Happy New Year! Use What You Got!

Although I've only been quilting for almost 2 years (since April 2015), I've managed to accumulate quite a fabric stash, and not just a few quilt tops.  So IG is all abuzz with peeps clearing off crafting room space, organizing stashes and resolving to use up their stash and to finish what they started.  

So they've motivated me to do some organizy-type stuff.  So here's my stash: 

  

I'm playing along with @projectLeasa and hashtagging #sewmystash2017 in an effort to...er, um, sew my stash!

And there is a lovely group of bloggers hosting a Finish-Along.  I found out about it from @shecanquilt, and I think it will be helpful for me to finish some projects.  Part of the deal is that I have to link up a list of things that still need making, and then quarterly post a link a finish.  So without further ado, here are my unfinished tops:

From top left to right:

1. My son Cameron's Skateboard Quilt (2016)

2. Five and Dime Quilt (2015)

3. Figtree Farmhouse Bonus Quilt - Leader/Ender (2016)

4. Halloween Quilt (2016)

5. Stars and Stripes (2016)

6. French General "Bon Voyage" HST Stars (2016)

7. Aquarium Attic Windows (2016)

Also, my 8. Bloom (2016) quilt by Lori Holt is still on the Grace frame, languishing because I'm having frustrating thread breakage issues I can't troubleshoot, and I'm also trying to do custom quilting with rulers for the first time.  It's on indefinite time out, although I do seriously need to get if off that frame soon so that I can do some of those quilts above!

And, also my 9. Cozy Christmas (2016) quilt, also a Lori Holt sew along, is my first try at hand-quilting.  I'm hoping I can get it done by Christmas 2017! 

So I realized that although I love piecing, and that actually quilting is fun, I loathe the basting part.  Like, a burning, passionate hate.  It's such a wrestling match to get the huge piece of backing smooth on the floor and taped down (not to mention actually frankenstein-piecing the unwieldy thing together), and then getting the batting to lie flat on top of it, and then, at the very end when you're disgusted and sore, layering the top on so that it's not crooked.  Then crawling around on the hard floor with pins, or trying in vain to keep everything smooth while spray-basting it together is absolute hell.  Yes, I've realized that is why my poor quilts get stuck at the "flimsy" stage.

But will I send them out to a professional?  Heck no, I want to be able to say that I made the thing, from start to finish!  My Grace frame was supposed to help me with this basting issue, but I have already mentioned Bloom, so...

I'm much better at keeping my current piecing WIPs in check!  I only have these going on:

  

10. Treenware & Berries Leader/Ender (2016)

11. Swoon (#SwoonAlong/#SwoonQAL2017) - 2016

12. Sweet Sugar Swirls (#FigtreeFriendsQAL) - 2016

13. En Provence - Quiltville Mystery (#enprovencequilt/#quiltvillemystery)

14. Vintage Sheet Dresdens - Leader/Ender (2016)



Whew!! So there are my unfinished projects!  I know I won't get them all done this quarter, but I'll try to tackle a few.  We'll see how far I get! :-)

Weekender Bag Sew Along - The Grand Finale!

Although I couldn't wait to just move along to the next side and get this thing DONE, one thing held me back:

See how the side pockets aren't even?  The strawberry is higher than the tulip, and although I tried talking myself into not caring, I care. 

So I ripped it out.  This was after I had already sewed it on with no less than 3 passes.  I fudged it a bit, and made the pockets match a little better before sewing it back together again:

I also broke my nail in the process :-(:

Then Pookie helped me mock up my 2nd side:

And I got that bad boy sewn on to get a finished Weekender exterior:

 

Unfortunately, my strawberry looks more like a tomato now, but whatevs :-/

So on to the sewing the lining together!  I did this much the same way I did the exterior:

I totally ignored the weird and fiddly-looking instructions about making a pocket for the stabilizer to put in the bottom of the bag...I couldn't picture it, and I was honestly too tired to figure it out.   Instead, I figured I could just do a false bottom.  So I just sewed the lining together, dropped it into the bag exterior, and then hand-stitched it around the zipper tape.  This was labor-intensive, and my fingers were sore from pushing through the layers of thick fabric/tape, but it fit together perfectly:

Then I made a false bottom by taking some cardboard and mocking up about how big I needed to make the bottom:

Then I used that template to cut out foam board (yes, the kind the kiddos use for presentations!  I got a big piece for a buck at the dollar store) and 2 pieces of lining fabric, which I cut about 1/2" larger than the board all around.  I ironed fusible fleece to the lining fabric for some extra padding:

I sewed the lining fabric pieces wrong sides together on 3 sides, leaving one short side open.  I flipped the whole thing inside-out so the right sides were now facing out, popped the piece of foam board in, folded the open edges down, and sewed them together.  My bottom ended up a smidge larger than my cardboard template, but it worked out just fine:

Voila!  A snug false bottom that isn't shifting anywhere, and which gives my bag a nice firm base:

And a shot of the interior, all sewn in:

I added some ribbons to the zipper pulls, and TA-DA!  My Weekender is finished!

 

And, I finished it in time for my trip to Playa Del Carmen!  I even made a little matching zipper bag out of the scraps:

I can't tell you how proud I am to have conquered this bag.  There are plenty of things I will do differently when I make another (oh yeah, there will be another!), and I'll summarize all that stuff in a future post.  Until then, I'm just going to bask in the glow of accomplishment! :-)

To Quilt, or Not To Quilt the Weekender...

My progress on the Weekender Sew Along is clipping right along.  I'm waaaay ahead of the leisurely schedule for the sew along, but I need this done by June 25.  11 days.  I'm sure I can do it, but I have to stay strong and work on it every day!

Although I linked up all of the tutorials I used for a lot of these steps, I also saved awesome pins to my "Weekender" Pinterest board for links to the fabulous Weekenders of other crafty peeps.  I picked out a bunch of links that had lots of process pics and/or helpful tips.

So far I finished both linings, and added pockets to each.  The in-lining zipper pocket was a first for me.  I followed this tutorial, and it was a relatively painless process:

Before

After

 As planned, I added a zipper along the top of one of the outer pockets:

Pocket front & lining, with zip attached

 

I love how it came out!!  It was super-easy, and I based it on this Zippered Pouch tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Co.  I've also added magnetic snaps to both exterior pocket linings as per this Craftsy tutorial.  Sorry, no pics of that process.  

I made the handles out of a layer of 1 1/2" wide canvas strips topped with a strip of Pellon Flex Foam, and layered them so that the foam would be on the bottom/wrong side to pad my shoulders.  I constructed the handles like the Crafty Gemini makes hers in the Improv Tote tutorial, and I added extra length so that they ended up being 53" long:

In the pic below you can see that I added the extra length to each end of straps so that the seam lines would be hidden under the exterior pocket.  It was a little more work, but well worth the smoother finish.  I mocked them up on the main exterior panels as per the pattern instructions.

Now, you may notice that my main exterior isn't quilted.  That's because I found that when I quilted this combo of linen, foam and canvas, it seemed to make the panel more prone to folding in on itself.  Here's what happened when I stitched one line down the middle, and then put some pressure on it:

 Here is the other panel, without the quilting line:

Much more sturdy without the quilting, IMHO.  The foam simply doesn't need quilting to stiffen it up, and it seemed to make it less-sturdy.  So I picked out the quilted line, steamed the living daylights out of the panel, and now both are un-quilted.

I sewed the handles down, and added piping to the top of the other pocket.  I cut 1 3/4" strips for my piping and followed this tutorial to make 6 yards from a fat quarter!  Then I made the piping with 1/4" Steam a Seam tape as per this tutorial.  Only took me 3 passes to get the piping just right:

You can see I sewed little "X"s in the handles for extra support.  I also sewed the handles down all the way to the bottom.  Those suckers aren't going anywhere!  I was also dealing with skipped stitches as my machine struggled through 2 layers of canvas, 2 layers of foam, 1 layer of interfaced linen, and 4 (from the folding over of the edges) layers of quilting cotton.  I used a size 16 jeans needle, even tried a size 12 "normal" needle, used a walking foot and then a patchwork foot, and nothing helped.  So I just went back over the areas where the multiple skipped stitches looked like they would be an issue. *UPDATE* - I had set my presser foot pressure very light so that it wouldn't shift the layers too much as I sewed, but I found that when I increased the pressure, I had no skipped stitches!  YAY! 

And here I am, ready (I think) for Step 7:

I have to sew the pockets on, and then have to add piping all along the outside.  Better get cracking...

Picking Pockets!

The Weekender Bag is made of approximately one gillion pieces that you need to cut out of fabric, interfacing, and foam/batting until you want to beg for mercy.  Just FYI.

Here are my main panels:

Yup, I decided to go with the light grey linen.  I was advised by wise peeps on Instagram that the stripes might be too crazy-making for my first time around.  So although I love a good challenge, I figured that just making this bag with the mods I'm doing is challenge enough.  So this is a layer of linen fused to Shape Flex interfacing, then fused to Flex Foam (my sub for batting), then spray basted to duck canvas.  I am still debating on quilting this with a loopy meander or with straight lines; because of the sturdiness of the foam, it really doesn't need the quilting for stability.

And here are my exterior pockets:

Main Panels

Side Panels

 These are also interfaced with Shape Flex and fused to foam, but I omitted the canvas.  I'll be adding piping to tops of the side panel pockets.  I'll also be adding a zipper to the top of one of the main panel pockets:

Because the zip I had on hand was 14", and the top of the pocket is 16", I decided that I'll add a couple of tabs of fabric to the ends of the zipper tape to bring it to size.  I think this will also reduce the bulk in the seams so I'm thinking I'm pretty clever right about now :-).  I'll also be adding magnetic snaps to the interior of the main panel pockets, as I have read other Weekenders mentioning that the pockets can gape from the bag body.

I'm also prepping my linings:

I'm doing a zippered pocket on one side, and a double slip pocket on the other.  I've never done a zippered pocket in lining, so this will be yet another new thing to learn, and I'm saving it for last.  

Here's the lining with the pocket I know how to do:

I made the pocket smaller than the entire length and width of the panel to keep it from adding to the bulk in the bag seams.  Plus, I don't think I really lost a whole lot of storage space by doing this ;-).  I sewed 2 pieces of that gorgeous Hello Darling floral fabric right sides together (leaving a hole), flipped it inside out through the hole, then pressed it out.  I added a narrow binding to the top (I cut it 1 1/2" and attached with a 1/8" seam), and sewed right down the middle to make 2 pockets.  I used my handy-dandy longarm centering measuring tape to figure out middle.  Worked like a charm:

BTW, I use Frixon pens to do all of my marking, since the ink disappears when hit by a warm iron.  Brilliant!!  

Okay, so the imminent future is comprised of figuring out that main panel lining zipper pocket, finishing that main panel exterior "pocket in a pocket" zipper deal, and installing the magnetic clasps.  Then I need to quilt my main panels.  THEN, I have to make my handles to sew to those main panels.  I still need to cut bias strips and make my piping, and once that's done, I can actually start sewing pieces together! :-)

Weekender Sew-Along 2016 - Day One

I'm really doing it:

Click the pic for the deets at Happy Little Cottage

Today is Day One of the Weekender Bag Sew Along 2016.  That's #wbsa2016 to you Instagram peeps!  However, as indicated in my last post, I started early, and I've already made the Mini Swoons for the big front & back pockets, and the side pockets are are tulip and a strawberry:

Before patchwork...

At this point, I'm still not sure what color I want to make the main body!  Ugh!  So here are my choices, modeled with the Mini Swoon pockets and a mock up of the piping:

Grey Linen

Grey Linen

-OR-

Grey Pillow Ticking - Vertical

Grey Pillow Ticking - Vertical

- OR -

Grey Pillow Ticking - Horizontal

Grey Pillow Ticking - Horizontal

Yeah, so see?  I can't tell what's better!  Is the ticking too "busy" for the patchwork?  But it's so cute!   Please help!

At this point, I've drafted up how I'll be fleshing out the side pockets:

 They'll look so great!  The tulip started out as the Thimble Blossoms pattern "Vintage Tulips", but I had to tweak it to (barely) fit on the pocket template.  The strawberry came from THIS tutorial by Skyberries Handmade, except that I made all of the squares 1/2" smaller.

After I finish these, I'll fuse them to some Pellon Shape Flex interfacing, and then instead of a double-layer of batting, I'll fuse them to some Pellon Flex Foam, which is similar to ByAnnie's "Soft and Stable".  I actually used the Flex Foam in some totes, and they are soft, but keep their shape amazingly well.  I'm debating also adding a layer of cotton drill to the body pieces, but I probably will just go ahead and do it, only because I plan on using the finished bag as a carry-on, and I want it to be very substantial.  Only thing is that I'm not sure how the Flex Foam will behave with the drill.  I guess I'll find out!