A Tote Bag for a Giantess

QuiltCon 2025 has come and gone.  Many of my quilty buddies went to Phoenix. And before you feel sorry for me that I didn’t go, I made a conscious decision to not go.  My current life’s rhythm has changed.   The ones I attended were heaven on earth.  And this year I am watching several of the lectures on line.  Best of all, quilty Holly - with assistance from Sarah S and Eileen - shopped for me.  There’s a terrific piece of fabric from Sarah Bond.  And some very pretty zippers and strapping for handles.

These are the best purse zippers - look at the double zipper pulls.  And the colors!  AND they are 30”.  Think about the top of a bag you carry that has a zipper.  I bet it is 14” long, maybe 16”.  It’s really a challenge to use a 30” zipper!  

And you know I buy zipper tape by the yard, right?  Look below. So many colors.  So many zipper pulls.  The last bag I made was Sara Lawson’s Dot Dash Dot bag - it had SIX zippers.  But this current challenge was how to use a beautiful 30” zipper.

I took a pile of my favorite current scraps and made a panel that is 32” x 22.” And of course I had to make a back panel.

This bag is perfect for carrying a quilt.  Or a pillow.  Or maybe both.  The bottom of the bag has boxed corners.  And the top corners are slightly boxed.  Look at the zipper! And the finished product.  Such a fun way to play! 

Brandon’s Quilt

It’s a definite work in process. Grandson Brandon moved to Atlanta with his mom.  They painted his bedroom green and burgundy and sent me the paint chips,  so I found these great fabrics, a lot of grunge.  As I was checking out, the woman said, “Christmas?” Oy.  Wise friend Sarah Shulman suggested incorporating some navy.  Perfect! I’m hand quilting this, and it’s a big one.  When it’s finished, like maybe in 3 weeks, we’ll head to Atlanta.  There are a couple of exhibit at the quilt museum in Paducah. As Chaucer wisely observed, spring makes people want to go on pilgrimages! 

A Dozen Sew Powerful Purses for March

 I am trying to be more consistent with my Sew Powerful purses efforts.  One dozen a month seems a doable goal.  And although it’s early days in 2025, so far so good.  The March purses will be shipped along with 13 purses from February.  And my new project is Brandon’s quilt.  I have finally figured out what I want to do! So tomorrow I will pack up these purses and go to UPS.  And then?  I’m putting all purse makings away and getting busy! (And yes! three of these purses are from Cecilia’s drapes.)

More from Cecilia’s drapes…

 Former Hyde Park High School student Bridgette, she who conducts monthly physical challenges and keeps me honest with my workouts, said she is ready for a new travel bag and even knew exactly she wants. Here are two I made her almost 10 years ago.  And she wants the exact style, the Dot Dash Dot  Bag from Sara Lawson Sew Sweetness. So I dug out the pattern and sent Bridgette fabric possibilities.  Out of all the fabrics, she chose the curtain fabric.   

Despite the thickness of this brocade (not sure if that’s what it really is), it is sewing up nicely.  My one modification is that I can’t make the strap adjustable - fabric is just too thick. But I did ask Bridgette to measure the length of her preferred strap.  And presto!  here’s the bag,,,

The one side has three zippered compartments with two additional little corner pockets.  Thee is also a zippered closure at the top.  The bag is about 14” wide, 18” tall, and 6”.  This is a fun pattern, and even though I have no need for a travel bag, I might just have to make another.  But not before I do Brandon’s quilt! 

Purses and Plans

In January I made a commitment to make 12 Sew Powerful purses a month.  And here are mine for February.   Notice the top row, 2nd one. I’m used the curtain material for the flap and strap,  I think I’ll do more next month.  And just as I was finishing these, a flap of friendship arrived from Shannon Greene in Oklahoma.  A perfect baker’s dozen! 

Meanwhile, my guild has started three new bees.  I loved participating in the last one when I made The Piano Tuner’s Daughter quilt.  I am using this new bee to repeat this project.  Here is the first quilt, and here are the forks for this project.   I can’t wait to see what my guild mates create.  

Former student Bridgette, the retired Marine who keeps me and several others working out daily, says she’s ready for a new bag.  And she wants a Dot Dash Dot bag.  I made several almost 10 years ago, so it will be fun revisiting this pattern.  And she has chosen the drapery material.  I think this will work.  Despite my vow to not start another project until I do grandson Brandon’s quilt, I just gotta make this bag first! 

Inherit the Wind - No, Wait. It’s actually…

 Inheriting draperies from Gone With the Wind!  Friend Cecilia is redecorating and offered me the drapery panel that covered one whole window wall of her dining room.  What a lot of fabric! Let me amend: what a lot of excellent fabric.

Here is this panel on my cutting tables, which are 120” long.  John helped me cut off the top pleated bit and … soooo much fabric.  

The whole idea behind the curtain giveaway was for Sew Powerful purses.  But first I needed to play with the fabric and see whether this brocade is too thick.  It cuts and sews beautifully.  I’ll need to make some adaption to the strap method. For sure this is great fabric.  Below is a bag about the size of a grocery bag that turned out nicely.  Now I can make bags and purses for the whole world!  

Enlarging A Favorite Quilt for a Favorite Grandson

 

Grandson Sam is renting a house in Lombard along with his brother Jack and a third roommate.  Just because they are living close to us doesn’t mean we will see them with greater frequency.  Sam went to Northern Michigan State, and one fall we took a road trip to see him - Sam was a sophomore,  and I gave him a quilt.  Since then almost any event we are attending, Sam is quick to tell me he uses his quilt nightly and has washed it a lot. Recently he told me he bought a queen bed and kind of gave what was on my dining room wall ( see below) a longing look - it is a smaller version of what I made him years ago.  I asked him if he’d be interested in a bed version of this quilt. All of the fabrics in this quilt are out of print, but grunge pairs nicely.  These fabrics were originally from a collection by Janet Clare called Wordsmith.  And most important to my eye, there’s a color in this quilt - it’s grey/green/touch of blue - that feeds my soul and is so hard to describe and match.  But this one grunge works! 

So I removed the binding of the dining room wall quilt and began to make borders.  It was 60 x 80”.  And with the borders it is now 90” x 110” .  Using the quilt as you go method, the two sides went on, and then the top and bottom.  The final step was binding.  It’s gorgeous. And the texture is wonderful.  The body of the quilt is hand quilted with a wool bat.  The borders are machine quilted with a cotton bat. And the back of this quilt is all Art Gallery fabrics, which have an almost silky feel.  

I have loved looking at this quilt on the wall for a couple of years, but I ann also happy to look at this fabulous new quilt! I think I’ll leave it up for a while!   And a final word about favorites: Sam is my favorite grandson.  But so are Ryan, Jack, Brandon and Ben. 

Changing up my dining room

 For several years this quilt has been on my dining room wall.  It’s the absolute last of. Janet Clare line of fabrics called Wordsmith, and none of it is available any more.  I had just enough left to make this Trip Around the World with no borders.  It’s very similar to a quilt I made for grandson Sam when he was at Northern Michigan State.  John and I took a road trip to visit him, maybe 7 years ago,  and .sam is color blind.  He has told me how much he loves his quilt - I think because the design and contrast is easy for him to see and appreciate.  Sam recently bought a queen size bed.  And I’ve been making different quilts. So I’m putting borders on this dining room quilt and hanging up a new one. 

.  Now?  Putting borders on the quilt for Sam.  It’s a process to add to a quilt, but I have the skilz! 

In Love With Every Aspect of This Glam Clam Quilt

This quilt is such a departure from what I usually do.  These colors and fabrics are a part of my new favorite palette.  And there are no straight lines.  These clams all had to be cut by hand, not by rotary cutter.  I did think about piecing by hand, but then I snapped to my senses and did the piecing by machine. However, the quilting?  Yeah, all done by hand, baby, with wool batting and my favorite fabric for backing.If you zoom in, you might be able to see the print of a train or ferry schedule.  It’s very subtle.  

I love cutting the clams.  I loved sewing the clams with its odd assembly of left to right, top to bottom.  And I loved quilting this.  Almost like reading a fabulous book, I really slowed my sewing down the last week just to make the quilting last longer.   What a great quilt t end the year with! 
 

2024: The Year of Seth Apter

 It doesn’t happen often - in fact, this is the third time - that I have fallen in love with a fabric designer.  The first was Marcia Derse back in 2014.  The second was with an Art Gallery fabric, Hello Bear, by Bonnie  Christine.  Last year for Christmas my stepdaughter Jen gave me a gift certificate to a Wisconsin fabric store Quilt-agious in Mukwonago. That’s where I found a collection of Seth Apter fabrics.  His Storyteller fabric line caught my eye for its texture, its color, its collage-like appeal. And thus my most recent and very serious fabric crush.  

            And here’s some of what this line has inspired, including a purse in the upper left that I use daily. 

   

My granddaughter was married last summer and had a very specific color palette.  So I cautiously began using some fabric for one of my favorite quilt designs, Trip Around The World, for Nikki.  

I know what you’re thinking: what a tame use of these fabrics.  So I went a step further by making a gift bag to go along with the quilt, and I liked the bag much better.

But at this point t I really wanted to play with these fabrics. I bought a jelly roll of Seth’s fabrics and used them in “Tightrope”, a pattern by Robin Pickens found at Quilt-afious.  It’s been hand quilted in an off-center spiral.  It almost looks like stained glass.  

Here is a Fika tote, pattern by Noodlehead.  That blue grunge along with the Storyteller fabric?  Love love love. But by this point I was accumulating some pretty tasty scraps and had to do something with them.  The quilt below is odd but pretty in its own way.  It too is hand-quilted. I added to those  Seth Apter scraps  some scraps from artisan shot cottons in an attic window approach. 

This bag pattern, Bohemian Carpet Bag, from Quilt-agious, leaped out at me from the store’s website.  I had to have it, along with some newer Seth Apter fabrics, all of which were on back order.  So I ordered the bag, the necessary hardware, and the fabric - and waited three months.  For someone who is into instant gratification, this was the longest wait ever!  But so worth waiting for.  I love this bag, I love the hardware, and this fabric is just so fun, 

But my favorite piece/quilt of all so far has been this Pacific quilt design from Art Gallery Fabrics featuring several but not all Seth Apter fabrics.  I love the braided and woven effect of this design. I’ve included two photos because the lighting is so different in each. 

I’m not done with these fabrics.  While I’m not sure what’s next, I must credit Seth for my shift in colors.  For so long I’ve been all about reds, greys, and blacks.  This last year has taught me to embrace blues and greens! And I will continue to haunt the Quilt-agious website!