Another Sew Together Bag

Yes, it has happened again.  I have made another Sew Together Bag.

To get this underway, I went hunting for fabric that went with the zip colours I already had stashed away.  It was lucky I didn't get smothered by all the fabric and Hubby needed to call in emergency services.  I may have had one of those moments where you realise you have lots of lovely fabric that needs to be used up before you buy more (I've since fallen off the wagon and bought more - naughty).

The koi fabric, on a deep grey background, is by Zesti from Spoonflower.  I bought this over a year ago (together with the coordinating scalloped pattern I used on the ends) and it has languished in my stash ever since.

It's a Sew Together Bag

The orange cherry blossom fabric inside the pockets is from Spotlight.  Hubby likes all things orange, and somehow he has turned me from a hater to a fan over the last 10 years.

It's the inside of a Sew Together Bag

The grey lining is also from Spotlight, but the binding is from a range called Hello Kyoto.  I liked the hot pink - I thought it was nice and fresh.

It's the outside of a Sew Together Bag

I went all crazy and outside the square and did my straight line quilting in orange.  I was a bit nervous about how it would look, because I very rarely deviate from white.  But I really, really like it.  I will be trying coloured cotton again.  I can see how different colours would really change the look of the fabric.

Yep, you've got it - it's a Sew Together Bag.  Again.

The bag is so, so much easier to make the second time around.  If you are thinking of giving this pattern a go, I say DO IT.  The first time will suck a bit, and then you will get the hang of it.  I only checked the pattern this time when it came to the big zip on the outside.  That isn't to say it still didn't take me a fair few hours, but it was definitely a more enjoyable experience.  There will be more of these in my future - I have no doubt!!  (note to family members - please act all excited and pleased at Christmas, okie dokie?!).

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and TGIFF over at Sew Fresh Quilts.  Howdy visitors!

Nearly wordless WIP Wednesday (heh)

Well ... you know I can't say nothing.  That's pretty much impossible, because I'm a big ole blabber mouth.  But I'll try to be brief!

So I've started on Gypsy Wife.  It's awesome.  There's a quilt along happening at the moment, but I'm way behind and out of touch with that, so I'm kind of doing my own thing.  I've decided to do the quilt in sections.  I've managed to finish sections 2 and 4, and I'm loving it.  You may recall that I have decided to make the quilt using Tula Pink's Prince Charming collection, together with the odd neutral thrown in for variety.

Pershing block

Courthouse steps block, half square triangles and bordered square in square blocks

I've also been buying fabric.  What's new?  These are some snippets from fabric.com, including Pretty Potent by Anna Maria Horner, which is luminescent in real life, and the pretty pink liberty lawn fabrics on the right.

Pretty fabric nom nom

Oh, and I've also been pottering away on the ABC blocks.  I meant to get through a whole pile of these in the weekend, but something intervened.

Aren't they purdy?

Yep - the last post-out of fabric for Citrus Sweet Love arrived, so I finished my quilt top.  It  is absolutely horrendous weather here at the moment, so no glamour shots.  But never fear, because there is going to be a big old blog post All About This And How Awesome I Am Finishing It.  I might also mention the cool people that designed it and stuff.



It's pretty uncool to rave about loving your projects, but I'm not very cool, so I'll rave away.  I'm loving this stuff at the moment.  Yay for me.  Remind me to come back and read this when I'm whining on about my sewing in due course.  It's inevitable.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and other lovely places.

Super Simple Baby Quilt 5

One of the things on my to-do list for May was finishing a snuggly baby quilt for the wee man.  For those of you not in New Zealand, I can tell you that it's getting a smidgen chilly in Auckland now.  Not polar vortex chilly, but definitely put-the-fire-on-and-wear-multiple-layers chilly.

I thought the brown binding with mossy splodges was very Seuss-like

Now the wee man has quilts, but not a snuggly, buggly, lined with fluffy candlewick quilt.  The poor deprived little dear.  So I did what all crafty mummys do, and dragged out a jelly roll of Lorax fabrics that I may have bought when I was pregnant.  Good things take time, you know.

I sewed five strips from the jelly roll together to make the non-bordered patches, and trimmed them to 10.5" square.  This meant I got 4 blocks from each set of 5 strips.

For the bordered strips, I sewed three of the jelly roll strips together and trimmed the blocks to 6.5" square.  I got this meant I got 6 of the little blocks from each set of 3 strips.  I bordered the smaller blocks with 2.5" strips of white so that they ended up 10.5" square too.  All done.

Basting - not my friend

The most time was spent mucking around figuring out the layout.

Once it was all done I ummmed and ahhhed about the quilting.  I didn't really want to practice my free motion quilting, but in the end I decided that I should just suck it up and give it a go.  I channeled my inner Leah Day and got going.

I quilted the whole quilt in a pattern Leah Day calls "snake paisley".  Personally I think it looks like echoed flames.  It was okay for a first time, but that's about it.  There are various things that could have made the experience more pleasurable - a supreme slider, a quilting table, some machine quilting gloves, and a little more care.  I think I need to make sure I'm really keen on free motion quilting before I invest more money in gadgets though.

Attempts to take outside photos were thwarted by the rubbish winter light.  Sigh.

It took me about five hours.  It's fair to say that I had the hang of the pattern near the end - however my stitches were not as smooth and lovely as they should be.  Oh well, that is what practice is for.

How are you all?  What have you been up to?  In other news I had purchased the EQ7 quilt design software (for the Mac).  It seems this will be fodder for many blog posts.  Hopefully I use it lots!

Linking up on Friday to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Howdy visitors!