Wrapping Up the Christmas Projects

 Grandson Sam Mo gets a quilt this year.  He's is Marquette MI at Northern Michigan State.  I thought this quilt was finished last January, but then I started to add some hand-quilting to it and couldn't stop.  I love these fabrics and of course this Trip Around the World design.  Sam's dad Mark has a similar quilt.  And you know what?  I'm not finished with these fabrics.  Here's what I have left - and whether I make another trip or do something else, I am eager to finish off this group of fabrics. And keep whatever I make!

This has also been the season of the Hampton Weeked Bag by V and Co. I love its over-the-shoulder or cross-body feature, thanks to the adjustable strap.  I just heard last night from niece Molly about how much she loves her.  And that's how I feel about mine.  The zippered pocket as well as the magnetic closures are great features, too.  I just have two more to complete before Christmas, and they are almost finished. 

My doctor had her first baby almost 8 months ago,and her husband has fallen in love with the baby quilt I made for little Veer.  He asked her to ask me to make a second quilt, a bit bigger in greys, navy, and white (omg, I love this palette so much).  She told him I was sick and probably didn't have time.  But of course this is all part of the surprise as she commissioned this quilt and was delighted that I got it to her before the holidays. 

  What I have made the most of this year has been microwave cozies.  I made some at the Fall Retreat in Racine.  When I actually began to use the ones I made, I realized how very useful they are.  When I finally washed the ones I made, I realized they needed more quilting than I was doing.  So I have modified this pattern to suit my way of sewing and my way of using them.  Currently I am trying to modify this pattern to use for serving bowls and am also experimenting with using Insul-Brite instead of cotton or wool batting. 

No talk of future sewing plans today.  However, my studio floor is covered with piles of greys in all hues.  With one deep red added.  2018 hasn't been a blogging year, but it's been a sewing year.  I'm eager to lay out the various projects for 2019 and get busy on them.  And my table of  SewPowerful fabrics is begging for some attention.  But now?  It's time to enjoy the beauty of the season. 

Projects: Past, Present, and Future

 Back in 2007 I was teaching a Quilt-As-You-Go technique by Sharon Pederson, which she calls Reversible Quilting.  Each one of these hexagons was hand-pieced, worked on while sitting with my college roommate Dodie as she was being treated for her Stage 4 Lung Cancer.  Here's a link showing the quilt I made for her.  And these blocks were left over.  To prove to the class I was teaching that reversible quilting can be used with any shape, I worked on this quilt.

Fast forward 10 years.  Why did I put this away for so long when it was almost completed?  Who knows.  I probably saw something shinier and brighter.

And guildster Debbie Pine's meeting last year about UFO's has spurred me on, too.  (Thank you, Deb - next up is that damn medallion quilt...)

So what to do with this quilt?  It's an odd size - 48" x 70".  And as pretty as it is on both sides, you can't see both sides at once.  But still.  It needs a home. 

In the mid-80's when I was teaching at Hyde Park HS, I had some terrific students.  One of them was Bridgette.  We have become FB friends for several years, and it's been a joy to see her no longer as a bright-shiny teenager but as a woman full of grace, wisdom, and generosity.  She had some terrific damage from one of the recent hurricanes on the East Coast and lost a lot.  When she said she was interested in this quilt, I was thrilled.  It will be on its way to her as soon as her home repairs are complete.   Because these blocks are connected to Dodie, it is special.  And I can't think of someone more special than B to share this with. 

The quilted back of a block

The hand-pieced and machine-quilted front of the same block.

Quilted border, done by me, added after the body was together

Quilting done by me using quilting paper

Meanwhile, I have also been working on more shopping bags.  This pattern, Hampton Weekend Bag, is basically the size of a Mors Bag. But:

• it has an adjustable strap that can be worn cross-body
• there is one layer of interfacing
• there is a zippered pocket inside. 

I'm heading for a few days with a quilty and then J and I are travelling to Orlando for Thanksgiving.  These bags?  Good for hostess gifts - even though one household has said they need no more bags.  Wait until they see this one!

This table of fabrics represent projects of the sewing future.  These are all for Sew Powerful.  The hope is that there will be over 8000 purses unboxed in November.  I sent off my box last week, and I already have six completed for the next deadline.  I am hoping to top what I sent off.

Busy hands, happy hands - past, present, and future.

Adventures? You Betcha!

 I think about the title of this blog.  While what I do may not be daringly adventuresome, my adventure certainly has longevity. And it's highly focused on quilts, bags, and purses.  Quilty buddy Mimi gave me a big pile of wonderfully Asian-ish blues.  I took two of them to pilot this unstructured bag, Hampton Weekend Bag.  It went together quickly - I can see keeping something like this in the car for small shopping trips.  There's a magnet closure, a little zippered pocket inside, and a little slip pocket inside.  The strap has a slider so that it can be a cross-body bag or an over-the-shoulder bag.

Even though I just sent off 34 purses, I needed to make more.  These are an experiment with the various styles of this cross body pattern.  The top three have a gusset joining the front and back.  The bottom three have boxed corners.  They are slightly easier to do. Pink Castle Fabrics in Ann Arbor has a lovely sale with these fabrics at $6 a yard, which is terrific.  It's fun to work with coordinating prints.  Since the whole purpose of this Menstrual Hygiene Management program through Sew Powerful is to encourage young ladies to stay in school, I think the back flap fabric is just so perfect.  I just ordered some more - a lot of future purses are going to include this alphabet fabric.  I am putting purses away (ha, as if...) for a few days and moving on to a couple of other projects.

 As I was working on the previous black and white quilt, I cut 2" logs from the scraps to start a log cabin.  These 9 blocks are on the design wall, and I don't love this.  I think the problem is that the patterns create a "floral" or busy quality.  I am going to work on calming these blocks down by adding more fabrics that read solid.  And as I made this decision, I remember what I love about log cabins:  the variety in layout options.  And it dawned on me that if I had some grey and white blocks and perhaps some black and grey blocks, the design possibilities will be so much more interesting.  I love working on a project like this - one with no particular outcome.  Below is the same layout only with a white diamond in the center. 

Lucky for me that I have a huge amount of grey scraps!