A Birthday Box

After watching the Canucks win in overtime last night (on TV), I started a much-delayed birthday gift for a friend. I mean, how much time can a box pouch take anyway? It was only 10:30 on a Friday night....

I've never made one before, so I scoured the internets for available tutorials and decided to use this one by Libby. Even the lining is completely turned, so there are no exposed seams on the inside of the pouch. Just to ramp up the challenge, I decided to cut into my stash of never-used coated cottons and chose an Amy Butler print for the lining (I got mine at a shop that has since closed, but I found some for you here).  Even though I make a lot of bags, visualizing how stuff is going to turn from inside out to right side out is not my strength, so I went slowly.

The tutorial was easy to follow with excellent photographs. The only issue I had was trying to sew over top of the zipper ends "in the same place" on both the lining and outer fabric (a luscious AMH linen interfaced with Pellon ShapeFlex, by the way).  I found this impossible due to the bulk of the pull tabs, but it's no biggie, it just means you can see stitches at the end of the zipper on the inside of the pouch.  This, of course, will make absolutely no sense to you unless you've tried to make one of these before!

The other issue that kept me up until 1:30 a.m. was finding the right needle for the job. My stitches were lovely on the top, but when trying to sew through any seam allowances that included the coated cotton, the bottom of the work was a bit of a tangled mess. The vinyl side of the fabric was not touching the plate or foot, but just sewing through that stuff proved disastrous to my tension. I think the thread must have been sticking to the vinyl within the layers.  Finally, a topstitch 80 needle coupled with increased top tension did the trick.  See Amy Butler's tips for sewing with her vinyl coated cottons here.

 

In the rare seams where I had to sew over the right (sticky) side of the coated lining, I used a teflon foot which easily glides over the vinyl.  Apparently a piece of tape on the bottom of  your presser foot can do the trick just as well - if only I'd known before springing $25 for the Pfaff foot! I've heard of putting tissue paper on top of the vinyl can help, but then you have to pick paper out of the stitches. No thanks.  I wish I could have given the pouch a final pressing (all boxes/bags/pouches look best with a good pressing) but I didn't want to risk melting the vinyl!

Rumour has it my friend's husband forgot her birthday today. Ouch. I'm so glad I stayed up late to make this for her!

One Weekend, Three Weekenders

Sigh. Another Mayne Island Retreat has come and gone. Last weekend I spent four days with five lovely women in the comfort of Rebecca's gorgeous home (and sunlit sewing room). Before retreat there was a flurry of emailing, pattern prepping, cookie & lasagne baking and just a little bit of running around gathering supplies for the Weekender Bag.

At first I resisted. My plan was always to make one for my trip to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London in July. I mean, that's months away! I've got heaps of time! Fat quarters of Denyse Schmidt homedec-weight fabric had been purchased on de-stash long ago and sat piled for this project. Eventually I caved and started THE CUTTING.  You know that I narrowly survived making Amy's Blossom Bag a couple of years ago....you may also recall I said it was unlikely I'd ever make one of her bag patterns again. I'm glad I sucked it up and gave it a whirl. It is a stunning piece of luggage. Yes, I made luggage! Bonus: it's ready four months in advance of my trip!

Side 1

Side 2

Because it was made from fat quarters, there are different prints all over the place and a few unexpected seams (in top and bottom panels), but I really like the combination of prints. The lining is a voile I picked up super cheap at JoAnn Fabrics and an interior zip pocket is lined with Aviary II woodgrain in yellow.  I was so thankful for Diana's recent Pink Chalk Fabric post that showed straps made with hardware. It solved my problem of finding enough length in a fat quarter to make all of the strap required without 10 seams! 

Much has been written about this bag and between the 3 of us that made it, we'd read many blog posts and gathered great advice. Like using 6 bag feet to protect the bottom.

Many people on Instagram asked me if this "was worth it". Absolutely, of course it is! Any gorgeous project takes lots of time and effort. I may not ever make another Weekender (that piping was a major effort), but I am very happy with this one.  As you can see by my label on the inside, it's no "quickie"...

My lining is a bit floppy - I still have to do some handstitching to secure the corners

Here are our fabulous bags together!

Dianne's gorgeous poppies in the middle, Jo Ann's on the right (check her fussy cutting!)

Lest you think we were chained to the machines all weekend, here's a look at some of my favourite  tree bark in the whole wide world, taken from an oceanview train near the house.

Arbutus

In addition to the bag, I also had plenty of time to work on some more scrap blocks for my second "Scrap Vomit" quilt (the first one is a top awaiting basting). All in all, an amazing weekend retreat of friends, food and sewing!

Craft Hope for Haiti - Aprons!

I read about Craft Hope's latest initiative over at Maureen's lovely blog the other day.  When Craft Hope ran their first fundraiser on Etsy for Haiti, I donated a small art quilt. Turns out the purchaser was also a blogger. We exchanged emails and Duff became a lovely and HI-larious friend.  Since that time, I hadn't really kept up with Craft Hope (I understand their website is under reconstruction so they are operating on Facebook these days - probably why I'm out of the loop. I'm useless on fb).  I'm rambling.

The gist of this latest project is supply pretty aprons for women who are rebuilding their lives and homes in Haiti. Easy. Especially when Maureen has written a fantastic tutorial so that you can  make an apron in about an hour out of 4 fat quarters. Seriously! I made this one yesterday afternoon right after she posted the tute.

In her post, Maureen suggested the over skirt pieces would be perfect for drying hands, so I ran with that and used linen for those pieces. A repurposed linen shirt of B's, actually. You can see I left the shirt tail hems in tact along the bottom.

modeled by the lovely D

I had two pretty Amy Butler fat quarters for the centre panel and ties and used a pink/green print, who's origins completely escape me now, for the waistband.  Anybody recognize it? (eta - of course, it's from Heather Bailey's Freshcut. Thanks Katie!)

Think you could whip up an apron and ship it to Tennessee by May 31st? If so, all the info you need is in this post.  While you're at it, why not make up a second one for your mom?  Mother's Day is next Sunday here in North America!

A Bullet Train of Good News

As if there hasn't been enough excitement here for the month, I'm going to do a bit of a brain dump all over this blogpost. There are lots of small great-newsy items that are adding up to one big post of sharing, so before the list gets unmanageable, I've just gotta get this out there. To keep my rambling in check, and so I don't bore you to death, I'll just bullet it, kay?

• my lovely friend Michele, AKA Duff (who, incidentally was the first real life person to ever pay real cash money for something I'd made and donated to Craft Hope for Haiti on Etsy), participated in the SMS giveaway day and I was the lucky recipient of this luscious Marcia Derse fabric.

• the same Duff alerted me to the fact that Skooksplayground made a beautiful version of my Crop Circles Table Runner and posted about it here. It's a stunner made for a wedding gift. Correspondence ensued and at Skooks' prompting, I decided to create a flickr group called Poppyprint Projects for anything made from one of my tutorials, or inspired by one of my projects. Skooks and I are currently the only esteemed members, but on the off chance someone else has made anything, please join us and add a photo so I can gush over your creations!

Crop Circle Table runner by Skooks

• And speaking of gushing....I just have to share that (gasp) Amy Butler herself (or, possibly one of her people) left a very kind comment on one of my flickr photos. Remember back in November, Jo, Andrea and I all held hands and made these bags together on retreat?

Blossom bags by (L-R), Andrea, me, Jo Ann

Amy said this in her comment under the photo:

These are fabulous, great job and great fabric choices, I love them all!

EEP! (I said that) I mean, she LOVES them! I had a Sally Field moment for sure.

• In the fall, there will be a fabulous new offering coming out from Stash Books called Modern Blocks. Guess who's got a block pattern in there? Yup. Me. Shucks. Plus, many of my friends (and bloggers you also know and love) are also featured in the book. There's going to be a big party when this book comes out!

• And lastly, for today at least, I want to say HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY to the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! Woohoo!

We had a super fun anniversary party last Thursday. There were over 50 people in attendance and everyone won a door prize. This little visitor found something fun to do with the thread catcher I donated for the prize table.

We showed our Kona solids challenge quilts and they are all incredible. As soon as our photographer Sonja uploads the photos, I'll point you in the right direction to see them. You'll be blown away by our guild members' creativity! All of the quilts are amazing.

Thanks to Heather (our membership coordinator/treasurer) we can proudly wear out guild on our sleeve!

Okay people I'm sure you've had enough excitement for one blogpost. It's time to get back to the sewing machine to work on this if I'm going to get it done in time for Saturday. If you're looking to get a jump on a GO!Baby giveaway, Amy is really speedy and she has started hers today!

School Auction Season

Seems like many bloggers are busy preparing projects for their children's school auctions. I've read about very ambitious projects here and here and undoubtedly there are many more in the works elsewhere!

My children's former elementary school is having a James Bond "Casino Royale" fund raiser this weekend, and even though my kids have moved on, I am happy to contribute. I mean, Rae's sweet Buttercup bags whip up so easily (especially when you've already made about 20 of them for other gifts and auctions!). I think every Bond Girl mommy should have one of these on her arm:

This one is so pretty - it is made from Amy Butler's "Nigella" home dec weight cotton, which is simply gorgeous. A google search found it for a shockingly reasonable price of $13.95/yd here. (hope you're not on a fabric diet).

The lining is a Kona solid which just might be Herb. Unfortunately, my machine didn't really like the only pink thread I had for topstitching, but after picking out twice I decided to leave the few little thread blobs on the bag's inside (man, I really dislike those. I tightened up the top tension, changed the needle, cleaned the bobbin case, all to no avail. My Pfaff and Mettler thread are like oil and water). I was afraid of damaging the home dec fabric with repeated needle-punches....you know how it can get little runs in it? It looks perfect on the outside.

So only me and the generous buyer, and 338 of you need to know (you won't tell, right? Thanks).

Speaking of which, I am completely stunned that so many of you have clicked on that little 'follower' button. Yes, stunned, thrilled, happy, appreciative - all of that and more. That you all want to hang out here and see what I'm making/photographing/blathering on about is incredibly special to me. Thank you so very much. Every time that little counter goes up by one, I feel like I've made a new friend (and no matter what anyone says, that's a kindergarten feeling that I think everyone still loves). A giveaway is in order when that number reaches 350, don't you think? Definitely a milestone I want to celebrate with all of you!

Now, I've mentioned it here before, but if you would like to make these sweet bags to sell at craft fairs or to friends, Rae has a licensed version of her pattern for sale at a ridiculously reasonable price of $10. I bought one just because I was making so many bags and wanted to support her generosity. Her blog sidebar is full of other wonderful FREE tutorials, so definitely pay her a visit.

The Beautiful Blossom Bag - a Review

Back from retreat and working on recovery. It was an amazing weekend, as November retreat always is, but the late nights, early mornings and hours at the machine take it's toll. In addition, this time my brain had to work exceptionally hard....to make this:

Prior to retreat, I saw that Amy Butler and her publisher had released the Blossom Bag on Sew Mama Sew as a promo for her new book of designer bag patterns called Style Stitches by Chronicle Books. Before intimidating myself out of it, and before reading the instructions, I emailed two of my friends coming on retreat to see if they wanted to make it with me. We all jumped on board and collected the necessary supplies. Now that it's complete, I'm thrilled with my new purse. During construction? Not so thrilled. This was CHALLENGING...very challenging (the "Advanced" project rating is completely accurate!). We are all very experience quilters and two of us have made a lot of purses and bags. By the end we all agreed that we probably would not have completed this project without each other's support.

Let me start by saying that 22 pins gave their lives for this bag.

Retreat was a great venue for this project because we had plenty of time, space and cutting tables, not to mention the moral support of our fellow retreaters! First thing Friday morning we began cutting. There are 55 pieces involved, including home-dec weight fabric, heavy-weight Peltex (or Timtex), quilting cotton and light-weight fusible interfacing. Right out of the gate we realized that 2 of our 3 patterns had not printed out the right size from the .pdf file (we think this was due to 'auto sizing' done by their printer drivers). Comparing the pattern sizes to their descriptions showed us that the print-outs were too small. So, we traced the one correct one we had and got going. All three of us chose to make the long shoulder-strap option.

Jo Ann's pieces all laid out before bedtime, ready for construction the next morning!

Amy's instructions are clear, however a few more diagrams would have been helpful, and not having the entire book with us caused some confusion as there are several places in the pattern where an * indicates you need to consult the 'general instructions'. I suppose you can't really complain about this since she gave us the pattern for free! We figured it out. Also, the fabric requirements are extremely generous. We all have tons of very expensive designer home-dec fabric left over. I see several wallets in my future. Probably a matching tissue-holder, too.

The technique of strengthening and giving the bag it's form using Peltex combined with fusible lightweight interfacing is awesome. You cut the Peltex pieces 1/2" smaller than all of your outer bag fabric pieces and then fuse it in place against the wrong side by sealing the interfacing (which is cut the same size as your bag fabric) all around that 1/2" seam allowance. Using this technique eliminates that bubbly fused appearance on the outside of your bag. Pining and sewing through all that Peltex is a challenge, as evidenced by my bent pins!

I love magnetic closures and they provide a nice, clean look on this bag. The flap is a bit strange, as it is a separate piece sewn on with a triple seam across the outside of the top back edge of the bag. I think I would prefer a more integral flap. The straps, strap brackets and covers all went together fairly well - the instructions & diagram were really clear. The hard part was covering all of the raw ends of the straps and handle brackets with the little horizontal tab. We made ours a little bit taller than the pattern called for.

The inside has two dividers, all lined with Peltex for strength. Constructing the zippered divider was a bit confusing (some more diagrams would have been helpful, I think), but we managed to get it all together. The weird part is that these dividers float in the bag, meaning they are not attached to the bottom of the lining, so anything small is going to free-float around in the bottom of your bag. We tried to remedy this by installing our dividers low, so their bottoms are right against the bottom of the bag, instead of the divider tops being flush with the top of the bag as in Amy's example photos (the pattern did not specify how 'high' to install the dividers).

Absolutely, the most difficult part of the construction process was the last step: securing the dividers in the bag. We were instructed to 'pinch' the outer bag around the dividers and sew a bar tack to secure. Well, we're talking 4 layers of Peltex, 4 layers of interfacing, 4 layers of quilting weight cotton and 4 layers of home-dec weight fabric. Yikes. Jo Ann's Bernina barely managed and my Pfaff got through with a 100 denim needle and hand-cranking. I got the "main motor overloaded" message about 20 times and finally my machine gave up and gave me this message: TOO THICK FABRIC. Honestly, I had to manhandle that bag to get it under the foot and when I lowered the foot, it didn't actually move! The instructions suggested doing it by hand if your machine couldn't handle it, and Andrea tried, but not even a tapestry needle could get through all that. This last step was so stressful; I worried about my newly serviced machine. It was nearly impossible to hold those layers together...Jo Ann had brought some gorilla clips that helped. Pins were useless.

TA-DAH!

And here they are, our gorgeous Blossom Bags. Jo Ann's is in front, made from AMH's drawing room library print, mine is in the middle with the Joel Dewberry print, and Andrea's is back there sporting a gorgeous Amy Butler floral.

We love our new bags but they will not debut until they are safely Scotch-guarded. There was talk of buying a beautiful hook or extra-large shadow box and just hanging them in our bedrooms for display! We did complete them over 2 days which included and an extra-large bag of M&M's, a few glasses of wine and one or two naughty words. Did I mention they were challenging?

Most beautiful projects are though, aren't they? Two more bags from Style Stitches are reviewed here if you're trying to decide whether to buy this book. The photography is amazing and the designs are super inspiring. I do believe that the majority of projects would be difficult for a beginner. A support group helps (just make sure your friends buy different fabric because after all that work, you do not want to be carrying the SAME one-of-a-kind handbag around town!).

Thanks Jo and Andrea. I could not have done it without you. And the M&M's.

More retreat fun coming soon....

Free Love!

If only it were true.....sadly it will probably be about $16.95/m when it finally reaches Canada!!

Amy Butler's new line "LOVE" (with colorways "heart" and "soul" - is Amy genius, or what???) is available in the U.S. and Amy of Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts is actually going to give away some love. All you have to do is visit her blog and say something nice in her comment section (like, how I sent you there, for instance) and presto, free love could be yours!

Good luck (you're gonna need it, because I've got my love karma workin' and those fat 1/4's have my name on them gals).