A fellow volunteer I met at Chicago's Rally to Restore Sanity in October 2010 saw the blog post about my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild's food drive for the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the 225 cloth grocery bags we made. Anne G remarked that she could use a new cloth grocery bag. Anne, these are for you! Happy-Shopping-With-No-Plastic-Bags!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
Baggage
Jen's Bag |
Natalie's Bag |
Sarah's Bag from Fat Quarters |
Inside of Sarah's Duffel, with gusseted pockets |
Outside of Sarah's Duffel |
Melissa's Bag with its fancy pockets |
Erika's Duffel |
Erika's Tote with a little matching tiny tote |
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Evolution of Pattern Following
Look at these cute little bags from the Runaround Bag pattern by Lazy Girl Designs. They have a lined interior, a back pocket, a zip closure, and are 7" x 9". As the pattern says, "A great little purse to runaround with." I saw one made by guildster Sara Hochhauser in a terrific fly fishing fabric. At a fabric swap during the fall retreat of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild I got this fabulous black and red Oriental fabric from guildster Debbie Bookman and decided to use it for the trial run for this pattern. Except for the strap being a bit too short, I do like this.
The black pocket on the back needs something - some quilting? something. Using a great fabric with green trees and a coarsely woven fabric (on loan from Eileen), I created two more, trying to figure out where the feature fabric should go and what should be plain, and missed the mark on both. The bags are nice. But not great. The straight-line quilting on the green bags helps a lot to make the bag interesting. Of course it does. I'm a quilter. I like texture. Of course I know this. But somehow I forget something this basic when making a new pattern.
So - using my handy-dandy,never-ending supply of scraps - I began doing some improvisational foundation piecing to create the bag front. And then another improvisation piece for the pocket. And I love the result. This bag is the keeper! When I returned the rest of Eileen's fabrics to her, I gave her her choice of bags - she chose the one with the quilting. Still need to create some nify zipper pulls for these. Guess Eileen will have to do her own.
This pattern is fat-quarter friendly and just needs 2.
The black pocket on the back needs something - some quilting? something. Using a great fabric with green trees and a coarsely woven fabric (on loan from Eileen), I created two more, trying to figure out where the feature fabric should go and what should be plain, and missed the mark on both. The bags are nice. But not great. The straight-line quilting on the green bags helps a lot to make the bag interesting. Of course it does. I'm a quilter. I like texture. Of course I know this. But somehow I forget something this basic when making a new pattern.
So - using my handy-dandy,never-ending supply of scraps - I began doing some improvisational foundation piecing to create the bag front. And then another improvisation piece for the pocket. And I love the result. This bag is the keeper! When I returned the rest of Eileen's fabrics to her, I gave her her choice of bags - she chose the one with the quilting. Still need to create some nify zipper pulls for these. Guess Eileen will have to do her own.
This pattern is fat-quarter friendly and just needs 2.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
An Equal-Opportunity Direction Follower
This past weekend I followed the directions of fellow Chicago Modern Quilt Guildster Erika and made a scarf of t-shirts. Today's project was a drawstring bag with directions provided by CMQGster Sarah S. This nifty bag is about 8" wide by 10" tall and has a boxed bottom. I love the generous spirit of quilters!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Sewing Weekend
I had some specific goals for this past weekend. Some of them I met - some still need work. Friday I visited the Fiber Arts Show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens with two of my favorite people, Wayne and Eileen.
Properly inspired, I began to wade my way through a list. With Erika M's hot directions in hand and after raiding my t-shirts, I made a t-shirt scarf. This is long - 110" and colorful. Can't wait for it to get cold.
The snake of many colors is a sample pack from Jinny Beyer - 150 bits that are 2.25" x 3.75". I've made some wall hangings but am thinking jacket with this set.
I meant to free-motion some table covers for my living room - binding is even ready. And I have some fabric from Eileen and am ready to try making Sarah S's drawstring bags. Maybe I'll get to these this week...
Crap. Just realized the jazz shirt logo on the t-shirt scarf is upside down. So it goes...
Properly inspired, I began to wade my way through a list. With Erika M's hot directions in hand and after raiding my t-shirts, I made a t-shirt scarf. This is long - 110" and colorful. Can't wait for it to get cold.
The snake of many colors is a sample pack from Jinny Beyer - 150 bits that are 2.25" x 3.75". I've made some wall hangings but am thinking jacket with this set.
I meant to free-motion some table covers for my living room - binding is even ready. And I have some fabric from Eileen and am ready to try making Sarah S's drawstring bags. Maybe I'll get to these this week...
Crap. Just realized the jazz shirt logo on the t-shirt scarf is upside down. So it goes...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)