Sarcastic/Nerdy Guild swap

The Philly MQG decided to have a Sarcastic/Nerdy swap based off of the online swaps that use profanity or are focused on fandom.  We use Elfster to get matched up for these swaps and you can find out if your partner has an obsession with certain shows, movies or characters through the site. Or based on their sense of humor you could do something a little more risque!

I wasn't 100% sure of my partners use of profanity so I stuck with some quilting fun.  This bag challenged me several times. It's a Noodle Head pattern called the Caravan Tote which I highly recommend. What challenged me was getting the heat transfer on their correctly.  My original design was based off of one on CafePress that I can't get to load up here. (just google Serial Quilter and you'll find it.)  I made myself a t-shirt as a tester.

Then when I started to do the bag, I just resized it, cut it out on my silhouette and put it on the piece before sewing it to the bag. However, I had not read the whole bag pattern yet and didn't realize the bottom of the bag required 3" of the side panel in order to make the boxed bottom! All of a sudden my quilter girl was too big and I had no more heat transfer material!!

What you see is the result of re-thinking. I decided to enlarge the rotary cutter and scissors and cut from a sparkly iron-on that I was able to get locally.

The bag itself is so cool! Inside the side panel (and my awesome rainbow zipper) is a subdivided pocket for tools.

Another pocket inside the bag itself, and then snap closures.  I did the handles with fabric covered webbing.

And because swaps always require a little more love, I found a few things to include. This funny little pin:

And I made this little zip pouch out of sewing themed fabrics.

She loved everything! Now to get working on our retreat swap project!!

Teacher gifts this year

In all the holiday busy-ness, I never shared my teacher gifts. I had 16 teachers to make for this year because of my little guy being in a toddler room and my older one in two schools (blasted part time kindergarten!). So for the majority of teachers, they got these little Mini Treat Totes. I've linked to the free pattern for you.

These went together so fast! I did most of them during our Philly MQG retreat in November. And i used a lot of my adorable Kawaii fabric from the Pink Castle Kawaii Fabric club. Here's a close up of one of my favorite pieces.

I got a great groupon for the Body Shop and got body butters to put in these bags for the teachers.



I decided that my daughter's kindergarten teacher needed a bigger gift. She has 25 kids in her class but still really takes the time with each kid. So I made her the Jane Market Tote from the pattern I bought a few years ago.

 These are such a great bag. Good all purpose size and quick to go together!

The pattern doesn't call for it, but I use stabilizer in it so they are a little stiffer and will maintain shape a little better. Helps when you are trying to load it.

I also made some key fobs for the bus drivers, but forgot to take pictures of those. I hope they are happy with them!

A bag for my cutting mat!

I've been wanting to make a travel bag for my smaller sewing mat and tools to take on sewing events. Then when I saw the Bekko Line, I knew it was perfect and I had to finally get to it! It's a large scale, home deco weight print. And the geometric print are right up my alley!  I've had this tutorial from Because I Said Sew bookmarked for a while so I set to it and I'm thrilled with the results.

 The tutorial is made for a 24" by 18" cutting mat and that's what I used. The tutorial is pretty good but I would recommend reading the whole thing first. I didn't and wound up ripping a few times at the part where you sew the bag together. I did it wrong several times before I finally wound up asking Jeanna for help! She was so kind and gave me more directions via email. But if I had read through the rest of the directions, I would have figured it out! Sorry Jeanna!

Here's the small pocket on one side. Perfect for all your cutters and tools (note the dora shoes of my assistant!).

And then the other side is one LARGE pocket where you can put all your big rulers and maybe even patterns. Very well thought out! (the white is the lining and the blue is the pocket).

Thanks Jeanna for a great tutorial, I love my bag!

Quilting Angels Swap received

The sun came out yesterday so I was able to get some photos of the beautiful gifts I received from Kari for our PMQG swap.  I had asked for a tote bag and she made me such an awesome tote with heavy weight fabrics!

The inside has a bunch of pockets in it. I think I'm going to use it as my purse I love it so much!

And then all these goodies! A christmas quilt kit, HST ruler and a stack of yummie fabrics.

What a great bundle of fabrics right? And check out the adorable little owl ribbon. I have to find something special to make with that.

Thank you so much Kari for spoiling me so!

Pretty Little Pouch

My Pretty Little Pouch for the swap is all completed and ready to go. This was my start on the 'front'. I used this tutorial which was perfectly easy to follow and modify (I added more twisters on mine).

 That's Kona Charcoal and then I used scraps that I had in rainbow colors. I wanted the back to be more colorful so I cut triangles out of the rainbows.

I'm always looking for an excuse to use the fancy stitches on my machine so I added a row of stitching to make it a little more interesting.

And I chose a nice light fabric for the inside because it's always easier to find your stuff when the inside of a bag is light.

Now I just have to decide on my 'extras' and this baby  is all ready to be mailed next week! I hope my partner likes it!

Some quick finishes

I've gotten a couple quick finishes done the last week. Mostly because I'm avoiding quilting a top that I can't figure out what to quilt on it! So here is what I have done.

I made two of these bags.

These are the ever popular Jane Market Tote with one change. I sewed the handles inside rather than on top.  I had this fabric and used it for powder room curtains (photos will follow once they are hung). I had way too much of it so I actually made two of the same bag. The only difference is I left my label off one.

What do you think of this fabric? I'm thinking of giving the extra bag to my daughters summer camp teacher as a thank you gift. But even the inside has the dogwood fabric on it.

The other small project was to recover my ironing board again.  Here is it in the first fabric I used all browning and gross.

And underneath is the original board. My husband and I call it the first ironing board because it's so old.

It came from his family farmhouse and we have no idea how old it is. Case in point, when I first did this, I tried to re-pad it as well and found this underneath.

Yeah. That's bolted in! I wasn't and am still not messing with it.

So I got myself a fun decor weight fabric from Joann's and used this tutorial to re-cover it.

I have to say, the tutorial is great. Very straightforward and easy to follow. And I think it left a nice clean looking cover! I'm excited to iron again!

Another Whimsy bag

Two years ago I made the above bag and blogged about it here. I have used and used this bag and I love it. And now that I'm not need to carry quite so much stuff I need a bag that was large but not so large that things get lost in it. Time for another one of these!

So here is my new bag! Made from the Whimsy pattern by Lazy Girl Designs. And updated with some Tula Pink Birds and Bees Fabric. I think that large floral is my favorite print from this line.

Here you can see the inside a bit better. You can see, I was so excited to use it that I forgot to take pictures. Just loaded it up and started carrying it around. That's a sign of a good bag. And just like last time, I have to rave about this pattern. It's SO easy to put together. I got it done in one nap time. Which around here is not that long. What's also clever about this bag is that she uses batting for stabilizer so it's a great way to use up those small pieces of batting left over from quilts.

I can't recommend this pattern enough if you are looking for a great bag. The pockets on the outside are perfect for all those things you want to reach right away (sunglasses, phone) and the inside isn't too deep so you lose everything at the bottom. How about you? What's your favorite bag pattern?

Sweet Harmony Handbag

A while back I posted about how I found this "lost" project. I had purchased everything I needed a few years ago and somehow totally forgot about it! With Sara hosting Purse Palooza it was the perfect time to finally get it done.

The pattern is Amy Butler Sweet Harmony Handbag and Tote. I chose to make the handbag. It's made out of Amy Butler Love which is one of my all time favorite lines. My favorite quilt ever that I've made is done with these fabrics. I didn't realize you can still purchase the whole line here. I may have to contain myself!!

As usual with an Amy Butler pattern, the results are a very professional bag.  But also as usual, you need to read the directions carefully. I had the bag almost finished before i realized I forgot to add the outer pockets!

The bag gives you the option to do zippers or pockets on the inside. with such small pockets I just did open pockets.

Now I just need to get my kids out of diapers so I can carry a small bag again!

I'm entering this bag in Purse Palooza 2012. And Ellison Lane's Summer Sewing Contest.

An apron and a found project

Back when I did the Spice Up The Kitchen Swap my sweet bloggy friend Susanne made my daughter an apron. She LOVES this apron and wears it every time we cook together. Lately she has hit a growth spurt and it's getting too small for her. I decided it was time to make her another one.

I found this easy tutorial on Michael Miller Fabrics and decided to pull out some of the kitchen type fabrics I have to make this. (And really, I have no idea why I have so many food fabrics!). This tutorial was easy to follow and can be modified for adult or kids aprons.

The tutorial calls for a yard of fabric for each front and back. I had that for the front, but pieced together a half yard for the back. (seriously - what was I going to do with this grocery print?)

She is thrilled with it, but of course would not model it for me. It was nice to do a fun little quickie project like this.

And while I was searching my stuff for the D-rings to make this. I came across this bin...

Yup, that is a bag pattern and all the supplies to make it. Included unopened fabric from Fat Quarter Shop. Whoops! Please tell me I'm not the only one who has totally forgotten a project! This one is back up on the top of the list.