Next Up: Jade Garden

Finally, I have begun work on Jade Garden. This was a Block of the Month project offered by Wilmington Prints in around 2021. When I found the pattern offered for free and the fabrics available, I ordered them. I've looked for the pattern to link it here but it's no longer available.

I've spent the last three days doing all the cutting. Wow, what a project; there are so many fabrics! I cut out the rectangles and squares by hand with a ruler, but most of the rest of the pieces with my Cricut.

I think I am finally finished and can start sewing it together for Friday Night Sew In. I think I'll assemble it from the center out.

This is how far I got by 3AM. LOL It is so difficult for me to be a responsible adult when pieces are just lying there ready to be sewn together!

Fibonacci Fleurish Flimsy!

Jeff's fibonacci quilt has been pieced! It actually went together pretty quickly. I spent a bit of time fixing a mistake I made when I assembly-line pieced these block sets, but it didn't add more than a couple hours. 

I think these fabrics are really amazing. As I recall, they are Island Batik's Morris Mist fabrics I bought on clearance last year.

I'm going to let my husband quilt this one. He wants to do a nerdy math-inspired custom quilting job.

Linking up with:

Brag About Your Beauties
Finished or Not Friday
Off the Wall Friday
TGI Finished Friday

Recent Finishes

I guess I got so busy with sifting and selling off my excess fabric bolts I totally forgot to post my recent finishes. Many I've already posted progress, but I never posted the final photos. I'd been trying to clear some UFOs before I start new projects.

This was the quick Scot's Plaid pattern made with a large-scale Hawaiian fabric I fussy cut for the squares. 

This is the Broken Bricks pattern with the leftover Hawaiian fabrics scraps. Even the border is scraps. I quilted it with Hibiscus Tea by A Bit Orange. And the batting is made up of scraps of Quilter's Dream Green.

This is the Nine Patch Twirl I didn't particularly like last year. I still don't love it, but it has grown on me now that it has been quilted.

All of these quilts are in the pile to find a new home. If someone in the family doesn't claim them in the next year or two, they will ultimately get donated to Comfort Quilts.

Fibonacci Fleurish Design

Many years ago my husband designed a fibonacci quilt and I finished it in early 2010.

We ran across the spreadsheet he made at the time and we decided to try and write it up into a real pattern that could be shared. I've been working on it this week. I've never written up a quilt pattern before so I'm just trying to be as detailed as I can be.

He actually decided to somewhat change the pattern and make it larger. Now it finishes at approximately 70"x70". 

I'm mostly finished with my first draft so now I'm going to test the pattern.

Another Quick Finish

Sometime in the past few years someone from the Northwest Quilter's Guild gave me a big bag of scraps and in it there was a pile of these WOF strips.

There were also quite a few of approx. 4-inch square blocks as well. I had to do a bunch of trimming to actually make them a uniform size. (I would not be surprised if that is why they originally ended up in the scrap bag.) 

I had times when I questioned myself why I was spending time on this project. These are not fabrics I ever would have chosen, but not everyone has the same taste (at least that is what I keep telling myself).

I don't know what the pattern is called, but I've been calling it Basketweave. 

I almost always use Quilter's Dream Green batting. I quilted it with Christy Dillon's Harrison E2E. I used a light purple MaxiLock thread because I hoped it would bring out the purple in the light fabric, but it is almost invisible on the front. It does show up on the back.

I'm actually proud of the binding as this was my first flange binding and I made it from the leftover strips, which weren't wide enough. I found this Flange Binding Tutorial helpful.

Huge Fabric Score!!

Just when I thought I had my fabric shopping tendencies under control, a crazy good opportunity fell in my lap.

I met a retired long arm quilter a couple years ago when she was selling fabric from her stash for $4/yard. I went and bought a lot at the time. After calling her last fall to see if I could schedule another visit to take a friend, she mentioned she was now selling by the bolt. On a lark, I asked her how much she would sell all of them for. She didn't have a price. But about month later, she offered me a price and I accepted it. 

It was 425 bolts! We took over a friend's hatchback and our compact car and it took two trips with them both filled up.

This is what I'm keeping. It's about 140 bolts. I bought the shelves too.

I'm planning to re-sell the rest. I don't have the space to keep it.

Update about a week and a half later:

I sold virtually all the extra fabric (there are about a dozen bolts left). I invited my friends to come shop and then when they were done, I posted photos to my Northwest Quilter's Facebook group and the rest went within just a couple of days! I should not have worried about finding homes for all this fabric!

Finally Made a Quilt

My husband and I have spent the past few months sifting our garage and storage areas and decluttering. In June, we had a garage sale and then donated virtually everything leftover. The house is looking much tidier at the moment.

Last week, I had a couple of paid long arm quilting gigs so it finally spurred me to spend time in my sewing room. There was a pile of bright hibiscus and coordinating fabrics stashed under my long arm so I gathered them up and decided to make something with them. Finally. They've probably been there for two years.

I decided to fussy-cut hibiscus flowers into 4.5" squares then I just made a quick Scot's Plaid block pattern. It was a quick one-day project. I had been planning to add a border with the hibiscus fabric, but it is a large scale print and I decided it wouldn't look good sliced into strips.

I long-arm quilted it with Christy Dillon's Hibiscus Hideaway pantograph with Dark Rose Maxi-Lock thread. As usual, I used Quilter's Dream Green batting.

Of course, once I had the scraps spread all over my table, I couldn't resist working on another Broken Bricks quilt for the Friday Night Sew-In. That is my favorite scrappy quilt pattern. I'll probably finish it this weekend.

More Bags in Progress

I've really grown fond of my denim circle tote bags—they're fantastic for shopping—so when I found a stack of old jeans I decided to make more. Although they're quite time-consuming to make, the effort is definitely worth it.

I've already devoted a full day to cutting up jeans into circles and I found I had enough for three bags. Sewing these pieces together, along with securing the flaps, usually takes another couple of days. I’m currently done with one of the panels and have two more to go.

After I sew the fabric into the panels, I sew them into tubes, then add the bottom and top pieces and attach the handles. Then, because I don't think these bags are strong enough, I make another bag from heavy fabric to line it. Once finished, these bags hold a lot of weight and my husband really loads them up when he's shopping.

I probably have at least another three days work on these bags to complete them. This process would no doubt be quicker if I had written down the measurements during my last round of making these bags. This time, I am.

Linking up with:
Put Your Foot Down

Still Playing With Denim

I'm not sure why, but I'm still in the mood to play with my denim scraps. I decided to make three more of these circle denim tote bags. I've finished cutting out and sewing together the panels but I haven't decided what fabrics I'll be using for the "windows." I'm not sure why I'm struggling to decide this time.

While I was trying to figure it out, I saw the big pile of odd-shaped scraps that were leftover from cutting out all the circles. I was inspired to start sewing them together to make crumb blocks. I'm not sure what they're for (yet). Maybe I'll use them as external pouches on more of the insulated shopping totes.

We've signed up for Costco so now we'll be doing less frequent, large shopping trips so it would be handy to have at least a couple more totes. I'm starting to run out of tired, old jeans so I might have to use other fabrics.

Ultimate Travel Bag Finished!

I finally finished the Ultimate Travel Bag, and what a journey it's been! I started this project back in January 2024, aiming to create an insulated shopping bag. I used the Modern Peacock pantograph by Kim Diamond for quilting and, as I recall, it used a crazy amount of thread: 5 bobbins for just 1 yard of fabric. I went all out with the batting—using one layer of Pellon Insul-fleece and a layer of Quilters Dream Blend 70/30. This combo made the bag really thick and insulated, which is great, but sewing it? Wow, that was an unanticipated challenge.

Getting those thick layers under the sewing machine foot turned into my own personal sewing ordeal. It was so bulky, I couldn't even fit it under the foot of my old machine. In my quest to find a machine that could handle it, I ended up buying two used machines this past year, but no luck—neither could manage the job.

Then came the Sailrite. Even with this new beast of a machine, it was tough. I mean, it could squash those layers down enough to sew, but I had to wrestle with it every step of the way and use some really heavy thread. After all that, I’ve decided I'm not going through this again with the same insulated batting. But hey, now I have a travel bag that's ready for just about anything!

And it's already been put to the test! My husband took it on a business trip to New Jersey and it worked out great. He was really impressed with how much he could fit in it and how well it held up through the trip. Looks like all that wrestling with fabric and thread paid off!

Linking Up With:

Brag About Your Beauties
Finished (or Not) Friday
Off the Wall Friday
TGI Finished Friday

New Sewing Machine

I found a machine that will sew bags! It's a Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ. I'd never heard of this brand before, but I saw it on Adam Savage's Youtube Channel so I ordered one! This was the third machine I've purchased because I want to make bags.

It took a bit of time to get it all set up. (Sorry, I haven't yet managed to get a good photo.) The machine is crazy heavy, over 50 pounds, and I don't trust it won't break my sewing table if I put it in the cutout, so I am still waiting for the new sewing table to set it up in a permanent location. 

I decided to give it a test drive by sewing a new purse. I spent a couple of days measuring my favorite purse and reverse-engineering the pattern. I decided to cut up some old, dead jeans for the fabric.

I made a few minor changes from the original purse but I think it turned out really well for the first try. And the sewing machine performed great. Now that I've figured it out, I think I'll make another in purple, my favorite color.

Downsizing My Sewing Room

My husband and I have decided to move into a smaller, one-story house so I am trying to downsize my sewing gear. We don't have a house lined up, but it is pretty clear to me I won't have a whole bedroom as a sewing room. So, I am starting the process now.

I am selling my tables and my excess sewing machines. I will miss these tables. I've loved having them.

Another Shopping Bag

The bag is based on Sew4Home's Zippered Thermal Picnic Tote. This was actually my third time sewing this pattern and it went much better because I didn't follow her directions for putting in the zipper and instead did a recessed closed-end zipper. It was so much easier to sew into the bag because those bulky tabs weren't in the way. I also didn't bother to sew in the interior pocket since I won't need it.

By the time I had finished building the bag exterior, I was out of the denim rectangles (I actually had to cut a few more) so I just did the pockets with a larger scrap I had lying around. The lining is some leftover trigger cloth from many years ago. The batting is Insul-Bright Mylar/Poly Batting to help hold in the cold when we buy freezer items. (I actually bought a bolt of it a couple years ago, so I'm happy to finally be using some of it.)

Now that I've gotten the hang of making this bag pattern, I might just make a few more as gifts. These really are great shopping bags. And I found a couple more canvas remnants while spending the last week cleaning up my sewing room/closets.

Linking up with:

Brag About Your Beauties
Finished (or Not) Friday
TGI Finished Friday

Thermal Shopping Bag

I finally finished one of my long term To Dos: An insulated shopping bag! This was my third attempt and I finally got one finished with the zipper!

I'd been sifting through all the stuff that's been dumped in my large walk-in closet and I found a tall pile of rectangular denim scraps. I don't remember why I originally cut these, but they inspired me to start sewing them together to make fabric for this attempt at the tote bag. I also found a remnant of red canvas that I used for the lining and binding.

I went ahead and tried the Zippered Thermal Picnic Tote pattern again, but this time I didn't wing it and followed the directions as closely as possible. It definitely went better, but lining it with canvas certainly caused problems as it is a lot more bulky than the lighter fabric recommended.

Now that I've figured it out, I'm planning to make another one, but I'm going to revise the pattern. The pattern for the zipper doesn't work very well with canvas so I'm going to try an make an Enclosed End Recessed Zipper for the next bag.

Linking up with:

Brag About Your Beauties
Finished (or Not) Friday
TGI Finished Friday