quilt this sucker! I’m scared!  But, I’m taking a free-motion quilting class on Thursday this week, so I’m gearing up for that and hope that I don’t screw this quilt up when I try to quilt it.

Speaking of class, I need to whip up and easy 30×30 quilt before class.  I know it’s going to be quick but I have so many projects right now I haven’t yet had time.

My sister decided that I needed to make her two more Amy Butler Birdie Slings, this time in Spring colors.  She sent me the fabric but good lordie those bags take forever to make.  I embellish them a lot (zippered pockets, etc) which takes all the time but I don’t want to make a bag that isn’t usable.  Of course, she gave me exactly 3 weeks to get them finished, and the first week I had surgery and the second I was out of town, so sewing wasn’t in the equation.   I have them almost finished, with 5 days to spare!

I have also been working on a bag for my friend Eleanor.  She wanted something ‘not huge’ with a zippered closure.  Ok I’ve done zippers every which way but I cannot seem to get the zippered closure correct.  I tried once and ended up with this:

Although it’s not completely obvious from this perspective, the zipper looks wrong, and unprofessional, and I’m just not going to put it out into the world like that.  So I went and bought a pattern for a bag with a zippered closure.  I made it up, and it looks cute and functional and right..

But, because it was totally different than any other bag I’ve made (and boy have I made a lot of bags) I totally forgot that I needed to be careful around that zipper (one thing I KNOW, I’m not sure how it slipped my mind) so the fabric is too close and it impedes the zipper from sliding smoothly.  I was so frustrated with this that I moved on to the Birdie Slings instead of fixing it.  I’m still not sure I’m going ot fix it.  To be honest, I’m not in love with that fabric anymore since I’ve been staring at it for 2 bag fails so far.

I DID learn a lot from this pattern, though!  I learned how to make a bag witha  zippered closure, which is a big hooray.  I think I’ll try to make it again, but use the top of this bag’s pattern and the bottom of another pattern (or make my own) since I’m not in love with the roundness of this bag.  Of course, I probably just have bad taste because everyone loves those friggin Birdie Slings and they make me want to stab my eyes out.

My sister also commissioned a few large baby bibs.  She thought giving one to her best friend as a baby shower gift would be great and that maybe I could put her friend’s baby’s name on it.  Put it on it? Like applique? Oh, how exciting!  I think these bibs will be super easy to make, but the applique might take me a little bit since I haven’t done it in forever.  These projects are also due in less than 5 days.

Let’s see.. I have to make a 30×30 quilt,  finished 2 Birdie Slings, and make at least 2 bibs.. all before Wednesday of this week.  I was thinking I had until Friday but we leave town on Friday, I have work then quilting class on Thursday.  Of course, I bring this upon myself and I love deadlines, but boy life sure gets in the way of sewing!

Ahh!! and I wonder why this blog never gets updated.

I just realized that I have made so many different things in the last few weeks, but I didn’t take pictures of much of it!

• The Stepping Stones quilt top should be about finished.  I completed most of it then sent it off with my mother in law to put together.  I need to cut out the borders but that’ll only take a minute.  It’s adorable! And, it was so super easy I want to make another one!!

Actually, I have a different jelly roll that I can’t wait to get started on:

What will I do with it? I don’t know, but I love working with 2 1/2 inch trips.  I’m sure I’ll find a great pattern to compliment the warm colors on this one.

But, I want to get the stepping stones quilt finished, or at least sandwiched, before I start another one.  I’m going to piece the backing of the stepping stones quilt out of 10″ squares, it shouldn’t take long and I think it’ll be super cute.

• I have made a ton of bags lately!  I haven’t taken a picture of any of them, though.  I’m not sure why, I just haven’t had time to even think about it, lately.  I even made one for myself that I’m loving.

• Curtains! Finally!  While in Houston last weekend, we went to Glick discount fabric & upholstery shop.  Oh my! Iwas in heaven.  Rolls upon rolls of fabric, everywhere - more than I could even comprehend.  I was looking for drapery material for my double-decker livingroom windows.  Thankfully, my mom and sister were there to help me, and we picked out a beautiful green taffeta and crossed our fingers that it would work with my house.

I got home that Sunday and started on them immediately.  Taffeta is easy to sew, but hard to work with.  It slides off any surface, which meant measuring, pinning, and cutting 17 feet of it was a nightmare.  Although I considered quitting several times, I didn’t - I finished them by Monday and Richard was brave enough to hang the curtain rod for me.  Voila.. my living room came together just like that!

• After the painstaking process of removing a bazillion stitches from my nephew’s quilt, I decided to take a formal class on free motion quilting.  It’s not offered until March 26, but I’m really excited about it.  I’m going to do some more practicing so that the instructor can help me figure out what I’m doing so incredibly wrong.  My stitches are different lengths and my curves are always wonky.

I’m having minor surgery this week, but taking a few days off work.  Hopefully I’ll be up to sewing, I have tons of projects that I want to play with.  And I’ll take pictures, promise.

I seriously put “Stop! Quilting time!” as the subject of this post but I was too embarrassed to leave it, but also cracking up so I had to put it somewhere.

It’s been forever since I sewed anything.  Ok, not forever - but at least a few weeks.  I fixed the strap on the purse I made for my MIL, but that’s about it!  I realized that my chi was all wacky upstairs.  To remedy that, I cleaned everything up (my oh my how messy it gets) and we got rid of the giant tube TV and the armoire it sat in..  It’s SO much better, I’m excited about getting back to my beloved hobby!

On Superbowl Sunday, the quilting store was offering a “quarter back” on all purchases, so I bought a pattern and lots of fabric to make a full-sized quilt.  I’ve never made anything bigger than a throw or lap-sized, so this will be an experiment.  The real reason I bought it, aside from the 25% off, was that Richard’s mom wants to quilt but she gets so overwhelmed by making the right selection that she gives up.  I get overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to make a big quilt.  This solves both problems - I picked everything out and took it over there and we divvied it up, and we’re going to do it together.

It took me nearly an hour in the quilt store to pick something out - and I wasn’t even trying to coordinate it myself.  I was 99% sure I wanted to use a jelly roll, but finding something I loved AND that I thought my MIL was difficult, to say the least.  I settled on Gypsy Rose by Moda.  The fabric is so gorgeous (and she loved it, too), here is a pictures but like always, it doesn’t do it justice:

I don’t have the pattern handy, but it uses 2 1/2 inch strips, so I bought a jelly roll and layer cake.  I bought the layer cake (40 10″ squares)  for extra material and I can also use it for the backing.   I’ve never worked with a jelly roll before, but I’m really excited.  The full size of the pattern calls for 46 2 1/2″ strips and the jelly roll only has 40, so I’ll have to use the layer cake or the coordinating fabrics I bought for the borders for the extra 6 strips I’ll need.

I haven’t had a chance to get started on it yet, but I hope I can sit down with it soon.  It’s going to be so gorgeous and if it’s fun, my MIL and I can keep making quilts together.  This will be something we cherish forever.

I want to do more applique! I think this collection would make beautiful appliqued flowers on a bold background, hopefully the layer cake will leave me with lots of scraps!

I’m excited about opening my etsy store, but I’m holding off until I can ramp up my inventory.  I just feel like so many people are waiting for the store to open that I need to have a good selection before I officially open.    Unfortunately, life has been full the last few weeks, so I’ve only been able to get 5 bags made.

This weekend I should have lots of time for sewing, and I’m excited.  I’ve got some sketches of bag designs that I’d like to try to make.  When I work without a pattern, I end up taking way too long and getting pretty frustrated… I hope I don’t burn myself out.

My friend & photographer Robin (http://www.robinganslephotography.com) has given me some pointers on taking pictures of my bags, but I haven’t had a chance to implement any of her suggestions yet.  I need to though, because my picture taking sucks.

2 Birdie Slings, I love these bags - they are so beautiful in real life but I cannot capture it with my camera, frustrating!

2 large shoulder bags, same material.. I was experimenting here, I wanted to see how easy it would be to make 2 identical bags at the same time.  Turns out, it’s not fun.  I felt like I was repeating everything 8 times (I was, 4 for each bag - 2 interior, 2 exterior)…  I made the bags slightly different, but they used the same pattern.  I haven’t put handles on them yet because I’m thinking I want to make them long, or adjustable straps — but I need to get the appropriate hardware for adjustable straps.

The bag in front isn’t my favorite, but I was overjoyed yesterday when I finished it.  I’ve never put a flap on a bag before, so this opens up a lot of possibilities.  I mostly did it because I don’t like this pukey color brown I used (but it matched the bursts in the blue) so I figured I’d use this bag as an experiment.  It worked, I learned a few things about adding flaps to bags.

Maybe it needs a little applique on the flap, hah.  It definitely needs something, I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m making a flap.  I have two requests for this style bag… well two requests for a short messenger bag with a flap.   Now that I’ve taught myself how to do flaps, I’m ready to take on these other projects!

So much to do, so little time!

After nearly completing 6 bags, I felt the need to break from being a bag lady and get back to being a quilter.  Applique, how many times have I thought about doing it? A million - I’ve read and researched and looked at pictures online for months.  I even gave it a short-lived try once, I quit before I even had the pattern cut out.

The issue, that I recognized, was that I started with an applique pattern that was way out of my league.  Let me dig it up.. oh yes, here it is:

I know, I know.. it looks easy!  I purposely picked an easy pattern.  The problem? Those red petals and green stems are TINY.  Tiny = difficult in the world of applique.  I gave up, very frustrated and didn’t think about it again until a few weeks ago.

My instructor at The Stitching Studio said that Freezer Paper Applique was the best technique, so that’s what I’ve been “studying” since day one.  It requires tracing the pattern onto freezer paper, then ironing it to the fabric (the waxy substance adheres to fabric but can be removed and re-fused without problems), then cutting it out, with a turn-under seam allowance.  If your pattern isn’t symetrical, you have to keep that in mind when you’re transferring back and forth.

I finally found a pattern that looked nice and big and easy, and figured I could do something cute.  I could obviously have started with a square or circle, star or heart.. but that’s boring.

I used a charm pack that I had laying around (5″ squares for quilting) called “farmer’s market” - there were tons of cute prints and I figured they made good flower petals.  This thing is huge, it’s a 12″ block finished.  I had the choice of 8 or 10 petals, I chose 8 because I was worried about the frustration factor ;)  I’m glad I picked this pattern, by the 8th petal I was able to get the point just right and the curves look like curves.

Then came the applique part - attaching it to the background.  I did some research, and as usual, there were several different machine stitches to use.. all of them had their pros and cons.  I chose zig-zag stitching because I love it - it’s forgiving.   It turned out to be not that forgiving when you’re using cream colored thread on a dark brown background.  I debated using bright pink or dark brown and every color thread in between.  If I’ve learned anything in this adventure, I’ve learned that less is more - so I used white!

I like the way it turned out, I might play around with some other applique stitches next time, just because I’m not 100% thrilled the way the zigzag stitch looks.

The next task was to cut a hole in the background fabric and pull out the freezer paper that is fused to the fabric.  Yeah, right.  I cut the hole (it was difficult, everything in my being said DONT CUT THE FABRIC) but the damn freezer paper will not budge.  I can’t even get a hold of it.  I’m not sure how on earth I’m supposed to accomplish this task, but the good news is that I don’t have to - I can leave it in there.  If this was a real quilt, I probably wouldn’t want the crunch crunch sound of the paper, but it’s practice so I won’t stress over it.

This just opens up SO MANY possiblities! Applique’d pillows! Applique’d bags! Quilts, quilts quilts!

I had planned on making my Mother-in-Law a purse for her birthday, which is today - Jan 2.  What I didn’t realize was that from Christmas until today my schedule was jam packed!  I actually wanted to make her a new pattern, but because that takes so much extra time, I made her the Butterick 5109 Large Bags - B style which I’ve already made twice before.

I carried this bag, so I knew what I did and didn’t like about it.  I knew it needed a few more modifications.  The second time I made it, I added more interfacing which gave it a more solid form, which I loved.  I didn’t love that it was so hard to sew in the gussets because of the heavyweight firm interfacing.  This time, I used 2 layers of lightweight interfacing on the exterior and a medium-weight on the interior.  It has the perfect amount of firmness and was easy to sew!

Because of the ‘facing’ on the interior (the top of the interior), the pockets are too low inside the bag.  This is fine for almost everything, but I wanted my cell phone pocket to me more accessible. I winged it and added a little bitty pocket on the facing interior.  I think next time I do this, I’ll make it a little bigger because it fits my phone perfectly but I’d bet there are some out there that won’t fit in it.

The gussets seemed too small.  I wanted the bag to big a bit wider at the bottom, thus I modified that pattern piece to be almost twice as wide as the original.  I also have this issue where I’m constantly scared that my bag is going to get dirty because it’s fabric.  To solve that, I used a solid cotton/poly blend on the gusset/botton.  It looks awesome! Hard to take a picture of, but it adds a bit of interest while serving the right purpose.

I admit, I did start to use red on the interior of this bag.. again! I changed it up to blue because my MIL seems to love blue and I’ve done the b&w + red so many times I’m sick of looking at it.  People seemed to respond well to my other b&w + blue Hobo Bag so I did it again.

I’m really loving this cotton/polyester blend lining material (black) that I’m using.  It seems so professional, but it’s so much cheaper than a 100% cotton.  I tried cheap 100% cotton and every piece of thread, lint, and hair stuck to it which made my bags look so ratty.  Nothing sticks to the cotton/poly blend, and it’s so smooth.  I AM having trouble sewing with it when it’s layered up (like for the handle) but I think that’s just not knowing what tools to use.  I emailed my sewing instructor about it, lets hope she has some good ideas and doesn’t just tell me that my machine sucks

Anyway, I LOVE this bag.  It’s my new favorite.  Do I say that every time?  Perhaps.  I figured I have to love them or else they’re no fun to make.

I bought a ton of material the other day, I think it’s time to start making inventory for my etsy store.  Well, my non-existant etsy store at the moment, but it’s coming.. I think.

Although I like the way this bag turned out the first time I made it (here) I wanted to make it again with a few adjustments.  First, I didn’t love the fabric I used, second.. I wanted it to be less slouchy.. I like a bag to keep it’s shape.

I pulled out my favorite fabric to date, Sophia by Alexander Henry.  I used to be SO against using ‘big name’ fabrics but gah, this fabric makes me smile every time I see it!

Pictures do not do this one justice.  It looks and feels so gorgeous in real life:

Have I mentioned that making the same pattern a second time is so much easier?  Why do I torture myself and constantly make new patterns?  I guess there is just so much out there that I want to try I can’t stand it! But, I will admit again that making something I’ve already made before is a lot less stressful!

Anyway, the home dec weight fabric helped, but I also added medium interfacing to the exterior and fusible fleece to the interior.  The pattern uses a seperate piece for the upper interior, so I used heavy-weight firm interfacing for that.  It was a pain in the butt, but it holds it’s shape well!

Something new on this bag: I used a cotton/poly blend for the solid black interior and handles.  Why? Well, I noticed if I bought cheap black cotton fabric, lint would stick to it so bad that it was making me crazy.   I realized with a nice polyester blend, nothing stuck to it.. it is smooth and clean looking, and can likely handle spills better inside a bag.

Over the last few months, I’ve bought at least 15 yards of plain black material, so I needed something inexpensive.  I found the cotton/poly blend and it was cheap - on sale for $2.99/yd and I’m relatively certain that it’s not more than $4/yd normally.

The only problem I had with it was that once it was folded over several times for the strap, no machine needle I had would puncture it.  Last resort, I pulled out my ballpoint knit sewing machine needles, and that worked.  I don’t know why a ball-point needle worked when not even a jeans/denim needle would work.  I’ve sewed MUCH thicker fabric (upholstery fabric, backed & folded over several times) with my machine, so I don’t think the thickness was the issue.

After the holidays, I’m going to replenish my stash with non-black & white fabrics!  I look at all the bags I’ve made over the last few weeks and they’re ALL black & white!

Oh my goodness, I’m finally done with it.  I started a quilt for my nephew on Thanksgiving, and here we are, only a few days from Christmas.   That wouldn’t sound like very long, except this is a tiny quilt! It comes out at about 32×32… I should have been able to finish it quicker, but I honestly put it down for 3 weeks and didn’t touch it!!

After piecing this guy, I thought I hated quilting.  Honestly, I think I just bit off more than I can chew.  I wanted to make my nephew a baby quilt, but not a traditional pastel baby blanket.  So I used American Jane’s Recess charm pack.

It has bright colors and is totally retro, which I love.   I also love using charm packs, and this time I also used a quilt pattern for the first time.

The pattern is by Schnibbles, called Come out and Play.  I looked over it over and thought.. how hard could this be?  It’s small, it uses charm packs, and the instructions are right here for me.   I knew there would be a lot of cutting/piecing, but I asked my sister Elizabeth and my mom to help me when they were here for Thanksgiving.

Relunctantly, they helped ;)  Both of them hate quilting, and this one just concreted that thought in their head.  The whole time I was thinking ‘omg this is so fun!’ but they were thinking ‘omg, I want this to be DONE so I never have to quilt again!’

What I didn’t realize at first is that because the stars are not each their own block, I wouldn’t be able to piece this one like I’m used to.  Instead of piecing blocks, then rows.. I had to piece rows only.   After fixing it a bazillion times, my stars are still massively wonky.  In fact, I think I’m going to change the name of this one to ‘wonky stars quilt.’

I thought, this being my 4th quilt, that it would be my best yet.  It’s not my best yet, by any means! I’m sad that none of my stars look like stars.   I do like the way it looks from afar, without a quilting eye

And then there’s the quilting part.  This is what took me so long to finish.  It was going to be my first free-motion quilting project.  I was scared, but I was going to do it anyway - and I did.  Then I looked at my free motion stitches and they were terrible.  Now, before you start thinkng I’m too critical of myself, when I’m quilting I let a lot of messy stuff slide.  I know that most of the time the details get lost in the beauty of the finished piece.  But this was BAD, I had to remove them.

So I sat on the sofa for 4 hours, removing all my free motion stiches.  It was painful.  I put the quilt down and didn’t pick up for 3 weeks.  The only reason I did, in fact, pick it back up last night, is that I am going to see my nephew in 2 days and HAD to get it finished.

I decided I was going to re-do the free-motion quilting, but I would go slow and steady.  I set it all up, got ready, and went to town.  I was stitching evenly and slow and I felt good about it.  Then I caught a glimpse of the back, and the damn tension was messed up so I had huge loops everywhere! Ugh!  Luckily this meant that the stitching was loose, and easy to rip out.  I had only done about a quarter of the quilt, so it wasn’t too bad to remove this time.

I couldn’t do it again.  I removed the quilting foot and put back on the old trusty walking foot and stitched in the ditch a bit and called it quits.

Here’s the back:

Hard to see, but I have squiggly line around the whole thing, then I just quilted boxes around the inside.  Good enough.

What I learned:

• I’m not ready for this kind of quilting, I need to keep with big blocks until I really understand everything that I’m doing.
• Quilt patterns are FUN and make life a lot easier.
• I need to practice free-motion quilting, a lot.

A revelation ocurred this week.  I picked up a couple of run-of-the-mill, non-boutique sewing patterns at the fabric store because they were on sale for $2 each.   The patterns both had 4 bag patterns in them, so I figured if I didn’t actually use the patterns to make bags, the pictures and instructions might be worth having for that big four bucks I spent.

I think I’ve proven to myself that I can sew a bag from start to finish without a pattern.  I’ve also proven to myself that it sucks.  The revelation?  It was that I ENJOY sewing from patterns!  After the Amy Butler Birdie Sling pattern, I was overjoyed.  I thought it was Amy Butler patterns that I loved.. but it turns out, I love sewing from patterns!

My history with patterns is bad.  I got frustrated easily and gave up.  Sometimes I didn’t give up, but I dulled many seam rippers in the process.  All of the times, I hated every minute of it.  Now, I like it, a lot! I still have to think a bit, but I get the lingo.  I understand the instructions, and it’s fun.  This might sound a little split-personality-ish.. but I kinda feel like I have someone there sewing with me, showing me how to do things.  When I’m sewing without a pattern, it’s all me - I have to figure it all out and there’s no reference at all.  With the pattern instructions, I have something to fall back on.

The other problem with non-boutique (I’m calling the designer patterns ’boutique patterns’) is that the examples are almost always using ugly fabric.  It’s hard to see past ugly fabric, I admit that I have problems with that, too.   Since these puppies were $2, I saw past the ugly fabric fairly easily.  These are the two I picked up this week:

I decided to start with the one I thought would be the easiest, and looked like something I might like - the leopard (cheetah?) print one on the Butterick pattern - Style B.  Style B is the same as Style A (the blue bag) except for the handle.

I really don’t like working with the tissue-paper patterns, I’ll say that.  I’d rather the patterns be on regular paper.  Cutting out the pattern pieces initially isn’t all that much fun, but I guess if I re-make the same bag over and over, I’d only have to do that once (I seem to be making a new bag pattern every time these days, though!)

After I finished cutting out (and figuring it out which pieces I needed.. 4 bags mean there are something like 30 pattern pieces to sort through) the pattern, I cut out the fabric.  After I figured out the exterior, the interior was easy, since it was nearly exactly the same.  I thought the gussets would be difficult, but they were easy.  This reminded me to try the Hobo Bag pattern again - the gussets gave me trouble but that was when I was a mere novice, now I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.  I think I could perfect that Hobo bag with my new skillz.

I am going to note that I needed nearly a yard of exterior fabric for this bag, and I didn’t want to use a  favorite in my stash because of all of my FAILS lately. I was worried I’d mess up again and be sad that good material was wasted.  This fabric is ‘eh’ — I like it enough that I’m using it as my daily bag for now, but i’m going to make it again with something I like better.

I filled the interior (I was too excited to see if this size was good for all my junk!) before I took a pic, so you get to see the inside ..with all my junk

I know, I’m thinking it too.. “Malaka, black+white & red is sooo overdone!”  But let me explain, I had leftover red from Shara’s Messenger bag and it looked better than any other solid I had (yellow or turquoise) so I used it, again.

Here it is, what I learned!

• Piecing gussets is not scary (stop folding, start piecing!)
• Commercial patterns don’t call for enough interfacing — I added extra and it is still a little floppy.
• Making the top piece of the interior match the exterior is super cute.  That left me with a hint of red instead of a LOT of red, and I like it.
• This pattern will turn out way too triangular if you don’t use the full 1/2 inch seam allowance on the gussets.  Use the full seam allowance!

Christmas is coming up, and we’re leaving town in 4 1/2 days.  I need to finish a baby quilt (just the quilting and the binding) before then, and make myself a nice travel bag.  Oh I need to make a bag for my camera too, since the last one was a big FAIL.  I think I’ll just go with a simple drawstring bag, and stop beating myself up over it.

I’ve been switching between quilting and bag-making for a few months now, when I get tired of one I go back to the other.  I’ve had ‘new throw pillows’ and ‘table skirt’ on my to-do list forever.  I found a nice neutral green that matches everything in my house on the remnants rack, and there was tons of it.  I bought all they had which was about 6 yards, for $5/yard! This stuff likely sells for $20/yd normally.

My cutting table is just a regular plastic retangular table.  My back started to hurt pretty quickly before I realized it needed to be raised up about a foot.  Richard pulled out the platform that we had in the garage and hooked me up!  I knew we were saving that thing for something.  It works perfectly.  The only problem? It’s hideous!  Add my MESS and it’s even worse.  So I started working on a skirt for it, but I was having problems getting it to stay on (even with sticky velcro, the fabric was too heavy.)  Finally.. I realized I should use the greatest invention ever: Glue Gun.  I love glue guns, I don’t use them very often but boy they’ve made my life easier!

It has an opening in the middle where I can get to my junk:

I decided to go ahead and make some throw pillows from the same material.  I could have wussed out and made simple pillow covers, with zippers so I can take them off and wash them when the dogs decide to lay all over them.  But, I decided that’s too easy.. I’m going to add piping! Piping! I’ve never done it before but how hard could it be?

Turns out, it’s not hard at all.  Leave it to me to make it difficult though, because nothing can be that easy.  I decided the right shade of brown fabric from my stash had to be used, instead of the 3 yards of not-quite-right brown fabric I have.  I had these strips that are way too narrow, especially for the rope I used (which I found in the back of Richard’s truck - he’s going to be mad next time he wants to tie something back!)

I had plenty of strips, which I pieced together just like a quilt binding, then rolled them over the rope and sewed it shut.  This was difficult because some of the strips were REALLY narrow.  After adding them to the pillows, THEN adding a zipper, I wanted to pull my hair out.  It would have been so simple if I’d have used strips that were wide enough.  Instead I had to fight with these things the whole way!  Oh well, they turned out pretty well.. (if you don’t look too closely.)

With Jasmin, again because she’s pretty much wherever I am, at all times.  In this photo, she’s saying ‘yummm new fabric to lick!’

I crossed off a bunch of stuff from my to-do list yesterday.  It felt good, normally I’m adding to it instead of crossing things off.  Of course, this morning my friend Robin and I had a discussion about what kind of camera bags people (like her) might want if their birthday was coming up in a few months.. so off I go to figure out how in the world to make a professional looking camera bag for a professional photographer!

People are always telling me that I’m rockin’ out with the sewing and whatnot.. but what they don’t see is a) the MESS I make and b) the complete and total failed projects.

I’m making a post about them because it helps me remember what I need to do and what I need not to do

Pattern fail: I still need to finish my Amy Butler Madison Bag, but I’m just not really into it right now. It is half finished and just sitting there, staring at me (for 3 weeks now!)

Wristlet fail: I tried to make a wristlet for Tia last week, but I didn’t have the right zipper for that either.  I have a bazillion zippers but they’re never the right size or color.  I have my eye on a few ebay stores that sell giant lots of them, I think I’ll just do that and make sure I always have what I need.  I’m also having problems with getting zippers on pouch-bags just right.  It seems like they don’t turn in right on the corners and there MUST be a trick to it that I’m not getting.

Camera bag fail: I also tried to make myself a nice padded camera bag, but failed miserably.  Well, Richard says ‘whats wrong with it?’ but to me it’s all wonky and ugly.  I tried adding a zipper to a curved edge, and although I was successful at that, it’s not centered and just looks retarded.

I have been busy, learning a lot, but not producing anything that I’d dare take a picture of ;)  I ditched the bag making for a little while and picked up some home dec stuff…

Made a skirt to go around my cutting table, so you can’t see all the junk under it (complete with pleats), and some throw pillows (with piping!) for my sofa.  I told Richard that yesterday was All for ME day, so I made a buncha stuff for myself (for once!)

Anyway, you gotta learn somehow and since sewing is kind of a solitary thing, there’s no better teacher than myself.  I have to learn how to do it before I teach myself, though.  It’s all a vicious circle but loads of fun for a masochist list myself!

I made these bags last week but had to wait to upload photos until my friend Shara received it in the mail.  There’s something about the surprise and making people wait for it that I thoroughly enjoy.  Does that make me a bad person?

Anyway, here’s the story.  Shara asked for a bag that could go over her chest when she’s riding her bike.  My specification list was short, she just wanted it big enough to fit a magazine, the strap long enough to go across her body, and she’s really not into flowers.  I almost got fabric with roses because although she says she’s not into flowery material, she has several rose tattoos!

But first, I needed to make up a prototype.  This ain’t my first rodeo, I know that nothing turns out right the first time.  Well, lets say that I’m still a novice, I know that constructing bags without a pattern doesn’t come out right for me until after a few re-dos.  I’m ok with that, it’s all part of the process.

I decided to make my bag a bit smaller, since I don’t have use for a huge messenger bag.  Also, my strap is shorter.. but overall, it’s the same bag.

I’ll get to the ‘things I learned while making this bag’ section momentarily, but I do have to admit here that I LOVE the material on this one but never again will I use white for a bag.  I’m currently using it as my everyday purse, and although I scotchgarded it heavily..  it’s still picking up marks here and there.

On to Shara’s bag.  I remembered seeing this geisha material at my neighborhood quilting store and made a trip just to get it.  I needed an excuse for it, and this was perfect.  The pattern on it was big, and really to use something with a big pattern like this, you need a big bag.

I “fussy cut” (made sure the geishas were centered) both sides of this bag and that means wasting a little material, but it was worth it.  I didn’t want to have any lopped off geisha heads or anything ;)  I think I ended up making this one a little bigger than she wanted, but I couldn’t make myself cut off any of the ladies or their parasols!  Shara received the bag on Thursday and said she loved it.  I hope so, because it was difficult for me to part with this one!

Things I learned from this process:

• I get very frustrated when I’m trying to figure out a bag without using a store-bought pattern.  I find myself saying ‘I’m never doing this again!’ but then when I do it again, I have a ball.  I need to remember that the first one is always difficult, the ones following are always fun.

• I thought making the liner smaller than the exterior would save me a headache later but it totally created a headache instead.  The diameter around the top of both the lining and the exterior fabric MUST be the same.  I should have known this, and I’ll never make that mistake again.  On the prototype bag, I ended up shortening the exterior width four times, which meant taking off the handles, shortening at the seams, putting the handles back on.. seeing that it still didn’t fit, repeat, repeat, repeat.    So I’m noting it here: lining can be shorter, but must be the same width.

• I only used 1/2 a yard of material for the exterior of the big bag!  I’ve always bought a yard of material for new projects because I worry about my ability to get it right the first time.  Even with the fussy-cutting, I still have some pretty big scraps left.  This cuts the fabric cost down dramatically.

• This bag really should have a zippered-closure but I haven’t figured that out yet.  Mostly, I need heavier-duty zippers because although I have some that will work length-wise, they’re a little flimsy to be using as the main closure method on a bag.

That same day, I made Taleen’s Birdie Sling, which I can’t post about yet because I’ll be bringing it to her when I go to Denver at Christmas.  It was  a long sewing day and I was in hog heaven!

So the story goes something like this.. I made the Amy Butler Birdie Sling for my sister Jameela, and then my sister Elizabeth got upset (in a non-upset sisterly kinda way) that I hadn’t made her a bag yet.  The issue here is that Jameela saw the purse she wanted and I bought the pattern and made it.  I have NO IDEA what kind or size Elizabeth would want.  I improvised.

I took the Birdie Sling pattern and scaled it down dramatically.  Seriously, this bag is likely 1/4th the size of the original pattern.  I loved it so much that I asked Tia what I should do.. keep it or give it to Elizabeth?  I showed her a picture and she said SHE wanted it.  Oh goodness.  I stomped back upstairs and made 2 more, using the same pattern.  One for me, one for Tia.  The one for Tia looks -exactly- like the one I made for Elizabeth.  I used a different fabric on mine — I was sick of looking at that same fabric and I didn’t want to be twinkies with either of them.

This is my blog so I don’t need to make a long story short — I’m keeping it long!  Elizabeth got here and claimed to love the one I made for her but wanted to learn how to make one for herself.  She also LOVED the material I used for Jameela’s bag… so we trucked on over to HoneyBee Quilt Store on Black Friday and bought up some more material.  I’m glad she appreciated the quilt store fabrics as much as I did.  We literally sewed for 2 days straight, taking breaks to eat and buy more supplies.  It was fun, but I was left with a HUGE mess in my sewing room.

Oh I need to make a note here about the quilt store.  They have those frequent buyer punch card thingies, and after something like 15 punches (I think you get a punch for every yard of full-priced fabric you purchase) you get $25 in store credit.  I had about 1/2 of my card punched, then adding what I bought, plus what my sister bought, I was only a few punches away from filling the card.  This nice lady who was also shopping there, from out of town, asked the sales clerk if she could put her punches on my card since she lives out of town.  They agreed and she bought nearly $200 worth of material!  This filled up my current punch card and half of another.  I wanted to kiss the stranger but I think just chatting with her about quilting was enough to make her day

We also purchased another Amy Butler pattern, her Madison bags.  We both started one but I haven’t finished mine.  She took her supplies back to Houston, so I’m not sure if she’s finished it either.  Overall, it was nice to have someone to sew with, but at the same time.. it’s nice to know where everything is.  When someone else is using the scissors, seam rippers, etc.. they get lost in the mess!

Right now I have so many works in progress: Nico’s quilt, my Civil War Crossings quilt, and the Madison bag.  Of course, I’m supposed to make another Birdie Sling for my brother-in-law’s cousin, by Christmas.. and I promised a purse to my mother-in-law as well.  Oh yeah, I forgot about Shara’s shoulder bag.. ahhh!!!  I guess it’s good that all of our TV shows are ending for the season, I have a lot of work to do!

Color-coded stash!

My sister came in town this week for Thanksgiving and brought me a garbage bag full of ’scrap’ material.  I thought they’d be little shreds, but they were all pretty large pieces! I’d say most of them were at least a fat quarter, some bigger.  I spent the day organizing them, along with my own stash to make a nice, color-coded stash shelf.

I was ridiculously giddy after this task.  It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for so long, but I have so many works in progress that when I have time to sew, I want to sew.. not organize.

So much sewing was done over the Thanksgiving holiday that I was a little burnt out, so I cleaned the sewing room and organized everything.

With the help of my mother and sister, I’ve almost completed the baby quilt for my nephew.  It was ambitious - even though it’s only 36×36, the pieces are tiny and I probably bit off more than I can chew.  Oh well, the top is finished and it’s ready to be quilted.  Alright, that’s a lie.. I started quilting it and decided my free-motion wasn’t looking good so I spent about 2 hours last night picking out the stitches.  I think I’ll practice more and try it again soon.

I also have 45 pinwheels that I need to piece together for my Civil War Crossings quilt.  I love that material, but I’m stressing over how to arrange the triangles.  Do I really want pinwheels?  Do I want to make it Flock of Triangles?  I’ve got the triangles ready but I have to figure out the layout, which is the most stressful for me.

Wow, I feel liberated.  In my quilting class, the only method of quilting we were taught is to stitch in the ditch, which basically means straight lines, only.  By my third quilt, I felt extremely limited, so I decided to teach myself how to free-motion quilt.

Free-motion quilting uses a different presser foot, the darning foot, which I bought awhile back but have been too scared to even take out of the package!  After reading about free-motion quilting for too long, I finally took that baby out and screwed her in.

Then I read this article about how a sewing machine platform is essential to this process, and how to make it.  Because my handy husband was starved for a project (and on a week long vacation from work), he whipped it out without much thought.

I found the ugliest piece of cotton fabric from my stash (which just happened to be Christmas fabric) and made a quilt sandwich to practice on.  Then I went to town, buzzing around.  The correct way to free-motion quilt is to lower the feed dogs, which I did, but then I had problems moving the fabric.  I think I need quilting gloves which will help my hands grip the fabric and move it around.  I read somewhere that a lot of new quilters have had more success with their feed dogs up, so I gave it a shot.  I liked them up much better! I felt like I had more control, which doesn’t seem right.. but after a few minutes I was able to trace the pattern in the fabric pretty well!

This was SO MUCH FUN!!  Much more fun than just straight-lined stitching in the ditch.  I have a tendency to put the pedal to the metal (err.. carpet) which makes my stitching too short, so I need to practice regulating that.  I thought about wedging something under my pedal so I won’t be able to go too fast.

Another fear, overcome!  I feel like I’m learning so much that I can’t make the quilts fast enough to implement all my new tricks!

I washed my charm pack quilt, scared to death it would be ruined when it came out of the dryer because I didn’t pre-wash and I used cheap fabric for the sashing.  Nothing bled, and nothing shrank! It’s a soft, comfy, washed quilt now.  Hooray!  I feel fairly confident that I don’t need to pre-wash my fabrics now, which makes a huge difference.  The cheap white sashing IS a little more see-through than I’d like, so I’ll upgrade that next time I make a quilt with a lot of white in it.

I modified the Amy Butler Birdie Sling pattern to make a smaller bag with a different strap/band for my other sister.  I can’t post pictures because she might see it, and it’s a suprise until she gets here next week.  I’m in love with it though, I think I might have to make a couple more out of the same fabrics.

I also used regular quilter’s cotton for that bag instead of super high quality quilting store fabric.  It turned out just as good, although it tried to fray a little more during the process.  I figure I back everything with so much interfacing, if I can get away with $5.99/yd instead of $9/yd, I can save a lot of money… and it’ll still feel like heavyweight fabric.

I don’t know what I’m going to do with these quilts.  Give them to charity?  Give them to friends?  Hide them away somewhere?  Who knows, who cares?  They’re fun to make and I’m really just still learning.  Everyone keeps asking me what I’m going to do with these things (the husband, mostly!) and I certainly don’t have a good answer.

I finally finished the binding on my third quilt tonight.  I did it by hand, again.  I really want to take the plunge and do it by machine but I’m scared I’ll screw up a perfectly good quilt.  Ok, I’m really not scared.. it’s just that I couldn’t stand using blue thread that could be seen on the white border if I used my machine to bind it.  I did it by hand, again, and it was slightly torturous.

Here she is, it took me a few hours to piece it on Saturday, then a few hours on the backing & quilting on Sunday.  Monday I started hand-stitching the binding and finished early Wednesday evening.  So, it didn’t take all that long.

Here it is with the piece from my stash that I added on the backing.  I always loved this fabric, so I wanted to use it for something and keep it somewhat intact.  Of course, I didn’t have much of it left, so I only used a strip and pieced the back with yellow and blue:

Overall, I’m pretty happy that I pulled it off again without a pattern or anything.  This is my first quilt that I didn’t pre-wash, so I’m about to throw it in the washer and hope for the best.

Things I’d do differently next time (aka: what I learned)

• Pre-wash all my fabrics (I know better!)

• Plan my quilt size.  I ended up with a 52×52 quilt which would be great, except I had to stretch my crib-sized batting to fit it.  I didn’t want to spend the money on a full size batting just to cut it down.  Ok I HAD a full size batting but I didn’t want to waste it!

• I would have used 2 charm packs instead of just one.  I thought supplementing it with white would give me a twin size or larger, but I was wrong.  I had to add a 5″ border just to get it to 50 inches.

• I should have splurged on quilting cotton for the whites instead of using cheap fabric because it was on sale.  I learned my lesson, now I just hope it doesn’t shrink up so much in the wash that my quilt is ruined!

• The metal folding chair I’m currently using as a sewing chair is NOT cutting it.  My entire right shoulder/arm hurts so bad when I’m doing the quilting.  The minute I brought my nice desk chair upstairs, I felt 100% better.  The only problem? Then I didn’t have a desk chair in the office.

• I’m bored with stitching in the ditch.  I need to learn to free motion, stat.

Ok quilting is out of my system for at least a week.  I’ve got the greatest idea for a bag that I can’t wait to make!

I’m devoting an entire entry to charm packs… that’s how excited I am about them, right now.

What’s a Charm Pack?  It’s a stack of 35-40 5″ squares from a collection of a designer’s series.   They all ‘match’ because they’re from the same series.  This drastically reduces my cutting time, and I really don’t like cutting at all…  so that means I love charm packs

Shopping for them is rough, though.. because I want them all!  I have decided that the Fat Quarter Shop (clicky the link to see their awesome selection) has the best selection of charm packs that I’ve found so far.  I bought 3 from them, which should be getting here today.  I should have bought 2 of each, now that I realize I’ll likely need more than one charm pack to make a decent sized quilt.  What I love about these babies is that they’re $7-9 for 35-40 5″ squares.  That means I can make a full sized quilt for about $15 + solids, which I can get on sale at non-quilting stores.

That brings me to my point.   I ran up to the quilting shop that is right around the corner from my house - Ready to Sew.  I was so excited when I found that they had taken over the space next door and had nearly doubled their shop space.  This place is literally 5 minutes from my house, and considering I live so far out of town that nothing is 5 minutes away, you can imagine how happy this makes me.

After I ordered the charm packs from Fat Quarter Shop, I decided too  grab a couple from Ready to Sew and get started on one of the quilts I had been tossing around in my mind (charm pack quilt, see previous entry with inspiration pieces.)

I’m really trying not to be one of those people who calls their fabrics by name, but it does help to know the names so I can purchase more, online if necessary.  These are the two I bought on Saturday:

Here’s the quilt top I started on Saturday from the Nest charm pack:

I had to supplement the charm pack with a few 5″ squares from my stash because I wanted to try a little bigger quilt this time. I used cheap white fabric, which will likely ruin this quilt once I wash it. Last night I pieces together a backing, using solid teal, solid yellow, and one of the prints I used from my stash. I started the quilting, I’m almost done.

New techniques:
Sashing! I totally dove into this one, I have seen so many quilts with borders around the blocks and I didn’t know how to do it. Now I do! It’s easy as pie.

Quilt Border. I wanted to add a five inch border, and it was a little tricky because my quilt was already 44×44, so if I didn’t cut on the bias, I’d have to piece the border together and it wouldn’t look as good. I sat down and thought about it for awhile and realized that I could add a 5″ square on the corners, in white, and that would work.

Quilting from the center. I realized with the border, I didn’t want to start my quilting from the edge, but from where each row started. This was tricky because I probably should have pulled the bobbin thread up, but I didn’t. I guess we’ll see how it turns out..

Pieced backing.  I just can’t seem to make myself use that much of one fabric on the backing.  So, I dug into my stash and pieced it.  I’ve been wanting to try this anyway, and it seems like the hip thing to do

I was still too scared to try free motion quilting.  I did a lot of reading on it though and I think I’m going to take the advice of many out there and create a test sandwich to play around on, then I won’t be ruining a quilt when I screw it up.

Richard would ask me what I was doing quite often during this process and my reply was, as always.. “I have no clue!”

But it was most certainly a lot of fun.  Can’t wait to finish it.