The Everything Bag finish

So I think my Everything Bag is finished.

This pattern is intended to be a diaper bag and comes from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones book. It is a difficulty level 4 and I had the usual problems that people complain about when doing an Amy Butler pattern. I really wish there were more diagrams or other photos of some of the steps. I really had to read and re-read the instructions as I was going along to figure out what to do.

My frustration started in the cutting phase. There is no layout for cutting pieces so you really have to be careful that you get your fabric going in the right direction!

I added a long strap to the bag because I know that with a baby and a toddler I will not have a free hand to actually hold a bag! I probably shouldn't have even put the small handles on there, but I had already cut them before I thought of the long strap so I added them.

 The interior is a laminate for easy cleanup. I was drawn to this bag because of all the elastic pockets inside. They should be really helpful. The laminate was pretty easy to work with. I used my walking foot for most of it which really helped ease the fabric through the machine.

So why do I say I *think* it's finished? Take a closer look.

GROAN...


I think that is the worst stitching I've ever done on anything!!  The problem? That divider. If I were to do it again, I would make the divider shorter. The divider has Peltex in it so it is nice and firm. But for some reason mine seems to be taller than the bag! I'm not sure if you can tell in these photos.

When you put the lining into the exterior you are supposed to edge stitch around the top of the bag and over the divider. Since the divider was taller than the bag, this wasn't possible. And I was stitching from the inside of the bag (since that was the only way I could get it to fit in my machine) I couldn't see how wonky my stitching was.

Then you are to stitch an inch from that to secure it. Because of that giant solid divider, it's really hard to navigate this thing in the machine. I went as slow and carefully as I could and I still got this crappy wobbly stitching. argh!

Here's the other side which is just as bad.

So I haven't decided yet what to do with this. I might pull it and hand stitch it? Though I worry about that being strong enough. I may just decide to live with it. I'm open to any suggestions you might have!

And since I just recently finished the Weekender Bag,  a couple people were asking how this one compared. I'm going to say this was right up there with it. This was labeled difficulty of 4, I would probably rank Weekender as 4.5! All the dividers and pockets made it a bit of a challenge.

I'm linking this to Sew Modern Monday.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I had plans to get a new quilt finished for Bloggers Quilt Festival this year, but I didn't get it to the quilters on time. So I thought I'd feature my favorite quilt this year. If you've been following me a while, you've probably seen this one before. It's my Central Park Postage Stamp quilt.

This quilt was made following the quilt along at PS I Quilt. And I love that QAL because it is such a quick and easy way to make a very impressive quilt. And a good size at 61"x81".

I did my own quilting on this one, just straight lines through the solid blocks.

The fabric is a Central Park jelly roll and a Kona White Jelly Roll. I used some of my favorite Central Park for backing and binding.

Thanks for stopping by. I promise I'll have new stuff to show shortly. In the meantime, enjoy all the quilty goodness over at the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

Charity Sewing for PMQG

Over the summer, the Philly Modern Quilt Guild kicked off the Jay McCarroll Habitat Challege with a block design contest. We each received fabric and got to design a block to be considered. This was the block I designed.

All of these blocks are going to be used for charity quilts to be sent to Japan for earthquake relief. PMQG held a sewing day to get all the quilt tops put together and members were asked to take them home for quilting. I took one and decided to try a few new things since the quilt is so small. This is the first quilt I've quilted with stippling!

The blocks are pretty awesome aren't they? That's a big part of why I did stippling. With all those different designs, I couldn't decide how to quilt this one. Here's a close up of my quilting. I chose a light gray thread that matched with the sashing.

I think the back of the quilt is just as cool...

And the other new technique I tried was machine binding the edges. I used a "fancy" stitch from my machine that kind of looks like "X's". I figure this will hold up better to lots of use (since we don't know where these will end up) than hand stitching would. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Now to get it washed up and returned to the Guild for donation!

I'm linking up to Try New Things Thursday. Have you tried something new lately?

WIP Wednesday 10.26

Well, no finishes to speak of this week, but I'm getting close on a couple of things.

In progress:

For the PMQG Jay McCarroll Habitat challenge we were to make individual blocks to be judged. Now the blocks are being put together for charity quilts and I volunteered to quilt one. That's what's in my machine at the moment.

I also had a reason to go to my local quilt shop today! I joined Kati's Color Wheel Charm Swap over at fromthebluechair.com. I was assigned "Green-Blue" and need to find a dark and light green blue fabric for swapping. Here was my first attempt. What do you think? It's Melinda from Jennifer Paganelli and Snip Snip Scissors from Momo.

My hexagon strip is done and I've added interfacing to the back for support.

My diaper bag exterior and interior are all done and ready to be put together. I'm kind of dreading this step.

I ran into my first hurdle with the Nursery decorating. The panels that I want to cut up are an unusual size so I can't get a standard canvas for them. I found this Foam Board for only $3 so I figured I'd give it a try. If it's not sturdy enough, I'm thinking hubby will be cutting me some custom boards! I'll just have to be gentle with it.

And in non sewing project news, I'm working on a sign for my powder room. Remember that project? No, it's still not painted. Hubby got done most of the first coat and that's where it stands. Let's hope my sign comes out faster! Actually, let's just hope it comes out. I'll post more info if it turns out decent.

No Progress this week:
Double Wedding ring
Curtains, curtains, curtains
X quilt
Baby Boy quilt
Aviary Birdbath - well, it's at the quilters so I don't know what that counts as


Total WIP: 11



As usual - check out the linky party over at Freshly Pieced and add your WIP's to the list!

Some food and fabric

We've been busy this weekend with family visiting from out of town, but I just wanted to share some things.

First off, the evil that Pinterest will bring....

These blueberry muffins may have come out of my oven. I can not confirm or deny that though since there are no more in my kitchen as evidence.  The recipe is here from Smitten Kitchen. How can they not be good from a blog with such an awesome name!?



 And in the mail?

Are you familiar with Richard Scarry? I loved these books when I was little and when my little sister was young. I'm not normally into novelty fabrics, but I've been struggling with how to decorate my boy nursery. Being a book nerd, this totally spoke to me! Especially the panel that came with the FQ set.

It's supposed to be made into a book, but I'm planning on hanging them on canvas or wood or something. We'll see how it goes.

My favorite was always the worm in the apple car! It won't exactly match with the quilt I'm making, but that's okay. It's all fun.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

WIP {38}

Another Wednesday already!! Here's what's getting worked on in my sewing room.

Finished this week:
Kitchen Curtains
Aviary Birdbath top - is now at the quilter!

The final burp cloths for myself (I have quite a pile now!)

In progress:

Finished all my arcs for the double wedding ring quilt. Now I need to get the templates going for all the center portions.

Made myself a custom jelly roll for my baby boy quilt. It really made me appreciate how much time actual jelly rolls save! It took me quite a long time to cut all these strips. But, I didn't want any coral in this quilt so it had to be custom. I decided to keep the yellow in then and I'm glad I did. It adds some extra pop that is definitely needed.

And I cut all the pieces and started construction on my Everything Bag. aka - the Amy Butler Diaper bag. I'm always amazed at how many pieces go into one of her bags. This one had 46 pieces!

I also made progress on my hexagons but don't have a photo. I finished all the hexagons and need to get started on the apron portion.

Total WIPs: down to 4!





As usual - check out the linky party over at Freshly Pieced and add your WIP's to the list!

I'm a curtain making machine

Or really, a valance making machine!  Nothing like having company over to get you to do those projects you keep avoiding right? I finally tackled my kitchen curtains. Here's a before picture from when we were moving in. (And when my external flash still was synced properly - anyone know how to sync an external flash???)

Swag-a-rific right? Not to mention there was a layer of dust so thick on them, it was disgusting.

Here's the window now. (see, lights not so great without my external flash. boo)

I used this tutorial again (which I highly recommend), Amy Butler and Kona Solid for the fabrics. And I also learned that sew in velco is half the price at Joann's than it is at AC Moore. Go figure. Close up of the valance.

 This now lives in harmony with the curtains I did for the small window. (Oh, and my SUTK potholders too).

And on the other corner the covered canvases I blogged about the other day.

Slowly but surely the house is starting to feel more like my house. Only 3 more rooms to make/finish curtains for!

WIP {37}

I totally forgot to take pictures for Work in Progress Wednesday. So you'll have to bear with my bad photos today. It's raining and dark this morning and my shots are terrible!

Finished:
Canvas wall hangings
Dining Room Curtains

In Progress:

Aviary Birdbath: This is my main focus. The top is done and hard to photograph because it's so large. This will go on a field trip for pictures when it is completely finished! Right now I'm piecing the backing and hoping to get it out in the mail this week to the quilter.

Hexagon Apron: I've decided the hexagons will become decorative on an apron and got some dark fabric for the main body (I tend to wipe my hands on my aprons a lot!).

Beach Bag: This one isn't high priority, but I really wanted to do something with the Going Coastal fabric line because I love it so much. So I thought a quicky beach bag was in order for me!

Diaper bag: More realistically, this will probably get done first. My diaper bag for the new baby.

 

And of course the kitchen curtains are top of the list...

I am still working on the Double Wedding Ring quilt. But I cleaned for company over the weekend and seriously can't find the second set I started on! I have the 40 finished, but the new ones are missing. Sigh... they'll turn up. Please tell me I'm not the only one who loses things in their sewing room.

Total WIP'S: 5

As usual - check out the linky party over at Freshly Pieced and add your WIP's to the list!