A simple bag, enlarged

Last week I made a tote bag from a pattern in Yoko Saito's book, and blogged about it , here

 I liked the shape of it, but wanted to make it larger, so I sized it up a bit,

 

 This shows both bags,

This  time I used an orphan quilt block appliqued on the front panel.  It is an antique block that I bought in a whole stack of blocks a couple of years ago.  

I like the bag, but I might make one even a bit larger.  This one used the full 42" width of the fabric for the black patterned piece in the picture above, so I guess I'll need to piece it for a bigger one. 

Vintage quilt progress

I had a relaxing sewing time when I added all the machine button hole stitch around these blocks.  I had enough supplies on hand to do the blocks below.

I drew a diagram and counted up what I have yet to sew, and I need to do 7 more alternate blocks, and 10 half blocks for the edges, which means I have 136 more petals to cut.  I'm out of Steam a Seam so I am switching to trans-web now.

In the mean time, I sewed up the center three columns so that I could start the machine quilting:

Here it is laid out with the batting and backing ready to baste.

After the pin basting is done, I cut the extra batting away. 

I'm doing this quilt in sections to make it more manageable since it will be pretty big.

This morning I googled FMQ designs to get a few ideas on quilting patterns to fill in the nice white areas.  

This won't be an heirloom quilt, but I do intend to have some fun with the quilting, and try out lots of patterns.  

On another note, I got a gardenia at the grocery store.  It's quite pretty but has quite an overwhelming scent. 

and this little half grown cardinal came to visit yesterday.  It was trying to figure out how to control it's flying.  It would fly into things and then have to rest.  It's mother watched it and occasionally tried to guide it by showing it where to go.  it was interesting to watch from behind my window.  

Beautiful Day,

it is an absolutely perfect day in Savannah in terms of weather.
 So it is bittersweet to be leaving tomorrow to go to Saskatoon tomorrow.  Sweet though because I'm looking forward to seeing all the people there.  I Have done the blocks and most of the patterns for the final Saturday Surprise Samplers though, and liked one of them enough to sort of play with the design a bit more,

(again with the strange lighting in the sewing room)

I had resolved to make smaller projects, like table runners, but I think this might turn into a baby quilt.  I had started with the two patterned fabric blocks but they got way too busy for my liking. So I made a few with just one pattern and white.  They seem to be a lot calmer, so I might scrap the busy ones.  However, I'll just put this project on hold for a while.
On thursday I'll be seeing a fabric rep and ordering a big chunk of fabrics for the fall months, so if there's any thing you really are hoping to see, let me know!  I.e. styles, colors, designer-- no guarantees but I'll keep any suggestions in mind.  I'll also be on the lookout for fabrics to use for the new Saturday Sampler blocks for the fall, so again, I would welcome any suggestions for how to go with that...
Well, I'm looking forward to shrimp and grits tonight!
Take care, m

Bonnet Girls progress

 I spent some time with the bonnet girls quilt.  It needed a border, so I decided on a pretty simple strip-pieced squares on point.  It is a seminole technique where you cut up strip sets and sew them together in a staggered way, like a staircase, and the extra fabric on the sides is later cut away.

 To get the pattern to go around the corner, I had to add a little strip of yellow at the top and the bottom of the central unit:

 and then I added a one-inch border of the gray, and a 4 inch border of white....

now it's all ready to baste!  and I pieced a back from some fabrics from my stash, so I don't even need to go shopping for the back... I guess that means no excuses for not basting it today (or tonight, or tomorrow...)
Actually, I do have another quilt that has it's binding ready to be hand-stitched to the back, and maybe that's what's beckoning to me now.
Hoping you are having a nice Wednesday!  It is the Wednesday link-up to see what others are working on....

Bonnet Girls

Yesterday I did a little bit of sewing,
I wanted to do a few more reference swatches for FMQ (Free Motion Quilting), 

 and so I did these four, but then my embroidery foot/FMQ foot, broke, so I had to stop.  (The metal bar just broke off!)

 However, I am getting quite a library of swatches!

I moved on to another project-- the antique Bonnet Girls.
These are a group of applique blocks that I bought one year at Houston Quilt Market.  There are 15 blocks.  They were sewn into a quilt top with plain white fabric as a checkerboard, but it was really wonky, so I took it apart and washed the blocks.

 I decided finally to just start something using them.  So first I am sewing a 3/4" border of yellow, and then a 3/4" border of light grey around each of them.  (Oh, I trimmed them all to 10 inches, since they were pretty uneven). 
As I was handling them, I appreciated all the lovely fabric combinations that were made,
I also noticed the embroideries in the little bouquets were not all done the same:

 My personal favorite, with tiny little bullion knots,
Plus, this ladies bodice and umbrella is the exact same shade as the grey I am using for the borders!

I'm not sure what I'll do with them next.... thinking of various types of pieced sashing,  maybe I'll need to do some embroidery!! Who knows...
Any ideas would be welcome. 

Free Motion Quilting...

Yesterday I got a bit of quilting done, as I basted two quilts! and got one of them quilted.

For this one -- the expanded blocks with 1930's fabric, I had been mulling over whether to add another border, but then decided against it.  I decided that what I really wanted to do was to just finish it.  So I backed it with a lovely Anna Griffin print that I found.  And then, I quilted it!

 As I quilted, I freed up enough pins to baste this quilt as well, which I backed with this funky red fabric.  So I have it all basted and ready to sew.
I have been making little swatches of machine quilted patterns:

 I had been using the designs found on Leah Days site (there is a button link on the sidebar).
There are all sorts of little filler patterns,

 Like these ones,

 They are quite interesting to try, although I find that I get sort of tense while I am doing them.  They are quite small scale, and so I get some really teensy tiny stitches.  On one or two of them, I found that my top thread tended to break a bit more than I am used to. 

 After a while, I decided to just try whatever came into my head,

 this one below, that looks like little bird's nest is one of my favorites, it is by Leah, and she calls it pebbles and ripples,

However, when I sat down to quilt the 1930's quilt, none of the patterns on the swatches seemed appealing for this project, so I reverted to my default meander!
I hope to be a bit more adventurous when I do the bright colored quilt.
Also on the track of finishing things off, I just bound the Art to heart fabrics sampler with Applique,

 I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I just love some of the birds, (which were from the book by Blackbird Designs, called Birds of a Feather.)
 For the quilting, I just used an off-white thread, and did an allover pattern of leaves on most of it, from the center out, but then the last pass around the outside border I used meandering.  (not sure if it shows up in this close-up)

 Well, that's a lot of progress!
We had quite a rainstorm on Saturday, and so yesterday there was a lake outside our back yard!

 Looks like we live in a swamp! 
But it is all gone today,  I think we must have gotten about 6 inches of rain.
This is the resurrection fern on the oak tree in our deck:

 Have a great Monday!
I have something special to go to tonight!  Stay tuned!

Saturday Surprise Blocks for Sept 24th

The second block of the year is called Silver Maple.  I'm not sure where I saw this block, but I loved it on sight.  I think that it looks like maple leaves, and I love the way they interlock when you put blocks next to each other.
Also, I'm not sure if I ever explained properly about the applique blocks.  Each year we put out 20 pieced 12-inch blocks.  They never use applique or paper-piecing in them.  However, this year, as something new to try, I decided to offer some companion applique blocks.  They will use the same 2 groups of fabrics, and also finish at 12 inches.  They are the same price as the pieced blocks, $5.50 when you pick them up from the store, or $6.50 mailed out.  They are available at the same time as the odd-numbered pieced blocks-- so that the 1st block, Crossed Tulips was out on Sept 10th, and the 2nd applique block will be available on October 8th alongside the third pieced block.  I hope this makes it all clearer!

This was the first applique block:

I'm hoping to do needle-turn applique on the 1930's fabric blocks, and fusible/machine applique with the etchings ones.   Hope I can keep up. 

A Slow-paced Saturday

 Today has been a lazy day for me, but I did put the binding on my table runner, as seen above!  It fits the table quite nicely, and Richard Brought home the flowers!  The little border is pieced, 3/4" squares, and the embroidered pieces are "up-cycled" thrift store finds.  I wish I had more thrift store finds featuring hand embroidery -- it was quite fun mixing them into a quilt.

 I mentioned to the quilt guild that in fact I do plan to write a book, called "Where Did All this Stuff Come From".  The idea is to document some of my favorite stuff, where and how it came to be mine.  So, I spent a few minutes wandering around the house taking photos of stuff.  Below, you see a little bird inspecting a felt ball that I did some embroidery on, both in front of a tile I made when I was a potter.  It is sort of silky, matt feeling since it is done in terra sigillata.  I made a tile by carving the design into leather-hard clay, then casting a plaster mold so that I could make multiples of the tile.

And, because it was so lovely today, this is a photo of one of the window sills in the dining room, can you see that patch of bare ground outside, and the puddle??? In mid-March in Saskatchewan?? Wow.

Quilt Guild Meeting

Tonight I will attend the Quilt Guild meeting for the first time in several years.
I was a faithful attendee for many years until my husband had to teach a night class on Mondays one year and I had younger children I couldn't leave home alone.  Then, living out of town and getting busy with other things, I just got out of the habit.  However, a large number of my friends were met through the guild.  But tonight! I am nervous because they asked me to come and be their "featured quilter" for this meeting.  I have spent all morning biting my nails and trying to organize my thoughts.  It is quite difficult to decide what to say and what to take for show and tell.
I thought I'd sew for a little to calm my nerves, but unfortunately I have a problem with my machine that requires me to take it in to be fixed.  I was machine quilting yesterday at full tilt, and hit a safety pin --- Ouch!! It seemed to do something very bad to the tension.  I pulled out my backup machine, but no go with it either.  So, both are sitting quietly by the front door. (along with the stuff I pulled together for tonight)

One of the things I'm taking is this project I started yesterday before the big hit.  It is some odds and ends from other projects, and some cut-out pieces from a little beat-up set of embroidered doilies.  I'm planning to turn the pieces into a long table runner.  It is good sometimes to just sew together stuff that can't possibly be turned into a pattern.

 And... remember about the little round-top case? Well I tinkered around a bit and sewed a couple from felted wool sweaters, and they are just crying out for embellishment now!  I took lots of photos during the process, so I hope to turn that into a "How-to" posting. 

 Also, as I was exploring some ways to customize the blog, I added some links to other blogs, including Judy's around the world travel adventure!
Wish me luck for tonight!  thanks! michelle