Two Bags and a Book

It was a productive week here at the Bugglet Quilts sewing cave. I managed to crank out 2 bags and a book for my sister to take with her on vacation to France. Remember this combo?

I made it into a modified Smarty Girl bag by Heather Bailey for my sister. I made it the same way I made DiscoJen's bag since she loves it so much and said it was fantastic for her worldly travels as well as every day use.

I made a flange instead of the 3 ruffles because I didn't think the material lent itself to ruffles and because my sister isn't a ruffley kind of girl. I made the handle long enough to wear it across you, which is better for safety and keeps your hands free to attempt to keep your two year old child under control.

There are pockets on the front and back for tickets, passports and other items that need to be kept safe, yet readily accessible. Too bad I didn't watch the pattern better when I cut the pocket out, I should have lined it up. It looks like you are seeing double on the back now!

I also installed a magnetic snap closure on this bag, just as a precaution.

This is hard to photograph, and my editing software seems to have disappeared during my last 'upgrade', but this is the quilted divider that I made inside so she can put her e-reader in there and have it protected from harm.

The other side of the divider is lined with pockets and features a key clip. I figured it would be good for hotel and rental apt keys while traveling. Or for your own keys so that you don't lose them in the bowels of the purse, the way we all do. I wasn't sure about the way the divider snaps itself against the back wall of the purse, but DiscoJen assures me that it's better that way because when she's not carrying her e-reader, it's out of the way and she can use the whole inside as her purse.

I also interfaced this one more than DiscoJen's, so it's less slouchy. I may have used different interfacing in DiscoJen's too. I'll have to check out her bag again and see if I can tell what I did differently. I should have taken better notes if I was going to alter a pattern so much. Ah well, lesson learned.

The book I made is from the Alfabeto Italiano Collezione by Micheal Miller Fabrics.  My sister is fluent in Italian, so I thought I should make it for her little guy so she can teach him Italian. I thought it would be good to travel with as well since it's soft and can be squished into a small bag. He's almost two years old now and we spent some time during our Father's Day dinner trying to get him to say 'Bonjour!' He just laughed at us.

 I put some batting in between, and sewed around the outside colored border and a quarter inch in from that to help hold the batting in place. Then I used a star/circley stitch on my sewing machine for the hole to put the ring through.

I only screwed up one, which was the very last one of course! I put the hole on the upper right side instead of the upper left, so now there's a superfluous hole in the 'Z'.

I made yet another 'Sweet Simple' bag by Late Bloomer. I really love this pattern. I can get them done quickly and it really showcases the fabric. This one is a chocolate bag for my sister's French friend, Natalie. She loves chocolate, and is really neutral in her clothing taste, so I was thrilled to find this 'Confections' chocolates fabric by Robert Kaufman.

I like the Moda dots for the gathered part, I think it looks like cream filling with chocolate on top!

Of course I lined it with pockets too. You can't have too many pockets. Ever.

That's all the projects from last week!

Happy Quilting,

Vicki

Bag central

It's been a productive couple of weeks, mostly thanks to my quilt guild retreat last weekend in Rockford.
I made yet another Late Bloomer Sweet Simple Tote for Ashley's birthday (which I gave to her that night, so I don't have a photo. I'll have to have her send one to me).
I love that pattern so much that I've been cranking them out. I love how beautifully it show cases larger print fabrics. I made two chocolate themed, a fantastic black/white/hot pink from the Michael Miller Dress Forms fabric and am in process of a purple glittery bag made from MM's Antiquity collection.

The inside pockets:

The inside w/pockets

 

I also finished 2 king size and one regular pillow case from some of the Moda Chocolat wovens, which are amazing. If you have never had the chance to pet the Moda wovens, I recommend doing so immediately! They are sooooo soft and silky. I just love them. I have a really poofy pillow, and the cases I made fit them so very much better. I can actually get them on and off with out a major wrestling match with my pillows!

I also finished a Terry Atkinson Happy Holidays table centerpiecehttp://www.atkinsondesigns.com/patterns/ which seriously only took me a total of two evenings, start to finish! I used a combo of Anna Griffin's Georgette Christmas, MM Fairy frost and a random paisley that we had at Tammy Tadds.  I quilted it with holly leaves and berries in metallic thread. Since I can't draw, I just blow up the fabric motif on the copier then use my handy dandy non-marking technique to quilt it. It's a sample for the shop as well as a Christmas present for Mom!

I've also spent some time working on the look of the blog, what does everyone think?

Catching up some more

Thank you to all that came to our fabric stash sale last weekend! It was an astounding success. Since I still have fabric left that I want to find new homes for, I'll be starting a second blog to sell it online. Stay tuned, I hope to have that done by the end of next week. Jennie will also be putting her remaining fabric online as well, so watch for good deals to be had there too.

Here's a couple of projects that I finished last month that I haven't shared.
This is a commissioned bag for a gift for a vet. I used the Tammy Tadd Designs 'You Go Girl' pattern and Micheal Miller fabrics.

Since the quilting would be difficult to see, I chose a feather pattern in black thread to tone down the zebra a tad and give it a softer feel.




This is another commissioned quilt that I designed and assembled. It was a teacher gift for a Catholic school 4th grade teacher. The artwork was a fund raiser for the school and was printed by the fundraising company on fabric. I designed the layout and advised on the color selection.

Since the moms in charge of the project had never quilted, I cut everything out, and had them join me for a lock in at Tammy Tadd's one Saturday night. One mom had sewing experience, so I gave her a crash course in quilting and put her to work. The other mom was our ironing minion all night. We got the whole thing assembled in about 4.5 hours.

I love the children's drawings. They totally looked like stained glass. I quilted around the crosses in the blocks, around the colored part of the square and in the ditch of the sashings. I echoed the leaves in the sashing fabric and quilted leaves freehand in the border.  You can see them best on the backing.

I didn't want to over quilt it because the focus is supposed to be about the children's drawing, so I went the simple route. I'm told the teacher cried. I totally got crappy gifts when I was a teacher. I can't imagine getting something as wonderful as a quilt!

I have a few more quilts and bags that I finished that I need to take pictures of. I now have to finish a couple of Christmas projects for samples for the store and I have to make 3 baby quilts. One of the babies was born in July. Whoops!