Wednesday, July 30, 2025

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.

Saturday, July 26, 2025

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.

Friday, July 18, 2025

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.


Wednesday, April 2, 2025

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

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

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.

Saturday, March 22, 2025

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:

Sunday, March 2, 2025

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.