A New Fika Tote

Is this bag sweet or what?  It is a Fika Tote by Noodlehead.  It's 18' wide and 15' deep.  One side has two patch pockets.  The other side has a large zippered pocket, perfect for a notebook or papers. The inside has a series of pockets as well.  

The biggest success of this bag are the two double-headed zippers, aka purse zippers.  Despite having yards of zipper tape and various zipper pulls, I always buy these zippers.  But this time I figured out how to do the double headed thing!  It involves offsetting the two sides of the zipper tape.  

The design wall holds all the leftover bits from the quilt I've been working on as well as from the Fika Tote.  I've started playing with these scraps.  To what end?  I'm not sure.  I'm just sort of goofing around and improving.  Here's what I have so far:

To be continued...

Scraps, Purses, New/Old Projects

So much sewing.  But space has been limited.  The studio has been housing some overnight guests, one for two weeks, but all is back to normal again.  Because space was limited I worked with what I could get to:  scraps.  

These four purses for Sew Powerful are from great niece Cassidy's shower quilt.  And the one in the left corner is from Sam's quilt.

The two below?  again, favorite scraps.  That's the last of the Periodic Table fabric.  I used a lot of that for masks.

 These four dotty sisters have some of my favorite fabric for the flaps.  And this fabric allows me to use almost anything for the body, lining, and straps.

In the previous blog post I mentioned my new favorite fabric designer Seth Apter.  The picture above is leftover from a quilt I'm working on. That quilt is at the bottom of this post, and I am halfway through hand-quilting it.  These leftovers are going to be something.  I just don't know what.  And I keep adding additional scraps to the design wall.  For me?  This is great fun!

My SIL in Florida was wanting a baby quilt.  The above is what I came up with using blue scraps and low volume scraps (are you sensing a theme about scraps?). She decided on a different quilt, so this one - its 48' x 60" has been languishing.  Well, no more.  I frankenbatted a batting and found a bed sheet that is the perfect shade of blue for the back.  Now it is all pin-basted and will be my next hand project.  I think I'll use a dark thread and try for something wavy.  We'll see...

But the urge to make purses and bags is so strong.  Using my favorite fabrics I am making this Fika Tote.  Its a great pattern.  I've made maybe five of them so far.  And I may actually keep this one!

As I was working on my stepdaughter's bed quilt I commented to her that I loved her quilt.  And she said I say that about all of my quilts.  Well, not quite.  This one above?  I thought I was going to love it, but as it came together, my eye told me something was wrong. Is it that green-ish limey yellow?  are those grays throwing it off?  I thought of my grandson Sam as I was making this.  While I do love Sam, I don't love this quilt.  However, perhaps this is my saving grace:  Sam is colorblind.