Soft and Stable

 Soft and Stable is a foam interfacing that allows bags to retain their shape and stand up straight. It’s not cheap.  When I have some - and I just ordered two big pieces - I begin to search through my bag patterns and my fabrics.  I located Noodlehead’s Super Tote pattern and a feature fabric that Holly got for me at QuiltCon a year ago.  And I love the result. 

Five Weeks of Quilting - in pictures!

Seriously, pictures - in no particular order…

Here’s are February’s Sew Powerful purses

After working on sewing a jacket, its results still to be determined, I had to go to

my safe space, a Trip Around the World.

This is from the leftovers of the quilt below.  Waiting for hand quilting. 

This quilt wasn’t a quilt, but recreated by carefully finding the fabrics and 

ponying up for the pattern.  

Foundation-pieced blocks from the leftovers of these two quilts. 

Six more purses - flaps of friendship

                       The next four pictures are reverse progress ones.  First you see a bag. 

                               Now you see what’s in the bag - shoes, book, iPad, water bottle…

                           Here’s the bag empty.  Notice there is a strap held in place by loops

                       And here is the beg’s outside, empty, pretty blah…. A fun and useful project! 

                                                                    March’s 12 purses

                                  Two blocks for a bee mate - curves are challenging for me. 

                                            Plotting my thread color for my newest Trip

And an off-center spiral has begun! 

                                  That’s  it.  The end.  

My Evolving Bedroom

 Years ago, maybe 2013, quilt sisters Holly and Sarah turned me on to Marcia Derse and her fabrics.  Three in particular caught my eye,and I made a bed quilt that I had long armed.  I used a big block design and have loved the result.  It has been washed over 50 times at least and perhaps could use new binding.  But it remains a favorite.

But the need for change occasionally strikes.  This all black and white quilt was a fun experiment, and I also had this one long armed.  I’ve used this for maybe three years, and it’s been washed maybe 20 times. 

But here’s the latest bed quilt.   Finished the top in the fall and had to wait until the temps dropped before I started to hand quit this one.  This was my December-January project.  And it’s on this quilt that I learned how to be an ambidextrous hand quilter.  

I love my quilts, and I love sleeping under them.  Luckily, so does John.  

In the Studio: Donations and a Granddaughter

 The women in my guild are generous.  Several gave me fabrics: look at this bounty…

Now I’m thinking I might have to up my output.  I have fabric for the rest of my life - and beyond! 

But the best thing in the studio this week was my younger granddaughter Natalie.  She wants to learn to sew.  As we got started in the past two days, I was reminded of Camp Quilt with my nieces when they were teenagers - all are now in their 30’s,  Leslie even now still sews and has my old Husqvarna! And then I thought of Cristina as she learned to sew.  And she now has my straight-stitch Brother, an absolute workhorse. The Good Sewing Fairy even made a nighttime visit, just to straighten out a few things! Although Nat’s main goal is clothing, we chose a simple bag for her to learn the sewing machine - it’s not easy with threading, bobbins, needles, etc.  But she made great progress.  

This purse has a front zipper, an inside pocket, and an adjustable strap.  The satisfaction of completing a project, especially in two day? Priceless.  I can’t wait to see what she wants to do next!   

Tuning Forks - a Repeat Project

My Chicago Modern Quilt Guild comes up with different ways for us to play.  In September I began a bee with 8 guild mates.  Each 6 weeks one of us would be the queen bee and tell the others what they want us to do.  I took the first reign and asked my mates for tuning forks, a nod to my father and brother who were piano tuners.  True confessions: I did this before and loved the results.  But Thomas Wolfe was right - you can’t go home again.  Although I asked for a neutral background and a darker fork of either 3”, 6” or 9” wide x any length. The variety of what I got was greater than anticipated.  I finally put all the forks  on the design wall - here it is.  Even John looked at this and suggested maybe it wasn’t worth finishing.  

Interesting observation.  But no!  I’ve been watching Project Runway,and I will make this work.  I started again. And this time I gave the forks some breathing space.  Ah, better.

And today I actually joined all the forks and am almost pleased with the results.  Like so many of my quilts, somebody’s gonna love this - it just won’t be me.   I am very excited by what my bee mates are doing.  We’ll have a great reveal in June! 

 

The Sweet Smell of Completion: Sloan Bag by Sew Sweetness

          This Sloan Bag by Sew Sweetness, Sara Lawson, is gorgeous.   

 Here’s how it started: 

Some additional shots of the completed bag…

This bag is one the most complex bags I make, and I love getting lost in the process and the total concentration it takes.  But now?  Time to move on! 

Sloan Bag - Day 4 - almost there…

 The thought of completion is a great motivator!  I couldn’t wait to get started this morning.  And it’s been a productive day.  But I also know when it’s time to stop for the day.  Assembling the outer bag parts is tricky because of the many layers and the curves created by the side pieces.  The best advice I heard for this part of bag making is that seams do not have to be continuous. 

Tomorrow’s task is to assemble the lining pieces and then attach the outer to the inner!  😁 

Nat’s Sloan bag - Day 3

 So almost all the parts are ready to be assembled.  The two big pieces of lining need zippered pockets - and I’m almost there.  Tomorrow is also top stitching all the straps and attaching them.  The final step will be assembling the zippered collar for the top of the whole bag.  And then…😁.

It’s cold cold cold out, and it’s going to snow tomorrow. perfect weather for sewing! 

Nat’s Sloan Bag - Day 2

 

Today was a fiddly day and preparing the various parts.  All the straps are made, and so are all the pockets.  And the bottom of the bag is ready.  Each one of these items needs interfacing, and the straps additionally needed some visible fleece for body.  The side pockets have a snap closure - had  to get out the hammer for these snaps!  The front pocket has a zippered compartment and is also a slip pocket. The bottom piece looks simple but actually has four layers - the actual fabric, interfacing, a layer of Soft and Stable (the foam), and a layer of Peltex, something to add additional body and stiffness for the bag’s bottom.  

I’m thankful for all the fiddly bits - there’s no time to wratchafratch about Trump’s latest acts of idiocy or  the Bears’ loss last night.  And it’s fun to see the bag slowly come together.  Tomorrow? Topstitch and attach the straps,  cut out the lining, and add the lining side pockets and the lining’s two zippered pockets.  

Starting 2026 with a Sloan Travel Bag

Trying to keep to a schedule is hard but necessary.  Early January I completed my monthly commitment of a dozen purses for Sew Powerful.  And once those were done…

I resorted to an old safe sew, A Trip Around the World, in a color palette I don’t often work in.  It’s now hanging and ready for a backing, batting, and pin basting with no particular deadline.

And now?  It’s time for a luxury project - a Sloan Travel bag.  It’s one of my favorite Sew Sweetness patterns, and I make them only for very special people.  The next several several blog entries will be a daily journal of this bag’s process and progress.  The special person is my granddaughter Nat.  We met at Sew Modern Chicago in Arlington Heights and spent an hour touching and combining various fabrics.  And here’s what Nat has chosen.

Once I got home I couldn’t wait to get started.  The feature fabric is a woven cotton, and like with all cottons used for bag making, I interfaced it with SF 101.  This iron-on interfacing gives the cotton a bit of body and helps it to wear longer.  There’s a sample strip that is transparent.  Next to it is a strip of Soft and stable, a thin foam substrate that gives the bag shape.  There’s next task is now to actually machine quilt the feature fabric to the Soft and .stable foam.  After experimenting with a couple of different thread colors, I found one that works the best.  And there is a little sample of that to the right of these strips.   

When I was in the classroom and teaching research skills and papers, the kids often got overwhelmed by the task ahead.  And I assured them we would break it down and go step by step.  Bag making requires the same type of assurance.  Are there a lot of steps?  Yes.  But broken down and doing tasks one step at a time will result is a fabulous finished project.  

On the design wall there is an orange-ish grunge and “rum raisin” grunge.  These will be for the accents - the straps and the side and front pockets. Everything is atop the ombré lining which is just gorgeous.  I’ve found the necessary 1.5” rectangular rings.  And zippers?  I’ll decide on colors as I get more into the bag.  And something  wonderful happened as I was preparing what you see above: I’ve fallen in love with these fabrics.  I don’t have a handle on Nat’s taste and tried very hard to keep my personal taste out of it.  And I left the fabric store feeling ok about her selections.  But now?  I can’t wait to really get started.  

Today’s a busy day so no sewing.  But tomorrow and Tuesday are frigidly cold with nothing on the calendar.  Perfect for sewing!