Take Off Tote

I've been doing secret sewing on a quilt top that can't be shared which is why I haven't really been blogging. That said, I finished up my IG Mini Swap quilt, received one in turn, and have made a few other small things recently. This is a round up post of the things I've been working on other than the one big quilt top (and it will be big at 93" square).

To start: my mom's birthday quilt. It hasn't actually made it to her because of the backing, unfortunately flipping over on itself for the last column, and me not having had a chance to unpick that column of quilting to redo it then bind. That said, she knows she's getting it and has seen it in person. It fits with the color scheme of the living room at her house perfectly. And you can see that I'm now using the Singer 66 for my quilting, and the stitches are great.

Pippa wanted to show you what the extension table is really for:

 And the whole quilt laid out on my bed, which is queen sized for reference. This quilt is a throw, not full bed sized though.

 My IG Mini Swap quilt as I was quilting it. I did pebbles in the background areas.

 And here it is, unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it once it was bound before it went off in the mail to England.

 This is a block that I made nearly two years ago (maybe a little more). I decided it will become a pillow cover and I wanted to practice hooked swirls. I still need more practice, but adding to FMQ repetoire with small scale practice is always good.

 This is the IG Mini Swap that I received. Quilts From the Attic made this for me, and he based the nautical theme off the fact that I'm in the Navy. Plus, he sent some nice goodies along.

 And here it is hanging on my dining room wall. I hung it within 20 minutes of receiving it. I love the colors and the matchstick quilting. Before you ask - no the flags don't spell anything, most of them are just made up and don't follow actual flags.

 And here is another long standing flimsy that I've had, and I decided to practice meandering feathers on the chevrons.

 And the completed mini, which will also likely become a pillow cover.

 And then lastly, over the weekend I got the pattern for the Take Off Tote from Dog Under my Desk. I love her patterns since they have photos of every step of the way. The pattern for this bag was 43 pages including the pattern pieces, around 30 of actual step by step instructions. I was never confused and it came together in about 4 hours total. I also learned a new zipper technique. Between the straps on the back, it has instead of a pocket, a slide so that it can sit on top of a rolling suitcase and not slip off. That's why it's called the Take Off Tote.  These fabrics came from Jo-Ann where I had gone to get the needed interfacing since they were on crazy sale, and I love swirls and polka dots, can't go wrong with either.

Interior has a big double pocket.

 I really like the wide open zip on the top of this, very easy to see things in the bag and not be searching for something that has slipped to the bottom. It also has a firm base, and the pattern includes a pocket to slide in a piece of cardboard, or in my case, plastic template cut to size.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Metro Lattice

I'm entering my Metro Lattice quilt into the Blogger's Quilt Festival  in the Small Quilt Category. I put the binding on it a couple of weeks ago and it's been out in my living room ever since (we'll ignore that I also have unbound quilts that live on the couch, too, until the spirit moves me to get my act together and finish them up).  The sequence of photos that follow are the quilt itself and the process from basting to binding. I did simple straight lines on this and bound with one of the Barcelona prints that I also used as the backing. It finishes at 48"x58".

Pippa helped me baste, as per usual. This picture sums up a lot of things: quilting, cat, and wine.

So many lines! Straight line quilting takes a lot longer than FMQ.

 I couldn't bind without my trusty wonder clips or supervisor in the background.

Some stipple, a new toy, and a bag

As I've referenced before, the DCMQG is the coordinating guild of 100 Quilts 4 Kids. Along with individual guild members donating quilts, the guild as a whole comes together to make group quilts. I quilted one of them last week (and will put the binding on this weekend). This one got an all over stipple.

I also started making blocks for a new quilt because I wanted to play with my new toy. which is pictured below - it's a compass rotary cutter. It makes perfect circle cuts, and thus it makes perfect quarter circles when making drunkard's path blocks. Curves have definitely become part of my piecing repertoire without the fear that once hung over them. 

And lastly, I made a pleated bag for taking to temple tonight when I started getting bored of drunkard's path blocks. I found a nice tutorial, and made it pretty quickly. The lining is royal blue which echoes the stars on the outside. It's big enough to hold my tallis, machzor, phone, and wallet. I made the handle a little longer than the tutorial called for since I like a bigger drop on my bags.

Faux Cathedral Windows Pattern on Craftsy

The Faux Cathedral Windows pattern is live on Crafty now.

Visit my Craftsy Shop to get it. 

Finished! (7 months later...)

I finally put the binding on my Irish Chain made from Allison Glass streamers. I'll own that I had it out on my couch and used it back in February/March without binding because, as I've said before, binding is my least favorite step of quilt making. I used the same black print for the binding that was used for the corner stones. And one strip of the red which goes around one of the corners.

#IGMiniSwap and a Pattern

Hello, readers, for all of you who follow on Instagram, too, you'll know that I just made a faux cathedral windows top for my IG Mini Swap partner. It got such a great response that I wrote up a pattern which is now with testers. Once I get feedback re: my pattern writing skills (this is my first one ever written so I expect LOTS of feedback since I included two experienced pattern writers in the tester group), the pattern will be released on Craftsy.

From sketch to actual mini quilt, this only took a couple of nights.

Cathedral Windows without the headache of much folding and pinning or zig zag stitching oddly folded blocks together.

I made another one...

The Sew Together Bag by Sew Demented is a wee bit addicting. It's such a fun bag with its zippers and pockets and fun finish of zipper that is handle. Because I like making them, and one of my best friends from college requested one from fabric that I was trying to destash via Instagram, a commissioned bag was spawned. This was the seventh one I've made and it took me just under 2.5 hours from start to finish. I love my Pfaff which can handle all the layers when putting the sides together with the body of the bag.

Along with wanting the elephants as the focus print, she said I could use any other blue that I wanted throughout. So I went with a mix of Allison Glass Streamers and V and Co Simply Style plus a solid ocean blue.

The front and back (is there really a front/back) are identical with the patchwork stripe.

 Pocket linings! It's always fun to have a little pop of the unexpected. 

 This shows the streamers as the middle two open pockets and the inside of the accordion pieces.